Posted in: Mapping
Posted 2012-04-02 at 10:58 by [R-DEV]Rhino
Hey all,
As I'm sure many of you are away that today, the 2nd of April marks the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War and with it I wanted to do something to commemorate it.
As a result I've been cooking up a little something over the past few weeks while taking a bit of a break from my other tasks.
Before I go any further into this I would like to explain that this is currently only planned as a standalone mini-mod for PR:BF2, much like Project Normandy and is going to be using a lot of placeholders for its first release. One thing I hope is that after I release the first version that the community will take on the development of this mini-mod and refine it, replacing the place holders with the correct assets :D
This mini-mod is based as much as possible on the 1982 war between Britain and Argentinian over the Falkland (Malvina) Islands, taking into account historic factors and trying to replicate them in a way which gives fun and balanced gameplay while also working with the limitations of the BF2 engine and assets we have to hand.
Focusing on the map, I've been wanting to experiment with large scale maps for some time in BF2 and with this project I have finally had the excuse to able to do so, as the map is currently 16kms by 16kms (Kashan is 4kms by 4kms). This is achieved by ditching BF2's terrain, and making the terrain out of a staticmesh (aka, mesh terrain), which isn't without its problems however... The main thing however is that with this size of map, we can really portray the importance of the air campaign in the war to a degree not seen in PR before, as well as spreading out the ground combat a bit.
Since the map/mini-mod is very WIP I'm not going to give away too much at this point as a lot of this is very liable to change but here is the current mini-map + my basic plan and a few screenshots.
[CENTER][URL="http://realitymodfiles.com/rhino/promo/falklands_02-04-12/falklands_plan.jpg"][IMG]http://realitymodfiles.com/rhino/promo/falklands_02-04-12/falklands_plan_tn.jpg[/IMG][/URL][/CENTER]
The white box around North East Falklands represents a 4km (Kashan) sized map so you can get an idea on the scale and the flags/troop movement arrows match those pretty closely to what happened in 1982.
[CENTER][URL="http://realitymodfiles.com/rhino/promo/falklands_02-04-12/falklands_01.jpg"][IMG]http://realitymodfiles.com/rhino/promo/falklands_02-04-12/falklands_01_tn.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL="http://realitymodfiles.com/rhino/promo/falklands_02-04-12/falklands_02.jpg"][IMG]http://realitymodfiles.com/rhino/promo/falklands_02-04-12/falklands_02_tn.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL="http://realitymodfiles.com/rhino/promo/falklands_02-04-12/falklands_03.jpg"][IMG]http://realitymodfiles.com/rhino/promo/falklands_02-04-12/falklands_03_tn.jpg[/IMG][/URL][/CENTER]
For those of you who are not very knowledgeable about the 1982 Falklands War, I would recommend watching the following documentaries which will give you a basic insight to what you can expect from the map :D
[CENTER][YOUTUBEHD]7FNAoPtdIg0[/YOUTUBEHD]
[YOUTUBEHD]7GKFu7od5Rc[/YOUTUBEHD][/CENTER]
I do have one issue with the 16km size that is somewhat of a show stopper however, which is 3 errors that pop up, even in full screen mode telling you the map is too large. Although you can continue past these errors without any problems (although in full screen mode, you are unaware you get them and must alt+tab to see them). If I can't find a solution to solve or suppress these errors it may mean I have to opt for my backup plan, which is basically to make the map an 8km by 8km map which doesn't get the errors and then having the carrier/airbase outside the combat zone. Although this will mean that domes of death are not possible and navigation outside the combat zone will be very, very hard, with jets never finding there way back to the airbase. But I've still got my fingers cross that I might just be able to somehow solve these errors I've got, but I wont bore you guys with that stuff any more but just warning you guys that might be a factor :p
Keep your eyes peeled for any more news on this in the next few weeks ;)
Cheers!
As I'm sure many of you are away that today, the 2nd of April marks the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War and with it I wanted to do something to commemorate it.
As a result I've been cooking up a little something over the past few weeks while taking a bit of a break from my other tasks.
Before I go any further into this I would like to explain that this is currently only planned as a standalone mini-mod for PR:BF2, much like Project Normandy and is going to be using a lot of placeholders for its first release. One thing I hope is that after I release the first version that the community will take on the development of this mini-mod and refine it, replacing the place holders with the correct assets :D
This mini-mod is based as much as possible on the 1982 war between Britain and Argentinian over the Falkland (Malvina) Islands, taking into account historic factors and trying to replicate them in a way which gives fun and balanced gameplay while also working with the limitations of the BF2 engine and assets we have to hand.
Focusing on the map, I've been wanting to experiment with large scale maps for some time in BF2 and with this project I have finally had the excuse to able to do so, as the map is currently 16kms by 16kms (Kashan is 4kms by 4kms). This is achieved by ditching BF2's terrain, and making the terrain out of a staticmesh (aka, mesh terrain), which isn't without its problems however... The main thing however is that with this size of map, we can really portray the importance of the air campaign in the war to a degree not seen in PR before, as well as spreading out the ground combat a bit.
Since the map/mini-mod is very WIP I'm not going to give away too much at this point as a lot of this is very liable to change but here is the current mini-map + my basic plan and a few screenshots.
