Inaccuracies of ME

[Golabp]

You have desserts where there ain't supposed to be and no vegetation and green. ME needs some forest tiles and green pastures. I know you want a different feel and tiling effect in this new theatre but it is not accurate to portray the region.

[T Bone]

Yes, I realize this. However, with the limitations of the Falcon 4.0 engine, I don't think we can get Iran portrayed perfectly. In terms of accuracy, there can only be that as good as Janes F-15. Sorry

We can, however, add in 3d trees if you talk to T-Rex.

We also recognize that Iran is a great nation; but we just cannot model all the intricate greenery in terrain tiles.

[Zaggy]

I dunno about ME, but ODS is also sort of like that... ATM, we've just covered the entire map with desert, cos well, alot of the area in ODS beta 1 was desert-ish... We intend EVENTUALLY, to have all the greenery and variations done ONE DAY. The issue is, and i think TBone will back me here, is 1, the size of the project (every new tile type, say grasslands), needs its own transition sets to whatever sort of terrains border it as well as needing variations in the basic tile as well (LOTS of work) and 2, getting accurate reference pics of the terrain to be modelled... I have 3 or 4 reference pics of the Tigris river, from which i have had to build the entire river!!!

Maybe it will all be finished one day..

Zaggy

[Widowmaker]

you can use all the colors you want ..np.

so the Falcon4 engines limitation is not the problem

Widmak

[T Bone]

No, even if the colors are all used, the problem is that we would never get the terrain to look exactly like it does in real life. That would require the transfer of steroscopic satellite imagery. If you read in the Falcon 4.0 manual, Gilman specifically states the problems with this approach. So no, it is impossible for 100% perfection to the real Iran. At least not with tiled graphics.

[T Bone]

Hey Zaggy,

I'm going to have some free time next month; maybe you can send me those Tigris/Euphrates river tiles. We can work together.

A problem that creating tiles coexists with is the continual re-designing of tiles to look photorealistic. Ask Snakeman. He'll tell you I spent from Febuary of 2000 to March of 2001 working on the F4ME tiles. That is the ODS tiles too, minus some additional work done by some other ppl when I was gone.

But lets get together and make the Tigris and Euphrates. The fertile crescent and transjordanian desert tiles are next on our list if we are going to do the 128 map.

One thing is for sure; I myself will not be available for much tiling by the time 128 theater comes along, so I have to create the textures soon.

T-Bone

[Zaggy]

T-Bone - a fair bit of Tigris and Euphrates is done actually, using a rather unique way of tiling... Still have to do the mesopotamian swamps (at the end of the Tigris/Euphrates), and the Al Shatt Arab tho (the BIG river that joins the swamps and the gulf)... But any help is cool... What tools do you use to create tiles?? (I pretty much only use Photoshop... The offset filter makes life soooo easy at times..

What I am having trouble with is getting some nice tiles done for the mountainous terrain in North Iraq. Firstly i need references, cos i see some pics with snow and green, and others that are barren, and others that are a sort of middle ground. Canyons and mountains will take LOTS of work... Need some good 8m resolution satelitte images... The mountains will also require different roads...

[araquael]

Anyone here play Jane's USAF?

Check out the terrain for Baghdad...its base on satellite imagery.

Gavin

[Zaggy]

Gav, ODS's Bagdad is as well, when i finish it... So will Kuwait City, and hopefully al Basrah as well...

[T Bone]

The problem with mountains is that they are hard to model. Though satellite imagery looks good on the table, you have to take into consideration that if you are going to use straight satellite images for the mountains, it will be hard to get the scale correct as each tile is equal to one sq mile.

For this reason, I spent most of my time creating the textures for mountains than the desert terrain, thus the ODS textures are not complete for Snakeman's theater as they are specified more for the F4ME Iranian mountain theater.

Thus your work adding onto the desert terrain textures is necessary

A good idea is to add green vegetation to the current mountain textures for northern Iraq... something that I will be working on soon. We can change some colors and then make different patches of vegetations in the mountains up there.

I am also looking into redoing the roads.

I'll take a look at Euphrates river swamps. I want to take a look at what your approach is.

I can also offer good insight into how to make different terrains look more natural as I've been creating these textures for more than a year. The ODS work doesn't do justice right now as too much of it is autotiled, but if you take a look at some of the mountainous regions, you'll see that is where I spent so much time perfecting the work.

I also found out new ways of making terrain transitions more realistic and different ways to mask repetition.

Drop me your email, or mail me. We'll get ODS's graphics up to date

T

[Zaggy]

xavier_of_haar@hotmail.com

Masking repetitions isnt too hard, as long as think a little as to 1, how often the tile will be used, 2, how much contrast there is in the tile and 3, how many variations of the tile u will make... (For transitions i like to make at least 4)... The hassle is tiling them...

As for making roads, Ive simply set up some templates, then just alter the basetile and tidy the thing up a little... That reminds me, Bridges must be done soon...

Z