Happen to have a question for terrain masters present

[simonmiller416]

I didn't want to participate, I am just curious.

In many terrains, I don't see much high-rise buildings, most of them are low-rise bungalows. It's not that there are none, but it's rare.

Is there anything that limits this?

I have a few guesses: 1. Game performance issues; 2. They don't make sense because they have no collision; 3. This is correct based on the design era and background story of the terrain; 4. The community lacks available resources.

Again, I'm just curious,after all I am not a terrain modder, so don't take it too seriously.

If it's because of guess 4, maybe I'd be interested in that.

 

[Wrench]

there are a few high rises, but they're 'objects', placed via the target ini. Not very convienent to use (frame rates?), as there's only 5 or 6 different ones *** All the other building are 'built into' each tile, just like the trees and bushes

They do effect frame rates. And honestly, they're not really necessary. Unless we're building Manhattan Island...

 

 

 

*** check the Persian Gulf terrain by yours truely, modded from the original. 

[+Menrva]

TOD buildings, that is those that are specific to tiles, have no collisions like you say. We recently got Mue's TOD editor that allows greater freedom in adding buildings of more complex shape (not just simple rectangles), but some 3d modeling skills are needed.

Previously, TODs had to be made necessarily with TW's terrain editor which is a mess to work with, very prone to crashes. Only few mastered workarounds with it, including Stary who made such highrise buildings as TODs in his GermanyCE tileset repaints. Taller buildings are definitely possible. I would like to make new TODs for the terrain in the ODS 30AE mod, and while with Mue's editor now it's easy to create TODs, I lack 3d modeling skills for adding different buildings at once. Taking them from other tile sets and retexturing them is another possibility.

[simonmiller416]

2 hours ago, Wrench said:

*** check the Persian Gulf terrain by yours truely, modded from the original. 

lol that's where my thought came from, I fly over Persian Gulf for a long time. This is a terrain I like very much. I can see some cross-sea bridges and other things (yeah many tall buildings) in the distance.

[+Gepard]

In this screenshot you see the two types of buildings. The flat TOD buildings, which are connected with the terrain tile and the highrise buildings, which are LOD's and are set with the target editor.

The first you cant destroy and you cant collide with them. The last you can destroy and, iirc, you can collide with them.

Screenshot is from Rio de la Plata terrain. It shows Buenos Aires.

[madvad]

Something that really frustrates me a bit is the lack of scale in the buildings.
I know there's a reason for that, they always seem far away, but when you put the aircraft next to the building, it looks like a miniature.

[Wrench]

i'm sure the TOD buildings are 'stuck' in that cursed 63% scale that the maps are