[MAP] C&C Crash Site

[Ruud033]

Hey people,

I've been working on this map for quite a while already, even before the SDK was out for the masses.

I've been posting on thematrixren.net forums but I'll post it here from now on too.

Timeline:

So I've been having some idea's about making a map. I'm really fond of Tiberian sun and I remember one of those missions where you have to save a crashed Nod-Scrin tech ship. I always wanted to go inside of this ship, never could. This made me sad. Now I've got the power.

GDI Cutscenes of Tib sun:

As seen at:

5:20 - 7:31

AxByWYI6-Nk

And, on the CNC Wiki:

http://cnc.wikia.com/wiki/Alien_warship <-- Be sure to read this, quite interesting.

It is all in the timeline of Renegade.

Gabriel Maung helped me out quite a lot with the ship, he modeled the interior parts and also helped me a lot designing the interior! Be sure to check out his website at www.gmaung.com

These are my first thoughts on layout of the map, It's got a bit of a horseshoe idea, just like Under

As for the setting, I was thinking of a sort of Mesa2 like setting.. with rain and thunderstorms.. to really accentuate the alien ship (glowing etc)

Got the model in 3DS Max

First looks

At this point I decided that I needed a unique feature in this map. This is when I added the weapons factory at the bottom right of the following screenshot. Future air vehicles will be able to get bought here.

First test of the interior

First paintjob

Textures fixed

First foliage (will delete this later on due to several reasons)

Tiberium eating the forest slowly

Added mega tiberium (á la CNC3) added water, added waterfalls

Have no idea what to do with this spot ( I still don't at this moment of posting)\

First tunnel development (yes you can get inside the ship)

First tunnel development x2

.

Further development

Scale impression:

Updated the ship, so textures are lost

Updated the WF in the middle

Added some nice lights in the Nod base

Added harvester paths

Pimped GDI ref ( no you can't shoot the silo and damage the building, its just a filler, but looks cool)

GDI base overview this far:

Got the Orca list to work. What it does, is it spawns the Orca, adds it to a list and removes it from a list when it's destroyed. This allows me to have a seperate vehicle limit beside the one already in the server. So we have X amount of vehicles (serverlimit) + X amount of Orca's

Got this text to appear on screen (need to rescale that obviously)

First test! Just server testing purposes, see if the map runs etc.. I found out that it needs to compile shaders on the first run, so the first time you load the map, the game seems to crash, don't panic however, it's just compiling shaders. Wait it out, then, after a while, it's gonna kick you out to the main menu. No worries still.. just re-join, and voila!

Added the entrance

Work in progress

Re-added foliage and went from 350MB package size to 140MB

Added rocks

Custom PT terminal! Enter the matrix!

So that's where I am right now.. still got much to do I think.. loads of optimisation, still have to add the details that really fill the map. Also I'm looking at ways to tighten the map, so it does not feel that large..

I'll update news when I get to it, really busy with my personal life atm.

Update; Added serveral zones to cover the foliage collision.

Set the instigator variable to an object variable instead of a player variable, shoutout to all mappers; never use the player variable unless you have 1 person playing your map, because it checks the playerlist rather than what it says it supposed to do. The setting player Idx "0" ALWAYS refers to the first person in the server list (player#0) so only he/she can buy or do shit.

Made a little something that will fall out of the sky

Edited November 28, 2015 by Guest

[Ardente]

I already love the alien-ship .

Just wish there would be a mesh for the Renegade UFO .

Hm.. the destroyed base.. how about a random vehicle placement? Dunno If its possible via scripts etc..

Humvee/Buggy, APC, maybe a MRLS/Arty or just a Chinook?

Crates would also be a idea

[Henk]

This is going to be awesome. Looking forward to playing it

[Darkraptor]

Just wow

Hope this map will be good to play, cause I'am looking forward to play them

[NodGuy]

This is epic! And the MESA II weather is great for a map like this.

[Valkyrie]

The UFO looks absolutely beautiful.

Although im not too sure about the inside layout.

Looks a little too simple to me.

[limewire3]

This map looks fantastic! Can't wait to see more!

[Havoc89]

Looks fantastic so far. I cant wait to see it in action!

