New level im working on. Limahuli

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Re: shadows on top of object in terrain

Post by TrespasserGuy »

Damn, this mod's starting to look interesting. I like how the wall and the gate makes this still feel like Trespasser while the new ground textures give us something fresh
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Re: shadows on top of object in terrain

Post by Teromen »

Worked on getting the road to look decent. I made the mesh for the entire road then edited the road texture from the Beach level. I made a seperate cut off texture for it at the end. The overlay at the end it set at a height of 14,(road at 13) I'm not sure what the limit is in the engine.

Image

I gotta get away from texturing and work on the buildings for the rest of the map. I'm just waiting to come up with some ideas for the buildings in the level. I don't need too many as it is a small map. Right now there is the bunker and the walls. I wanna have something different than a wall at the end. I've got an idea but don't wanna spoil the surprise.
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Re: shadows on top of object in terrain

Post by TheIdiot »

You're welcome for the help! The level's starting to shape up a bit. I quite like your choice of textures, they fit the pine trees very well - looks a lot more temperate than the original game's depiction of the pine forest.
My one suggestion is to perhaps try levelling the roads out so they aren't angled sideways on the hill. Just looks a little bit nicer that way.
The overlay at the end it set at a height of 14,(road at 13) I'm not sure what the limit is in the engine.
I have no idea whether there is a limit or not. I've had TrnObjs above 50 height before so it shouldn't be an issue.
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Re: shadows on top of object in terrain

Post by Teromen »

The road felt a bit off, so I tried this.

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Re: shadows on top of object in terrain

Post by TrespasserGuy »

I like that you changed the road texture. It fits with the terrain a lot better. It's also nice that you're not revealing too much of your level before you release it, and instead are just showing us this one area but continuing to improve upon it.
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Re: shadows on top of object in terrain

Post by Draconisaurus »

Great work Teroman! Having a texture website account sounds nice.

As a note, a terrain object's -sound area- is equivalent to the minimum rectangle occupied by the most distance vertices of the trnobj. That is, the sound material for Anne's foot on the ground counts for that whole rectangle, even if the mesh only occupies small parts of it. This was an issue for the devs in early builds and seems a likely reason that the more non-standard trnobjs were removed.

Looking at your screenshot, you have sort of cast a realization to me. TrnObjs might look a lot nicer if they are more spotty in their coverage, like this TC Isle terrain opacity only moreso -
dusty1o8.png
dusty1o8.png (12.3 KiB) Viewed 3228 times
- rather than a random solid clump shape as is common in original Tres.
TrnObj_RckGrssTrans01o8.png
TrnObj_RckGrssTrans01o8.png (7.87 KiB) Viewed 3228 times
Using a more spotty one, the obviousness of where the craftor's trnobjs were placed may be highly reduced. Thank you!
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Re: shadows on top of object in terrain

Post by Teromen »

Image

I think it needs more coverage near the middle though. I might make some custom splattered paint brushes and see what I can come up with. I just edited this in wally.

Edit: The way they do terrain layers in Trespasser is turning out to be really cool. I wish the older unreal engines did that. I usually make ut2004 engine terrains. I know how to use high res alpha maps but there is a limit. I like the Jurassic Rage mod for ut2004. The one for ut3 is kind of lame... There's also a dino mod pack for ut2004 that I might use someday to make a single player level. I can have an overlay in UT2k4 but I'm limited to 1 layer per surface and prefer to use it for detailed lighting. Its implemented as a projector.

I worked on the end of the map but don't want to spoil it. I was inspired by something in a snes game. Its not something huge or anything but I think you all might like it. Its not the boat from the snes game hehe. I figure that's what everyone would think of.

Edit: This is mostly how the level will look. The general visual theme is done. I added some plants. I'm not sure if its obvious but its kind of a template map. Everything is laid out like a bunch of templates. The terrain was proceduraly generated. Of course I laid out splines where the hills and stuff go and decided a general theme of the shape of the terrain but the overall shape of the terrain is random-procedural. Its hard to explain. I figure that's best for my first try. I'll get better in the future. I mostly hope to get better at gameplay and making buildings. I may be close to my visual limitations. I want my next map to be more efficient with cliff resolution and decoration layer optimization. Leaves room for a larger map.

Image

If anyone wants to test it out and let me know any ideas they have after testing it let me know. It's not anywhere near done, I just would like to see if anyone wants to have a romp around the forest and see if anything pops into their mind. Anything to add to certain areas. Buildings, etc. Thanks.

Edit: I got all the plants added, loaded the game and you can guess what lol. Glitchy. Gonna have to thin them way out.

Update: I think what I did wrong was export-import the vegitation without the level of detail... Gonna try that.
Last edited by Teromen on Mon Feb 01, 2021 4:41 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: shadows on top of object in terrain

Post by TheIdiot »

