10.04.2008, 13:09
Just wanted to stop by and provide a status.
As I stated earlier, everything on The Slot is at 99.44 percent complete, and we are now going through all versions of the map to make sure there are no problems and haven't missed anything (extra objects left under trees, over water, etc.)
While playtesting missions we have run into a snag concerning airfield textures.
Many of the airfields in the Solomons used metal plates, known as Marston/Marsden matting, to surface runways and taxiways. This material frequently covers high traffic areas, and has crushed coral borders. In order to capture this look, we used Pacific Sand Plate - "Runway" plates as an underlayment for the PCP plates (1C;Maddox name for Marston matt). Unfortunately, these two textures compete for who ends up on top, when viewed from different angles in the FMB. You can get it perfect in the map editor version of the FMB, by manipulating the texture plates, only to find the wrong texture on top (popping) when you go to the default FMB. We originally decided to use Pacific Sand "Runway" plates for the underlayment becuse it required fewer objects (smaller actors.static, shorter load times, and fewer memory related FMB crashes).
We have tried several options to get around the problem, to no avail, so we are now forced to redo all the airfields that had Marston matt (Henderson, Fighter One, Fighter Two, Koli, Carney, and Ballale), using Pacific Sand Plate - "Parking Side" textures, butted-up against the sides of the PCP plate sections. Other than the time required to make the change, it also adds to trhe size of the actors.static. Becasue we seperated the actors.static objects into two seperate files (airfields, everything else), this will cause no problems during construction, but will add a few seconds to load time.
Bottom Line - more work for the team, delayed release (estimate 1-3 weeks, depending on real-world work schedules, and how much shopping money we are willing to use to bribe wives/girlfriends) , slightly longer load times (load times for all versions will still be far less than load times for larger default maps, like Crimea and Slovakia).
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but we are learning as we go.
As I stated earlier, everything on The Slot is at 99.44 percent complete, and we are now going through all versions of the map to make sure there are no problems and haven't missed anything (extra objects left under trees, over water, etc.)
While playtesting missions we have run into a snag concerning airfield textures.
Many of the airfields in the Solomons used metal plates, known as Marston/Marsden matting, to surface runways and taxiways. This material frequently covers high traffic areas, and has crushed coral borders. In order to capture this look, we used Pacific Sand Plate - "Runway" plates as an underlayment for the PCP plates (1C;Maddox name for Marston matt). Unfortunately, these two textures compete for who ends up on top, when viewed from different angles in the FMB. You can get it perfect in the map editor version of the FMB, by manipulating the texture plates, only to find the wrong texture on top (popping) when you go to the default FMB. We originally decided to use Pacific Sand "Runway" plates for the underlayment becuse it required fewer objects (smaller actors.static, shorter load times, and fewer memory related FMB crashes).
We have tried several options to get around the problem, to no avail, so we are now forced to redo all the airfields that had Marston matt (Henderson, Fighter One, Fighter Two, Koli, Carney, and Ballale), using Pacific Sand Plate - "Parking Side" textures, butted-up against the sides of the PCP plate sections. Other than the time required to make the change, it also adds to trhe size of the actors.static. Becasue we seperated the actors.static objects into two seperate files (airfields, everything else), this will cause no problems during construction, but will add a few seconds to load time.
Bottom Line - more work for the team, delayed release (estimate 1-3 weeks, depending on real-world work schedules, and how much shopping money we are willing to use to bribe wives/girlfriends) , slightly longer load times (load times for all versions will still be far less than load times for larger default maps, like Crimea and Slovakia).
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but we are learning as we go.