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Mountains in TGE

Name:	Apparatus
Date Posted:	Jun 11, 2008
Rating:	4.7 out of 5
Public:	YES
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I updated a bit the bridges pack with a cliff set, to spice up the game levels a bit and go from highplains to mountains; With proper lighting and a couple of cliff modules your level can look a lot better. Orcs and elves, dwarfs dwelling in in the misty mountains .. :) Imagination is your limit, again, with TGE (or TGEA for that matter).

Screenshots:

Recent Blog Posts

List:	11/04/08 - Kork 2.0, halted work 09/24/08 - Constructor Pipeline (I) 09/23/08 - Interior Guide Pack Free Download 09/23/08 - Kaboom! Pack for TGEA 09/15/08 - About Constructor 09/11/08 - Interior Guide Pack Released 09/10/08 - Associate Rant 09/08/08 - Interior Guide Pack update

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Tom Perry (Jun 11, 2008 at 13:13 GMT)

Your stuff always looks awesome, keep it going!

David Montgomery-Blake (Jun 11, 2008 at 13:29 GMT)

You know, I love your artwork. Always have!

Koushik (Jun 11, 2008 at 13:33 GMT)

Yes!! Another LoTR fan!! yay!!!

Keep up the great work!

Chip Lambert (Jun 11, 2008 at 13:40 GMT)

Beautiful as always. Keep up the good work man.

Thak (Jun 11, 2008 at 14:02 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Sweet stuff man, happy to see you around here again and in full production mode :) Im soo gonna get this pack as soon as its ready. Great Job

Ryan Jaeger (Jun 11, 2008 at 14:23 GMT)

Looking nice!
What modeling application are you using for these? I assume 3dsm?

Grugin (Jun 11, 2008 at 14:58 GMT)

really really beautiful !!!

Tom Eastman (Eastbeast314) (Jun 11, 2008 at 14:59 GMT)

Looks great!

Guy Allard (Jun 11, 2008 at 15:35 GMT)

That looks awesome.

Apparatus (Jun 11, 2008 at 15:53 GMT)

@Ryan - I used Modtool from Softimage w is a great application; restrictions on mental ray and export polygon number (no where near the upper limit of tge engines though); it is also free and has support for xna, valve and cryengine.

@all - thanks
Edited on Jun 11, 2008 15:57 GMT

Henri Aalto (Jun 11, 2008 at 18:17 GMT)

Looks truly superb!

A couple questions though... I assume these are DTS models as you mentioned ModTool (correct me if I'm wrong). How is the collission implemented (i.e. Col-meshes or polysoup) and is there LOD? And how's the performance in general?

I'd really like to use such mountains / rock formations in a larger scale (atlas) environment but having 30+ of those around could potentially be a real performance killer (?)

Apparatus (Jun 11, 2008 at 18:34 GMT)

the models are absolutely low poly, and collision is included tough I would not recommend using collision because if it is fairly accurate (as it can be on a rough shape) the lightmaps on the terrain will not look very pretty; not sure if there's a way to avoid casting shadows from a DTS collision on the terrain.

if you really want to have a rocky area where the player will step then you can make a dummy model with collision and transparent texture ( a cube will do) and place it only where you need.

It really depends on how you planned the mission to look like. You can have cliff walls with no collision in the back and smaller rocks and such with a more accurate collision in the front, thus no large, blocky shadows cast on the terrain;

Actually the model you see is made of smaller models (I think only 3 or 4) and one can make a really big area with them. At an average of 100-200 (maximum) polys per model and up to 70% smaller with LOD , I am sure the performance hit is not an issue.

There are also a few tricks on how to blend those big blocks with existing terrain but I am too lazy to post screenshots and write more, at least not tonight; Besides, I am also preparing a Document for level designers available on my site as I will get it public:) and all this info can be seen there with big shiny colored illustrations of the process.
Edited on Jun 11, 2008 18:37 GMT

J.C. Smith (Jun 11, 2008 at 20:17 GMT)

That looks great.

Matt Fairfax (Jun 11, 2008 at 22:43 GMT)

The Polysoup (OPCODE) collision in TGEA 1.7 should do a pretty good job with those models and will allow them to cast correct shadows (based on the mesh not the collision mesh) onto the terrain llightmap.

Andy Hawkins (Jun 11, 2008 at 23:05 GMT)

Ohh gimme gimme gimme! How much please? I need your stone bridge right now!!!! It's just the same as many bridges crossing the Thames.

Ryan Jaeger (Jun 11, 2008 at 23:55 GMT)

@App,
Thanks, I'll give it a try!

Daz (Jun 12, 2008 at 08:01 GMT)

Nice!

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