Devils Tower: a future Canadian map

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PARAMEDIC.CA
Retired PR Developer
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Devils Tower: a future Canadian map

Post by PARAMEDIC.CA »

Devils Tower is a map that I have been working on for almost a year. Its another Afghanistan Map made for the yet to be released Canadian Faction. I have pleasure of collaborating with [R-DEV] Katarn who generated the heightmaps, [R-DEV] Duckhunt and [R-DEV] Fuzzhead as advisers, and spacemanc as my colour and detail maps advisor.

This maps terrain will be a pleasurable mix of variable elevations, huge travel distances (over 30km of roads), and long view distances (2500m). The assets at this point of production are irrelevant, however the map will feature AAS, Insurgency, and Skirmish game modes.

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[LEFT]The Terrain:
The terrain was selected using a actual Digital Elevation Model image and has been tweaked somewhat to "fit" the BF2 engine. In creating terrains of this size there are many considerations that need to inform the design process. Some of these considerations are send-user performance, aesthetic ROI's, game play effects, ect, ect.

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the terrain contour shown in terragen, the colours are not the same in game:



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The View Distance: (or as I call it, the field of influence or FOI 8-))
We have tweaked the FOI from 1000 to 4000 meters with variable results. To the most part the engine can handle an efficiently made map to about 3000 meters. Unfortunately, most of the BF2 objects, game play processes are not prepared to engage at these distances and some considerations and preparatory work will need to be done before we start seeing maps of this size in PR.

Combat Environments:
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[/CENTER]

New Ideas, Tweaks, and Concepts:

  • Bending the engine to stop bending: the PR team has found a way to inhibit morphing of the terrain by the BF2 engine. With few small tweaks the terrain will be near static with high resolution. So far the fixes have been proven to be effective and now we are looking at the efficacy and efficiency on game play and video card demand - stay tuned!
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[/LEFT]
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Paramedic
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Scot
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Post by Scot »

:shock: <3 Paramedic.
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space
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Joined: 2008-03-02 06:42

Post by space »

Nice terrain ;) - did you use geocontrol for that?
Michael_Denmark
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Post by Michael_Denmark »

Cool looking map!
Define irony. A bunch of guys playing PR year after year. A game teaching initiative as the prime mover.
However, in regard to EA, these guys never took the initiative.

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We who play these kinds of games are the first generation of war robot pilots.Today we pilot a camera in 3D heaven,Tomorrow... http://gametactic.org/pr
McBumLuv
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Joined: 2008-08-31 02:48

Post by McBumLuv »

Wow, Pure win. Is this the second CF map Fuzzhead has hinted at?

REally, this map is truly beyond pure win, AAS even looks possible with Taliban moving around quickly and taking control of roads, setting up ambushes, the whole lot.

Fapfapfapfapfapfapfapfapfapfap
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D|ehard
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Joined: 2008-11-17 02:56

Post by D|ehard »

Really Nice. <3 that Height maps!
"The battle is over, but the war has just begun"
ukie_militia
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Joined: 2009-01-31 04:13

Post by ukie_militia »

O wow Can't wait to kill some Taliban on this map as a Canadian!
rangedReCon
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Post by rangedReCon »

You make me a happy man. Thank you.
[img][IMG]http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z120/rangedReCon/12303-willbomb.gif[/img][/IMG]
Rudd
Retired PR Developer
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Joined: 2007-08-15 14:32

Post by Rudd »

Lets get some LAVIIIs goin? (and don't forget to put them on Archer as well pweese)

Being honest, Archer Redux is the best afghan map in PR, so good luck with this.
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Outlawz7
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Post by Outlawz7 »

lol I love how only the people that noticed the blog can know about this :p
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kingkoolkoobyak
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Post by kingkoolkoobyak »

tataaam
!!!
3===O~
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PARAMEDIC.CA
Retired PR Developer
Posts: 1106
Joined: 2006-04-13 02:48

Post by PARAMEDIC.CA »

McLuv;bt27 wrote:Wow, Pure win. Is this the second CF map Fuzzhead has hinted at?
...perhaps...
Paramedic
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McBumLuv
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Post by McBumLuv »

[R-DEV]PARAMEDIC.CA;bt40 wrote:...perhaps...
:p I see your post is blushing (it's pink), so obviously we can tell if you try to deceive us :D
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=Romagnolo=
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Post by =Romagnolo= »

Is this the only map with this size ? How is it compared with Kashan Desert ? Wich terrian generator have you (or has [R-DEV] Katarn) used ?
[R-DEV]OkitaMakoto:"Cheers, you're the man, Okita"
[R-DEV]Rhino:"I in fact got kicked from a server for tking."
Hitperson:"well done, treasure it forever."
[R-DEV]Adriaan:"Damned classy Roma, if I may say so."
[R-DEV]Chuc:"Pro man, pro."
(yes, it was about me)
[R-MOD]BloodBane611:"Romagnolo, you definitely deserve a LOL award for that."
Teek
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Post by Teek »

Ambulance shotgun :)

On insurgency, I looks like this will all be about IEDs and epic convoys. win get!
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Fluffywuffy
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Post by Fluffywuffy »

Do want?
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[DM]AirborneLegs or hellatom ingame
PARAMEDIC.CA
Retired PR Developer
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Post by PARAMEDIC.CA »

Teek;bt51 wrote:On insurgency, I looks like this will all be about IEDs and epic convoys. win get!
perhaps bigger items?
Paramedic
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Katarn
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Post by Katarn »

=Romagnolo=;bt50 wrote:Is this the only map with this size ? How is it compared with Kashan Desert ? Wich terrian generator have you (or has [R-DEV] Katarn) used ?
Satellite images of some areas, the exact locations I have forgotten over the course of a year. I believe the river is the Yosimete Park riverbed and the mountainous region is somewhere in Afghanistan.
PARAMEDIC.CA
Retired PR Developer
Posts: 1106
Joined: 2006-04-13 02:48

Post by PARAMEDIC.CA »

[R-DEV]Katarn;bt90 wrote:Satellite images of some areas, the exact locations I have forgotten over the course of a year. I believe the river is the Yosimete Park riverbed and the mountainous region is somewhere in Afghanistan.
I think your right (its been so long ago now). Katarn delicately spliced the afghan satellite image into the canyon image and.... tada.

That being said, there were many hours spent tweaking the heightmap to look more natural as the natural erosion lines dont doesnt turn out so well when converting to a BF2 scale 4.
Paramedic
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