Return to Dhimar Terrain

[+baffmeister]

I started working on this fictional terrain about three years ago. The first year was spent just finding a location I liked. Got quite a bit of practice autotiling during that period. The Big Project is actually a new fictional terrain for Dhimar, Paran, Dohar and Sharnak but it is going to take so long to make it seems like a good idea to try and get a simplified "Return to Dhimar" terrain out this year. It won't have the road network, dried up riverbeds, oasis's[?], small towns, mine sites, multiple city center tiles, the odd lake, multiple port tiles, new high density building tod's, a meteor crater etc-etc-etc that I plan for the final version. What it will have is more terrain tiles than ThirdWires desert terrain has and a lot more transition tiles. It is based on ThirdWires desert terrain though and uses some of the stock tiles so it will require SF-1 or SF-2. With this thread I will have a place to ask questions and get some ideas. Starting to get the hang of the terrain editor but now I find my tile painting skills are horrific so there will probably be a lot of questions on that topic. In the photo many of you will probably recognize some of Deuces' Madagascar tiles. They have been run through a photo editor to match the TW colour palette better. Lifting textures, copy and paste, and photo editors is probably the way I have to go. Cheers.

Edited February 23, 2012 by baffmeister

[+Major Lee]

Fictional Dhimar?

[+streakeagle]

Prior to the release of WoV, I spent most of my time flying over the original SFP1 stock desert terrain. Gepard's take on North Vietnam saved me from that fictional hell, but just as I was getting serious about building historical missions for it, TK released WoV... the rest is history. But after so many hours over the original desert, it is hard to believe that it isn't real. But with the release of WoI, my interest in flying over a fictional desert terrain fell to zero... except when I feel like playing a merc campaign. The fictional terrain is perfect for this--no preconceived notions due to history.

[Wrench]

meteor craters are hard to do, I'm here to tell...!!!

[+Major Lee]

meteor craters are hard to do, I'm here to tell...!!!

 

Circular gradation with radial striations? Just a thought...

[+baffmeister]

I thought the " fictional" aspect of SF-1 was lame as hell when I first bought the game, now I spend almost all my "flying" time there. I can install whatever planes I like and match them up performance wise. The one RL concept that interest me is a European NATO narrow focused install from about 1970 to 1975. It would be interesting to try and build a strike simulator with realistic Sam set-ups and AAA then build missions to try and defeat the defenses. I would also want to limit it to airbase's near the front line as I like to do real time missions.

[+streakeagle]

I thought the " fictional" aspect of SF-1 was lame as hell when I first bought the game, now I spend almost all my "flying" time there. I can install whatever planes I like and match them up performance wise. The one RL concept that interest me is a European NATO narrow focused install from about 1970 to 1975. It would be interesting to try and build a strike simulator with realistic Sam set-ups and AAA then build missions to try and defeat the defenses. I would also want to limit it to airbase's near the front line as I like to do real time missions.

 

As in pre-Eagle NATO :) Soviets get to use the MiG-23 to some extent by 1975 without Eagles around to wipe them out. Of course the early MiG-23Ms and their weapons weren't quite as effective as the later MLDs, but mixed with MiG-21s in large numbers could potentially overwhelm NATO's fighters. A lot more interesting for both sides than a Bekaa turkey shoot.

[+Swordsman422]

When I first looked into SFP1 I was just a little put off by the idea of flying over a fictional country, but was sucked in by the possibility of flying Navy and Marine F-4s and A-4s. Once I realized that the Dhimar/Paran terrain was the perfect place to fly where I didn't have to worry about reflections of history. There was no risk of starting World War III, no proxy war fought with our hands tied by a strict ROE, and no limit to when the war might take place. I could fly from the beginning of jets to a far-flung sci-fi future and get just as much enjoyment. Sheesh, I think I modded the stock campaign into maybe 15 different versions... yeah, Swordsman had himself some issues.

 

Anyway, I love fictional yet realistic nations. It's just good fun flying history that never could have been. Keep up the work. That first screen shot looks great!

[+baffmeister]

As in pre-Eagle NATO :) Soviets get to use the MiG-23 to some extent by 1975 without Eagles around to wipe them out. Of course the early MiG-23Ms and their weapons weren't quite as effective as the later MLDs, but mixed with MiG-21s in large numbers could potentially overwhelm NATO's fighters. A lot more interesting for both sides than a Bekaa turkey shoot.

 

 

Nailed it.

[+baffmeister]

Thanks for the comments Swordsman. I plan to upload a few more screens of the OK areas then get into the nasty bits. The stock Desert tiles can make the best coastline out of all the TW terrains and I'm quite pleased with the way this one turned out.

[Stwa]

I thought the " fictional" aspect of SF-1 was lame as hell when I first bought the game, now I spend almost all my "flying" time there. I can install whatever planes I like and match them up performance wise. The one RL concept that interest me is a European NATO narrow focused install from about 1970 to 1975. It would be interesting to try and build a strike simulator with realistic Sam set-ups and AAA then build missions to try and defeat the defenses. I would also want to limit it to airbase's near the front line as I like to do real time missions.

