Lotta???

[][mmoralTwo 0]

Well, I tried expanding the MYTOAN map and it didn't go well. I really don't like picking up where someone left off. So my question is...

Are there any links for making maps from scratch? I have the schnell tut but it doesn't go into terrains etc...all the other tuts that I have run across are for weapons (zzzZZZzzz)...

The map that i'm working on has both outdoor and indoor scenery...any heop would be great...thank you...

I did find this great tutorial

Terrain Tutorial

I decided to creat a terrain using a quad patch...easier than eyeballing contours...

Edited September 9, 2003 by ][mmoralTwo

[San 0]

I'm making an outdoor map too, and found this tut :

http://www.sealzeurope.com/Map%20tutorial/...%20tutorial.htm

http://www.sealzeurope.com/Map%20Tutorial%...utorial%202.htm

It makes a quadpatch, and puts texture on it, and uses a displacement-map for hill-making.

The displacement-map making is in this tut :

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/cr...glandscapes.asp

Shiver's trees tut :

http://jassante.com/GR_Tree_Tutorial/Tree_...pt1_canopy.html

[k1ller 0]

Actually MYTOAN Sniper wasn't left off, FMJ just didn't show much of the surroundings and I didn't want to invent something out of my head. It is true that the map is quite small and borders of the map are clearly visible.

What comes to expanding MYTOAN, it shouldn't be problem at all for someone who is familiar with 3dsmax. Most of the "modders" here seem to think that 3dsmax is meant for GR mapping and assume they can learn it in couple months.

All the buildings in MYTOAN are very clearly separated in to their own rooms which are basically "holes" in the ground (rooms.jpg). If there's need to expand map to larger, it should be very easy to create new buildings, roads or whatever outside the town as part of room _1 (outside) or create new room for them with the same technique used with other buildings.

Heightmaps (dispalcement in MAX) aren't usually very good idea creating a surface for a map. Terrain generators and such aren't also any good. It doesn't take much time to create quadpatch in MAX and then pull vertices up and down with proper falloff (under edit mesh -> soft selection) and maybe even add noise modifier to give some realism.

Heightmaps are quite difficult to control. After creating a heightmap you must update the scene in MAX and if the result isn't what you want you have to edit heightmap again and so on. Not very efficient. Sometimes it maybe useful to create heightmap to get rough version for reference and edit the surface in "vertex-level". (That's how Guarded Forest was originally started.)

If you need example for quite large landscape, ther is Guarded Forest for MAX5 available. Landscape has been broken in three pieces for better performance. I recommend to delete or hide the stuff you don't need (trees, portals, room shells, rocks, trenches...) so you get better view how things are done.

There is also new tree type, which is taken from CD that came with "MAX 2 - Fundamentals".

Some images of the Guarded Forest:

Wireframe

Shadows of the trees - used in darkmap

Landscape and trees

@ImmoralTwo

It is impossible to give any tutorial for "making maps from scracth", which should be quite clear to even newbie. It is possible to tell what kind of tags and such must be present to get map to work, which are quite well documented in Schell's tutorials. Tutorials which aren't specificly meant for Ghost Recon (or some other game) aren't usually usable for - hopefully - obvious reasons.

[][mmoralTwo 0]

Thank you for the replies...I'll give the files a look. I've been using max for about 3 years and i'm experience in high poly modeling and animation. Stalker Zero asked to give mapping a try so I jumped in. I planned on creating the base terrain then creating the buildings on top of it. After I get the buildings done I am going to adjust the terrain to add some variety. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction.