OWA Posted July 20, 2010 Report Share Posted July 20, 2010 Hey guys and welcome to a big media blargout! I've been getting slack these past few weeks, but here's a mega-update for all of you who crave AR knowledge. So here you go! <h3>Tesla Coil</h3> Guy with a wrench has been texturing the Tesla Coil! He's currently appying some sweet surface effects to the metallic parts, so expect this to look great when it's finished! As for what's going to happen with Tesla Troopers, I'll leave that for another time. <h3>Conscript & FPS Hands</h3> I've been working to get the Conscript finished so that we acually have some ingame infantry! Not much to say here other than I've finished unwrapping him and I'm using Mudbox to paint the texture and normal map. Check out these new images! Guy with a wrench has been texturing the Soviet Arms, with great success so far! These will be used for the Conscript, Technician and Flak Trooper! Good news for ChAoS who will be able to start rigging some weapons! <h3>Soviet War Factory Elevator</h3> dtrngd rigged up the Soviet War Factory to work in all it's glory. Now the motherland's vehicle-producing machine is working how it should. Bringing all requisitioned tanks up to the battlefield from it's cavernous innards via a giant cargo lift. Behold! The power of the motherland! <center><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value=" name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></center> <h3>Hair Brained Mapping Scheme</h3> I have recently been lookking into completely changing the way we make C&C maps, or at least provide an alternative to you, the community members, who want to make maps but don't want to learn 3ds Max. The key to this is heightfield. For those of you that don't know, Heightfield is a map editing tool that allows you to make terrain within Level Edit; very similar to UDK's terrain tool and other similar engines. You can raise and lower terrain, paint up to 10 textures (as opposed to max's limited texture count per w3d mesh) and even cut holes for basements/caves and the like. Fig 1. Test map made using Heightfield and 4 textures. We are planning to adopt an unreal engine-like mentality of building up assets and cataloguing them within Level Edit, so that you guys out in the community can build maps and decorate them with ease. This will include (but is not limited to) objects such as rocks, trees, buildings and general decoration objects. Fig 2. Example of Asset Grouping for usage in mapping. But what about buildings? Well, that's quite simple. We'll supply a few base templates for you to use within level edit, so you can setup bases really easily. However, you'll need to cut out the holes in the terrain (for the basements) using heightfield, which is easy. If you are feeling really adventurous, we'll be providing the building pack in 3ds max, so you can make your own base templates if you wish. The possibilities are endless! Just to put this in perspective for you, Wallywood recently had a go at making a map using heightfield, and after two days, this is what he came up with: Fig 3. Wallywood's snow map. With this, we can provider the community with an easier way of mapping, so that more fan maps can be made, so please leave your thoughts, ideas and questions. <h3>Team Messages</h3> I've been busy working the odd day but I'm finding time to keep up with AR cfehunter has been unwrapping the IFV, but there hasn;t been that much progress recently. dtrngd is working on the soviet radar tower. danpaul88 has just coded up a new "lite" launcher for people to use with AR and APB. Guy with a wrench is working on finishing off the Tesla Coil and the first set of first person arms for AR. Poggel is looking into fixing up the Personal flak cannon. Ric is unwrapping the nighthawk. ChAoS is waiting for the arms to be completed so that he can get rigging. We give a warm welcome to Wallywood, who recently joined the team as a sound guy! The rest of the team has been lurking around. <h3>Random video</h3> <center> Bas Rutten Street Defence! <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3K-mrlYG7Y&hl=en_GB&fs=1?color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999"></param><param'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3K-mrlYG7Y&hl=en_GB&fs=1?color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3K-mrlYG7Y&hl=en_GB&fs=1?color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object> And a Bonus! Fracture Grizzly! <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value=" name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></center> <h3>Bye</h3> More will come comrades. Time will tell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Generalcamo Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 OH MY GOD. THANK YOU FOR MAKING IT EASIER FOR US MAPPERS TO CREATE MAPS! Anyway. Will there be blockers in the elevator platform? Or will there be an exit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OWA Posted July 21, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 OH MY GOD. THANK YOU FOR MAKING IT EASIER FOR US MAPPERS TO CREATE MAPS! Anyway. Will there be blockers in the elevator platform? Or will there be an exit? I think that we're going to put infantry blockers in place, but don't quote me on that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BigCheese256 Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 Woa... very nice. I've never understood RenX, 3DS Max or LevelEdit, no matter how much I've tried. Be good to make my own maps easily. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wallywood Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 I've never understood RenX, 3DS Max or LevelEdit, no matter how much I've tried. Be good to make my own maps easily. LE isnt that hard after you learn the basics ...as OWA said i made that map with only two days of mapping ...and the whole first day i didnt know anything about heightfield or textures Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest EVA-251 Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 Liking how the Tesla Coil and Conscript are shaping up. The War Factory construction animation looks AMAZING. What I like the most though, is the endeavor to make map-design easier. Very good idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest StonerMk2 Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 Woa... very nice. I've never understood RenX, 3DS Max or LevelEdit, no matter how much I've tried. Be good to make my own maps easily. That be some good news for me too, have always wanted to get a few maps out there, just never could understand RenX, 3DX Max or LE lol. Rest of it sounds awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VERTi60 Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 Good news for the mapping thing. I might give it a go too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest r34ch Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 Beautiful work dtr, that is extremely cool. Pistons look off, but that's about it. Texture job by OWA is sweet and GwaWs texture is also sweet. AR is coming along nicely Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mammutpanzer Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 Good blog and a "good job" to all the workers. Hopefully we will get weekly blogs again. Nice map Wallywood and congrantulations to your new sound job position. I have 2 questions: 1. Is it possible to give the Conscript glowing eyes like here ? Will you give him glowing eyes if it is possible? 