update 8/31/2014 progress terrain textures - done sculpting - done road smoothing - done plants - 80% done road decal - 100% done buildings - 26% done - "might reuse previous" lighting"sky, shadows, ect... done ___________________________________________________ Well, I though I should start a little thread for this thing. This landscape is meant to resemble the desert region between San Diego and the Salton Sea. ________________________ old pics ________________________ progress terrain textures - done enough sculpting - done road smoothing - done plants - 5% done road decal - 50% done buildings - 0% done - "might reuse previous" lighting"sky, shadows, ect..." 98%
Re: Shorty's Canyon Thanks Yeah, I'm not exactly sure which type of landform it actually is . Technically, it's definitely not a mesa or a canyon. Calling it a depression would probably be more correct. But, Shorty's depression sounds depressing. I think I'll rename it to Shorty's pass.
More desert goodness. This should be quite the off-road map and perhaps better for bridges. Map aerial is sweet. You done with Blackhills?
Kinda reminds me of some of the desert scenes from 'It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World' (in the unlikely event anyone remembers that movie). Fitting, since most of the film was shot around that area.
I do believe these huge, wide open maps are the way of the future. Plenty of room to play and roam around, chase other cars, explore places, etc. Looks good to me!
thanks everyone After all of the nature stuff is done, I'm going to put two small bridges in the canyon section. With black hills, I'm not done at all. This map is just a trial for some new ideas. Unfortunately not. I'm kinda lazy. But, this project will be done soon. Yeah, the roads look like they have similar feel. ______________________________________ Also, progress. This picture can be compared to one of the images in the first post. 2 others
Thanks, I guess that I'm getting better at making them. ___________________________________________ Also, my first shot with vegetation on this map. What do you all think?
I believe I see what appears to be something akin to a small ocotillo plant...yes? I'm not uber familiar with the geography over the hills from San Diego but the vegetation looks good to me and the map geology looks incredible.
I don't have any ocotilla plants yet. Since I got a few good pictures of them over vacation, though, I'm working on putting some into the environment. Also, I adjusted the plants a little and changed out one of the terrain textures. These changes can be seen in the pictures below this text. You all might want to just ignore the truck.
"you all might just want to ignore the truck"...that's hilarious....no, seriously. Texture looks more rocky and quite neat. Just a suggestion here, I think different and more varied vegetation would be in order to avoid the map becoming "blackhills 2". It sounds like you've actually been in this terrain so maybe I'm wrong. Perhaps a small resort oasis with plams, deciduous trees and hedges?...perhaps a man made lake or pool ala Palm Springs. Not that there's a damn thing wrong with a blackhills 2. Regardless, this map is going to at the very least be a 4X4 lovefest. Just ideas.
I like the idea of a mini Palm Springs. How about something like this? Most of these buildings would be pulled from Borrega Springs. Unfortunately, Hutch's palm isn't a type that could be found in a desert. Therefore, for this to work, I need to learn how to make a basic tree. So, I'm trying to make a palm tree. Here's my first try. This tree looks alirightish from afar. Upon closer inspection, though, it's a flat bush on a stilt. Would you all be okay this this level of quality or prefer something a bit more dimensional?
Yeah, that palm is a bit anemic...lol. All the palms in beam and the stock T3D stuff is tropical. Almost need a date palm or something. I remember though in Sun City AZ there being the thinner and taller palms like in the DRI map, probably not native either. I would be stunned if a ritzy joint like Palm Springs didn't have imported palms lining the streets. The Forester program etc. may be of help in making trees from what little I've gotten into it. With your proficiency it shouldn't take long. I like taking that "nook" for the resort area. A few non Beam palms I downloaded. For desert palms the bark needs to be brown/different texture.
Here's some progress on plants. Through playing with the demo of forester, I was able to get this. Sometime next week, I'll probably purchase this program. Then, making good trees should be no problem at all. Also, I'm trying to mesh the Creosote, the funky green plant. This plant still needs a lot of work, though, such as distant billboards, optimization, and vertex painting.
Looking good. Forester seems like a nice balance, works well with T3D from what I know. I think if the palm fronds were lengthened and slimmed up a bit you'd just about have it. I'm curious how tight the collision, (trunk only), will turn out. I haven't made a full on tree yet but the freely available Forester models have terrible, terrible collision as well as LOD/imposter bugs. Do you do the DSO delete thing when adding new materials to the program? I didn't think about a creosote plant, definitely a desert must have as is the Palo Verde,(more Sonoran though).
