After hearing about the terrain texture changes made to make the Battlefield of Eternity map in Heroes of the Storm, I went digging to see just how many textures the game now supports.
From examining the map, it currently uses 16 textures. What is interesting is that is not the new maximum. It appears that you now can use up to 8 different terrain definitions on a single map, which means up to 64 different textures. The Battlefield map uses 3 different terrain definitions, one for each side and one to handle the transition points/edges, which uses a mix of textures from the first 2 sets.
TL:DR: 64 texture blends possible in Storm/Void, something that should permit terrainers to make much more complex/interesting terrain.
considering the power of Blizzard's marketing machine i'm estimating that "sometime in july" basicaly means July 31. Forcing you to visit the site during this month to check for news.
Here is 2 XML files that are used to described terrain, for comparision purposes. The normal one is from a standard current SC2 map, the other one is from the Battlefield of Eternity map
I like how they approached this. Basing on the posted XMLs i'm guessing that format of t3TextureMasks file hasn't even changed. Instead there are block descriptors inside an XML. Each block has its own descriptor that contains tileset id.
Basically 8 texture limit still exists, but it is now limited to a terrain block, not a whole map.
One block is 8x8 long (contains 64x64 pixels).
Agreed. It will indeed be interesting to see how this dealt with in the editor, I have not seen any strings to suggest how this is done. As an update, Void definitely includes this and this is standard, all the Void prologue mission maps have similar XML files.
Interesting. The Heaven vs Hell map had 3 terrain definitions, with the 3rd one using a mix of the 16. I just find it strange it would only be 16, since the xml clearly points to 8 sets being usable (hence the Heaven Hell map using 3) and 64 entries for texture blends. Perhaps a work in progress.
After hearing about the terrain texture changes made to make the Battlefield of Eternity map in Heroes of the Storm, I went digging to see just how many textures the game now supports.
From examining the map, it currently uses 16 textures. What is interesting is that is not the new maximum. It appears that you now can use up to 8 different terrain definitions on a single map, which means up to 64 different textures. The Battlefield map uses 3 different terrain definitions, one for each side and one to handle the transition points/edges, which uses a mix of textures from the first 2 sets.
TL:DR: 64 texture blends possible in Storm/Void, something that should permit terrainers to make much more complex/interesting terrain.
@ArcaneDurandel: Go
I need help picking my jaw from the floor! :-0
Thank you for the research and time you spend looking for this terrain wonders.
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considering the power of Blizzard's marketing machine i'm estimating that "sometime in july" basicaly means July 31. Forcing you to visit the site during this month to check for news.
Here is 2 XML files that are used to described terrain, for comparision purposes. The normal one is from a standard current SC2 map, the other one is from the Battlefield of Eternity map
Nice find!
I like how they approached this. Basing on the posted XMLs i'm guessing that format of t3TextureMasks file hasn't even changed. Instead there are block descriptors inside an XML. Each block has its own descriptor that contains tileset id.
Basically 8 texture limit still exists, but it is now limited to a terrain block, not a whole map. One block is 8x8 long (contains 64x64 pixels).
I wonder how is it handled inside an editor.
@SomeoneTookMyNameTT: Go
Agreed. It will indeed be interesting to see how this dealt with in the editor, I have not seen any strings to suggest how this is done. As an update, Void definitely includes this and this is standard, all the Void prologue mission maps have similar XML files.
Well, it definitly only support 16 textures right now. 64 is overestimated.
It allows you to specify 2 tile set. Which is how the Heaven vs Hell map handled.
@Renee2islga: Go
Interesting. The Heaven vs Hell map had 3 terrain definitions, with the 3rd one using a mix of the 16. I just find it strange it would only be 16, since the xml clearly points to 8 sets being usable (hence the Heaven Hell map using 3) and 64 entries for texture blends. Perhaps a work in progress.
Yes, the 3rd tile is actually using textures that already exist in the provious 2. Which make them 16 textures as total. So it the limit for now.
Still, we can hope for a better furture.