some contest would be really interesting. all the ppl would show their best work we could learn so much from each other. maybe even new ideas will come up. i'd favor a contest, not to win but to see all the (hopefully) incredible works =)
Mehh I'm working on two big projects (FFish Evocation and a Stranded Survival PVP (NOTD - Zombies + PVP + Scavenging) map with Scythe360) lol, a terrain contest would either (at least to my liking) have to be a small patch of land and it would have to last a little while.
but yeah, you totally should sixen.
Edit: give us a theme too, but dear lord please don't make it jungle.
In regards to the contest thing; I've been thinking about starting a 'weekly terraining exercise', like we used to have them on Warcraft 3 campaigns. I reckon that should be a good start for the terrainers here to keep busy. I'll probably upload the first one somewhere in the weekend, so I can make them last a week and post up a new one every satur- or sunday.
It's true careful work with doodads can enhance the atmosphere of any scene. The curtain grass below is a combination of Mar Sara and Tarsonis varieties, with the darker Mar Sara used for grass that's been singed. The line of sight blocking feature can be maintained across gaps in the grass by simply dropping the grass below terrain level where it's "missing". Small details like these can make a subtle but valuable difference, so it's good to balance out grand doodad schemes with detail work too, even if players are only aware of the details on a subconscious level. Make sure not to overlook gameplay aspects as well, and try to incorporate visuals into the gameplay.
I have been following the neat tricks in this thread for awhile now, and I'd like to finally contribute one of my own!
I was working on some detail doodads on my upcoming map today, using the pipe doodads to make some nice plumbing through the base, when I get to the end. I chose to use the 'oil coming out of the grate' on the end cap, but I ran into a problem. Where was this oil going? I first thought to use the oil splash at the base and paint the grating texture from Braxis Alpha under it, but it didn't look as good as I hoped. I wanted to dump it into water, but just using the custom color feature on big patches of water to make it black turned out pretty awful. Then it hit me! I remembered a doodad that would look perfect! (Thank you Blizz for custom coloring).
I give you the oil spill effect:
This is three Floating Creep Pad doodads all colored dark dark grey (not full black, or you lose the detail), set to a height just above my water's height. The creep texture can pass for oil floating on the surface perfectly. It stains the water realistically and floats/bobs around like oil would. The best part is you can duplicate/scale as many creep pads as you need to cover your water.
Ironic I figure out something like this during the Gulf Crisis.
This might be an obvious one, but you can use rock archs to create caves. Especially with the new possibilities for FPS-play inside maps, this should prove useful in many a map.
Edit: Heck, you can create some pretty interesting alcoves this way. All this needs is some lightning to set the mood and it's ready to go.
I used that idea for a tunnel in my map, hadn't thought of doing that before, so thanks. =)
I'm in a bit of a hurry (going to the dentist, prolly gonna lose more teeth :( ), but I just wanted to say awesome job Sephiex - those tunnels are pretty much exactly what I meant and you made it look seriously cool. It vaguely reminds me of those last few levels in Gears of War (1).
Thank you. Well naturally I think they'd be best suited for TPS, but it may be possible to use them with an overhead view, I haven't tried it. The Rock Arch model by default has occlusion enabled, which means they can turn transparent. (Not sure how it determines when to become transparent, perhaps when the camera is near them or when they are blocking the view of the camera. In any case it was something I had to turn off because they were turning transparent when I went inside them.)
I think the format for entries should be like this:
-The entries are SC2 maps (not a screenshot or a video)
-The maps does not need to be playable (No needs of minerals, playable areas, etc)
-There is no fog of war in the maps (so you can see everything)
-Units and buildings are not allowed in the maps
-The maps should be relatively small but not TOO small (you can leave a patch of terrain blank around if you like)
-No trigger (except possibly for the no fog thing)
-The camera should be limited to default (No custom or first person)
-Limited usage of custom models is allowed but not evaluated
That the idea. Tell me what you think about it. I think a contest like this would improve the quality of maps in generals.
Oh and sorry, I said I would post my terrain work but I'm kinda lazy today. Maybe I work on it tonight. Shame I deleted all my old melee maps...
There's the function of using groups in the editor, though I NEVER touched it, I think it is very useful when constructing bigger and more complex things out of doodads.
