Realistic maps with 2K textures and sky sprites

[JoeCapricorn]

Now that I can get a screenshot taken (didn't think of Fraps, but that works well enough for me!) I can share what I've been working on lately. While this is a very basic scene, just some mountains on Mercury with the sun shining brightly in the sky, I figured it was appropriate to post this today since Mercury is transiting the sun today.

The textures are stock textures I found around the web, some of them are of asphalt, or look dry and rocky enough to pass for a Mercury texture. I brightened them in an attempt to have them reflect more light - the landscape would ideally be much brighter. Since HDR or Bloom isn't possible (that I know of) in Battlezone 2, approximate brightness is probably best. I might experiment with using colors to bring out even starker contrasts between light and shadow.

The Sun is taken from Space Engine. This will probably be my technique for making other astronomy objects.



Another screenshot I felt like taking is from the other end of the Solar System. I replaced the pscharon.tga sprite with the actual Charon on one of the Pluto missions. Though this wasn't saved, of course, this is a sort of preview of what the sky might look like when I make a Realistic Pluto map.

[JoeCapricorn]

I wonder if 4K textures are possible. I think I tried making a dxtbz2 of a 4K image but it never finished. But 2K textures look pretty darn good!

Does anyone else use 2K terrain textures? I have a rather basic set - many of the textures I can't use for space since there are tiny organic things like bits of grass that wouldn't be found in space.

[bigbadbogie]

IIRC, it is possible to use textures up to 4096x8192. That is the largest size that the DXT generator can handle. At least, it was 2 years ago when I last used it. It might be different now.

Nice moon, by the way.

[JoeCapricorn]

Thanks, I looked forward to Charon-it.

4096x4096 should be possible then... maybe I need to let it run longer? Or maybe I have an old version.

Another thing I've been wondering about is having textures that are shiny. Battlezone 98 Redux gives Europa ice a reflective shine to it, which I thought was a nice touch. If it were possible with Battlezone II, I could update my Enceladus map.

There aren't a lot of ice or ice-like stock textures that I could find. Or maybe I haven't looked hard enough. Are there any good free texture resources I might be missing?

[General BlackDragon]

that moon looks too sharp, at least the shadow / edges on it does. It doesn't blend into the background at all. (Our moon bounces light off it and through our atmosphere so it has a glow around it and looks more illuminated)

That's the problem with trying to make everything super HD. it makes it look less realistic on far away things.

Also, are you using colored texutres and L3DT to generate light maps for your maps? I recommend it: http://www.bzcommand.com/forum/index.php?topic=110.0

Combine that with those terrain textures and you have a win.

[JoeCapricorn]

The original pscharon.tga looked similarly out of place (though of lower resolution) and I think it's because of the modulation. It makes the picture stand out over the atmospheric fog, while ADD allows it to look more natural, but stars also shine through. There IS something I'm going to try to have the best of both worlds, now that I think of it.

Oh nice! For a Mercury map I was wondering what I would do to show a Crater of Eternal Darkness and in the darkest shadow it is possible to find ice deposits. This may also require a very low lying Sun - the lightmap generator would make things easier for sure!

I am also intending on using color textures instead of manually specifying color.

Another thing I am going to try that I saw somewhere was there is apparently a way to export terrain to a 3D model, then edit the 3D model to be in virtually any shape - so I could do that for cliffs, caves, lavatubes and so on. Being that I have some experience with 3D modeling now, I am likely going to try my hand at it.

[General BlackDragon]

U can't make the actual TERRAIN any kind of overhang. You can, however, use the export to take a piece of the terrain and then, preserving the edges so it still matches / places correctly, carve a cave and use it as tunnel models.

[JoeCapricorn]

That is pretty much what I said I was going to try

[General BlackDragon]

Yeah. The downside I've always found with things like that in BZ2 is, ordnance hit them with xplBuilding instead of xplGround, even when isTerrain = true is in the ODF.

[Killerstrike]

any nice updates ??