Iceland 2015 Terrain WIP

[+Baltika 84]

A few more WIP screenies. . .

 

They don't call it Ice land for nothing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just make sure you don't eject without your survival kit

[+allenjb42 4,230]

Great stuff, but I thought you'd be flying an EF-2000 in those screenies

[+Baltika 84]

Great stuff, but I thought you'd be flying an EF-2000 in those screenies

 

Good point, this needs an Operation: Icebreaker campaign to go with it

 

Cheers mate

 

Baltika

[FLT 0]

looks good! This time with a little more ice on it!

[Derk 265]

Wonderful place, always cold beer at hand !!

 

Hou doe,

 

Derk

[+Dave 2,322]

Hey B

 

Can this terrain be the subject of NATO Fighters 5?

[+Baltika 84]

Hey B

 

Can this terrain be the subject of NATO Fighters 5?

 

 

 

Hi Dave,

 

I would consider it a great honour if my little terrain project were to be included in the mighty NF series. In fact, I have been reading up on 57th FIS, the Iceland Defence Force, Operation Nordic Shield, and of course, the Soviet Operation Polar Glory, with a view to writing up a couple of campaigns to go with the terrain.

 

Having said that, the problem is the "To do" list.

 

- Transition tiles are almost complete, I only have about 24 (!) still to make.

 

- I have to make all the necessary sea tile .tga files (36 at present count, plus some new ones to come)

 

- There are only 6 working airfields in my current build, none are flattened/tiled properly yet. There are a stack more to place, flatten, and test-drive.

 

- There are no target areas created to speak of (some waypoints, that's all)

 

- No terrain targetisation work has been done at all. I am wanting to finish the tileset first, so I can place my targets on a completed terrain.

 

- No .TOD file work done yet. Admittedly not much required, given the lack of forests on Iceland, but I want to have a few buildings/trees on the farm tiles, and buildings on my coastal town tiles.

 

- No real city tiles created, or obviously any city transition tiles. Only really an issue for Reykjavik, but, that is a whole new tile type to be added. I am not Brain32, and I just can't get the Icelandic city tiles I do have to look like anything other than bits of cities cut & pasted from Google Earth, with obvious "seams" at each tile edge.

 

- Lots of seam work to be done on existing tile types. Up close, you can see the joins. My skilfully taken WIP screenies tend to hide this effect

 

 

Prognosis:-

 

I have made leaps and bounds since my original, now somewhat embarrassingly amateurish v0.1 beta I posted up here many, many months ago. But development time on this is running into years already, with still plenty to be done.

 

And, as I am extremely happy to report, there are now 2 mini-Baltikas running around, my daughter aged 2 yrs 6 months and son aged 3 months. As you know, that limits the gaming/modding/beer drinking time just a bit Not that I would have it any other way.

 

So, the upshot is I just don't have a realistic timescale for completion.

 

But, I am certainly open to suggestion on how to take this forward at more of an increased pace.

 

At your service, sir

[+Dave 2,322]

Well real life is, real life so no worries I can come up with another plan for NF5.

[+Baltika 84]

Sure thing, I will continue to post updates as and when they are completed.

 

Cheers,

 

Baltika

[+Baltika 84]

On finals at BIKF KEFLAVIK NAS:-

 

 

 

 

Progress update:-

 

Core tileset is now completed. There are a few specials still to do, like Njardhvikur as featured above.

 

HFD completed. All tiling work is finalised. Those fjords are sure tricky, but, they're done.

 

Now, if I can just find that thread which tells me how to make smoke come out of a volcano. . .

 

Cheers all,

 

Baltika

[Derk 265]

Are we going to have working volcanoes and ash clouds ???

 

Hou doe,

 

Derk

Edited October 27, 2010 by Derk

[+Baltika 84]

Are we going to have working volcanoes and ash clouds ???

 

Hou doe,

 

Derk

 

Working on . . .

 

(Offstage: WRENCH! How do I make smoke come out of hills? REALLY BIG clouds of smoke??? plz )

 

Meantime, one more flight before I call it a night:-

 

 

Checking out Reykjanes Geothermal Power Station

 

 

 

 

 

Climbing glaciers, the easy way

 

 

 

 

 

 

Down into the valley

 

 

 

 

 

Rubbernecking the scenery

 

 

 

 

Tally ho!

