Thanks for some prompt replies, everyone. It’s nice to see an active, helpful community here.
It looks like I wasn’t clear when I mentioned the grid limit. I was referring to the GenSurf manual, which states that you can’t use more than 64x64 divisions for a terrain, regardless of size. I did try more divisions, but that created a major performance hit, so I assumed anything more than 64x64 quads was going to be buggy, and therefore avoided.
As I was making the terrain for this map, I tried to fight the typical ‘box canyon’ style, because I think it’s overused and implausible. I do still plan to use water and impenetrable forests as different kinds of barriers, but for a lot of boundaries I still had to resort to flat ground bordered by high cliffs. One nice thing about that is you don’t need as many polygons to represent the shape. For instance, when I convert the terrain to polygons in Maya, it doesn’t need more than 2000 polys to approximate the shape. I wonder if I can still take advantage of that polygon-saving technique with one of the Q3 terrain tools, like GenSurf’s decimate option for instance.
I have read about vis blocking, and I realize it’s a concern for a large map like mine. The first iteration of the terrain was basically one giant open plain, with a mountain in the back. I marked up my mockup to illustrate my plans on vis blocking, and paths players will take in the map:
As shown here, I split the map in half; you’ll never be able to see over the center mountain range. As I understand it, I should add a portal around area 2 in order to help the compiler split the map in half. I’m also planning to add fog, though it occurs to me now that it may interfere with the strong ‘cold morning’ light I was planning.
Here’s a run-down of the map’s mechanics:
The Allies spawn at point 1, over an unusually wide area to simulate parachuting into the area. Between the fog and the trees, it won’t be as wide open as it looks now; there will be cover. From there, they clear the mountain pass at point 2, where the Axis can spawn in the beginning. The Allies hold the mountain pass while trying to get to point 3, which is a railway checkpoint. Once they sabotage the radio inside the checkpoint building, the train that was waiting in the tunnel moves left, crashing through the main gate of point 5. Now the Allies can enter point 5, a large railway station.
Once the train breaks through, the Axis must spawn within the station. The Allies can build a command post at an abandoned log cabin, point 4, for a forward spawn point. They also have a more direct path from point 1, marked in yellow, after the train has cleared out of the tunnel. Their final objective is to destroy a pair of tanker cars holding a critical supply of heating oil.
Back on the subject of terrain, it sounds like EasyGen is the way to go. I’ve downloaded the program; I intend to check it out and see if it will do what I need.