2. Can you make a map in 3DS Max and then use this heightfield to edit/improve the map in LE? Is it wise to this? If it is easy to make maps with this heightfield then I will give it a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Stormweaver Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 I like the new mapping stuff...now all thats needed is some epic hax so that AR will have a overly complicated 'random map' feature, ala RA2 ...I can always dream. Nice blog ^.^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Generalcamo Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 Well with enough coding, we could make a program similar to RA3's random map generator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danpaul88 Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 Well with enough coding, we could make a program similar to RA3's random map generator. Who's this We? You have your own development team? If so then it would be great if you could code up something like that, pass it on to me when your done and I will add it into the installer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BigCheese256 Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 Well with enough coding, we could make a program similar to RA3's random map generator. Certainly would be nice. Then all you need to do is hop in LE and add the buildings and compleed map in about 15 minutes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OWA Posted July 21, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 Well with enough coding, we could make a program similar to RA3's random map generator. We can't. It's impossible on this engine. Have a bit of a learn about the w3d engine first and you'll find out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Generalcamo Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 I knew it would be impossible. Anyway, can users create their own base templates to share with others? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OWA Posted July 21, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 Good blog and a "good job" to all the workers. Hopefully we will get weekly blogs again. Nice map Wallywood and congrantulations to your new sound job position. I have 2 questions: 1. Is it possible to give the Conscript glowing eyes like here ? Will you give him glowing eyes if it is possible? 2. Can you make a map in 3DS Max and then use this heightfield to edit/improve the map in LE? Is it wise to this? If it is easy to make maps with this heightfield then I will give it a try. 1. Yes! and probably! 2. Unfortunately, we can't do this because it is impossible to convert meshes to heightfield terrain. I knew it would be impossible. Anyway, can users create their own base templates to share with others? If you are feeling really adventurous, we'll be providing the building pack in 3ds max, so you can make your own base templates if you wish. The possibilities are endless! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wallywood Posted July 22, 2010 Report Share Posted July 22, 2010 Nice map Wallywood and congrantulations to your new sound job position. Thanks i will make you all proud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BaneOfSorrows Posted July 22, 2010 Report Share Posted July 22, 2010 I suggest foregoing the infantry blocker and allowing people to ride the elevator into the war factory basement, where there should be an awesome rave party perpetually underway for those times when you've lost all your useful structures and would rather not be killwhored. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danpaul88 Posted July 22, 2010 Report Share Posted July 22, 2010 I suggest foregoing the infantry blocker and allowing people to ride the elevator into the war factory basement, where there should be an awesome rave party perpetually underway for those times when you've lost all your useful structures and would rather not be killwhored. Except if you have lost your critical structures the elevator wont be going up and down since the war factory is one of those critical structures, so you wouldn't be able to get down there then. Unless someone is buying vehicles it stays put Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Generalcamo Posted July 22, 2010 Report Share Posted July 22, 2010 In realism, there would be a ladder like an elevator shaft just incase it get's stuck. May be a ladder would work for both gameplay and realism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest AdrwIvrsn Posted July 22, 2010 Report Share Posted July 22, 2010 (edited) He means the vehicle lift. All of the rest of the War Factory is accessible though stuff like ramps and ladders, while the basement is purely decorative. That's why BaneOfSorrows was joking about the rave party because there is nothing down there. Edited July 22, 2010 by AdrwIvrsn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Generalcamo Posted July 22, 2010 Report Share Posted July 22, 2010 I just mean that there should be ladders incase someone lagged onto the vehicle lift. or at least a kill zone..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy with a wrench Posted July 22, 2010 Report Share Posted July 22, 2010 There will be blockers, you won't be able to venture there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest des1206 Posted July 23, 2010 Report Share Posted July 23, 2010 I think the War Factory is too big. If buildings are too big attackers could just play a cat-mouse game with defenders while keep on shooting at the building. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Xiphias6 Posted July 23, 2010 Report Share Posted July 23, 2010 I think the War Factory is too big. If buildings are too big attackers could just play a cat-mouse game with defenders while keep on shooting at the building. This applies to most, if not all buildings in AR, so why complain? The Barracks is so massive underground, attackers can play cat-dog games too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest APB-FR-Cyann Posted July 23, 2010 Report Share Posted July 23, 2010 (edited) Yes it's too big. But how the hell can you make it smaller ? It just can't be smaller. Mappers must just think a bit about V2 vulnerability and cliffs (like on RW or PT) when they place them. <EDIT> : Hey dudes, if you find how giving glowind red eyes to the Consript, please tell us ! That's exactly what needs the EVIL MineLayer. Edited July 23, 2010 by APB-FR-Cyann Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wallywood Posted July 23, 2010 Report Share Posted July 23, 2010 the big buildings are not going to be an issue ...keep in mind theres only going to be one Tanya / Boris on a map at time per team...and im pretty sure the theres going to be an alarm that tells you one has been bought giving you plenty of time to perpare for the attack...if you guys are complaining now i wonder how your going to be when APB's buildings become larger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BigCheese256 Posted July 23, 2010 Report Share Posted July 23, 2010 Big buildings are good. No more flushing out Technicians with Artillery, V2s and tanks. Their splash can't hit you when you are inside a building. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Xiphias6 Posted July 23, 2010 Report Share Posted July 23, 2010 Big buildings are good. No more flushing out Technicians with Artillery, V2s and tanks. Their splash can't hit you when you are inside a building. I can foresee dudes going on the offensive saying 'omfg building too big can't reach MCT in tiem kaboom we lose power plant!'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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