For example, you want to construct a pyramid out of boxes, but allow a tunnel for units to go though right?
You can't just drop a doodad and expect it to stand on each other, so what you'd do is make a row of boxes, and group them.
Then Copy and paste the box to make another row, and continue until you get a square group of boxes.
You then group such boxes, and to make the higher elevated ones, you basically get smaller rows of boxes and make squares out of them, then group and set a height. I with with grouping, you can modify a entire groups' properties, like height.
No idea if grouping within groups work... Example, Pyramid has 5 stories of boxes, and you'd want to group each story to a group name, then group them all to a main group. Then you'd be able to access the pyramid's subgroup through the editor and edit it as you wish.
Too bad the editor isn't that complex, to the point of being able to edit and view doodads or groups covered up under another doodad or group, as your mouse wouldn't be able to select them and modify them. Maybe a "Hide" option could work on such groups so you can hide them from the editor so you can edit the lower ones...
Thank you. Well naturally I think they'd be best suited for TPS, but it may be possible to use them with an overhead view, I haven't tried it. The Rock Arch model by default has occlusion enabled, which means they can turn transparent. (Not sure how it determines when to become transparent, perhaps when the camera is near them or when they are blocking the view of the camera. In any case it was something I had to turn off because they were turning transparent when I went inside them.)
You can always retexture such a doodad so you can get the transparency off.
Thank you. Well naturally I think they'd be best suited for TPS, but it may be possible to use them with an overhead view, I haven't tried it. The Rock Arch model by default has occlusion enabled, which means they can turn transparent. (Not sure how it determines when to become transparent, perhaps when the camera is near them or when they are blocking the view of the camera. In any case it was something I had to turn off because they were turning transparent when I went inside them.)
Afaik, the archs turn transparent when any unit moves under (read: near) them.
I actually built the entire pyramid using the group function and they're all associated with their own groups. Groups also have numbers (it's displayed in the UI when you click on the group in the lower left hand, also tells you what you have selected and whether it's a variety), so in the final release of the galaxy editor there may be a UI function that allows the remote access of groups. If not, a map editor mod could probably make it possible.
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some contest would be really interesting. all the ppl would show their best work we could learn so much from each other. maybe even new ideas will come up. i'd favor a contest, not to win but to see all the (hopefully) incredible works =)
Mehh I'm working on two big projects (FFish Evocation and a Stranded Survival PVP (NOTD - Zombies + PVP + Scavenging) map with Scythe360) lol, a terrain contest would either (at least to my liking) have to be a small patch of land and it would have to last a little while.
but yeah, you totally should sixen.
Edit: give us a theme too, but dear lord please don't make it jungle.
In regards to the contest thing; I've been thinking about starting a 'weekly terraining exercise', like we used to have them on Warcraft 3 campaigns. I reckon that should be a good start for the terrainers here to keep busy. I'll probably upload the first one somewhere in the weekend, so I can make them last a week and post up a new one every satur- or sunday.
Im in hands down lol :] How about a contest on a certain theme, or have users create a map to fit game mode(Melee, TD, Survival,ect..)?
It's true careful work with doodads can enhance the atmosphere of any scene. The curtain grass below is a combination of Mar Sara and Tarsonis varieties, with the darker Mar Sara used for grass that's been singed. The line of sight blocking feature can be maintained across gaps in the grass by simply dropping the grass below terrain level where it's "missing". Small details like these can make a subtle but valuable difference, so it's good to balance out grand doodad schemes with detail work too, even if players are only aware of the details on a subconscious level. Make sure not to overlook gameplay aspects as well, and try to incorporate visuals into the gameplay.
I have been following the neat tricks in this thread for awhile now, and I'd like to finally contribute one of my own!
I was working on some detail doodads on my upcoming map today, using the pipe doodads to make some nice plumbing through the base, when I get to the end. I chose to use the 'oil coming out of the grate' on the end cap, but I ran into a problem. Where was this oil going? I first thought to use the oil splash at the base and paint the grating texture from Braxis Alpha under it, but it didn't look as good as I hoped. I wanted to dump it into water, but just using the custom color feature on big patches of water to make it black turned out pretty awful. Then it hit me! I remembered a doodad that would look perfect! (Thank you Blizz for custom coloring).
