So I'm trying to create a Fps rpg game and I'm killing my brain trying to go over starcrafts problems in FPS. Only been using the editor for a month and I'm already fixing most issues like the horrible performance problem in fps mode which is caused by the awful sc2 terrain (Don't know why nobody noticed this before). Removing the terrain solved the problem and the game works at ULTRA settings with the largest farclipping allowing the sky to be visible with hundreds of models and not much performance loss or frame drop. *Note I am using a Pentium 4 with one core + a nvidia geforce 4600 gt, a true dinosaur!
Solving that led to another problem which is that I want to make the terrain in 3ds max as a separate mesh with terrain Null as the material so that I can paint on it in the editor. Unfortunately there is a scale problem, whenever I scale a terrain object the terrain textures lose quality and become really blurry, doesn't matter, it just has to be a larger scale and it behaves like that. I tried this command "texuvset (scalex) (scaley) (offsetx = 0) (offsety = 0)" but it does not affect the object's texture quality at all.
Any expert on the matter?
Edit: No it's not my video card or computer! It's a material\editor behavior for the "terrain null" objects. Just scale a object with terrain null material applied and see what happens! Make the scale big and look up close!
[Bump]
Ok folks, I'll be more specific because I'm almost certain nobody understood or nobody knows what I was trying to do, I'll be attempting to be more explicit!
So, I made this terrain mesh in 3ds max for which I applied a "Terrain Null" material and It looks fine at small scale. The problem is that I need it to be as big as the terrain, it's replacement and while scaled the textures lose quality, somthing like a magnifying effect.
Small Terrain
Scaled Terrain
Like I said try scaling a terrain object like a terrain crater for instance...
Notice the efect?!
This command "texuvset (scalex) (scaley) (offsetx = 0) (offsety = 0)" does not work so I'm hoping someone knows the answer to my feminin frustration!
At the very least does anybody know how to replace the model: "Space Platform Destructible Jumbo" ?
---------------------
To prove that I am serious about this and I'm not just another dork asking random questions I'll leave you with a "Proof of concept"!
When you say texuvset "doesn't work", do you mean it does nothing? Have you tried simply using "texuvset x y" without the offset commands? This should up the tiling value of the texture you're using without doing anything else meaning the texture looks less stretched when viewed close up, aka better. For as far as I know, this has really always been pretty much the only way to 'improve' actual terrain textures and it has worked fairly well for me so far. I've reliably used it to improve the looks of maps that use a camera more zoomed in than the standard SC2 camera.
Other than this, I don't think you can improve the looks of your textures without simply making better/higher resolution textures and importing them.
First I would like to thank you for replying. Second I'll try that command although I doubt it will work on a Mesh object no matter what I try. If nothing works I'll consider a different approach, this would of been ideal for what I wanted and note that I am not using the actual terrain, I disabled it.
Thanks again for the suggestion!
Edit: Using larger texture size is pointless at that scale! SAD!
Edit: Seems that the "texuvset x y" without the offset command does nothing.
Guess I'll use a multi material to paint the textures in Max, duno how that will work!
No worries! I'm not sure if I can be of help - the thing is that while we have some very tech-savvy people in the Terraining boards, it is mostly focused around aesthetics and how to make stuff look good rather than real technical overhauls of graphics, which is why you likely haven't received much response yet. If you can't get any help here, feel free to try again in another board where there may be a more appropriate audience (Models or even General).
That said: no, texuvset only works on textures placed down regularly with the brush. If you're using objects for floor rather than normal textures (which I didn't gather from your first post), the function probably won't do anything. Just to double check though: you realize that when I type 'texuvset x y' I mean for example 'texuvset 18 18' and not simply 'texuvset x y', right? If you did this correctly and it didn't help, I think you're running out of luck in terms of solutions that are purely tied to terrain :(
There's a way to do this for sure, I'll find it eventually. I thought that this section been related to terrain would also give me answers to some more advanced technical features so it's mostly the artistic part here. I love terraining and I made some terrains before on another site for warcraft 3. I kind of surpassed it's graphic limitations for such a old game so after seeing SC graphical capabilities I thought it's great for making a fps or rpg. I also want to prove to the people that said that SC2 isn't suited for making such games that they are wrong.
I'll ask in another board maybe I'll have some luck.
