Malta Map WIP available - UPDATED - V1.2 - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: Malta Map WIP available - UPDATED - V1.2 (/showthread.php?tid=52374)

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- lowfighter - 03.02.2008

Placing buildings in continuous lines along streets, that's the right thing for simulating at least european towns. But I disagree a bit about doing it your way using 2-3 types of buildings. Surely it has advantage of faster building, smoother playing etc. But towns would look too schematic and very different from the real ones. The old core in almost each european towns is in most cases a charming maze of colors and different architecture styles piled very close together. You can see that even now, most towns have preserved the old core, that is, if they were not bombed too much during war.
BTW, nice to see you here Phil

Edit: there's another problem connected with using large and tall buildings. It's unrealistic to use them in large quantities in SMALL towns. Unfortunately they are used sometimes as isolated buildings in sparsely populated towns on some default maps. Imagine that: townlooks like countryside with a huge building here and there lol.
And then there's the problem of poping up at visibility range, mentioned by Zo in a different context. Especially very tall buildings poping up, that is disturbing to me.

I think it would be though profitable to discuss town building concepts in a separate thread and not hijack Maraz thread?

Phil_K Wrote:I don't wish to sound negative, as this is obviously a phenomenal piece of work, but I think this way of building towns with lots of isolated diverse buildings is not the right way. The best way is to use fewer building types, but lay them end to end in "streets".
This method has many advantages. As well as being more convincing, it results in faster load times (due to fewer number of different objects used) and smoother graphics (as the graphics card is processing fewer different objects as the player passes over). I would like map-builders to consider this method when they create new maps. It is more efficient and MUCH more effective.

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- Neil Lowe - 03.02.2008

I think maps can be too over populated by map creators.

Maraz has done a great job in providing the essentials, without being too heavy on FPS (apart from the plethora of 'blank plates' used ). Extra populated cities are now up to the mission/campaign makers to create. Malta in it's current state is still useable on machines that are not the latest and greatest, and this should be the goal of all addon map makers (to be usable on all but the most ancient of rigs) . Extra stuff could be added as mission templates by the maker or, as a different hi-populated version.

Thanx again Maraz, great work

Cheers, Neil

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- lowfighter - 04.02.2008

You're absolutely right Neil, Maraz provided a beautiful infrastructure! Mre Populated towns can come later, it's a very time consuming business if you want to make it thoroughly, and I think the best to do it is to work with a team otherwise you get insane.
And yes: thanks again Maraz!

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- Rus_Andrey - 04.02.2008

If it will need anybody, I will lay out my actor.static file, when my work will be complete.

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- fabianfred - 04.02.2008

letchik Wrote:If it will need anybody, I will lay out my actor.static file, when my work will be complete.

It is always nice for us to make our work available to others....if people try your buildings and map work...they can always add to it themselves or delete what they don't like.......anyway...it saves a lot of time re-making things

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- 6S.Maraz - 04.02.2008

Hi, thanks to all for your appreciations and constructive criticism.

Just as someone has guessend, my aim while making this map was providing a good scenario for air warfare over Malta. So the exact representation of Valletta and other towns (there are a lor of them in Sicily) was beyond my scope. I preferred representing all batteries, military camps, etc. that are of military interest. Also I wanted this map to be a light one, because my aim is to incorporate it in a bigger map. So I could not have too many object for cities.

Nevertheless, I am trying to make the map a little better, by making good use of some of the remarks made in this forum. So in a next release, that will be ready in few days (and will contain some minor texture modifications, and a slightly different detail in the French Creek area) I will try (using the actors tool) to change the model of building used in the cities to a more recent object, as suggested by FLy_Zo.

Also I will add some more building, only in the Valletta area.

About transparent tiles used in airfields, I found that almost all airfields in the area (except Luqa and maybe Comiso) did not have a definite runway, being just a large flat area used for landing and takeoff. So I decided it was worth to invest in object count by making these areas all usable by aircraft, leaving a generic texture. Each of these airfield would have deserved a dedicated texture, but unfortunately we have just 32 of them

Regards
Maraz

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- 6S.Maraz - 04.02.2008

VFS-214_Hawk Wrote:

ranwers Wrote:Thanx !