That preview looks great!
I worked on the end of the map but don't want to spoil it. I was inspired by something in a snes game. Its not something huge or anything but I think you all might like it. Its not the boat from the snes game hehe. I figure that's what everyone would think of.
Hmm, the Jeep chase from the ending of The Chaos Continues?
Edit: This is mostly how the level will look. The general visual theme is done. I added some plants. I'm not sure if its obvious but its kind of a template map. Everything is laid out like a bunch of templates. The terrain was proceduraly generated. Of course I laid out splines where the hills and stuff go and decided a general theme of the shape of the terrain but the overall shape of the terrain is random-procedural. Its hard to explain. I figure that's best for my first try. I'll get better in the future. I mostly hope to get better at gameplay and making buildings. I may be close to my visual limitations. I want my next map to be more efficient with cliff resolution and decoration layer optimization.
Looks really great for your first try, I must say. A lot better than my early levels! You don't notice the randomly-generated terrain at all as your textures did a really good job at covering it up...looks very natural, actually. I wonder if perhaps next time you might try starting with a dirt terrain texture and putting grass over top of that instead of the other way around? The particular way you've layered the dirt makes me think it might look very realistic that way.
If anyone wants to test it out and let me know any ideas they have after testing it let me know. It's not anywhere near done, I just would like to see if anyone wants to have a romp around the forest and see if anything pops into their mind. Anything to add to certain areas. Buildings, etc. Thanks.
Sure, I'm always down to playtest levels. I can go through the level and give you a bug/issue report and put in some suggestions as well if you like. :)

Also, if I may suggest, it might be worth renaming this thread in order to make it a bit more obvious if you intend on using it for this level in general.
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Re: shadows on top of object in terrain

Post by Teromen »

It seems I should never use the Hide function in TresEd? It always enables it on reload...

Had to delete most of the plants hehe.
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Re: shadows on top of object in terrain

Post by tatu »

Teromen wrote:It seems I should never use the Hide function in TresEd? It always enables it on reload...

Had to delete most of the plants hehe.
The hide feature in TresEd only works for TresEd, and not in-game. When you hide an object in TresEd, you need to save the level in order to save the list with hidden objects. They are then stored in a file called (levelname).tresed in the folder of your level.

It is a really useful feature when going through a level with billions of foliage to see that non is floating or underground. :)
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Re: New level im working on. Limahuli

Post by Teromen »

Spoiler alert.
https://i.ibb.co/3BMFc1t/Limahuli1-10.jpg

I just wanted to post something to show its being worked on and to keep you guys/gals interested ;)
I removed the vegetation temporarily to redo it. It was overdone and glitchy.

Two people are testing this early version of the map to give ideas and a general impression. Just keeping you all updated. Take care.

Edit: Thanks for explaining the hide feature. Now I know I can keep multiple copies of the txt file to hide different items. At least that should work in theory, haven't tested it yet.
Now if only there was a select all "matching" option hehe. You know, to select all the trees at once.
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Re: New level im working on. Limahuli

Post by Rebel »

Looking good. ;)
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Re: New level im working on. Limahuli

Post by Teromen »

I wanted to post this link for anyone interested in the program I use to make the terrains. The link is to the free community edition.

https://www.world-machine.com/download.php

I highly recommend trying it out. It takes a while to learn but if you persist the results can be quite good.

I'll have more updates later. I'm working on collision a.t.m. Trying to work out some more lighting bugs. Got the buildings done. Need to make a few more assets and add random decorations and then the plants/vegetation. Also working on weapons and dinosaur placement.

I'm thinking about releasing a terrain pack for level modders in the future. It gives me a good practice opportunity. Just a bunch of prefab landscapes ready for anyone to turn into a map. I'm hoping to get people interested in making more maps for us to play ;)

If anyone knows a way to have an invisible mesh project a shadow please let me know.
That's the only way I can work out to get some of my shadows accurate. I really want the lighting to "pop" in this map.

I'm a big fan of lighting in game engines. Especially nice high(within reason) resolution shadows. The older versions of the Unreal engine really let me down over the years. And I mostly work with older engines so... At least everything "can" be baked in older unreal engines but... it's tedious. I'm thinking about converting this map to run with Jurassic Rage for UT2K4 when it's finished. Not sure yet. I doubt anyone in the unreal community would play it but at least I could enjoy it lol.

Jurassic Rage.
https://www.moddb.com/mods/jurassic-rage
I hope its ok to post that link. Some may be interested in the modification's screenshots at least ;)
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Re: New level im working on. Limahuli

Post by Draconisaurus »

Didn't look at the spoiler, but this is a fun mod to read about!

When selecting in TresEd, you may press CTRL while click to select an additional object. You can press SHIFT while selecting to select all instances of a single model. And, you may press CTRL+SHIFT to go and select multiple sets of all instances (select all TreeA and all FernB, for example).

The Jurassic Rage mod looks nice, but I'm afraid I only work with Tres.

Oh, an invisible object which casts a shadow. I believe this is simple... Coming from the top of my head:

Code: Select all

string Class = "CInstance"
bool Visible = false
bool Shadow = true
That ought to work on, say, a box shape, but really on anything. And don't modify the script to this in TresEd; export to TPM, rewrite the .values file, then import.
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Re: New level im working on. Limahuli

Post by Teromen »

Awesome, shift works.

I'm working on the map but I gotta figure out how to add key cards and unlock movers. I've been getting a brain fart on this issue.

I'm gonna try the lighting trick and see what happens.

Edit: When I set it to false the shadow disappears. Maybe my script is wrong or there is another way to do this. Maybe collision set to project a shadow?
group TeroTree02-00 = {
int ext_GeometryType = 2
float ext_ImportScale = 1.000000
string Class = "CInstance"
bool Visible = false
bool Shadow = true
}
Darn, because the shadow looked so good lol. Maybe i'll just apply a completely masked texture... No, that would be completely invisible for the shadow. I'm at a loss. Maybe I can use several square invisible collisions set to show a shadow? I wonder if I can apply a masked texture to a collision block and get shadows that way.
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