Go to data -> actors -> TOPSDJumboMA. Set Actor Inherits (scale) to enabled.
It works if placed as doodad. I've never used terrain objects, but there must be another option that I'm missing and you can find.
After doing that, and if it works, please share how have you achieved a fluid fps. I'm pretty sure that lots of sc2mapster users will find your method useful.
Of Course I'll share everything after I make a project thread, don't even have one yet. I actually can't believe it myself but it seems Starcraft 2 is better optimized than I thought. It can run everything from a really far view altogether while putting very little strain on performance. This means that people with far weaker PC's than mine will be able to run a fps at medium or possibly high settings. It's just a simple trick and from what I've seen nobody has done it before, that is the complete removal of the terrain! I'll explain later how and why that works.
It's a shame, the terrain really has some nice features, to bad!
Actually I came across a huge stop sign, it seems that the terrain material has been rendered useless for good in my mod.
<sub>Written by Blizzard</sub>
The SC2 Terrain Material allows a custom model to use the colors of the terrain painted directly below it on the map in which it is placed. Terrain textures can be cached as a performance optimization, therefore it is inadvisable to use this material on any model that moves. In StarCraft II this is often used to integrate doodads with the terrain, such as the little terrain chunks on the sides of the mineral resource models, or to make a large custom model appear as if it part of the ground as it done with most Terrain Objects. Meshes that use SC2 Terrain should not be over 800 3ds Max units, or 8 in-game units in size, otherwise there may be visual errors; Subdivide Meshes in the Export Floater can be used to correct this in extreme cases. SC2 Terrain implicitly accepts Creep.
I'll have to use large textures for the terrain or I should research the art tools a lot more and try to make up a composite material for the terrain mesh, would be the most optimal solution. Also I am setting up a demo map for a FPS, takes time and I'll be revealing the mod later but there will be no promises if I'll actually be making it or not to the finished product.
Pretty sure that the massive performance loss while in high drawing distance aren't the models themselves but the terrain tile, which is always at full resolution. (no texture filtering)It is fine from the native camera angle but it is an overkill from any other camera angle. A 256x256 map has a terrain mesh that is like 131k polygons minimum (probably much higher if there are seams and material layers) and 65,536 tiles of unoptimized 64x64 pix textures all over the place which is not only insane load but also a mega brutal aliasing galore.
Most likely the maximum you can do is change the tileset to something like 2x2 pixel sized texture to minimize the impact on performance. >>>
Actually the models play a small role in performance loss but it depends on it's complexity. You can make a test, completely remove the terrain but keep the doodads, should run as smoth as a baby's but more or less depending on your computer.
A single mesh no matter how dense should draw faster than the same mesh split in dozens of pieces It's something I noticed for a while now and I hope I got it right but I assume some models are loaded better if it's one object instead of many, not to certain about ones that are to large and too complex with geometry.
Edit: You can use the show/hide terrain in the editor but for playable purposes hide the terrain cell or use triggers in game to do so. You will notice that you may experience a problem with shadows but I'll explain that later and how to fix it as well.
So what if I want to hide the terrain but rather than creating a new terrain like you I just re-textured a plane or something and used that as my "ground" would that still reduce lag?
I'd recommend you make the floor as one single object and ad the buildings and walls separately or Make large pieces of the level in one model (splint in 2,3 pieces whatever you want) while trying to keep a balance somehow.
Note: If you are making a complex terrain\mesh try optimizing it somehow use "pro optimize" in 3ds max on any areas you can and spare the parts you want to be more detailed, trust me it's for the better! The type of tessellation of the mesh also counts, see what works best.
Yes that's exactly what I meant by planes. I'm very intrigued by all this and I'm grateful for all the information. If you discover anything else or have any other suggestions for a FPS or maps like that I'd be very interested in hearing your thoughts. PM with anything if you can. Thanks I'd be much obliged.
So I'm trying to create a Fps rpg game and I'm killing my brain trying to go over starcrafts problems in FPS. Only been using the editor for a month and I'm already fixing most issues like the horrible performance problem in fps mode which is caused by the awful sc2 terrain (Don't know why nobody noticed this before). Removing the terrain solved the problem and the game works at ULTRA settings with the largest farclipping allowing the sky to be visible with hundreds of models and not much performance loss or frame drop. *Note I am using a Pentium 4 with one core + a nvidia geforce 4600 gt, a true dinosaur!
