Mapping gurus, opinion wanted within.

[y00tz]

I did this in class today, I sketched out a map in Photoshop, then for the hell of it, exported in grayscale, and made a height map out of it.  To see what it would look like, I applied a texture, exported, and put it in BSP.  Surprisingly, it worked, the results are below, but the framerates seemed too good on the school computers... I assume epoly I counts entity polies, i.e. func_model, and it never climbed above 1k (I'm sure I could reduce it by making a better model).  My question to you Q2 mapping gods, is this a bad practice, assuming I could make the terrains texture look great?  Bear in mind, I'd only  use this practice where clipping/fixed viewpoints make since.

Cheers,
y00tz

[Eiii]

The hills look a tad bit too extreme for my tastes, and it'd be nice if it was tessellated more (assuming it's not- looks kinda blocky) but yeah, that's pretty good.

[Termin8oR]

It is a nice idea, but the hills are not what would be used to often.

[y00tz]

The hills have 1 poly tops, but the cliffs on the sides have about 100 polies on the top.

@Termin8or: I'm imagining a scenario where either mountain scenery for the areas in the outskirts of the 4096x4096 that never get used, or maybe making prefab hills, cliffs, etc

[blaa]

 Could you show the sshots from BSP?

[y00tz]

Sure, the entity is selected.

The model is 1024x1024 and has a 256x256 diffuse.

edit: mini mountain scenery

[James]

I personally think it looks horrible.

I would try something more like the guys who map for TF2 did. The use a transparent texture on the sky box for artifacts like, barns silos, etc. Although I don't know how that would turn out for paintball.

[Eiii]

I personally think it looks horrible.

I would try something more like the guys who map for TF2 did. The use a transparent texture on the sky box for artifacts like, barns silos, etc. Although I don't know how that would turn out for paintball.

HL2's skybox works completely differently than PB2's. Anyway, I don't think the terrain looks all that great due to the lack of lighting that goes with models. It'd be nice if it's textures were a bit more detailed, but even then it's still a one-time-use kinda thing.

[jitspoe]

You could just use gensurf or rawscape...

[KnacK]

Well...

I'm not a mapping guru, but I'll give you my opinion

[SystemCZ]

hi how you mak this terrain ?

[Eiii]

You cannot, right now. You can make stuff similar to it using Gensurf or RAWScape, but that's not exactly the same.

[Garrett]

hi how you mak this terrain ?

That terrain is a 3d Model if I am not mistaken.

[Cameron]

 * Cameron runs and starts learning how to use Blender.

[ViciouZ]

... It isn't terrain, because it isn't there.

[Garrett]

... It isn't terrain, because it isn't there.

What do you mean by that?  The model of the terrain is showing up in game.

[Zorchenhimer]

However, it has no collision.  So it "isn't" there.


Edit: 2000^th post!  ^_^

[Garrett]

However, it has no collision.  So it "isn't" there.


Edit: 2000^th post!  ^_^

I knew this already, just not that point about not physically being there.

Sorry about not being clear enough.  I see your point, I just wasn't thinking outside of the box.