Some Plains (PL) Research

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Re: Some Plains (PL) Research

Post by machf »

tatu wrote: Oh, I think I explained it wrong. The location of the town is still the same. What I meant was that the terrain itself. They cut of parts of the terrain on the east side of town so they could add the parts of Plains in the same terrain file, and keep the normal size of the terrain.
They did not move the actually town. If that explains it better :P
Uh huh, that's what I said... they had to move the terrain limits so that they could fit the dam in there when they dropped the Plains level.
I guess that's why they changed the exit to the other gate, too...

(BTW, the displacement was 256m, or 128 pixels in my map...)
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Re: Some Plains (PL) Research

Post by MinePass »

So the river from IJ3 goes through the town, didn't see that coming.
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Re: Some Plains (PL) Research

Post by MinePass »

Ok, so I've been comparing the texture and bump maps that machf posted in my MinePass topic and I believe that the road on the table map shows a different section of road in the Pl area. Below is the bump map from the table map.
PIslandModel00b8.bmp
PIslandModel00b8.bmp (65.05 KiB) Viewed 17254 times
we know from the walkthrough that the road seen in the retail portion can be considered accurate despite there being two sections that are impassible. But according to the table map that section is instead a serious of turns. Originally I thought this was the North road based on that it was important enough to have on the map, not to mention it's the only road there. But after noticing this I'm convinced that I was incorrect.
_20170730_170525.JPG
_20170730_170525.JPG (44.67 KiB) Viewed 17254 times
In this close up we see that up till the turn the road matches the retail maps. But then it goes through a series of turns before going through the dot representing the dam. I recently noticed this is not on the retail section, on the retail map the road DOESN'T TOUCH the marker but goes around it. Not only that but it appears there's a black dot similar to the others in the center of the M like road. Going back to the bump map the area where the retail road runs seems unchanged, so it's possible this is a branch off of the North road. According to the walkthrough the only known ingen structures out here are the block house, radio tower (downed), and the fenced off dam area. The first two seem to remote to have a section notable section of road leading to them, granted though the exact location of the radio tower and wether or not it actually made into the level is unknown. But the fact of the matter is that the road leads to and through the dam marker. And now there's there's another dot which could only be the block house as it's the only object left.

Perhaps the building was more important than we know. All the walkthrough says is that it's "a small cement structure in the extreme north of the plains, contains some items which hint at some sort of story: a child's toy, some dishes, a weapon". The only internal description is from Ann about it being air-conditioned and guessing it was for storage. Maybe the unknown story was what made it important, otherwise we have another unknown about this level.
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Re: Some Plains (PL) Research

Post by Draconisaurus »

Somehow the presence of a radio tower in PL totally passed me by... I see it now in the walkthrough. One more thing to be sure PL: Reloaded has.
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Re: Some Plains (PL) Research

Post by machf »

And then you have these:

Anne122: After the bridge has collapsed behind her
Anne122c

I was really hoping that wasn't going to happen.

Anne123: First sight of plains
Anne123b
(whistles, impressed)
…must be a mile across. A 6.50 cab ride.
The first one is from te "getting to the Plains" section (aftet leaving the Town), and the second one is from the start of the actual Plains level, apparently...

And this one later:

AnneUse003: "Uses" the scary toy clown
AnneUse003b

Yay! Scary toy clown!
It's definitely from the Blockhouse or soemwehere close to it...
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Re: Some Plains (PL) Research

Post by Draconisaurus »

Where is that old thread where someone made the scary toy clown? I think TI did it..
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Re: Some Plains (PL) Research

Post by TheIdiot »

Draconisaurus wrote:Where is that old thread where someone made the scary toy clown? I think TI did it..
That was me, alright. It's a bit outdated now, I could definitely make much better. :P

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=10739
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Re: Some Plains (PL) Research

Post by Draconisaurus »

Haha thanks!
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Re: Some Plains (PL) Research

Post by machf »

So, while Drac keeps working on his map, here's a couple of things I made using the bumpmaps:
PlainsPlane03b.rar
(259.14 KiB) Downloaded 629 times
Plains .WTD file (together with the corresponding .TRR and .TRI files)
PL1_Terrain.rar
(488.53 KiB) Downloaded 605 times
The same terrain in .TPM format

This is the second bumpmap after minor editing:
bumpImage2.bmp
bumpImage2.bmp (192.05 KiB) Viewed 16965 times
That's the one I used to generate the terrain.

Also, look here for the new SornaMapImages.rar file to get the corresponding texture for the .TPM file...
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Re: Some Plains (PL) Research

Post by Draconisaurus »

Will be posting updated on my version of PL when the ingame areas become presentable...
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Re: Some Plains (PL) Research

Post by tatu »

Some new thoughts about the Max Scene we have, that is was used for some sort of rendering and not actually gameplay.

The scene have a huge box around itself, which could be a skybox. It also got an object (flat) named backdrop. It could be that the terrain is a hightmap and not an actually terrain in order for it to render the way they wanted.
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Re: Some Plains (PL) Research

Post by Draconisaurus »

This seems possible to me. Could explain a few things about the state of the level. More of a compilation of to-be-used assets that doesn't accommodate the presence of the Dam.
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Re: Some Plains (PL) Research

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tatu wrote:It also got an object (flat) named backdrop. It could be that the terrain is a hightmap and not an actually terrain in order for it to render the way they wanted.
I thought that was already obvious... but not quite the way you describe. Trespasser terrains were generated from heightmaps, that's a fact. The MaxScripts that are found together with the source confirm that. That's what I've been applying lately.
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Re: Some Plains (PL) Research

Post by Draconisaurus »

I took Tatu's comment to mean that the in-Max terrain never looked like Trespasser terrains (as they appear to us in TresEd). However for all we/I know, the in-Max terrains always looked like raw uniform heightmaps, which could explain all the heightfixing Tatu has to do :yum:
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Re: Some Plains (PL) Research

Post by tatu »

Draconisaurus wrote:However for all we/I know, the in-Max terrains always looked like raw uniform heightmaps, which could explain all the heightfixing Tatu has to do :yum:
Well we know the terrain is not converted exactly the same each time you export it and convert it into a .wtd file. Even unmodified areas will be effected. That would be one reason. Then another might be terrain changes overall and I don't think their terrain placement tool was perfect, and of course there are probably some unintended movements of some. :)
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