Solving that led to another problem which is that I want to make the terrain in 3ds max as a separate mesh with terrain Null as the material so that I can paint on it in the editor. Unfortunately there is a scale problem, whenever I scale a terrain object the terrain textures lose quality and become really blurry, doesn't matter, it just has to be a larger scale and it behaves like that. I tried this command "texuvset (scalex) (scaley) (offsetx = 0) (offsety = 0)" but it does not affect the object's texture quality at all.
Any expert on the matter?
Edit: No it's not my video card or computer! It's a material\editor behavior for the "terrain null" objects. Just scale a object with terrain null material applied and see what happens! Make the scale big and look up close!
[Bump]
Ok folks, I'll be more specific because I'm almost certain nobody understood or nobody knows what I was trying to do, I'll be attempting to be more explicit!
So, I made this terrain mesh in 3ds max for which I applied a "Terrain Null" material and It looks fine at small scale. The problem is that I need it to be as big as the terrain, it's replacement and while scaled the textures lose quality, somthing like a magnifying effect.
Small Terrain
Scaled Terrain
Like I said try scaling a terrain object like a terrain crater for instance...
Notice the efect?!
This command "texuvset (scalex) (scaley) (offsetx = 0) (offsety = 0)" does not work so I'm hoping someone knows the answer to my feminin frustration! At the very least does anybody know how to replace the model: "Space Platform Destructible Jumbo" ?
---------------------To prove that I am serious about this and I'm not just another dork asking random questions I'll leave you with a "Proof of concept"!
When you say texuvset "doesn't work", do you mean it does nothing? Have you tried simply using "texuvset x y" without the offset commands? This should up the tiling value of the texture you're using without doing anything else meaning the texture looks less stretched when viewed close up, aka better. For as far as I know, this has really always been pretty much the only way to 'improve' actual terrain textures and it has worked fairly well for me so far. I've reliably used it to improve the looks of maps that use a camera more zoomed in than the standard SC2 camera.
Other than this, I don't think you can improve the looks of your textures without simply making better/higher resolution textures and importing them.
First I would like to thank you for replying. Second I'll try that command although I doubt it will work on a Mesh object no matter what I try. If nothing works I'll consider a different approach, this would of been ideal for what I wanted and note that I am not using the actual terrain, I disabled it.
Thanks again for the suggestion!
Edit: Using larger texture size is pointless at that scale! SAD!
Edit: Seems that the "texuvset x y" without the offset command does nothing.
Guess I'll use a multi material to paint the textures in Max, duno how that will work!
@Tobyfat50: Go
No worries! I'm not sure if I can be of help - the thing is that while we have some very tech-savvy people in the Terraining boards, it is mostly focused around aesthetics and how to make stuff look good rather than real technical overhauls of graphics, which is why you likely haven't received much response yet. If you can't get any help here, feel free to try again in another board where there may be a more appropriate audience (Models or even General).
That said: no, texuvset only works on textures placed down regularly with the brush. If you're using objects for floor rather than normal textures (which I didn't gather from your first post), the function probably won't do anything. Just to double check though: you realize that when I type 'texuvset x y' I mean for example 'texuvset 18 18' and not simply 'texuvset x y', right? If you did this correctly and it didn't help, I think you're running out of luck in terms of solutions that are purely tied to terrain :(
There's a way to do this for sure, I'll find it eventually. I thought that this section been related to terrain would also give me answers to some more advanced technical features so it's mostly the artistic part here. I love terraining and I made some terrains before on another site for warcraft 3. I kind of surpassed it's graphic limitations for such a old game so after seeing SC graphical capabilities I thought it's great for making a fps or rpg. I also want to prove to the people that said that SC2 isn't suited for making such games that they are wrong.
I'll ask in another board maybe I'll have some luck.
Try this:
Go to data -> actors -> TOPSDJumboMA. Set Actor Inherits (scale) to enabled.
It works if placed as doodad. I've never used terrain objects, but there must be another option that I'm missing and you can find.
After doing that, and if it works, please share how have you achieved a fluid fps. I'm pretty sure that lots of sc2mapster users will find your method useful.
Check out my kitbashes! Custom Campaign Initiative: Lots of great Custom Campaigns!! Check out and Support!!
Thanks I'll test it as soon as I can!
