CnC Frostbite

[Madkill40]

An error occurs on my newly placed start node.

[Handepsilon]

Right... this is getting odd. Try save your progress in a different filename and restart SDK

[Madkill40]

Saved to a different filename fine.

[Handepsilon]

Alright, the next thing should be opening that map again and try rebuilding the path again. If that still doesn't work, try rebuilding geometry (but don't rebuild lighting yet) and try rebuilding path again

[Madkill40]

Tried it.

That still doesn't work.

[Handepsilon]

Alright, let's try more trouble shooting.

Select all your blocking volume and delete them all. Rebuild path and try again.

To be safe while deleting the volumes, go to your Group tab in content browser and hide all buildings. Then show them later before rebuilding path

[Madkill40]

Deleting blocking volumes did not work either.

I accidentally deleted the Hand of Nod in the process so I replaced it with a new one, the playerstart nodes in the new Hand of Nod also failed.

[Madkill40]

When I go to "Build Paths" they're not actually being built at all, I have a feeling I may just have one too many path nodes. 

Going to delete some.

[Madkill40]

Yeah I have no idea anymore. @kenz3001! Halp D;

[Madkill40]

Issue has been fixed. [Big thanks to @Fffreak9999]

Something had made a cube the size of the precomputed visibility volume, so @Handepsilon, you were right in something blocking the nodes all along. 

 

Lights are being rebuilt.

 

Hurray!

Edited September 23, 2016 by Madkill40

[Madkill40]

Map fixed and released.

[kenz3001]

Ctrl + A  = select all .... NOPE

Ctrl + A = add brush / csg / bsp ... YUP

i know its a pain in the arse when you know Ctrl + A is "select all" in every other app in the history of windows

[Madkill40]

 

Updated. Fixed. etc.

[Madkill40]

^ Download via above link.

Changes as of 25th Sept:

• Added blocking volumes to PP and Ref
• Fixed collisions at Airstrip
• Fixed blocking volumes at Nod Overlook
• Fixed misc collisions

Edited September 25, 2016 by Madkill40

[Plotting Raccoon]

It didn't seem right that it wasn't shooting at me in spite of my being in its range. Is this intentional?

[Madkill40]

4 hours ago, Plotting Raccoon said:

It didn't seem right that it wasn't shooting at me in spite of my being in its range. Is this intentional?

Yes.

[Madkill40]

It'd be nice to combine the custom ice textures I've got with existing textures to have a more appealing map.

Halp?

 

P.S. Frostbite Redux Alpha released. It is very different.

Edited December 2, 2016 by Madkill40

[Madkill40]

Changes as of 04 December:

• Terrain has had a texture overhaul
• Collisions 
• Base Layouts completed
• Path nodes re-added
• Spotting Area's re-added
• Minimap remade and reapplied
• Misc Changes

To Do:

• Decorate / Weather
• Endgame Cam
• Fix reported issues

Updated map info:

Frostbite Redux

[Beta]

A GDI research outpost within the confines of Russia's mountains has been alerted of a nearby Nod Base, clearly the Brotherhood has been drawn here due to the exceedingly rich bounty of tiberium among these icy tops and have already begun scouting the area. Both teams are to find and secure the silo as well as the Communications Center, there are reports of a damaged silo within the area so approach it with caution! Both GDI and Nod will need to be as harsh as the terrain on this battlefield. Good luck out there! You're gonna need it...

Map specifications:

-Non-flying

-1 AGT, 3 GT

-1 Obelisk, 3 GT

-Night map

-Frosty

-Bite'tee

-Icy

[ReadMe.txt, this is your "How to install the map" guide]

 

Beta released: 

 

[Madkill40]

Tried out @j0g32's Prefab kit, obviously not built the lights but it's getting there.

Greatly appreciating these prefabs.

[Sn4ke]

hmm, maybe it's just unfamiliar... but on this screen it looks like.. *too much* to me like an overkill of structures

know what I mean?

[Fffreak9999]

From that screenshot, I would have to agree, it looks too cluttered.

[j0g32]

Great to see that you could use the prefabs.

I think the main concern here is that you should space out your base a bit more so that vehicles can maneuver easily...

[Madkill40]

I was narrowing out the vehicle routes for the GDI base, can't make it too easy for a Nod Steamroll. 

It is just the angle of the picture, me trying to cram it all into one pic.

[Madkill40]

Okay so the ice just isn't very nice, or look enough like ice... transparency is what I need, is this possible? @j0g32

I want to have rock and then between player and the rock there is ice. Material ice.

Rather than have ice which you cannot see anything through like in the current state of Frostbite.