I give you the oil spill effect:
This is three Floating Creep Pad doodads all colored dark dark grey (not full black, or you lose the detail), set to a height just above my water's height. The creep texture can pass for oil floating on the surface perfectly. It stains the water realistically and floats/bobs around like oil would. The best part is you can duplicate/scale as many creep pads as you need to cover your water.
Ironic I figure out something like this during the Gulf Crisis.
I used that idea for a tunnel in my map, hadn't thought of doing that before, so thanks. =)
Made this as a sort of mid map underwater garden for the map I am working on. Players get resources for having their Hero unit control the area.
I think some wasteland would be cool. I really wouldn't like jungle though.
Something with water in a wasteland for example that's not too ordinary.
I'm in a bit of a hurry (going to the dentist, prolly gonna lose more teeth :( ), but I just wanted to say awesome job Sephiex - those tunnels are pretty much exactly what I meant and you made it look seriously cool. It vaguely reminds me of those last few levels in Gears of War (1).
@Sephiex:
Good job… Tunnels look very realistic!
Quick question on them.. Do they only work in TPS/FPS??? I was wondering because I figured that this is the case?
@Ash4meD: Go
Thank you. Well naturally I think they'd be best suited for TPS, but it may be possible to use them with an overhead view, I haven't tried it. The Rock Arch model by default has occlusion enabled, which means they can turn transparent. (Not sure how it determines when to become transparent, perhaps when the camera is near them or when they are blocking the view of the camera. In any case it was something I had to turn off because they were turning transparent when I went inside them.)
If you want glowing tips of some sort, just enlarge a 'cracks' doodad, kinda neat.
@Seiniyta: That one looks amazing too.. that is from the top view also?
@Ash4meD: Go
It also works top view, but use it sparely in tps, as all the particles rising from the doodad can cause frame drops in large numbers.
For the terraining contest
I think the format for entries should be like this: -The entries are SC2 maps (not a screenshot or a video) -The maps does not need to be playable (No needs of minerals, playable areas, etc) -There is no fog of war in the maps (so you can see everything) -Units and buildings are not allowed in the maps -The maps should be relatively small but not TOO small (you can leave a patch of terrain blank around if you like) -No trigger (except possibly for the no fog thing) -The camera should be limited to default (No custom or first person) -Limited usage of custom models is allowed but not evaluated
That the idea. Tell me what you think about it. I think a contest like this would improve the quality of maps in generals.
Oh and sorry, I said I would post my terrain work but I'm kinda lazy today. Maybe I work on it tonight. Shame I deleted all my old melee maps...
There's the function of using groups in the editor, though I NEVER touched it, I think it is very useful when constructing bigger and more complex things out of doodads.
For example, you want to construct a pyramid out of boxes, but allow a tunnel for units to go though right? You can't just drop a doodad and expect it to stand on each other, so what you'd do is make a row of boxes, and group them. Then Copy and paste the box to make another row, and continue until you get a square group of boxes. You then group such boxes, and to make the higher elevated ones, you basically get smaller rows of boxes and make squares out of them, then group and set a height. I with with grouping, you can modify a entire groups' properties, like height.
No idea if grouping within groups work... Example, Pyramid has 5 stories of boxes, and you'd want to group each story to a group name, then group them all to a main group. Then you'd be able to access the pyramid's subgroup through the editor and edit it as you wish.
Too bad the editor isn't that complex, to the point of being able to edit and view doodads or groups covered up under another doodad or group, as your mouse wouldn't be able to select them and modify them. Maybe a "Hide" option could work on such groups so you can hide them from the editor so you can edit the lower ones...
Layers is what it can be called maybe.
You can always retexture such a doodad so you can get the transparency off.
Afaik, the archs turn transparent when any unit moves under (read: near) them.
@dra6o0n: Go
I actually built the entire pyramid using the group function and they're all associated with their own groups. Groups also have numbers (it's displayed in the UI when you click on the group in the lower left hand, also tells you what you have selected and whether it's a variety), so in the final release of the galaxy editor there may be a UI function that allows the remote access of groups. If not, a map editor mod could probably make it possible.