[Map] Farah (2km) [WIP]

[The_Turkish_Moose]

Photobucket just shit all over my account so I will get photos re uploaded as soon as I have new stuff to upload too!

DOWNLOAD THE LATEST VERSION - farah 10-06-2017
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3v...ew?usp=sharing

Farah minimap (October 3rd 2017)

Spoiler for Farah Peninsula:

During a certain AAS layer, I intend to have the USMC attack from their carrier in the North West. I created a large chunk of land coming from the peninsula to allow the USMC to create a fob and allow them to have space if they choose to use it.

The city is focused on close combat favouring the Insurgents and the high rise T-buildings will make USMC armour important to protect and utilise. I'm trying to encourage long range engagements from the USMC that will eventually lead to breach and clears if they want to capture the flags.

I'm still constructing the southern edge of the town to transition into the arid lands and also some of the coastal transitioning.

Spoiler for South Village:

Long roads and the high rise T-building will make fighting in the urban strip very long range orientated unless you choose to flank around the cliff side's edge or through the middle market which will be very close quartered.

The western side of the town, facing the base will favour those coming from the base and the eastern side of the town will favour those defending it making it hard to attack from both the north and the east but easiest from the west.

Spoiler for Vehicle Checkpoint:

Like Al Basrah, this is a small vehicle checkpoint in the middle of the map. But this VCP has been attacked and abandoned leaving it as a stronghold that is useful for either team. It's proximity to the bridge and views between Farah Peninsula and South Village make it extremely valuable but is exposed to the Eastern Mountain Range.

Spoiler for East Mountain Range:

The views from these mountains should be tempting for any sniper with vantage points that cover the entire area. Hopefully the USMC will utilise the mountains with FOBs, Armour and snipers to ensure that their teams can move securely across the battlefield.

To the east of the mountains along the coast there is currently a tall building with a large interior. I may either remove the building and create a road around the mountain range or create a dock yard which the USMC could use as a safe way in for infantry and armour.

Spoiler for West Bridge:

A small village with a large bridge that is very close to the coast. An option for the USMC to build an aggressive FOB or for the MEC/Insurgents to defend the western coastal line. Should not be too busy with action unless this becomes a possible flag.

Spoiler for Industrial Complex:

Similar to the large industrial complexes in Burning Sands, this industrial complex should be a hot zone for armoured activity. It's placement is central to most of the points of interesting making this a tempting spot for armour to move to and scan ahead for targets. This also makes it a nice place for ambushes but don't expect to survive too long around here as an infantry man. The large, open areas will favour heavily against you.

So this has been a WIP for a long time now (like any other PR map). Whilst looking through the screenshots, bare in mind that I'm still working over everything. I'm not going to state the thinking behind all my design choices but if you want to know something, just ask!

The reason I've posted my work right now is to reach out to PR devs and other veteran mappers for some advice.

Spoiler for CURRENT PROGRESS - 03-10-2017:

At the moment, I'm focusing on all the roads/pavements. I've gone for a Fallujah West/ Sbeneh style using the Afghan pavements but hated the way the player had to jump to get over the pavement so I kept them very low at ground level.

From a distance (not up close) you (sometimes) see Z fighting. I want to know if this will be a no-dealer when it comes to potentially putting my map in the official Project Reality rotation.

Also, you will see that there are no roads in the map - just tarmac textured on terrain. It does work and I made the decision as it allowed me to be a bit more free when designing junctions, alleys, drive ways and more. Is this a no-dealer? If so, should I pave all the roads including those in non-urban areas?

[CURRENT PROGRESS - 23-10-2017]

The majority of the side walks have been completed but I may return back to them later as I'm not 100% happy with the clipping/ z fighting that happens when layering pavements.

At the moment, I am reshaping and detailing the bulk of the open terrain and blocking out any remaining POI such as little compounds, farms e.c.t.

I will re upload all the missing images when I next have new images to upload too.

[Rhino]

Looking good so far

Originally Posted by The_Turkish_Moose

At the moment, I'm focusing on all the roads/pavements. I've gone for a Fallujah West/ Sbeneh style using the Afghan pavements but hated the way the player had to jump to get over the pavement so I kept them very low at ground level.

On their front side, they do have a ramp for players to walk up and down without having to jump so you shouldn't need to sink them much under the ground for that to work as it should?

Originally Posted by The_Turkish_Moose

From a distance (not up close) you (sometimes) see Z fighting. I want to know if this will be a no-dealer when it comes to potentially putting my map in the official Project Reality rotation.

Ye, z-fighting is the biggest issue with this method. I tried experimenting with having pavements as "3D road intersections" a few months ago (similar to the new airbase system", which got around the z-fighting issues, but had a bunch of other side effects which were overall worse

Spoiler for Road Sidewalk Testing Results:

Did a bit of testing on the sidewalk done via roads and ye, there seems to be a few issues with them.

first is the odd rendering of the furthest face before nearest. Not massive and could be somewhat worked around in most cases, but would prevent any clever use of having broken pavements being made with bits sticking in the air which would just look really, really bad:




Then ye, shadows are pretty obviously quite a lot lower down than the vehicle or building itself:




and ye at far distances, they are visible through buildings hehe (might be able to somewhat fix somewhat with road settings):


The shadows are really the biggest issue IMO, aren't such an issue for airbases but for these, they are more so since they have many statics etc around them and much higher off the ground etc.

