Market Garden Mapping Query

(flanagaj) #1

Can anyone tell me what tools were used and how they managed to create the impression of hillsides and villages in the distance. This effect is when you are standing on the bridge.

Thanks

Juckky

(Wils) #2

We used a sky portal to add the hills in the background around the map.

You can find an example .map here, which has everything you need to achieve the same effect.

Sky portals are generally small rooms adjacent to the main map with a props_skyportal entity in the middle. This is a point entity which forms your view position inside the sky portal. When in game, anywhere you see sky, it draws the contents of the sky portal behind everything else.

If you look in the .map I linked above, you can see an octagon of alpha blended general countryside stuff, and a small piece of gensurf terrain with a grassy texture applied at a high scale. This produces the effect of continuing landscape behind the actual boundaries of the map. Usually :slight_smile:

If none of this made any sense, it’s because I’m typing it at 2:30am. Sorry :smiley:

(flanagaj) #3

Thanks for this, I will give it a shot. I hope you don’t mind, but would you be able to answer the following questions that I cannot seem o get answered on any of the forums or through sky box tutorials.

  1. Should the skyportal be placed up high relative to ground or low down.
  2. Why did you use an octagon and not a cube ?
  3. I noticed that by the bridge in MG the player is not able to look over
    the terrain boundary, is this very important ?
  4. I have tried using a skybrush, but get get lines down the edge of
    each wall brush. Is this why you chose to use a skyportal instead.

PS. How good do I need to be to come and work @ SD ? I currently work as a client server dev for an investment bank and want to get into the games world.

Thanks

Juckky

(LaVaGoD) #4

I won’t try to answer the questions because I am sure wils will reply with what you need. If you want to get into the game field I would suggest you work with some mods and do maps for them to get your name out their. Alot of people get their satrt that way and you can learn alot in the process. I have not mapped for RTCW but if the Skyportal works the same as it does with q3a then it does not matter where you have this box “Extra room with your Scenery”, beause your pretty much just projecting whats in that room onto your sky brushes. I could be wrong and if I am Wils will let ya know :slight_smile: I have also noticed that some skyboxes leave the seems showing and I am not sure on why this happens, it could be the skybox “textures” or how it is being compiled. I just wanted to chime in on this. Matt is a great guy and he is very willing to help people like he helped me the past couple years wit stuff. Good luck and let us know how it comes out.

Edit: Hehe I said would not try to answer but it looks like I did try :slight_smile: I am funny that way

(demoneye) #5

This may be of use…

http://www.nibsworld.com/rtcw/tutorial_skybox.shtml

DeMoNeye

(flanagaj) #6

Thanks for the replies. I have done the tutorial at nibs world but did not have any joy with it, I found the tutorial a little vague and could have come with more of a fuller explanation. I was hoping the tutorial would have come with accompanying files for radiant.

(Wils) #7
  1. Should the skyportal be placed up high relative to ground or low down.

Depends - is your environment on top of a mountain or in the bottom of a steep valley? Pick the height which blends it to your surrounding the best.

  1. Why did you use an octagon and not a cube ?

The alpha blended textures aren’t designed like a skybox’s, so slapping them on a cube would probably be noticable. If framerate wasn’t a consideration I’d probably have used a higher poly shape to make it more circular.

  1. I noticed that by the bridge in MG the player is not able to look over the terrain boundary, is this very important ?

I thought I just answered question 2 :slight_smile:
Yes, its important - as important as making sure you can never see below the horizon on normal sky.

There is no ‘join’ between the sky portal and the rest of your level, and since the sky portal never moves relative to your position, and the rest of your level does (duh), you’d notice the end of the map really, really obviously if you could see it easily.

There are ways to hide the effect if you really have to have it visible, like lines of tree models and bushes, etc.

  1. I have tried using a skybrush, but get get lines down the edge of each wall brush. Is this why you chose to use a skyportal instead.

Not sure what you’re describing here. Got a pic?

PS. How good do I need to be to come and work @ SD ? I currently work as a client server dev for an investment bank and want to get into the games world.

Depending on what you want to do as a job in game development (I’m assuming level design, given the above), you should try do at least some of the following:

  1. Produce a detailed portfolio of work.
  2. Do some mod stuff for a popular game. Even if you end up working on single player games for the rest of your life, it shows an ability to motivate yourself and work with other people remotely.
  3. Read a load of sites like gamasutra.com :slight_smile:
  4. Set up a website with all your stuff on it, and keep it updated.
  5. Look into expanding your skills beyond your chosen field - if the company you’re trying to get a job with is any good they’ll be looking for long term staff, and the more roles you can fill the better.

After establishing yourself and getting a good portfolio together, send off some emails and see where it gets you, I guess. It might take some time for positions to become available at the companies you apply to, by which time they’ll usually have collected a few CV’s and portfolio’s to sift through, so its important to make yours stand out (in a good way :)).

(flanagaj) #8

Thanks for the answers, I was going to post an image of my skybox issue but I don’t have it on a http server so I cant.

Just one quick question, how did you go about recreating MG making sure it was as real as the original battle ? I want to recreate another famous WW II encounter and thought if I can get an french ordnance survey map and pin point the exact area I could use easygen to recreate a scale replica terrain. Now that would be cool !!!
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(damocles) #9

I had that once. Took me friggin ages to fix it. I never did figure out what the cause was, but one solution is this: Instead of using a sky portal texture on your sky surfaces, use caulk. Sounds whacko I know, but caulk will show up on the outer boxes without a HOM effect and you can see the sky portal through it.

(Wils) #10

We didn’t really base it on the original battle, but we did look at films like A Bridge Too Far for inspiration and concepts.

Film’s are great for reference because they’re pretty much a non-interactive version of what you’re trying to create anyway - you want to build an entertaining level at the expense of realism where necessary, not vice versa.

Using real ordnance survey data to create your terrain might work, but you’ll likely find the scale involved would mean walking for minutes just to reach the middle of the map - the real bridge that the one in MG is based on is about ten times its length, with rolling country disappearing off into the distance, for example. Sometimes you need to scale things down for gameplay’s sake.