Devils Tower: a future Canadian map
Posted: 2009-02-16 19:35
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.
[CENTER]
[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.
[CENTER]
the terrain contour shown in terragen, the colours are not the same in game:
[/CENTER]
The View Distance: (or as I call it, the field of influence or FOI
)
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:
[CENTER]
[/CENTER]
New Ideas, Tweaks, and Concepts:
[/LEFT]
[/CENTER]
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.
[CENTER]
[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.
[CENTER]
the terrain contour shown in terragen, the colours are not the same in game:
[/CENTER]
The View Distance: (or as I call it, the field of influence or FOI
)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:
[CENTER]
[/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!
[/LEFT]
[/CENTER]
<3 Paramedic.
- did you use geocontrol for that?