Of Course I'll share everything after I make a project thread, don't even have one yet. I actually can't believe it myself but it seems Starcraft 2 is better optimized than I thought. It can run everything from a really far view altogether while putting very little strain on performance. This means that people with far weaker PC's than mine will be able to run a fps at medium or possibly high settings. It's just a simple trick and from what I've seen nobody has done it before, that is the complete removal of the terrain! I'll explain later how and why that works.
It's a shame, the terrain really has some nice features, to bad!
Actually I came across a huge stop sign, it seems that the terrain material has been rendered useless for good in my mod.
<sub>Written by Blizzard</sub>
The SC2 Terrain Material allows a custom model to use the colors of the terrain painted directly below it on the map in which it is placed. Terrain textures can be cached as a performance optimization, therefore it is inadvisable to use this material on any model that moves. In StarCraft II this is often used to integrate doodads with the terrain, such as the little terrain chunks on the sides of the mineral resource models, or to make a large custom model appear as if it part of the ground as it done with most Terrain Objects. Meshes that use SC2 Terrain should not be over 800 3ds Max units, or 8 in-game units in size, otherwise there may be visual errors; Subdivide Meshes in the Export Floater can be used to correct this in extreme cases. SC2 Terrain implicitly accepts Creep.
I'll have to use large textures for the terrain or I should research the art tools a lot more and try to make up a composite material for the terrain mesh, would be the most optimal solution. Also I am setting up a demo map for a FPS, takes time and I'll be revealing the mod later but there will be no promises if I'll actually be making it or not to the finished product.
@Tobyfat50: Go
I'll be interested in how all this turns out. I'm also interested in why removing the terrain is such an optimization.
<<< Originally posted by Talavaj From the HiveWorkshop (I recommend you read the thread the guy's a genius)
http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/map-development-202/memento-mori-231499/index23.html
Pretty sure that the massive performance loss while in high drawing distance aren't the models themselves but the terrain tile, which is always at full resolution. (no texture filtering)It is fine from the native camera angle but it is an overkill from any other camera angle. A 256x256 map has a terrain mesh that is like 131k polygons minimum (probably much higher if there are seams and material layers) and 65,536 tiles of unoptimized 64x64 pix textures all over the place which is not only insane load but also a mega brutal aliasing galore.
Most likely the maximum you can do is change the tileset to something like 2x2 pixel sized texture to minimize the impact on performance. >>>
Actually the models play a small role in performance loss but it depends on it's complexity. You can make a test, completely remove the terrain but keep the doodads, should run as smoth as a baby's but more or less depending on your computer.
A single mesh no matter how dense should draw faster than the same mesh split in dozens of pieces It's something I noticed for a while now and I hope I got it right but I assume some models are loaded better if it's one object instead of many, not to certain about ones that are to large and too complex with geometry.
Edit: You can use the show/hide terrain in the editor but for playable purposes hide the terrain cell or use triggers in game to do so. You will notice that you may experience a problem with shadows but I'll explain that later and how to fix it as well.
@Tobyfat50: Go
So what if I want to hide the terrain but rather than creating a new terrain like you I just re-textured a plane or something and used that as my "ground" would that still reduce lag?
Yes! As long as it's separate from the terrain and it's one mesh (could be more meshes as well but make it one model), it can also be as dens in vertices as you like probably even smoother than the terrain itself as long as you remove the train you are fine.
Retexture a plane as in, "a plane model" right? Something like this....> http://th00.deviantart.net/fs71/200H/f/2011/260/4/3/modular_dungeon_lowpoly_floors_by_jeremiahbigley-d4a4frr.jpg.
Not mine!
I'd recommend you make the floor as one single object and ad the buildings and walls separately or Make large pieces of the level in one model (splint in 2,3 pieces whatever you want) while trying to keep a balance somehow.
@Tobyfat50: Go
Yes that's exactly what I meant by planes. I'm very intrigued by all this and I'm grateful for all the information. If you discover anything else or have any other suggestions for a FPS or maps like that I'd be very interested in hearing your thoughts. PM with anything if you can. Thanks I'd be much obliged.
I am moving the thread here, the place where the fps tests will also be uploaded. _>>> http://www.sc2mapster.com/forums/resources/project-workplace/64151-hellsing-mod-sc-2/
Removed.