Post by Keith Heitmann on Dec 1, 2004 23:25:47 GMT -5
By Matt Zimmitti, Tilted Mill Team Member (QA and Dev. Support)
This is sort of a mini-lesson. The methods described below are really just suggestions. Plenty of folks here have used very different means to make some great looking maps. As usual, get in there and mess around and see what works for you.
1) Cliff Texturing
a) Desert Cliffs
-We’ll be using the following textures:
Cliff to Desert A
Cliff to Desert B
Cliff
Desert Med
I’ve attached some before and after pics of what the northeast cliffs look like. In the first pic < Desert Cliffs 1.jpg > I’ve simply painted over any grass that was still around with Desert Med. Not too pretty. We need to smooth out the transition between two very different textures. What I did was use a mix of Cliff to Desert A & B to get a more realistic look to the cliffs < Desert Cliffs 2.jpg >. Basically, I use Cliff to Desert A to break up repetitive areas of the Cliff texture, then I use Cliff to Desert B to smooth between cliff and desert. Make sure you use the tilde key to look at your cliffs at several different angles while you are doing this.
<Lesson 2.2.scn>
b) Grassy Cliffs
-We’ll be using the following textures:
Grass to Mud
Grass A
Cliff to Desert A
Cliff
Pretty much use the same method as in step 1a, breaking up repetition with Cliff to Desert A and smoothing transitions with Grass to Mud and a bit of Grass A. The difference is not as dramatic as it is in the desert, but still noticeable.
<Grassy Cliffs 1.jpg, Grassy Cliffs 2.jpg>
2) Grass to Desert Transition
-We’ll be using the following textures:
Grass to Desert B
Grass A
Desert Med
More before and after pics <Grass to Desert 1.jpg, Grass to Desert 2.jpg >. Wherever grass and desert meet, you should always break up the edge a lot. Grass to Desert B handles this nicely, but you don’t want to just paint a line where the two textures meet and call it a day. I tend to go in and paint some patches of Grass A and line them Grass to Desert B. We’ll also enhance this transition a bit when me place sprites in lesson three. For now, just do your best to break that edge up.
<Lesson 2.4.scn>
3) Mud, Grass and the High Flood Areas
-We’ll be using the following textures:
Grass to Mud
Grass A
Mud
It’s time to clean up the flood areas and give the player some sort of indication where it is risky to build. Go into Elevation and set the Flood Level to High. Got back to Terrain. Now take a look at the areas of grass that the flood now covers. What I do here is paint a swath of Grass to Mud over all the areas where High Flood is covering the grass. I also went in and painted over the funky spots with no texture on the west side of the map where the river exits. I intentionally did not paint those spots back in lesson one. As a rule of thumb, I don’t let the flood plain reach the edge of the map, primarily for aesthetic reasons.
Moving right along, go back to Elevation and set the Flood Level to Low. The big ol’ swath of Grass to Mud looks kind of repetitive so we should now go back and break it up with Grass A and Mud. The player should be able to reasonably tell where the High flood is at this point <High Flood.jpg>. We’ll embellish this with sprites in our next lesson.
<Lesson 2.8.scn> Should have everything up to this point.
Related images:
www.tiltedmill.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=4405
www.tiltedmill.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=4406
www.tiltedmill.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=4407
www.tiltedmill.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=4408
www.tiltedmill.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=4409
www.tiltedmill.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=4410
www.tiltedmill.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=4414
Related files:
Lesson_2.2.scn
Lesson_2.4.scn
Lesson_2.8.scn
This is sort of a mini-lesson. The methods described below are really just suggestions. Plenty of folks here have used very different means to make some great looking maps. As usual, get in there and mess around and see what works for you.
1) Cliff Texturing
a) Desert Cliffs
-We’ll be using the following textures:
Cliff to Desert A
Cliff to Desert B
Cliff
Desert Med
I’ve attached some before and after pics of what the northeast cliffs look like. In the first pic < Desert Cliffs 1.jpg > I’ve simply painted over any grass that was still around with Desert Med. Not too pretty. We need to smooth out the transition between two very different textures. What I did was use a mix of Cliff to Desert A & B to get a more realistic look to the cliffs < Desert Cliffs 2.jpg >. Basically, I use Cliff to Desert A to break up repetitive areas of the Cliff texture, then I use Cliff to Desert B to smooth between cliff and desert. Make sure you use the tilde key to look at your cliffs at several different angles while you are doing this.
<Lesson 2.2.scn>
b) Grassy Cliffs
-We’ll be using the following textures:
Grass to Mud
Grass A
Cliff to Desert A
Cliff
Pretty much use the same method as in step 1a, breaking up repetition with Cliff to Desert A and smoothing transitions with Grass to Mud and a bit of Grass A. The difference is not as dramatic as it is in the desert, but still noticeable.
<Grassy Cliffs 1.jpg, Grassy Cliffs 2.jpg>
2) Grass to Desert Transition
-We’ll be using the following textures:
Grass to Desert B
Grass A
Desert Med
More before and after pics <Grass to Desert 1.jpg, Grass to Desert 2.jpg >. Wherever grass and desert meet, you should always break up the edge a lot. Grass to Desert B handles this nicely, but you don’t want to just paint a line where the two textures meet and call it a day. I tend to go in and paint some patches of Grass A and line them Grass to Desert B. We’ll also enhance this transition a bit when me place sprites in lesson three. For now, just do your best to break that edge up.
<Lesson 2.4.scn>
3) Mud, Grass and the High Flood Areas
-We’ll be using the following textures:
Grass to Mud
Grass A
Mud
It’s time to clean up the flood areas and give the player some sort of indication where it is risky to build. Go into Elevation and set the Flood Level to High. Got back to Terrain. Now take a look at the areas of grass that the flood now covers. What I do here is paint a swath of Grass to Mud over all the areas where High Flood is covering the grass. I also went in and painted over the funky spots with no texture on the west side of the map where the river exits. I intentionally did not paint those spots back in lesson one. As a rule of thumb, I don’t let the flood plain reach the edge of the map, primarily for aesthetic reasons.
Moving right along, go back to Elevation and set the Flood Level to Low. The big ol’ swath of Grass to Mud looks kind of repetitive so we should now go back and break it up with Grass A and Mud. The player should be able to reasonably tell where the High flood is at this point <High Flood.jpg>. We’ll embellish this with sprites in our next lesson.
<Lesson 2.8.scn> Should have everything up to this point.
Related images:
www.tiltedmill.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=4405
www.tiltedmill.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=4406
www.tiltedmill.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=4407
www.tiltedmill.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=4408
www.tiltedmill.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=4409
www.tiltedmill.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=4410
www.tiltedmill.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=4414
Related files:
Lesson_2.2.scn
Lesson_2.4.scn
Lesson_2.8.scn