I can probably create an ice texture I just need it to be see-through so would lowering the opacity on the texture file in photoshop do the trick? Or is there some voodo in the SDK which can allow this?

I.e.

Edited June 19, 2017 by Madkill40

[j0g32]

No, making the texture transparent (adding/changing its alpha channel) alonw will not give you a transparent material in UDK.

If you want transparent / see through ice, you have to set your ice material to translucent (this is a setting  of the material itself, which allows you to use the plugs for opacity). It might also be called lightnig model, where the default is something with Phong.

You can then use a constant between 0-1, or masks to control the opacity. Such a mask could be taken from your texture's alpha channel.

 

Check this out:

https://docs.unrealengine.com/udk/Three/MaterialExamples.html#Translucency

You might also want to add some distortion / light refraction:

https://docs.unrealengine.com/udk/Three/MaterialExamples.html#Refraction

Or even sub surface scattering.

Generally, might be helpful to have a look at the documentation and examples

 

[Madkill40]

Thank you very much, I shall look into it and see what I can come up with. (:

[Ruud033]

On 2017-6-19 at 2:13 PM, Madkill40 said:

Okay so the ice just isn't very nice, or look enough like ice... transparency is what I need, is this possible? @j0g32

I want to have rock and then between player and the rock there is ice. Material ice.

Rather than have ice which you cannot see anything through like in the current state of Frostbite.

I can probably create an ice texture I just need it to be see-through so would lowering the opacity on the texture file in photoshop do the trick? Or is there some voodo in the SDK which can allow this?

I.e.

Its very hard to produce such a shader without completly blowing away the low-end computers. These shaders are very expensive. It requiers a custom lighting model and personally I dont see this happening without a dynamic opacity mask based upon the camera and multiple textures. Height offsets included.

[Henk]

Apply a rock material (without any ice) to your rocks > duplicate your rocks > scale up the duplicates > apply an ice material to those now slightly larger duplicates.

Tip for making the ice material: don't look at references from real life, but at look at ice from other (Unreal 3) games, or even the icicles we have in the UDK.

 

Edit: tried with the icicle material, didn't look good because the rock's pivot point itsn't centered, and the ice material could be a little better for this use. It looks good on the icicles though.

the way that icicle material visually deforms what's underneath or behind it is very good, try using that same technique for your ice material.

 

Edit 2: Was thinking about this again, maybe it would work if the ice material was denser/more opaque.

[kenz3001]

the ice caves in under have a nice ice material

[Henk]

If you want to try my solution from my previous post:

- Export the rock to a static mesh

- Open in 3DS Max (or other compatible 3D modelling software)

- Duplicate the rock and scale the duplicate down, try to align the rocks perfectly

- Export & Import into UDK so you have the 2 meshes combined in 1 mesh

- Apply rock material to the inner mesh, apply ice material to the outer mesh

Not sure if this will look the way you want, but you can give it a try.

 

Better than having 2 seperate meshes, because you won't need to enable transparent selection, you only need to select 1 static mesh actor when you want to move, scale and duplicate, and you can't mess up the positions anymore. Be sure to keep the original pivot point of the rock, so you can replace all your rocks quickly, and without messing up the original positions.

[Madkill40]

Delving into 3DS Max will be out of desperation. I'll bear that in mine but I've never used a 3D modelling program before.

I've been toying about with the materials to get a better looking ice.

I've also redone the two side vehicle paths and made them wider and removed a bunch of static meshes.

I've also closed off the middle of the map to vehicles.

Redlines are infantry only paths.

Greenlines are where vehicles can go. (As well as infantry, but clearly I got carried away with the word 'only') 

Edit: Just noticed a red line between the green lines in the upper-right hand side, pretend that is green.

Edited June 23, 2017 by Madkill40

[Madkill40]

Released an updated version of Frostbite. Need opinions.

Changes as of June 24th 2017

• Terrain modified
• Textures modified
• Static meshes reduced
• Vehicles can no longer pass through the middle of the map
• Vehicle tunnel to GDI is no longer a tunnel
• Widened vehicle routes on one side of the map
• Tiberium mists are now blue
• Ice looks more like ice
• Background surrounding the map has been modified
• Misc changes

[Sn4ke]

@Madkill40

T.O., @limsup and me are testing it at the moment.

found some stuck spots, stuff that has been reported before, I found a trap cave and a way to get behind the scenes

+ soft border facing the wrong way (cant get back onto the map - you'll die)

Edited June 24, 2017 by DarkSn4ke

[Madkill40]

Thoughts on the look of the map?

Edited June 24, 2017 by Madkill40

[Sn4ke]

@Madkill40

Spoiler

It's possible to get out of the map (have to take a screenshot where you can jump over the border collision) - there's a mountain in front of us. you just can't see this half

Tunnel is blocked from this side (probably general collision instead of a vehicle collision only?)

