Wip: Endor

[lauser]

Pahricida and I have been working on ENDOR maps since roughly OCTOBER.

Coming along there bud. Mine is too. If I manage to fix these bugs I have tonight then I will consider releasing a BETA after a few tests. All the new models in this map are done by me with texture help from my team. I studied the movie for this map and I think it's somewhat accurate. This map has over 450 hours in it now and I have hit the maximum detail limit more than a few times. It's a very large map with tons of dynamic features. I have combined mslafs fearis features with some of my own for this production. I have also used his textures from fearis for the inside of the bunker.

 

Here are some screenshots:

 

[/EDIT] I will update this post soon with good screens of a properly lit map. [/EDIT]

 

 

Now keep in mind this is a BETA with lightmapscale added to worldspawn for testing purposes. And my ground texture shaders need a little work still but you get the general feel here. I will post screens of the inside later.

Also what you can't see is a virtual sea of bushes covering the ground using Q3map surfaceModel. Some spots you are wading through bush.....it's kind of neat.

 

One more thing I forgot, our team will be SIEGing this map but it will be released as a FFA/CTF tactical for it's first release.

 

To those that would like ideas and or models from my map:

 

I will release every and ALL sourcecode to this map AFTER the final is released.

[Zappa_0]

Wow looking very awesome!

[Pahricida]

yeah nice!

 

I'm also still working on my map.

 

Dunno when I'll be done... having some problems with the foghull atm

[Thrawn42689]

It has good potential, but the textures on the terrain are eye-demolishingly low-res. They make it look like something from the mid-90s. Also, adding lightmapscale to worldspawn doesn't help much if there's no lighting, right? In closing, you'll want to use Easygen or alpha-thingies for terrain, since GenSurf doesn't do the blending thing. That is all.

[lauser]

LOL, Thrawn...I am using AlphaMOD shaders you were searching for that term. And all my terrain is custom. Which means I did every single brush BY HAND one by one. As I mentioned in my post it looks like crap because my shaders need work RE: Ivectors. The textures actually look quite good but are stretched way too much in those screens. EasyGen is for people/mappers who wnat to make a terrain and then build a map around that. My terrain was built long after the map and bunker were added. The lighting is just for testing. It will be much darker later with distance cull green LIGHT green fog so we don't have all those vis problems.

 

Anyhow it's a start.

[lauser]

Woot woot! Sounds good Scout.

 

At the landing pad area of my map I have a tree. This tree will probably be the biggest entity model EVER put into a map. It's 2906 units in height. A player is 56 units in height. So if we take the player height as 56 or 5' 6" the the trees height will be 2906 or 291 ft high! WOOT!

 

Incidentally, I'm looking for a guy who can make me a skybox in 3DS or even LIGHTWAVE. I really need a skybox with trees to complete this map otherwise I'll end up using foreground backdrops or a portal_sky. And to be honest the kind of portal_sky I need will lag the map too much for my liking.

[lauser]

Hmm...interesting Scout. I have all the plant models I need. You might see some small mushrooms in the screenshot there. I have lived in forested areas like in ROTJ my whole life on the West Coast so the map holds something special for me too. I would think an ewok flyer would be a really cool vehicle. Just walk up to it like any other vehicle and press use. You can fly around and drop rocks or even thermal detonators. As far as other creatures from Endor go, I'm open to suggestions. The only other creatures I have seen in the movie are large birds. I could just make a shader for those and have different shapes of birds fly across the sky. I'm currently trying to REskin my trees. They are too red, even though they are Sequoias. So I'm looking at the Battlefront tree textures and trying to copy those somewhat. One of the problems you may have noticed in the screens is that I can't UV map in Milkshape. At least I don't know how. I need to map the texture properly so it looks right.

[lukeskywalker1]

I like it lauser!

 

but the textures on the terrain are eye-demolishingly low-res. They make it look like something from the mid-90s.

 

Some of those mid-90s games were amazing. Anyways, its different, not like a normal JA map, who knows perhaps the community will like the change of scenery?

 

 

My only complaint is (judging from the 3rd screenshot) is how.. it just cuts off (unless its the top of a mountain.. or cliff) but yeah, I hate it when that happens. I would surround it by mountains... just because. Other than that I like it a lot.

 

How about getting an ewok model and throwing that in? Also, the scout trooper model is nice. Im not sure what you guys plan to do, but I think having scripted Ewoks walking around would add a nice effect About the bird thing, a MD3 would probably do better than a shader, and you coudl use a func_train, just have it fly over some mountains (so it doesnt just disapear in the sky box) then make it come back around.

[lauser]

Scout..can ya help me with UV mapping? I really want those textures on right...thanks

 

I may be able to make an ASE model like I said Scout, and make a portal_sky that would effectively get rid of the dropoff and provide a foreground.

