Jip's maps and others

SupCom_16-12-20

wow ... all the maps I have seen today are very impressive.

Jip

@SupCom_16-12-20 Thank you for your compliment!

An update of an old map of mine: Battle of the Craters! Changes include:

Added a map-wide light map
Added a map-wide normal map
Removal and adding of decals to concur with the map-wide normal map
Minor scripting bug removed (in case Nomad plays with pre-built units on)
Proper AI markup with actual connections - this map was originally made when I wasn't aware there was an Ozone editor .

Evan_

Archsimkat's valley is quite a nice map to play on, lots of options and paths to take. Someone even named himself after the map, so I think it's catching on pretty well. The naval maps look fun too!

Jip

The map was named after the person in question . I did it in collab with him! Thanks for your compliment - I appreciate it!

Evan_

Lol yeah I know, just kidding around.

Voodoo

I know it's not easy to make such nice and shiny maps. Thanks for uploading them.

Jip

A new map enters the arena! Welcome to Root of Beta that attempts to experiment with the latest techniques in making maps. Including but not limited to the following:

There is a timelapse of the first 8 hours of the process in the make. You can expect it next year .

The mass values in the last screenshot is not as much as it seems - I've taken two times the square root of their original values. E.g., the Monkey Lord is not worth 15K but only ~300.

Chosen

Finally i see who knows what he is trying to do. Nice work Jip but i don't think so it's a good idea to using a over +80Mb decals files over the map, also i don't think so that it's the correct way to make maps. Every time when unit's shoot the ground etc..... it will draw a new decal over your ''masked decal'', later or sooner the decals start blink..... and in worst case it will crash the game, other wise great work. Also some terrain fixes could fix these shadows in some area and gives a better picture while zooming

Jip

I understand what you are saying! I agree that 80mb decals may not be the approach to take - it is viable on a 5x5 map (20mb decals), experiment-worthy on a 10x10 but not applicable to 20x20 or larger maps.

About the decal blinking - that is only applicable once you reach the decal limit. This map has about ~100 decals on it. I only experience the blinking when I have 3000+ decals (Long John Silver gets pretty close). I'm not afraid of blinking! Svenni did found some bugs when you use the cheat window that can cause the map-wide decals to disappear. But that is a very niche situation and I'm okay with that .

Some mountains do look indeed a tee-bit strange of the shadowing! At some point the experiment was over for me and therefore I did not fix that. The goal was to experiment with what you can achieve with such decals and I personally think it can be quite impressive if used wisely! I am not experimenting with local decals, e.g., generated specifically for this map but then only 2048x2048 resolution wise and only used in some area. Much like other decals are - but then specific to the map.

Thank you for your feedback!

Chosen

Decal limit have nothing to do with blinking decals You can also try to change the sun direction, power to fix that shadow issue

Jip

Then I'm not sure what you are talking about - do you have a replay or a video that shows the problem? Edit: then I can add in a note / disclaimer for the guides on map-wide decals .

I may update the shadow map in the future - when I'm ready for a next iteration . For now I first want to setup the repository that holds the map along with the timelapse that shows the first ~6 hours of progress.

Chosen

Try search over map vault

Jip

I'm not entirely sure what you are after - searched for replays, for the map itself, etc. Can't find it

Edit: the decals do blink slightly when I am in cam_Free mode - unusual angles are poorly taken care of by the engine.

Jip

A remaster of an old map made for a friend at that time - Mellow Shallows V11 is in the vault!

I'd love to hear your feedback on the aesthetics of the map. Make sure to add in your graphics settings as they can heavily influence how the map is perceived.

Edit: After making the screenshots I'd say the map is a tee-bit on the dark side .

nine2

Hey Jip, I had a look. For starters its really cool to see some innovation after all of these years with new techniques applied to a 13 year old game. Overall I think the level of detail is fantastic but the variety in detail is not. To me I just see the same river-delta thing over and over with maybe the same crack thing over and over. It would be nice if we had this level of detail but with more diversity in appearance of "decals".

nine2

nine2

when you are zoomed out a bit it looks GREAT
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nine2

these mountains look fake - the lines are too vertical? too uniform? too repetitious?
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nine2

This shoreline looks lovely and more realistic.

Do you think there is a tradeoff with realism? As things become more realistic they might become less at-a-glance clear. Like where exactly can the ACU walk underwater on this shoreline, is there any where he is blocked? Etc.

Lets compare that to eye of the storm, which looks more cartoony and less realistic, but is very clear. In a complex RTS at-a-glance-understanding is important because everything is already too hard without having to decipher the map.

I'm not trying to say that the realism approach is bad -> im just wondering if there is a trade off? Do you have to pick one or is it possible to do both.

nine2

Offmap waves look funny, no big deal