MWLL Map Builders Pub Crawl

[UN1T]

* buys a 2 jacks and cokes and sits himself at the table *
righto
alcohol and sandbox2 + mwll questions and helps.
ive been playing in sandbox2 since the release of MWLL and i got one veeeeeeeeeeeerrry annying bug i cant solve.
light throw distance LOD.
basicaly ..unless im nearly ontop of a light source it just "turns off"  whsilt i could use the diveristy settings up to 20+  and use false light to keep it more visble at range ..this looks horrible in HDR nighttime and causes a " light ring effect" along the ground that is higly noticesable.
any one solved the light being visible from more then 200+ metres ?
i spent all of yesterday afternoon trying to find a light/draw distance commands or setting but to no avail.
got an answer or a questions. .drop in..grab a drink and spill a yarn.

[UN1T]

*staggers to the bar and grabs a couple more jacks and cokes*
HEATHErNS...forcing a grown man to RP and sitt her alooone ...
weres all the ppl who understand sandbox2 dammit

[Ghiest]

Heathen?  You're the one sullying the Jack Daniels with Coke fer crying out loud.  I bet you even have ice with it too ...

As for your problem, I've never come across that to be honest.

[shadowkiller]

CE2 is terrible with lights. You cant have a very far draw distance unless you want an unplayable map. Use the view distance ratio in the rollup bar to adjust it. I usually set it at 1 or 2.

[Ghiest]

Lightmass ftw, oh wrong engine

[UN1T]

hmmm ...the viewdistanceratio seems to fail hard in my honest opinion ...im suspecting its the dropships ramp build thats giving me grief.
and is their a directional POV for the lighting system..as the Projector FOV seems not to do this ...as ive tried to build flood lights with a set cone of light and dircetion ..but the whole thing stinks of light sphears and i thought we had evolved past past Quake3 already?
and the trawling of posts and massive YOUTUBE SB2 movies are annoying to say the least and not very helpful.
*sips his cold coke at 9.52am and 23c*   love perth weather.   

[UN1T]

heres a screenies of the light view distance problem and fasle light fill and light spheres.
Normal HDR light mapping


False Lighting  ( note the light rings at the edge of the lighting sphere)


Normal lights working properly


As you move barley 90 metres away the player "light pops out" of existence)



Also ...with your light poles ..how did you slave the light to the pole so it becomes one entity ?  ..as i found out how to pull them part so i can add flicker to them..but cant for the life of me work out how to turn them back into a single item ...and google is the fail in this regard.
And the player command to extend the max veiw distance...if anyone knows it.

[Blanko]

I just started a map myself, I'm sure I'll run into problems like this myself. I think the heightmap is looking okay, though

[UN1T]

dam ...that looks nice . im jealous  =p
how did you applie a smooth cliff texure ?? as when i applie a texture..its very " checkerd and repeditive"
If i can fix this problem i can get on with my tropics map ..as i need to get my cliffs done before i can add rocks and vegitation.

[Inous]

go to your textures menu, click your cliff texture, go to edit surface types towards the bottom you have scales for X, Y, and Z. Changes your X and Y to a lower number, for cliffs, try .05

Remember the lower the number the bigger the texture will get. Also, Z is used in special occasions so don't worry about that for now.

[Blanko]

that pic was just the heightmap and the distance texture that was created in geocontrol 2. I'm currently working on getting the detail textures in there.

Like Inous said, the texture size makes a huge difference. Keep in mind that different textures will need different sizes. When I use cilff_more_pieces, I usually only have to use like .8 or something. cliff_basalt on the other hand, needs a much bigger texture (lower value) like .05.

[KorJax]

If you increase the view distance ratio of the light to 100-200 or so, you can see it much further away.

NOTE that this is highly not reccomended - lights are very performance intensive on most system (fake lights are the exception and are viewable from all disatances generally).  For reference there are quite a few lights in the mech-hanger, and most (if not all) of them are set to have a very short view distance.

Also, general mapping help, tips, tricks, and basic "how to's" can be found at the fourms at http://www.crymod.com (and the SB2 wiki there), and http://doc.crymod.com

[UN1T]

x-y ratios ...guys..thats awesome help ...so much for gaming today ..i can now push forward ...brillant. .TYVM all!!

[UN1T]

im working on a tropics map and i got 1 major question.
the aero spawn spot / hanger ...is obversly slaved to either IS or Clan...but ..i want to put the aero hanger in the middle of the map ..and have it as a neutral ..buy zone..so any one can can buy an aero or vtol.
Creating 3 major points of conflict ..
1st    : ppl will fight localy to hold the opposing team back from the aero dome to deny them air support.
2ndly : to force ppl to play  / coordinate better as you cant have 14 pilots..or you will loose the aero dome..
3rdly : pilots will be less inclines to kamakaze after running out of ammo and just respawn back at the aero dome .

So in effect im nullifying some major complaints about Aeros / VTOLS ( IE : buy plane ... let loose with weapons ..kamakze ..buy new plant..rinse and repeat ) and giveing ppl an objective to do in a TDM game enviroment.
So ...is it possible to make the Aero Dome a Neutral entity ?
Also ..if i can ..id like to place 2 Domes  one containing VTOL and the other Aero ...so i can split the 2 teams up across the map to fight over these 2 major conflict points.
So can they be edited to only supply 1 type of aircraft ? or is it hardcoded and to much work to lock down a catergory ?

[Alexander]

A Question for all you mapping buffs out there.

People are obviously always going to want city maps. And the dev's response is usually "Better start making assets then" (Or the fact it'd be too laggy)

But is there anything stopping people from making a "Virtual Reality" City map? One where the "Buildings" are essentially smooth-textured blocks? If you've played the Metal Gear Solid VR missions you'll know what I mean.

Point is, even I could create a cuboid in some 3D editor or other, so it's not going to be a matter of "Too much time to make" - but would it cause significant lag?

And if it would, at what point would it not? A small map based on 5v5 could be used in leagues, but could be -much- smaller than, say, Clearcut.