How to making a huge map

[General.Jung]

Hello Forum,

I very interested in making huge map. But it is not possible to use multiple megatextures per level. And I do not know if it is possible to make larger megatextures. So how it will be possible to make very huge maps for a greater vehicle battle.

[MoP]

Well, even if you didn't make a larger Megatexture than the ones we currently use (32,768 x 32,768 pixels) - you can make the terrain bigger than this and just stretch the Megatexture over it. It'd be lower-resolution than other maps, but it wouldn't be bad, especially considering that a 64k x 64k Megatexture would not only take a very long time to render, but would also probably be 800-1000 Mb in size, which would put off a lot of people from downloading it :)

Just remember that the terrain mesh can be a different size to the Megatexture - so a 32k x 32k Megatexture does not necessarily mean that the terrain has to be 32,000 x 32,000 game units in size. :)

[General.Jung]

Hello MoP,

thanks for your post again. But it will be possible to make bigger megatextures than 10^9 Pixels? I know that I will get a releasing problem.

[MoP]

Yes, I believe our tools support rendering higher-resolution Megatextures. However, like I said earlier, it's probably not a good idea because it will take a very long time to render a Megatexture this big, and it will take up a lot of hard disk space, so it's not really a sensible idea, since it will make the download size very big (less people will download it, and you may get bandwidth/webspace issues) unless you plan to distribute your maps or mods on DVD :)

For now I would just concentrate on making Megatextures at 32k x 32k pixels, I think that's enough detail for any custom map :)

[General.Jung]

Hello MoP,

thanks for your answers. I can upload them on my root servers. I know 1 GigaByte for texture is heavy. The compile time is also a problem. Maybe I will test the resizing method of the game units. I really can not wait for the SDK.

[zig-zag]

What about view distance? Is there a limit we should set ourselves? How big in grid size can we aim for? (with or without MT in mind)
And about the huge MTs, if for something like making a movie set where the intention is for it to stay local, can you just go wild and make a HUGE scenery?

[[]v[]]

This has crossed my mind to make a movie you would want to increase the quality beyond what would be expected others to play on due to high fps/file size.
I beleive that the distance culling can be set by the mapper. So not very fps freindly but more aesthetically pleasing if this were to be increased to the limit.
But I expect there will still be some decrease in resolution over distance of the MT. but I don't see this as a problem. As its only apparent when zoomed in and for a movie this could be faked to keep the same qulaity as a close up.

[General.Jung]

Hello Forum,

I think you can put in a view limit with the Aurora Atmosphere Editor. Watch the videos of the SDK. I made a topic for this in this forum.

[Iori]

seems odd... 1000 megs for a terrain map seems insane..

maybe the doom3 engine tech is just doomed :)

[MoP]

Iori: When you consider that the size for a 65,536 x 65,536 pixel Megatexture would be roughly 500-1000 Mb, I think you'll find it's doing quite well... a 24-bit TGA file of the same resolution would be about 12.5 Gb :)

Like I say though, you don't need a Megatexture that big, nor do I expect anyone to release a custom map using a Megatexture that high-res, that's double the resolution that our maps use, I don't see it being necessary.

You don't even need to use a Megatexture at all. You can make terrains using traditional vertex blending techniques, although obviously they wouldn't look as good as having a unique Megatexture.

To make a custom map the same size as the ones that are shipping in-game, and using the same size Megatextures we do at SD, the download size for a map would be anywhere from 150 to 300 Mb, at a very rough approximation.

[channie]

To make a custom map the same size as the ones that are shipping in-game, and using the same size Megatextures we do at SD, the download size for a map would be anywhere from 150 to 300 Mb, at a very rough approximation.

A long time ago (http://82.133.85.46/forums/viewtopic.php?p=173423), we were told that some kind of torrent-based distribution system (http://82.133.85.46/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15843) might see the light of day to help promoting and distributing custom maps. I'm wondering what is the status of this project ?

[MoP]

Yeah, that's still a good idea for helping to distribute larger custom downloads. I don't know where that stands at the moment, we will probably discuss it further once the SDK is released. To echo Malarky in the post you linked though, no promises yet, sorry :)

[MWLL|Criminal]

Interesting, though as i understand it (and from what i've seen) you can actually tile the megatexture itself, is this incorrect? You can see tiling of it. ie: Slipgate.

Both worlds have a large seam down the east side denoting tiling to fill out the exterior terrain models.

[Mordenkainen]

Interesting, though as i understand it (and from what i've seen) you can actually tile the megatexture itself, is this incorrect? You can see tiling of it. ie: Slipgate.

Both worlds have a large seam down the east side denoting tiling to fill out the exterior terrain models.

You can see the tiling in sewer itself. Since the MT is just UV mapped over the terrain model any of the usual texture mapping options are still possible.

[General.Jung]

Hello Forum,

I want to try to make a big map. I think it is more usefully to use normal textures, which repeating! But how big, will be a map with megatexture, which is 4 time bigger than Valley, and is there any size limit of a level?

[spirit]

But how big, will be a map with megatexture, which is 4 time bigger than Valley, and is there any size limit of a level?

Unless this is a rhetorical qustion: If you want the same resolution as in valley, the answer ist roughly (size_of_valley * 4).

[reyalp]

Unless this is a rhetorical qustion: If you want the same resolution as in valley, the answer ist roughly (size_of_valley * 4).
It's not clear if he means 4x the area, or 4x on each side ?

[spirit]

In that case, the map would be 4x4 = 16 times bigger than Valley, not 4 times. ;-)

[reyalp]

In either case, the answer would seem to be "bloody huge". However, you might be able to arrange for large parts of your megatexture to be highly compressible.