[Map] Wake Island (4km) [WIP]

[Dankicity]

Sounds good. Anything that makes the map more fitting works for me.

[AFsoccer]

Hey Dankicity,

The map looks promising... and if you're interested in making some changes, it could potentially be released as an official PR map in the future.

Firstly, do not worry about lightmapping anything but the terrain right now. Lightmapping the buildings prior to them being completely done is just a waste of time (and is frustrating). At this point, the things I would ask you to work on are:

In some places, using the satellite map colors via photoshop works great, but there are other areas that aren't high enough resolution due to rendering limitations. For instance, a major reconsideration needs to be given to the airfield:



You'll need to 1) use an existing runway static and try to make it work, 2) have someone make you a new runway (unlikely), or 3) paint the asphalt and use road stripes to somewhat simulate the markings (they won't be as detailed but they'll be higher resolution). None of these are perfect solutions, but they're better than what you have now.

I also noticed some areas where the textures need some manual tweaking because they don't look right. Not only would I change the rock texture, but in the photo below you have rock, sand, and grass mixed together, yet the terrain is a gentle slope... so it doesn't match very well. (To be honest, it looks overly automated and like you didn't want to spend the time painting the terrain)



If you don't want to re-paint as much, a possibility would be to alter the terrain so that the rock area juts up a little or somewhat resembles a rocky terrain.



Your road intersections need a solution. You probably thought of these as a placeholder, but you need to start thinking about a solution.

What rudd was talking about is that you have a half-dozen of so building types that have middle-eastern textures on them that will be problematic if used because the graffiti and signs will be in Arabic (or Chinese if you use a woodland texture suffix).







Btw, the custom texture mode is most dependent on what you want the soldier kits and vehicle colors to look like. The default is desert, so your troops will have desert uniforms and the vehicles will be mostly sand colored. This might work great for an island map... but it depends on what you want. For example, Barracuda uses the "woodland" suffix. If you stick with the default, you can alter the textures that are used on these buildings and make your own fairly easily by adding "_wakeisland" to the end of the texture pallet names. If you go with woodland, then it becomes a little more complicated and you'll have to insert some special files to overwrite the ones that would normally load. Ask [R-CON]pleym for help with this as he made special signs for his map, Vadso City.

The alternative would be to remove these buildings from the map and find a suitable alternative. Which brings me to another thing I noticed. As I moved around the map I noticed buildings from many different folders. Sometimes they look fine next to each other, but usually it's a tricky business to make it look real. I would try to stick with buildings that use similar textures and material types so that it looks natural.

For example:



These wooden buildings might look great on the more desolate areas of the map, but when placed next to the officer housing area, they look out of place. From my look around, I would stick with the following folders:

- industry
- military
- asia
- common
- PR equivalents of the above

Lastly, while you are swapping out buildings, check for floaters. I saw several. It happens to all of us, but the best "tester" is always the mapper.



Bottom line, I really like the map and I've been following it with anticipation from the early days. If you can spend the next month or so fixing these issues, I'll get back in touch with you for a more comprehensive look involving the whole mapping team.

Nice job bud!

[Dankicity]

Airfield - Agreed

Textures - Agreed. Though, what you suggest is what I did from the start but I guess not to a large enough degree. It's all from aerial photos, broken down by color and tweaked to match the texture. -- I don't mind painting, it was that every time I did, I lost the pixel-perfection from the Photoshop breakdown and looked overly automated (touche!).

Roads - Agreed. But, is that the size they are suppose to be? I had them at 10 to match the one wide main road that Wake has. Then kept that for the minor single-lane roads (5 width?). Am I ok having a 10 width but picking a better road?

Buildings Texture - Agreed. Gun -> Temple -> Squeeze... I had chosen the buildings that matched the size, shape and general construction type to suit. I paid no attention to where it was from as there just weren't enough. So, it's going to have to be a texture mode.

Old Buildings Next To New - Arguable. There are many run down WWII building ruins on the island. Though, I wanted to smother them with overgrowth like in reality but was unsure if that would be smart. Would've had to smother a larger area to make it blend in and thought that would cause some lag issues if done for each 'old building' location.

Floaters - Who likes floaters? They don't flush, can't swim next to'm, and it's the only crap your dog won't eat.

[H.Maverick]

Harrier/F-18 anyone?

[havoc1482]

So what is the status on this map? I'm still loving the idea.

[Vista]

I so want to play this map.

[Startrekern]

I've found a fairly high-quality Admiral Kuznetsov-class carrier in ArmA 2. If I can get the original model and permission from the author, I might have a go at porting it in. Since the Chinese have completed the Varyag, the ship they bought from the Russians, it makes the most sense for them as a carrier and would put a nice finishing touch on Wake.



All the better if we got the arresting hooks and catapults from Combined Arms, eh devs?

[Redamare]

i like it well done .. only comment is that the structures seem a bit oddly placed and VERY mismatched lol only in larger town areas that is though .... there are just some small wide open areas that seem like its missing something and too many Single line rows of buildings two streets should make a single road section look much better well done

[Dankicity]

Still working on this from time to time. Addressed some terrain & texture tweaking and think I have the airstrip figured out but it's some tricky painting. I've played with fixing the roads but I'm not at that point yet -- Would still like for them to stay at their current 10 & 5 widths.

The building types delima is going to be the main issue that I am clueless on dealing with. Still have floaters galore.

[edit] So who lets a guy upload files that doesn't remove them so quickly? Fn Savages -- We offer up to 2 gig hosting FREE for one whole minute, as supplies last. subject to pos policy. May cause cancer.

[Shovel]

What is that last part of your post I don't even.