 

Baltika

[+Baltika 84]

Been doing some target area plotting work today, first on airfields:-

 

 

 

Then some towns, villages and settlements:-

 

 

 

After this comes flattening and test-flying airfields, then targetisation (Aargh!!)

 

Another inch of progress

[+PureBlue 71]

That's a lot of progress, keep on chipping away

 

For smoke from volcanoes, could you use something similar to Factory Chimney smokes?

Example ini for fabrik2

 

[Engine]

SystemType=ENGINE

MaxExtentPosition= 10.22,-11.37, 5.64

MinExtentPosition=-10.22,-51.33,-3.74

ExhaustEmitterName=ShipSmoke

ExhaustPosition=0.00,-32.86,24.81

ExhaustEmitterSize=3.0

 

Or develop a new emitter for it

[Wrench 9,792]

I never got volcanos working right ... when I tested the 'concepet', all I got was a nuke-line flash, a one big puff of smoke.

 

I think it going to have to be attatched to an object -dosn'et have to be anything specifci, like an oildrum1, and a new 'volcano ash cloud' effect created. Can't think of any other way around it.

 

wrench

kevin stein

Edited July 26, 2010 by Wrench

[Derk 265]

Are we going to have working volcanoes and ash clouds ???

 

Hou doe,

 

Derk

 

Hey guys, stop spending time on this, I only meant it as a joke. Could have asked as well for bankrupt bank buildings .....

 

 

Hou doe,

 

Derk

Edited July 26, 2010 by Derk

[Lexx_Luthor 57]

Something like Factory Smoke. I got semi-active volcano smoke working okay, the next step is fully active red hot lava blowouts, should work like expanding tga and fall to gravity while fade. I was supposed to make volcanos for Charles' Timor campaign but I got derailed after the basic smoke, and I'll need these for RingOfFire map to keep B-47 crews something to look at to keep them awake. Rabaul was said to be going off alot during the Japanese use of that spot. Its going to require ramping up some FlightEngine.ini far clip distance though so you can see smoke beyond the stock 20km Dogfight Bubble typically found in all TheSims.

[+Baltika 84]

Thanks everyone for the tips re volcanoes. I will look into it and see what I can whip up.

 

Meantime, I knocked together some city tiles for Reykjavik. The airport is still a wip, obviously, and these are somewhat. . . functional. But you get the general idea

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The main port facility is in progress. And I just have to add the local golf course. It looks crazy, but it's there

 

Those of you with high perception may have noticed a flurry of activity on this terrain of late. With good cause - I am

 

hoping to make a release befoer SF2: Tomcat comes along.

 

But, I am taking the family on holiday tomorrow so no updates for a while.

 

Tally Ho!

 

Baltika

[+Baltika 84]

Progress Update:-

 

Water tile .TGAs created and all water effects activated.

 

Runway placement/flattening is well advanced.

 

Targetisation is progressing, albeit somewhat slowly.

 

 

Meantime, here's a quick tour round NOR Neskhaupstadur, in the Soviet-occupied Eastern Coastal region.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers to the insky group for their excellent Su-33 Sea Flanker, and to Gepard for his Euro airbases, both of which are featured here.

 

 

Operation Polar Glory inbound

[Derk 265]

Looking forward to this one !!!!

 

Hou doe,

 

Derk

[+Baltika 84]

Final Map preview:-

 

 

 

Now in the final stages of processing for upload.

 

 

Not long to go now

[+Soulfreak 6,506]

Looking very nice!

Hope to see a SF2 Version too....

[+Baltika 84]

Hope to see a SF2 Version too....

 

 

Way ahead of you

 

Now available in the SF2 terrain d/l section:-

 

http://combatace.com/files/file/11447-iceland02-full-scale-terrain-v10/

 

I have included an SF1 level terrain_DATA.INI file for those who have not yet made the jump, but development was completed on SF2 patched to June 2010 level, and this terrain will not be supported in SF1 level - you're on your own there

 

This has truly been a long voyage of discovery and I am interested to know where things go from here.

 

Slainthe to one and all

Edited October 27, 2010 by Baltika

[+Soulfreak 6,506]

Thank you Baltika!

Great work!

[+PureBlue 71]

Thank you Baltika, this is really nice work.

 

Just installed it on SF2I.

I love the custom coastal tiles, the small villages and the icy ocean.

Lots of targets to explore here..

Edited October 28, 2010 by pureblue