Maybe soon... :wink:

What the @#$% is that thing?

It's a Cant Z.1007bis. But it's still a bit to fat in her belly, she looks pregnant
I think that it's still a WIP and that Ranswer is still working at it.

Maraz

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- Neil Lowe - 04.02.2008

Quote:About transparent tiles used in airfields, I found that almost all airfields in the area (except Luqa and maybe Comiso) did not have a definite runway, being just a large flat area used for landing and takeoff. So I decided it was worth to invest in object count by making these areas all usable by aircraft, leaving a generic texture. Each of these airfield would have deserved a dedicated texture, but unfortunately we have just 32 of them

Lol.. yep, can see your reasons for using them

Problem I had was a severe FPS hit when all "blank plated" airfields were in view (say flying back towards Malta) I deleted all blank plates and voila, no FPS hit. The Norway map had this problem (thx VPM) and when the amount was lessened the FPS problem disappeared. Prolly best to just use a double width row and mark the extents with a vehicle or some other object.

Just a suggestion,

Thanx again.

Cheers, Neil

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- RAF_Magpie - 04.02.2008

6S.Maraz Wrote:

VFS-214_Hawk Wrote:

ranwers Wrote:Thanx !

Maybe soon... :wink:

What the @#$% is that thing?

It's a Cant Z.1007bis. But it's still a bit to fat in her belly, she looks pregnant
I think that it's still a WIP and that Ranswer is still working at it.

Maraz

Maybe we might have little baby Cant Z.1007bis's running around :mrgreen:

Anyone got any Av-Gas formula? How about Cant shaped diapers?

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- fly_zo - 04.02.2008

great, so i'll hold on with uploading it at map downloads ( god knows i need day or two anyway ...) and good news is that i managed to make some kind of installer ( thanks to mrJolly) so manual updating all.ini won't be necessary anymore .


looking forward to populated Malta



@letchik : it would be great if you upload mission template ( if didn't make it as actors from beginning)... so users can delete (or add) to it as needed ( low,mid,high .... systems).

it looks mighty good


Z

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- Guest - 04.02.2008

Neil Lowe Wrote:

Quote:About transparent tiles used in airfields, I found that almost all airfields in the area (except Luqa and maybe Comiso) did not have a definite runway, being just a large flat area used for landing and takeoff. So I decided it was worth to invest in object count by making these areas all usable by aircraft, leaving a generic texture. Each of these airfield would have deserved a dedicated texture, but unfortunately we have just 32 of them

Lol.. yep, can see your reasons for using them

Problem I had was a severe FPS hit when all "blank plated" airfields were in view (say flying back towards Malta) I deleted all blank plates and voila, no FPS hit. The Norway map had this problem (thx VPM) and when the amount was lessened the FPS problem disappeared. Prolly best to just use a double width row and mark the extents with a vehicle or some other object.

Just a suggestion,

Thanx again.

please could you explain how to do this? I never used mod map-builder however .. may be a link to d/l your Malta and Norway "light" version? Thank in advance

Cheers8)

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- Neil Lowe - 04.02.2008

As this is Maraz's map he'd probably prefer that mods to Malta are made by him and distributed as such.

The fix for Norway and Burma is by vpmedia in this thread

viewtopic.php?t=2358

Cheers, Neil

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- Rus_Andrey - 04.02.2008

fly_zo

I do it initially as actors.static... But I can make 3 different actor files for the different systems (low, mid, high)

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- fly_zo - 04.02.2008

letchik Wrote:fly_zo

I do it initially as actors.static... But I can make 3 different actor files for the different systems (low, mid, high)

cool , than IMHO it would be best to cooperate with Maraz .....


Z

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- 6S.Maraz - 04.02.2008

Guys,
I am very impressed with the quality of the works about Valletta town and other towns, my only concern would be the FPS hit.

Letchik, if you send me your work when it is complete, I'll try to incorporate in the map. I think the "low" end should be the map as it is now, so you could provide the "medium" and "high" sceneries.

Phil-K, you did an excellent work about Bizerte (and other cities of course). As I have Tunis and other cities in Tunisia (Enfidaville, Sousse) in my next map, maybe you are willing to collaborate?

Cheers
Maraz

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