I'm currently working on a jungle map where theres a swamp running from one side to another, and in some places, its shallow enough to cross.
This is what I got so far:
As you can see, its incredibly boring.
Does anyone have any ideas on how to make the water (and the surroundings) more lively, more realistic, and simply more "swamp like"?
make trees that have very high size values, like 150% to 250% and spread them out across the landscape. There is a setting somewhere that makes objects blur when units are behind them. Put that on them.
you have no line of sight blockers! Swamps are full of things you can't see around, another thing swamps have is fog. Make use of environment doodads!
swamps wouldn't have many rocks, but what they might have is roots! there are root doodads that you can attach to the bottoms of your trees and rotate them so that they look like the roots are growing towards the water in the area, that's a realistic effect!
floating creep pads with custom colors and hdr multipliers give cool effects to water. Either muddy silt or oil on the surface are both acheivable with floating creep pads, look into them!
those bushes you have, keep the wide X and Y values but shrink the Z value. Most wetland plants other than trees are very short. Tall plants are found in forests, and unless they are underneath large trees it makes no sense for plants to grow large.
another thing, your world is devoid of texture variance. the grass and dirt will look different under and near the water than it will several feet from it, consider that when you texture.
Thanks. I'll look into some of that. There are line of sight blockers, infact theres 5 in that picture alone. But since this map has to be playable aswell, I can't just toss them around randomly or make a great big forest out of them.
Also, there are textures in that map. Theres around 3 in that picture (I might have to increase them. They show a lot better in the editor than they did in game)
But my main problem is the water itself that just looks bland. Not very exciting nor swampy-like
Can't use custom models in a melee map :) But that picture is awesome.
Trees are also a big problem because they block units. And since the map has to be playable, you can't overuse them. Also, the LOS blockers can't be made smaller. Those doodas are apparently mode to be viewed from only one direction, and if you shrink them, they look awful.
Anyways, heres the same spot after some work:
The fog needs a bit work, and I'm really unsure about the floating creep pads. But the water itself does not look good, which has been my main problem this whole time.
There are 2 textures there. And every other texture from that pack is either rock, stone, or manmade stonerocks :(
You can go to the data editor and then go to 'texture sets' scroll all the way down and there you can replace textures in a tileset. This way you can as an example, have Char rock in any tileset you want. Though you are limited to 8 texture tiles and 4 cliff tiles.
You can go to the data editor and then go to 'texture sets' scroll all the way down and there you can replace textures in a tileset. This way you can as an example, have Char rock in any tileset you want. Though you are limited to 8 texture tiles and 4 cliff tiles.
I'm currently working on a jungle map where theres a swamp running from one side to another, and in some places, its shallow enough to cross. This is what I got so far:
As you can see, its incredibly boring.
Does anyone have any ideas on how to make the water (and the surroundings) more lively, more realistic, and simply more "swamp like"?
@Excludos: Go
make trees that have very high size values, like 150% to 250% and spread them out across the landscape. There is a setting somewhere that makes objects blur when units are behind them. Put that on them.
you have no line of sight blockers! Swamps are full of things you can't see around, another thing swamps have is fog. Make use of environment doodads!
swamps wouldn't have many rocks, but what they might have is roots! there are root doodads that you can attach to the bottoms of your trees and rotate them so that they look like the roots are growing towards the water in the area, that's a realistic effect!
floating creep pads with custom colors and hdr multipliers give cool effects to water. Either muddy silt or oil on the surface are both acheivable with floating creep pads, look into them!
those bushes you have, keep the wide X and Y values but shrink the Z value. Most wetland plants other than trees are very short. Tall plants are found in forests, and unless they are underneath large trees it makes no sense for plants to grow large.
another thing, your world is devoid of texture variance. the grass and dirt will look different under and near the water than it will several feet from it, consider that when you texture.
Thanks. I'll look into some of that. There are line of sight blockers, infact theres 5 in that picture alone. But since this map has to be playable aswell, I can't just toss them around randomly or make a great big forest out of them.
Also, there are textures in that map. Theres around 3 in that picture (I might have to increase them. They show a lot better in the editor than they did in game)
But my main problem is the water itself that just looks bland. Not very exciting nor swampy-like
Doodads doodads and more doodads. Also vary your textures more, flat textures look ugly as hell in SC2.
See
And watch http://forums.sc2mapster.com/general/general-chat/10163-mod-craft-weekly-workshops-tutorials-discussions/#p2
Can't use custom models in a melee map :) But that picture is awesome. Trees are also a big problem because they block units. And since the map has to be playable, you can't overuse them. Also, the LOS blockers can't be made smaller. Those doodas are apparently mode to be viewed from only one direction, and if you shrink them, they look awful.
Anyways, heres the same spot after some work:
The fog needs a bit work, and I'm really unsure about the floating creep pads. But the water itself does not look good, which has been my main problem this whole time.
Your waters fine, it's just the land is ugly as hell. You need to vary the terrain textures a lot more, that one texture looks f*ing ugly.
There are 2 textures there. And every other texture from that pack is either rock, stone, or manmade stonerocks :(
You can go to the data editor and then go to 'texture sets' scroll all the way down and there you can replace textures in a tileset. This way you can as an example, have Char rock in any tileset you want. Though you are limited to 8 texture tiles and 4 cliff tiles.
I didn't know that. Thanks a lot!
@Excludos: Go
even if it's only two textures it shouldnt look like just one flat sheet of filth.