[CENTER][URL="http://realitymodfiles.com/rhino/promo/falklands_02-04-12/falklands_plan.jpg"][IMG]http://realitymodfiles.com/rhino/promo/falklands_02-04-12/falklands_plan_tn.jpg[/IMG][/URL][/CENTER]
The white box around North East Falklands represents a 4km (Kashan) sized map so you can get an idea on the scale and the flags/troop movement arrows match those pretty closely to what happened in 1982.
[CENTER][URL="http://realitymodfiles.com/rhino/promo/falklands_02-04-12/falklands_01.jpg"][IMG]http://realitymodfiles.com/rhino/promo/falklands_02-04-12/falklands_01_tn.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL="http://realitymodfiles.com/rhino/promo/falklands_02-04-12/falklands_02.jpg"][IMG]http://realitymodfiles.com/rhino/promo/falklands_02-04-12/falklands_02_tn.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL="http://realitymodfiles.com/rhino/promo/falklands_02-04-12/falklands_03.jpg"][IMG]http://realitymodfiles.com/rhino/promo/falklands_02-04-12/falklands_03_tn.jpg[/IMG][/URL][/CENTER]
For those of you who are not very knowledgeable about the 1982 Falklands War, I would recommend watching the following documentaries which will give you a basic insight to what you can expect from the map :D
[CENTER][YOUTUBEHD]7FNAoPtdIg0[/YOUTUBEHD]
[YOUTUBEHD]7GKFu7od5Rc[/YOUTUBEHD][/CENTER]
I do have one issue with the 16km size that is somewhat of a show stopper however, which is 3 errors that pop up, even in full screen mode telling you the map is too large. Although you can continue past these errors without any problems (although in full screen mode, you are unaware you get them and must alt+tab to see them). If I can't find a solution to solve or suppress these errors it may mean I have to opt for my backup plan, which is basically to make the map an 8km by 8km map which doesn't get the errors and then having the carrier/airbase outside the combat zone. Although this will mean that domes of death are not possible and navigation outside the combat zone will be very, very hard, with jets never finding there way back to the airbase. But I've still got my fingers cross that I might just be able to somehow solve these errors I've got, but I wont bore you guys with that stuff any more but just warning you guys that might be a factor :p
Keep your eyes peeled for any more news on this in the next few weeks ;)
Cheers!
Updated 2012-04-02 at 11:15 by [R-DEV]Rhino
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Very nice project indeed, looking forward to it!Posted 2012-04-02 at 11:30 by MCI 
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This looks amazing!
Do you think this map can be played with 150+ players? And will it have a mode made for 150+ players, which means more trans verhicles basicly.
I love you Rhino!Posted 2012-04-02 at 11:36 by MikeDude
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This looks epic....and I doubt there will be many trans vehicles due to the real life version of events.Posted 2012-04-02 at 11:41 by SUGNAT
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a road is not painted on terrain, a road is build. clip it to the terrain and lower ist 1 meter and it will look awesome
Posted 2012-04-02 at 11:46 by SWIZZ=kettcar=
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Cheers
Should be able to handle that amount of players, providing clients performance is up to it. I'm slightly worried about performance on the map, as while its totally fine for the moment (at least on my PC, but so is every mapQuote:Originally Posted by mikeyboyz
Do you think this map can be played with 150+ players? And will it have a mode made for 150+ players, which means more trans verhicles basicly.
), I have over 8k rocks on the map, all which will require lightmaps and once lightmapped, might have a few issues but not sure yet.
Although as Sugnat said, transport vehicles will be pretty lacking as they where in the real war.
I don't understand what you mean, you want me to lower the road 1m under the terrain?Quote:Originally Posted by SWIZZ=kettcar=
a road is not painted on terrain, a road is build. clip it to the terrain and lower ist 1 meter and it will look awesome
The roads here are really not much different from the roads in other BF2 maps, although done in a totally different way, the outcome is pretty much the same (other than they don't fade out at a distance, other than extreme distances after I do the terrain lods they kinda will). One thing I have considered is adding a normal map to the road but haven't crossed that bridge yet.Posted 2012-04-02 at 11:55 by Rhino
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Astonishing. :O
Nice job and good luck with project.Posted 2012-04-02 at 12:02 by Kain888
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So the terrain is basically a pretty damn massive static? Who had the joy of texturing that?
Posted 2012-04-02 at 12:04 by Navo
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Not sure if still 1th April just in another timezone or serious. No must be real, there is no timezone where it's still 1th April except somewhere around the Jupiter.
Posted 2012-04-02 at 12:08 by WeeD-KilleR
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Well, its actually a few massive statics, and I textured it, and texturing was tbh (at least colour texture was, detail textures where a bit trickery but found a decent way eventually), probably one of the simplest tasks about this, at least for me anyways heheQuote:Originally Posted by Navo
So the terrain is basically a pretty damn massive static? Who had the joy of texturing that?
Painted it with L3DT, using a custom climate I made and a few custom textures too, then baked the colour map from a standard heightmap onto my terrain with its optimized UVs and done
Argentina really should have invaded the day before as then everyone in No. 10 wouldn't have believed the news that the Falklands had just been invaded, thinking its an April FoolsQuote:Originally Posted by WeeD-KilleR
Not sure if still 1th April just in another timezone or serious. No must be real, there is no timezone where it's still 1th April except somewhere around the Jupiter.Posted 2012-04-02 at 12:09 by Rhino
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Damn. Looks to sunny though, make a dark overcast :PPosted 2012-04-02 at 12:11 by Zemciugas
