WIP Map, Cryengine 3 q+a

[SinKing]

Hi, I want to document my process of working on the map and meshes in this thread. Hopefully, it will be helpful to other people, too. I'm mainly doing this, because I find it hard sometimes to understand why something isn't working in my map. Perhaps you guys know some - if not all - of the answers.

I'm post a few screens of the map I've been working on since Friday. Two days alone, I've been texturing the detail terrain and have just finished today. There are a few blending issues I'd like to talk about, too. So here is my first map (terrain only):

QUESTIONS

Issue: texture blending

I made a custom texture for sand, used the CryTif export for Diffuse with highpass and made a Bumpmap. Then I copied the gras material (gras_05) into Custom Materials and tweaked the settings. I use the Brush Hardness in Layer Painter at 0, but I still get the diffuse painted. This results in some ugly transitions/seams between the textures, which I need to fix first, before going into dressing the map. (concerns only Beach + Gras/Mud Blending)

If somebody knows why I can still see the diffuse aspect of the texture, please let me know. I'll get into texturing and custom materials myself some more, in the future.

Texture Hole Detection

Is there any way to have Sandbox detect "holes" in the detail texture? I got a lot of spots that are not entirely opaque and I can still see the checkerboard through. I got most of them done by now, but going across the map, inch by inch, looking for errors, seems a bit tedious for the future. Would be cool to be able to jump from gap to gap and fix it.

[-HP-]

Sweet! I'll help you out tomorrow when I get to work so I wont start typing out of memory.

[SinKing]

Help me today? That's great!

I think I got the texture thing covered, you can tell me your impressions (I'll post some screens after work). I'd be interested in hearing how you do it, too. Create textrures, I mean

My new problem lies with making a river. To make a river flowing downstream at more than a small angle is nearly impossible, isn't it? The problem I get is that the geometry/ grid of the river is perfectly smooth on top of the terrain, but when I add a material, my river is only close to the terrain mesh at it's pivot point. The rest of it floats through air.

Idk, if that's because it is too long, or because of the angle. Is there a way to make several smaller rivers first and stitch them together as one later? I can't figure out, how to add the river to my map. I tried rotating and scaling, but that won't do it. Roads work perfectly fine, though. I want to continue, but I need info about these two things first. If I'm confident something works, I will continue doing it. Creating textures and making rivers, I mean. And having sex. Thanks for the help!

[Bunglo]

Screens would help, don't really have a clear idea of your problem.

The river tool works pretty much exactly like the road tool except for it having to be flat. Just create multiple, smaller rivers if that helps, no need to "stitch" them together (not possible as far as I know.) If noticeable seems between the end/start of a river is a problem, use some rocks/vegetation to cover it up.

[SinKing]

Yeah, sorry about the lack of images, but it was late yesterday, the editor had just crashed, and I was in no mood to start it up again. so here's some pic, which I took AFTER I tried manipulating the river grid. However, as I described above, it aligns perfectly to the mesh + I press align to terrain when I'm done plotting the river course. then I lift the grid to where the water surface is supposed to be and voíla - I get this crap:

These pics are from when I tried using the rotate and translation tools to get the river in position. It's impossible to align this. mesh. What I'd need is to be able to edit every of the river/grid nodes and adjust them on the y-Axis. So I could manipulate the mesh myself. With translation tools I'm pretty lost.

Of course, I could make several shorter rivers, but I don't want to. I want to know why Cryengine has this problem, whereas it works the same - and perfectly right - with roads; and of course, I need to find a way to fix it.

[SinKing]

Sorry, I didn't post images. The editor had just crashed (again) and it was late at night. So I did it today! As I said, everything works. I place the grid for the river (same as making a road), align to heightmap, use the translate tool to lift the water surface/ grid, and then I add a material (ocean_pier or lake 1). However, the material is displaced, either above or below the grid.

In the pics you can see my tries of aligning the texture, by lifting the river. It doesn't fit, the angle is steeper than that of the grid. So, apart from the material not projecting right, it also has a slightly different angle from the grid.

What I'd need is to take any of my grid points, which I get everytime I expand the river, and manipulate it on the Y-Axis, to give the river an individual flow. I don't care, if it's not an automated solution. I would love tweaking these vertexes, but Cryengine doesn't let me. I can move the grid points around, but not up and down.

Hope there is a solution. I'm dying to make this map and learn more features, and I'm probably gonna do some vegetation and rocks first. Would really be great to get help on this, or hear about your experience making rivers. I had no problem making a shorter river in a flatter area of the map, so I guess this must have to do with the angle at which it's projecting.

[AtsEst]

http://sdk.crydev.net/display/SDKDOC21/The+River+Tool

This is how its done. If you want to make the river follow the terrain you are better off importing it from a modeling app.

To why it is "2D" my guess would be it having something to do with the water physics, but there are wiser folk here that can probably give a better answer.

[SinKing]

Sorry about my double post. I forgot I had posted and posted again, lol. Deja Vu in a very real way.

About five minutes after this post I figured out a way to do it. It's a totally comprehensible way and worked with any kind of steepness I tried. I made some screens and wrote it up here. Thanks anyway!

http://justmakegames.com/index.php/foru ... crysdk#483

[SinKing]

Hi, I just wanted to post the progress I made on my map. The lake area is still heavy WIP. The sun is too bright for the kind of scenario I'm imagining. I've fixed the daycycle some, but it needs a lot more touching up. I'm working on it, finding out new things every day, but also have a lot of questions. I'd appreciate it to get in touch with some people, who are more advanced in mapping than me. How do I make a real night sky, for example?

The map is called Black Flag, because I would like to turn this into an Arma-like mission with a couple of interlinked objectives. Almost everything I need is in the SDK, except one large company/warehouse structure, razorwire fences and a mobile radar station. That's about what I'd need to cover the asset side of the creation. For the rest I'm gonna need a coder.

The plan is that you are a squad of 4 (Colonel, Sniper, Medic, Demolitions), so I'll probably need need to create these classes. Well, not me... the coder will/would. The idea is that this is a stealth mission. The less attention you draw to yourself, the smoother the mission will go. If the enemy is able to call reinforcements, you will have to deal with an enemy wave. This is inspired by the Arma mission "The Black Sword", which I liked very much.

I know it is not Arma, don't tell me to play Arma - I do. I just want to create something fun and fast and need help to go through with it. I can model and texture too and my last "job" was Concept Artist in the Duke Nukem Reloaded team. If somebody knows how to setup mission structures and compile a game (and code) and wants to help me on this enterprise, I'd be grateful.