T.O. told me, that you didn't block certain map borders, because you want tanks to be able to push other tanks from the cliffs - but please block all the map borders where infantry has access only.

Full stuck - southern silo

Near GDI Tiberium field you probably placed a soft border facing the wrong way. Countdown will expire whatever you do -> you'll die.

Anyone is welcome to explore this lovely cave! Except to never come back.

It's located in the middle of the map next to that empty Humvee. Maybe you should also consider to make a new overview map as it's very had to see your own position on it.

 

2 hours ago, Madkill40 said:

Thoughts on the look of the map?

Well, I'm not sure yet. I haven't played / tested it for months and today I had trouble to orientate myself. Your design is really confusing. ( @Gliven )

Maybe I just have to spend more time on Frostbite

[Sn4ke]

@Madkill40 ~2 days ago we spent some hours on Frostbite - have no clue why I never spotted that b2b position

Spoiler

B2B on Obelisk / Nod Refinery possible

two stucks - near GDI PP

you didn't fix the PP jump?

missing collision near GDI Ref

Submarine has only collision on top..

some more screens from top of the sub and the surrounding rocks




missing collision

why is this blocked?

welcome to Madkill's secret torture lab

if @Gliven went missing - search here! (Mad's trap pit - part of the bunker lab)

full stuck...

missing collision

I'll post T.O.'s screens later

Edited June 28, 2017 by DarkSn4ke

[Sn4ke]

@Madkill40 T.O.'s screenshots

Spoiler

GDI harvy stucks (sometimes) for ~1 sec after dumping

hollow rock

light...

multiple stuck spots

just a single crate spawn?

stuck area near southern silo

see above

stuck spot between low wall and antenna

Personally I won't proceed testing the current Frostbite version, I'll wait for the next release

Edited June 29, 2017 by DarkSn4ke

[Madkill40]

Thank you very much for the screens.

How did they get on top of the 'submarine' @DarkSn4ke ?

[Sn4ke]

Erm... just walk/jump on the rock beneath it? I'll see if I find a screenshot.

T.O. got more screenshots. Didn't download them from his FTP yet. Guess I'll post them until Sunday afternoon.

[Madkill40]

I have shaped collisions around that area, it is odd that it is accessible at all and I was sure I used the correct type of collisions settings for the volumes

[limsup]

10 hours ago, Madkill40 said:

How did they get on top of the 'submarine' @DarkSn4ke ?

 When I have the time, I shall update this imgur gallery with the OTHER path up here...

[Madkill40]

Changes as of August 12th 2017

• Terrain modification, middle of the map heightened
• Obelisk lowered
• Static meshes reduced
• Nod vehicle path converted into infantry path (Nod can no longer cut-midfield to their tib field from outside of their base)
• Nod infantry path converted into vehicle path (Nod now have an extra entrance for vehicles from base to tib-field)
• All volumes have been remade using 'geometry pen'
• Ice materials on some meshes have been modified
• Fixed reported issues thanks to 'Renegade X Testing' for their useful reports
• Widened vehicle mid-field area for better combat (near the over-snowed bunker)
• Increased fog

[Sn4ke]

@Madkill40 since you didnt react on Discord

 map is bugged. collisions are bugged... some weird ice cave monster eats any GDI vehicle as soon as they leave the WF

check your collisions please

[Madkill40]

I need to rebuild lights with just a normal directional anyway.

[Madkill40]

On 8/13/2017 at 9:44 AM, DarkSn4ke said:

@Madkill40 since you didnt react on Discord

 map is bugged. collisions are bugged... some weird ice cave monster eats any GDI vehicle as soon as they leave the WF

check your collisions please

This is irritating.

I have replaced and moved the WF.

I have set volumes to 'no collision'.

But despite all this, the Harvester STILL decides to spawn in the ground, as does any vehicle purchased.

Halp me? @kenz3001

[Sn4ke]

maybe @Luhrian can be of assistance. he had a similar collisions "problem" on CliffSide

[Madkill40]

I even deleted the volumes yet NOTHING. -.-

[TK0104]

12 minutes ago, Madkill40 said:

I even deleted the volumes yet NOTHING. -.-

Rebuild geometry? Have you used BSP on the map? Then it could be the BSP

[Madkill40]

3 minutes ago, TK0104 said:

 Have you used BSP on the map? Then it could be the BSP

Gawd f~!k£n$ dammit

[Madkill40]

21 minutes ago, TK0104 said:

Rebuild geometry? Have you used BSP on the map? Then it could be the BSP

I now have an subterranean Harvester...