[Ruud033]

So I've rebuilt lights, added fog, added mountains in the background and added the first boundries.. But, I've also changed the Dominant Directional Light's color... The map seems to be so bright right now, even though the settings are EXACTLY the same as those from Mesa_II..

http://i.gyazo.com/b4108c2c56cd08354147ae31d0c9f4fa.jpg

So weird! I really don't know why it's doing this. Nielsen could you please say how you got mesa so dark? This is an exact copy (I mirrored the settings) of your D/S

Rest of the map is going on well.. I've done several optimisations, however, after rebuilding lights my mapsize went from 120MB to 588MB.. so still have work to do.

Edit: figured that one of the trees I used had a shadowmapres of 256(!!!!), set all the resolutions of the trees to 32. Its at 160 MB now.

[Henk]

Are you sure the fog is also the same as on Mesa?

[Ruud033]

Jep

[Nielsen]

It's a mix of things I believe, do you have the moving clouds texture integrated in the DDL ? There's that, + a brightness setting for it (in the material instance)

There might also be something going on with Post Processing, check the LUT or the general settings there, and lastly I may have changed the HDR curve in PP as well.

It's been a while since I touched those settings but that should be it.

[Ruud033]

It's a mix of things I believe, do you have the moving clouds texture integrated in the DDL ? There's that, + a brightness setting for it (in the material instance)

There might also be something going on with Post Processing, check the LUT or the general settings there, and lastly I may have changed the HDR curve in PP as well.

It's been a while since I touched those settings but that should be it.

Allright, well i changed the dominant directional light a bit.. did do a little. Still have to mess with the settings a lot though.

[Tripps]

Dude you rock, i want to play this awesome looking map!

[Ruud033]

Dude you rock, i want to play this awesome looking map!

Thanks! Me too

- Update; edited the #1 post, added several zones to fix collision on the foliage.

/offtopic

Jello, if you wish to contact me in persona, I'm always on thematrixren IRC irc.thematrixren.net.

I couldn't send you a PM cuz of this;

[Ruud033]

Updated post #1

[DaKuja]

looks awesome, will this meteor falling down during the running game? as an event or as background animation?

[Ruud033]

looks awesome, will this meteor falling down during the running game? as an event or as background animation?

I'll drop it in the blue tib field, killing everything inside it's fixed radius.. I'm considering dropping it after 10 minutes or so

[Ruud033]

So I thought I'd just post this for other mappers.. I learned this today.

- Animating multiple meshes at once using the same pivot point in Matinee

Example (11 meshes)

So, what I first tried was the following:

- Created 1 group in Matinee

-- Created 11 movement tracks

-- Tried to animate all meshes seperate

This failed.

What I tried secondly was:

- Created 1 group in Matinee

-- Added 1 movement track to the new group

-- Animated 1 path and therefore had the correct trail set

-- Copy-pasted the group so I had 11 groups, each group had 1 movement track (already set)

-- Changed the object variable, hooked it up to a different one (the tiberiums and the trail)

This also failed, all paths scattered. Instead of all going to the same point, they went haywire and scattered around the map.

When googeling (google is your friend) I came across this: https://forums.epicgames.com/threads/92 ... in-matinee

This works as a charm!

Here you can see the object list with it's properties. Notice that I left the object variables there so you can check the names. I'll remove the object variables later, but keep the list.

Edit: UDK crashed sadly

Once i got it back up, i tried creating this once again, but this time it also scattered.. will have to set each static mesh's movement individually then.. that sucks.

[JeepRubi]

This is great, looks like you've having a lot of fun. Can't wait to play it when it's finished!

[Ruud033]

So finally got it to work.. its a lot of work if you have multiple meshes.. here are the screenshots and here's the story for who ever want to recreate this him/herself:

First off, I placed the meteor where I wanted it to hit the level, so for me that'd be here:

Next off, I took all of the location's of all the actors in that particular landing place, made a list in notepad++ (cuz excel freaked out on me)

I needed these coordinates for the matinee sequence.

Next up, I moved the asteroid back up in the sky, somewhere I wanted it to start from (this can be anywhere)

Once that was done, I made sure I could see it, and select each component individually (because you need to animate each component one at a time)

Since I had my destination coordinates, it didnt really matter in what order i started animating.