[TK-8252]

Heh, making an Ewok glider drop rocks wouldn't be hard at all.

 

Just take the TIE Bomber 2 bomb, get a rock model for it, eliminate the splash damage, and have the explosion effect be a rock smashing into chunks.

 

Lauser, my opinion is that there needs to be way way way more trees. Endor is an extremely dense forest with huge, thick trees that hide the sky. Also, more shrubs. The floor of the Endor forest is covered with tall grasses if I remember correctly (correct me if I'm wrong).

 

I think it'd be cool to have scripted Leia, Han, Chewie, and Ewok NPCs. Han and Leia could be at the bunker door controls trying to get the door open and Chewie and the Ewoks could hassle the Imperial troops and set traps.

 

But I'd like to say, Lauser, that it's important that whoever does the Siege classes sets them up realistically and balanced. I hate to advertise my mod, but I suppose I'll have to. I've done a mod and one thing it does is changes the Siege classes for the Hoth and Tatooine Sieges to be more realistic and balanced, and I've gotten great feedback about it. So, if you need someone to setup the classes for Endor, I'm here.

[lauser]

BAH! You know if I could get Endor to compille I would update the screenshots! But it's giving me grief at the moment. Then you would see the ground THICK with bushes all over the place....without placing any models and without having any lag accociated.

 

As far as placing more trees, that's not going to happen. The polycount is already high. Any higher and this wont be a M/P map it will be S/P. I mean if the Q3 engine could handle a crapload of trees I would certainly place them, a shame really. But the ground looks REALLY cool wading through bush.

 

Have a look at ROTJ again TK, you wont see a stitch of grass in it. Besides, grass sprites lag maps too much. As far as the glider goes that should work well. I could make a glider model but would take me eons.

 

BTW: I had to change the angle of shield generator dish, so I raised the skybox a little more. My BIG tree is now over 300ft high and 30ft in diameter.

[MR. Slime]

Looks great Lauser keep up the great work ... I am still working on the siege scripting but It seems as if we don't have the necessary models to make the siege game-mode as true to the movie as possible. If anyone knows a good navy trooper or endor rebel soldier don't be hesitant to contact me . Anyways just keep up the good work :biggs: :ewok:

[TK-8252]

Originally posted by MR. Slime

If anyone knows a good navy trooper or endor rebel soldier don't be hesitant to contact me

 

Use the Imperial Commando model from the Dark Forces mod demo!

 

You know, this guy...?

 

 

I did make a crappy Rebel Commando skin if you're interested...

 

[lukeskywalker1]

I seriously doubt that the Dark Forces mod will let you use there models, not untill the whole mod is complete anyways. Nice skin, btw.

[TK-8252]

Originally posted by lukeskywalker1

I seriously doubt that the Dark Forces mod will let you use there models, not untill the whole mod is complete anyways.

 

I e-mailed Corto about using the Imperial Commando in my SWR mod and he was fine with it...

[lukeskywalker1]

Cool.

[lauser]

Hey you thread HIJACKERS! J/K

 

Trying to get some new screens up tonight. The map is working again. I had some corupt sound files in the PK3.

[MR. Slime]

Use the Imperial Commando model from the Dark Forces mod demo!

 

Yea i was thinking of using that but I wanted to get permission first. So until then I dunno whats going to be used

[TK-8252]

Originally posted by MR. Slime

Yea i was thinking of using that but I wanted to get permission first. So until then I dunno whats going to be used

 

You could PM Corto or post in the Dark Forces mod forum right here at LucasForums...

[lauser]

UPDATE!!

 

SKYPORTAL turned out rather nice on this one....AND...I didn't use any model entities in it

 

 

 

 

[{xg}darthVADER]

looks very ncie but dont forget to lit the map

[Codja X]

What sort of FPS are you getting there?

[lauser]

On a Gforce2 64meg card I get 28 as the lowest (without dynamic glow on) Highest will be about 80 FPS. Now considering how much game mechanics I have in here that's pretty good. At some 7000 brushes and 800 entities, this map is definately NOT boring.

 

Here are some shots with some lighting. The lighting still needs work but you get some idea at least:

 

Landing pad

Ewok village on the right with rope bridge

Under landing pad....You can see the portal_sky there. Model _remapped with my own custom texture

[{xg}darthVADER]

wow very very nice

cant wait for this one

 

are you gonna have a shuttle land and take off from the landing platform as part of the scenery?

[lauser]

Although that would look cool and everything Darth...no. There is so much going on in this map that it's just not worth a little cinematic. I have the logroll trap going on which is hard enough to script.

 

*Wishes trees would continue into the skyportal without map LAG*