Waterdeep screenshot feedback request

[indio]

I've now got a complete 18 32x32 area module of Waterdeep using the map texture above. It took a day or two of messing about, but I'm happy enough with it now.

I'd be able to knock this on the head by the new year I suspect, but obviously I just mean exteriors, no quests or anything like that.

I don't know how to fit this with existingwork of course, and I tend to work poorly with anyone else, but if cipher wants me to (and I've PM'd him about it) I'll start.

The order will be layout, then textures, then contours. So it looks flat now, but that's just so I can lay it out.

Feedback regarding this is welcome. I can do lots of things over the next month or two, and obviously TSM East is still in the works, but I thought ALFA might be interested in having Waterdeep back.

[Thangorn]

that just a colour map indio?

I think I'll be using that method for my next cities for sure..

Props to you for coming up with this.. Zhentil Keep wouldnt have been such a pain in my ass if I'd known to do this before..

[indio]

I tried to use the colour map feature but couldn't get it right. So instead I made a greyscale version of the entire WD map, scaled it to size (this meant making 2 3x3 grids of 32x32 areas, north and south....make sense?) and stuck it in the texture slot using the new MotB black texture.

Voila.

I'll detail the exact process in the NWN2 forums soon. And yeah, I'd have made Silvy using this method too if hadn't been so stuck on using the Height Map to define the map layout.

[Thangorn]

so presumably once your buildings are in you can use update the area(s) with a new texturemap using YATT?

[indio]

Perzactly.

In fact, I've been trying textures out a lot in YATT, and you can quite successfully integrate 5 different in one hit. So that makes Photoshop your friend, although I won't pretend getting your Photoshop texture maps right is no simple task.

But t does mean you can lay down the following texture layers:

- Cobble
- Curbs
- House foundations (dirt)
- House perimeter (grass)
- Grime

This takes much of the fuss out of texturing, but like I say, demands a high price from Photoshop. Here are the 5 texture layers, which so far refuse to bend to my will in Photoshop.



Once they do though, instant texturing.

[Teric neDhalir]

Great tip on doing the map. But...

I've now got a complete 18 32x32 area module

That's insane. We don't need every building, mate. To finish that to any kind of quality will burn out an army of toolsetters. Sorry to be blunt.

[Thangorn]

are we talking about the same indio, Teric?

Indio will have that finished with spawns by tea-time

[indio]

It's a big ask, but I'm confident I can do it. TSM before I handed it to Rick was 10+ 32x32's, Anauroch was 9 32x32's and TSM East is 16.

And it's not like it's 18 32x32's covered in buildings. The top area, for example, looks like this:



So it's probably 10 full areas of buildings, and the difficulty has been stripped away, that is, working to a map on a page by your keyboard. This way it's like Color By Number.

And don't apologise for being blunt. It's not something you need to be sorry about, and it just makes me think that you're normally being 'polite' and not saying what you really think.

[darrenhfx]

Should keep you out of trouble for awhile anyway.

I'll be interested to see what Cipher thinks of it.

Is this amount of content easily hosted?

[indio]

Yeah, 18 32x32's should be well under 2GB so size won't be a big issue. Obviosly NPC AI is however, so a fast CPU will be important.

[Grand Fromage]

Aren't we already doing Waterdeep in conjunction with the NWCitadel guys?

If not, I'd seriously suggest building just one area and trying it out before you do all of this. I originally built my city as 32x32 and it was completely unplayable (on a 7900GTX, no less), I had to take the areas down to 24x24. Performance has been improved since then, but I'm not sure it's been improved enough.

[Rick7475]

No no no Indio, I said you had a week, not 2 days

But, wow, that is awesome. Judging by the detail of Silverymoon, yeah, Indio can do WD. Maybe there will be expanded sewer tilesets in the near future, too.

When I am done TSM west, I can add an interior or two here and there.

[indio]

Aren't we already doing Waterdeep in conjunction with the NWCitadel guys?

If not, I'd seriously suggest building just one area and trying it out before you do all of this. I originally built my city as 32x32 and it was completely unplayable (on a 7900GTX, no less), I had to take the areas down to 24x24. Performance has been improved since then, but I'm not sure it's been improved enough.

Yeahh, we are. If it's done then I can go on doing what I normally do. If not, then here's me offerring.

As for 32x32 versus 24x24, I've found Silverymoon quite playable on a 7900GT, a 6600GT and Raderon 1950 Pro....all of which are mid-low range cards, with the 6600 a bottom of the range. If you've played on TSM in its beta, you've played on 32x32 areas. And don't most of your areas have black smoke coming from most chimney's GF?

Still, the one area idea is sound.

[Grand Fromage]

And don't most of your areas have black smoke coming from most chimney's GF?

The area that caused me to change had nothing but buildings in it when I realized it wasn't going to work:



But I couldn't remember when I changed it, and in digging up that screenshot I found that was when the open toolset thingie came out and the NDA got lifted, so performance has had quite a lot of improvement since. All my 32s are pretty bare so I don't have a good basis for comparison anymore.

If a super-dense 32 works out then I got some ideas I need to try.

[fluffmonster]

Its nice. Before you do anything else, I suggest you talk to cipher and the others who have already taken on the responsibility for WD.

//edit on the face of it, seems like some stepping on toes...if this is a suggestion or help, shoulda brought it to the team directly.