I did these steps first:

1. Set my total animation time

2. Slide the green slider to match the red one

3. Slide the black time-bar-regulator to the far right, so you're at the end of your sequence

Then, once i got that setup, i did this repetitively:

1. Select the component i wanted to animate

2. Pressed F4, and slided the new window to somewhere i could reach it

3. Clicked Matinee again (selected the window, so it becomes active)

4. Create new empty group (enter a name)

5. Create movement track (should add the first keyframe already for you)

6. Clicked on the object properties window (the window that appears once you press F4)

7. Set the coordinates (copy-pasted from notepad++) to the destination coordinates

8. Clicked on the movement-track of the specific object in Matinee once again

9. Hit enter to add the last keyframe.

10. Checked if it worked well by sliding the time-bar a little and checked if it moved

11. Set the time to the far right again, so i was at the end of the sequence.

12. -repeat-

NOTICE!: All the keynotes are 'lineair' instead of curve/clamped

Result in matinee:

Trajectory as it looks like in the SDK:

And last, what it looks like in Kismet.

Will post a video soon.. still have to add more particles and sounds etc..

Kismet is getting more complicated as round up the impact sequence. Have added alot of particles and sounds.. but it really looks nice.

Edit: video

NWeGISxeiAE

[Ruud033]

So, it's been a while since I updated this, my personal life has been busy lately, and I expect it not to be less busy within 1-2 months.. So I don't have that many time for mapping. The remaining time I've got I'd also like to spend on having fun with you guys on the actual game.

Quick roundup: the last 2 weeks I haven't done much to the map really. There's still a lot of work to do in the map, I also had alot of thinking to do, like, decision making, thinking about game play etc..

One huge pain in my ass from the beginning was the rock texture. I really do not like the current textures, so I will replace them. Still have a huge dilemma picking a proper texture..

At first i was thinking of the one from field:

I think this looks great, on a small map, but when i apply this texture to all the mountains and stuff.. everything does not look so nice anymore.

I'm thinking of this one:

I like the texture of it, and when applied to mountains in the far distance, they still look nice ( I might have to scale that and make those a bit darker in a different layer but OK)

Obviously i also have to replace those rock textures sticking out.

But then again, i really really do not know what texture i should use..

What i do like are these rocks, all though it seems they might need to blend in the landscape a bit more..

I tell you what,

Materialising is a butt pain.

edit: oh yeah, not to forget, normal maps are fucked at the moment. Have to ask kenz to come and take a look anytime soon..

[Handepsilon]

I'm sorry I didn't show up earlier but...

...if the object on Matinee moves at exactly same trajectory, all you need is hard-attach the objects to a parent actor (I forgot which section in the properties) and animate the parent actor's movement. suppose you want to change anything besides the animation in the 'child' actors, you can freely add another group in the matinee for the actor that doesn't involve movement track.

[Havoc89]

Itching to try this map out!

[Ruud033]

I'm sorry I didn't show up earlier but...

...if the object on Matinee moves at exactly same trajectory, all you need is hard-attach the objects to a parent actor (I forgot which section in the properties) and animate the parent actor's movement. suppose you want to change anything besides the animation in the 'child' actors, you can freely add another group in the matinee for the actor that doesn't involve movement track.

Hey, yeah its a bit late. But sadly I already found out the hard way that this doesent work. Attach to actor is normally used for items or meshes (like flags in CTF) that are supposed to stick to a player or vehicle. The thing is here, that they use sockets for the attachment. If you do such a thing with a static mesh, or in my case, an interpactor, this does not work, because the 'attached' object goes straight to the pivot point. If I remember it well, i think it also said something in console about: "no handler specified" blabla.. I got so stressed that I gave up on this method, thats why i did it like i did now. If you get it to work properly the way you described it i'd really really like to see how you did that.

[Handepsilon]

Actually, no. I was not referring to socket attachment, which... yes, is not for attaching Static or Interp. No, I was referring to the one in Actor Properties, which requires you to select the actor, lock the properties, then search for a variable called 'Base' in Attachment category. It is an actor variable, then select the actor you want it to parent on and insert it into the variable.

https://udn.epicgames.com/Three/AttachingActors.html

Refer to the 'Base Pointer' section

[Ruud033]

Been a while since I've posted here again.

Done quite a lot of work meanwhile, a new version of the map is uploading as we speak

Added rocks in the background

Handepsilon and sxchmn noticed that they had a lot of performance drops near the trees, so I thinned the forest. Thank you Handepsilon and sxchmn! Great work!