 

I completely agree with you. I had a similar experience, with CCMT (Close Combat Modern Tactics), which is fictional. (i.e. not based on a historical campaign).

 

Being rooted in the hypothtical, completely liberates you from all the historical constraints one encounters, not to mention the historical apsects of a sim, that are sometimes inaccurate.

[+baffmeister]

Coastline looking north. This screenshot shows the nice variety of coastal tiles available in the stock desert terrain. After a lot of manual height field adjustments the coastline autotiled quite well with only a few areas of repeating tiles. The new terrain uses the Iranian Gulf coast but rotated and the mountains have been leveled twice.

[Wrench]

Sea-Desert-Farm1

Sea-Farm-Desert1

Sea-Desert-Mountain1

Sea-Mountain-Desert1

Sea2Mountain50

 

"You know you've been using the Terrain Editor too long when...."

 

you can look at a screenie and ID all the tiles

[+baffmeister]

Sea-Desert-Farm1

Sea-Farm-Desert1

Sea-Desert-Mountain1

Sea-Mountain-Desert1

Sea2Mountain50

 

"You know you've been using the Terrain Editor too long when...."

 

you can look at a screenie and ID all the tiles

 

That's kind of amazing!

[Wrench]

no, actually it's kinda sad!

 

to quote William Shatner:

 

I need to "Get A Life"

 

[+baffmeister]

Small city in the highlands. I want to use high density city tods in the final version so will keep the cities quite small to avoid a large frame rate hit. This is the smallest they will get, transition tiles only. I like the way these tiles turned out but have some problems with others. Also, about 5000 trees remain to be planted and lots of building tods to place, although this version will just get standard density building tods.

[+KnightWolf45]

may i sugest a carrier station on terrain

[+baffmeister]

may i sugest a carrier station on terrain

 

No problem. I will include two, Yankee Station and Ivan Station.

[+KnightWolf45]

thanks a lot

let me guess Ivan his Red Side?

[+baffmeister]

Yuck!

I may have been messing around with a height field bit map in this area but it's not much worse than some other areas. Also, the tiles seem slightly lighter in color around the edges so it may be aggravating the appearance. Unfortunatly, under low angle lighting this seems common in ThirdWire sims. Question of the day, is there any way to increase the height field resolution in the ThirdWire sims. For example, could I change anything in the texture list ini:

 

[mountain1.bmp]

TextureType=0

DetailType=1

HeightMapScale=0.000000....from the stock desert texture list. WOE texture list has 100.0 for most if not all tiles.

 

Also, in the terrain data.ini, would adjusting any of these help?

[TerrainMesh]

TextureThreshold=0.80

LowDetailMeshThreshold=0.50

MedDetailMeshThreshold=0.30

TileToHeightGridRatio=4

RenderMeshVertexCount=4096

RenderMeshIndexCount=6144

SolidObjectVertexCount=12288

SolidObjectIndexCount=18432

AlphaObjectVertexCount=16384//8192....Forget where I got these edits from but I think it's to increase the number of tod's

AlphaObjectIndexCount=24576//12288 .....rendered.

 

[HeightField]

DetailScale=1.0

DetailFrequency=1.0

MaxHeight=1000

MinHeight=0

 

[HeightOffset]

LowDetailMesh=-1.0

WaterMesh=0.8

 

I have been trying multiple smoothing to improve the look but would like to optimize the height field to the extent possible. Screen shot was taken with terrain detail option set to high.

[+baffmeister]

When in doubt, do what Wrench does! I copied some terrain data info from Wrench's Cuba2010 terrain and it looks better. The caveat being I also used an early terrain height map bit map. Originally, I had rotated an HFD file within the terrain editor. This is probably unusual compared to most terrain builders who are more interested in doing realistic terrains. This time I rotated the height field bit map first before using it in the terrain editor and I think it may be the best way to go. There may be a potential for some height field corruption when rotating an HFD within the terrain editor. Keeping in mind that doing a fictional terrain gives one a lot off leeway regarding any adjustments, I have also smoothed the terrain 4 times and the result is old worn down mountains that suit the [4] mountain tiles I have made based off of the TW originals. The "Wrench Edits" give a more "bumpy" terrain but I suspect at the cost of some frame rates. Here are the new terrain data edits:

[TerrainMesh]

TextureThreshold=0.80

LowDetailMeshThreshold=0.50

MedDetailMeshThreshold=0.30

TileToHeightGridRatio=4

RenderMeshVertexCount=16384//4096

RenderMeshIndexCount=16384//6144

SolidObjectVertexCount=16384//12288

SolidObjectIndexCount=18432

AlphaObjectVertexCount=16384//8192

AlphaObjectIndexCount=24576//12288

 

[HeightField]

DetailScale=20.0//1.0

DetailFrequency=1.0

MaxHeight=1000

MinHeight=0

 

[HeightOffset]

LowDetailMesh=-1.0

WaterMesh=1.8//0.8

 

Dusty Old Town:

I like the look of the original desert city tiles so have been trying to use them for this terrain. They have a third world look that I am going for in this terrain. Unfortunatly, I think I got carried away with Gimp's spray can and will probably have to start from scratch on these tiles. More city transition tiles probably required as well.

Edited March 3, 2012 by baffmeister