Topic: "city" terrain for Quake Wars (Mega Texture?)

[pazur]

Hey Kat & all,

noticed you worked on Mega Texture terrains for Quake Wars in the past: http://www.katsbits.com/tutorials/idtech/make-megatexture-terrain-models-from-brushwork.php

I still work on my Quake Wars map and want to add a simple terrain to my map that basically has one large skyscraper building in the center (http://www.screencast.com/users/ypiotr/folders/Jing/media/6dbf0984-c099-4820-91f4-4382a3210542) I would like to take a satellite image and just map it to a flat plane (image like this: http://www.screencast.com/users/ypiotr/folders/Jing/media/b796e522-d398-46b7-9a32-f922c6ce919a). As you won't be able to get down and walk on the ground I think that should work fine.

Here my questions:

#1 Do I really need to create a model based terrain for that or can I use just a brush? I guess model but I'm not entirely sure.

#2 How large (in pixels) can one large texture for the model be? Can I create the Mega Texture manually?

#3 Is the terrain used to define the boundaries of the map in Quake Wars?

Paz

[kat]

What I'd for that is build some brush work around it so that you fit the 'terrain' to the building correctly and then convert that trisoup into a model. It's been a while since I did any QW or MegaTexture work but whilst you *can* use brushes for 'terrain' in the same sense that you could traditionally make terrain from brushes, it won't or can't be used for MegaTerrain as MegaTexture can't be applied to brushes in that version of the engine.

So basically you're going to be making a template to get positions correct, converting that to a model and then reimporting that back into the editor for MT use. With regards to the bounds of the level (as in the "turn back now or die warnings?) they're defined by an image rather than the model iirc. I'd have a read through the QW Wiki for info on that one.

You won't get much use from a top down view because the size of the final shot is only relative to itself, you won't know how many pixels width/height something is to use as a template without a lot of mucking about to figure that out. What you could do however, is if that building is 'regular' shaped you'll be able to directly translate grid units into Blender/3D app units; 256x256 Radiant units is the same as 256x256 Blender units for example.

Does that make sense?

[pazur]

Yes, it makes perfectly sense. I dealt with the proportions and positions already. I converted them when starting the map. The building is based on a Google Earth model that I converted into a Blender model, then exported and rebuilt it as brushes. It's also aligned on a real map: http://www.screencast.com/users/ypiotr/folders/Jing/media/ec4ff020-740b-423f-8cdb-efb1faab908f

I'll go with a single brush for the beginning (instead of a model). Let's see how that works and how much size Quake Wars allows in one texture.

[kat]

Oh I forgot that last one.. you want to keep too 1024x1024, iirc the characters used 768x768 or some variation thereof (although I could be mixing that up with Quake 4 models); although the game can use 2048x2048 that's a huge texture size so you don't want to be shoving too many of those through the memory buffers - you actually get more used from the four 1024 than from the single 2048.

That's in relation to textures on models though and not megatexture which has different limitations, iirc Splash Damage said they found themselves limited based on file size rather than physical size because of the amount of data that meant the system was churning through.

[pazur]

Memory buffers/performance/compatibility with graphics cards is something I really need to consider in general as well. Will maybe check large sizes first and then try to "cut" them. I have a pretty low-profile ATI 4830 with only 512MB RAM so maybe not the worst in terms of testing.

Yesterday I ran some tests with the satellite photos + positioning of the building on it and it worked pretty well BUT the problem with those images is that they are tilt a bit. The buildings are shown a bit from the side + they cast shadows as well. Will post some screenshots as soon as I'm satisfied with the results.

[pazur]

Posted the results over at the SD forum:

http://www.splashdamage.com/forums/showpost.php?p=291948&postcount=241

 

[kat]

Looks good. I'd work on the fog a little so it doesn't cut off quite so abruptly, maybe even put the odd block of brushwork here and there to emphasise the fact that you're high up looking down onto a city scape. *up*

[pazur]

The fog is a light entity with a material defining it. Not sure if it allows fading it softly but I' look around. I'll play around with the height too and I'm planning to place a few other low level of detail buildings in the city landscape.

[pazur]

Just to document it somewhere. The parameter to change the gradient level of a fog is "specularPower"

material fogs/pazgroundFog_thin
{
   fogLight refractable         // tell the engine it is fog and not a light
   noShadows
   {
      fogMap      _fog
      fogEnterMap   _fogEnter
      red         parm0
      green      parm1
      blue      parm2
      alpha      50000
      specularPower   3
   }
}

1 is soft and 20 pretty hard

Here is a picture of the building in reality being in clouds: http://www.pazurmapping.com/pkin/palac-kultury.jpg

Here are more photos of the Palac Kultury building: http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0oG7n8rCcdNtHAAy99XNyoA?ei=UTF-8&p=palac+kultury&fr2=tab-web&fr=inq-x-ff

I left out the entire lower part as it's too complex (I simply don't have time to build it in the ETQW World Editor) but it's basically in the satellite image.

Screenshot of the smoother fog: http://www.splashdamage.com/forums/showpost.php?p=300329&postcount=258