I've been busy in and around GDI base mostly.. Nod base still is, as was

Changed colors of the trees

I'd say, go check it out when it's uploaded! i'll provide the link and update the official mirror asap

[HaTe]

Hope it plays well, because the look of it from the screenshots looks real nice!

[DoctorB0NG]

Hope it plays well, because the look of it from the screenshots looks real nice!

You can always download it and hop on the official testing server to see a bit :mrgreen:

[Ruud033]

Yep official download link should work! If not, call in here!

I have added some placebo-rain in the GDI base, for testing purposes. I'm considering adding rain to this map form the beginning already. Please give some feedback on the looks of it, if most of you like it, i'll keep it and add the sound as well.

[HaTe]

Not sure if I just missed the post or what, but where's the download link?

[DoctorB0NG]

viewtopic.php?t=75116

[Ruud033]

Did some more landscaping on the Nod base today

Also did some more things in the map which I didnt take screenshots of

I hope to get working on the ship soon, as I expect to have the basic environment in soon

[Alkaline!]

I can't get the map to load its stuck on the loading screen. Any ideas?

[DoctorB0NG]

I can't get the map to load its stuck on the loading screen. Any ideas?

The map has to compile shaders on the first run. This can take up to 10 minutes the first time it's run. Let it sit and it should work itself out.

[Handepsilon]

Oh yea. I saw that you tried joining in the Test server.

I load Crash Site for 30 minutes. Don't worry, it's just the game precompiling the shader. The rest of the run in the map would be much faster

[Alkaline!]

Ok So I finally got the map to load!

First thoughts:

1) Fog, I don't really like it, it makes everything grainy and blurry, I like the night scene but would much rather have the map look like Field, a clear night.

2) I have a 680 GTX SLI on i7-4770k w/32 GB ram, this is the firt map where my fps dipped below 60FPS, while looking at the abandoned gdi base it was hover in the 40s. Mind you I have everything turned on max at 1080p, all other maps are vsync locked to 60 fps and never a dip.

3) The map is actually sized just right, I first thought that it was going to be very big but after playing it I like it, it about the same size or smaller than lakeside which is perfect.

4) HOw do you get the orcas? I didn't see a way to capture the GDI weapfac

5) Overall heading in the right direction, I would have liked to see AGT / OB as we are seriously lacking maps with base defenses, but for now standard gts will do. I do think more work is needed in the FPS department, perhaps more optimization or removal of certain things (e.g. less trees in forrest), if my rig is having issues, the average rig most certainly will be lagging.

keep up the good work.

[Ruud033]

Ok So I finally got the map to load!

First thoughts:

1) Fog, I don't really like it, it makes everything grainy and blurry, I like the night scene but would much rather have the map look like Field, a clear night.

2) I have a 680 GTX SLI on i7-4770k w/32 GB ram, this is the firt map where my fps dipped below 60FPS, while looking at the abandoned gdi base it was hover in the 40s. Mind you I have everything turned on max at 1080p, all other maps are vsync locked to 60 fps and never a dip.

3) The map is actually sized just right, I first thought that it was going to be very big but after playing it I like it, it about the same size or smaller than lakeside which is perfect.

4) HOw do you get the orcas? I didn't see a way to capture the GDI weapfac

5) Overall heading in the right direction, I would have liked to see AGT / OB as we are seriously lacking maps with base defenses, but for now standard gts will do. I do think more work is needed in the FPS department, perhaps more optimization or removal of certain things (e.g. less trees in forrest), if my rig is having issues, the average rig most certainly will be lagging.

keep up the good work.

Hey thanks for sharing! I'm aware of the performance issues.. It's the red rotating light at the weapons factory backdoor that's causing it. Will be fixed in the next build.

I'm not sure on completely removing the fog but I might turn it down a bit and see how that looks.. Meanwhile I've also added rain and lightning so I have to balance the ambience out a bit..

At the moment you can just buy the vehicle at the matrix PT, will add a silo-like MCT later when the SDK updates..

As for base defence.. I'd rather not implement that because it's supposed to be

arather quickly deployed base..

Thanks! I'm still working on it, fine tweaking takes a lot of time

[Handepsilon]

I also forgot, GDI PT scene doesn't have character in there

[Ruud033]

I also forgot, GDI PT scene doesn't have character in there

Ok that's weird, will look into it.