Main bit of it you should read is my conclusion which has a few recommendations:

Originally Posted by Road Sidewalk Conclusion

Considering these points, and the other things like no normal maps etc for "road sidewalks", I think the best solution is still, unfortunately, the static pavements/sidewalks, although with optimised LM UVs and better textures with normals etc, and having them not cast any light maps on to the terrain (easy enough to do with BF2 settings, and Max Render Settings) and having the terrain under them painted in the same colour as the pavement above them. Could do the latter in a few ways, could make road versions of them just for baking them into the maps colourmap on editor save, or could render them in max and manually apply them to the colourmaps, or could just manually paint concrete of around the same colour under them (possibly best since that will also help blend them in when up close too).

Basically without a black shadow cast under them, directly from them, and with also their colour painted onto the terrain under them, this will significantly reduce the amount of visible zfighting players will be able to see from a distance and also will enable the sidewalk meshes to be culled totally from rendering at distance without the player noticing and increasing performance quite a bit

Ideally, we want to make a whole new set of sidewalk statics since the Fallujah ones are pretty buggy, resource heavy etc and could make far nicer and better-performing ones but this is pretty low priority for us at the moment.
Maybe someone from the community might be up for making them?

Originally Posted by The_Turkish_Moose

Also, you will see that there are no roads in the map - just tarmac textured on terrain. It does work and I made the decision as it allowed me to be a bit more free when designing junctions, alleys, drive ways and more. Is this a no-dealer? If so, should I pave all the roads including those in non-urban areas?

If using 3D Sidewalks in the city areas then ye, it is best not to use roads in there, but roads outside of the cities and built up areas, I would recommend using the road tool, and just have it fade in/our between painted roads on the city borders, once you get to areas with 3D Sidewalks.

Main advantages of the roads is their extra texture detail which you can do with just terrain textures, but mixing them together can be a good move like in city areas, adding road markings with them like central road deviding lines etc, cross walks, tyre skids etc is well worth using them for

Take a look at Al Basrah's and Fullajus use of roads for some inspiration here as there is some good uses here and there of them

[Jabil_One]

Excluding minimap, Picture #9 with the fuelstation. I like the view on the city.

The Parkhouse doesn't fit.

[[R-DEV]​Mr.VdHeide]

Looks good.

IMO you should add a lot more green tho, with this much water there should be far more plants and green zones.

Keep it up!



D.J.

[VTRaptor]

Looks promising! It's always good to see maps being developed. Buuuuuut... I've seen quite few you started working on, so is Farah going to be finished?



Please : ))))))

[The_Turkish_Moose]

On their front side, they do have a ramp for players to walk up and down without having to jump so you shouldn't need to sink them much under the ground for that to work as it should?

Cool! I'm an idiot

If using 3D Sidewalks in the city areas then ye, it is best not to use roads in there, but roads outside of the cities and built up areas, I would recommend using the road tool, and just have it fade in/our between painted roads on the city borders, once you get to areas with 3D Sidewalks.

Main advantages of the roads is their extra texture detail which you can do with just terrain textures, but mixing them together can be a good move like in city areas, adding road markings with them like central road deviding lines etc, cross walks, tyre skids etc is well worth using them for

Take a look at Al Basrah's and Fullajus use of roads for some inspiration here as there is some good uses here and there of them

That advice helps - thank you!

Looks promising! It's always good to see maps being developed. Buuuuuut... I've seen quite few you started working on, so is Farah going to be finished?

Yes............................................... ?
PR maps are hard

IMO you should add a lot more green tho, with this much water there should be far more plants and green zones.

Okay I'll do some research on this idea. I'm planning to add more farms but not too many grassy areas - but that can change!

The Parkhouse doesn't fit.

Can you tell me which image you're talking about?

So Rhino, about the pavements. I've done some pretty blasphemous stuff...



I've got some awkward angles were I had to layer the pavement and change the height by about 0.01 to stop any Z fighting (from mid to close range anyway - from far away, the Z fighting occurs). I know it's less preferred but I'm kind of stuck with what to do!

[Rhino]

ye other than having new corner segments made, overlapping like that is the best way and won't be too much of a problem providing they don't cast shadows.

[The_Turkish_Moose]

ye other than having new corner segments made, overlapping like that is the best way and won't be too much of a problem providing they don't cast shadows.

That's a relief! Do I have to do anything to prevent shadows for the pavements?

And by the way, seeing as you're actively talking to me here - Muttrah City is the best map in any game ever. Serious.

[Rhino]

Originally Posted by The_Turkish_Moose

That's a relief! Do I have to do anything to prevent shadows for the pavements?

If generating your lightmaps in the BF2 editor then you need to edit the .tweak files of all the pavement statics you use and add this line to the top of that file and it this object will not cast shadows lightmap on anything it shadows (like the terrain, or another bit of pavement under it)

GeometryTemplate.doNotGenerateLightmaps 1

And if generating your lightmaps in 3DsMax, select all of your pavement statics once they imported, right click, object properties and then in General Tab under Render Control, uncheck "Cast Shadows" and press ok to apply to all selected and then they shouldn't cast shadows on anything, but will still receive shadows from other objects

Originally Posted by The_Turkish_Moose

And by the way, seeing as you're actively talking to me here - Muttrah City is the best map in any game ever. Serious.

Cheers, the map was never quite finished thou and could do it much better now too hehe

[FlyingR]

Looks good man! Always nice to see new maps being made!

BluFor will be carrier-based right?

And will this be AAS or will there be CNC and INS modes?