Meanwhile; I've updated the ambience a bit. Lowered the fog levels in general but added rain and wind and lightning.

Will update the map tomorrow so you guys can experience that. It's hard to capture in a screenshot.

[DaKuja]

Sick stuff, cant wait to test the new Version :3

[Ruud033]

Got a new version up and running! Be sure to download dat shit! Changelog:

+ Removed 2 dynamic lights at the back of the destroyed WF so hopefully performance issues are resolved

+ Added Rain

+ Added wind gusts

+ Did some landscape tweaking

+ Added lights in the middle of the map in the blue tib field.

+ Updated the meteor damage, once you get in the blue tib cracked field, you get killed instantly, mammoth tanks get killed instantly. Anywhere outside of the blue tib field, vehicles get damaged. Infantry also gets damaged but since they have lower HP they get killed outside the blue cracked field too.. atleast for the first few meters, after that damage decreases linearly.

+ Reduced fog

+ Added rocks

+ Added fire to destroyed tanks @ destroyed WF

+ Updated kismet script for buying orca's (still not finished)

Go and download that shit! http://doctorb0ng.com/renx/rx_crash_site.zip (original mirror updated)

[Ruud033]

Have been trying to make the first tunnel proof of concept today, for in the ship.

How do I get the mesh of the tunnel not to be stretched by the BSP? Materials really look ugly when applied (all stretched, along with the BSP)

[Handepsilon]

Use Planar on the surface properties

[kenz3001]

if you d click the csg/bsp in the level you will get a texture modifier up you can tile u or v inderpendently this should help get rid or the stretching

[Handepsilon]

Yeah, you can use Planar on the propertoes then adjust it with the U and V settings

You can actually make StaticMesh this way... but UVW will most likely be overlapping

[Ruud033]

Thanks people, that did it.

I've been playing around with the layout and materials a bit..

[Handepsilon]

Thanks people, that did it.

I've been playing around with the layout and materials a bit..

Wow, amazing! But.... are you sure Scrin architecture is Necris-like? Well, if I look at Renegade's own, they seem to look a bit arabic and such

(whatswithpeopleusingarabiansettingsashostilecontentanyway??)

[Ruud033]

Wow, amazing! But.... are you sure Scrin architecture is Necris-like? Well, if I look at Renegade's own, they seem to look a bit arabic and such

(whatswithpeopleusingarabiansettingsashostilecontentanyway??)

I've got more of a CNC3 Tiberium Wars interpretation of the Scrin faction. I don't mind the Arab / Renegade setting all to much.

Also notice that the ship is a Scrin/Nod hybrid. Since it's re-made from salvaged technology.

I'm still experimenting with the layout and looks though.

If any of you fellow forum members wanna advise me on this, PLEASE DO! I only like feedback! And hey, if you have a really good layout, your name will be added to the credit list. There's 1 condition, it has to be fully made in the SDK with available assets in the SDK.

I was thinking about something like this:

I updated my map today. I've added the (at the moment, horrible looking) texture of the ship. I've also fixed the performance issues @ the destroyed WF (I hope). I've removed the light function there. My first personal tests are positive though. +- 60 fps with a few drops to 58 FPS.

I have to further optimize the map in the future, cull more stuff out and what not. For now, it'll do.

Go grab that download from the official link in the "Releases" thread!

+ Added more rocks

+ Tweaked the ambience a bit

+ Replaced the rocks @ Nod base (not all just yet)

+ First tryout of the tunnel layout is in place.. lemme know what you think of it (especially the space dimensions)

+ Placed the (crappy) texture on the ship for now. Still have to upgrade this texture (no worries)

+ Placed some wind gusts and culled several of them.

+ Fixed the light function @ the destroyed WF

+ Several other stuff I can't remember

[Alkaline!]

I played around today and yes the weap light removal improved FPS there are still imporvements that need to be made.

ALSO I personally think you need to open up the map and add ares that are currently not accessible to be open. Orca ceiling should be raised to math the base of the head of the ship, right now if you try to fly over the ships front spears it stops and you have no idea what is going on.

There is a huge clipping bug that allows oras to fly around behind the map, this is from the area behind the ship, just go to it and start crawling up the rocks, eventually you will get to the top of the edge and they you can roam around the map. Some ares I think should be opened up, there is a lot of detail that is not accessible. Other ares obviously should stay locked. I took some screenshots