FreeGameDev

I found what cause this bug, it's 2 grass sprites that overlap.
The best fix is to remove the cube under the top one. changing the texture of the under block don't work, the texture is reassigned with calclight.

Also, the light precision is a bit too high, should be 40-50 max. But it'll be fixed if the map is include in release.

I made a scheme that explain the problem and the fix. (green stick are grass)

Thanks for the effort and the clear explanation LuckyStrike-Rx. I will try your technique this weekend and post the result here

What do you mean exactly with the light precision? Do you mean the value that I highered to get sharper shadows? Why is it wrong (I ask out of curiousity and to learn what I can improve next time)? Do I need to fix this or will you do it when including it with the release?

Also, I was looking at the screenshots you posted of Ares2 and I really like the grass texture and color you used and how you improved the texture blending (dirt on the grass). I found following value in the .cfg file:
Line 42: // grassanimmillis 3000
Line 43: // grassanimscale 0.03
Line 44: // grassblend 1.0
Line 45: // grasscolour 0xFFFFFF
Line 46: // grassheight 4
Line 47: // grassscale 2
Line 3705: texgrass "<agrad:0,0.2>luckystrike/grass_lucky_green.png"
That's all I need to get the same result? And what exactly does <agrad:0,0.2> mean?
Do you remember which brush you used for the blending?

For the light precision, if the number is to low, it create to much cube subdivision and lower game performance.
Here an article that'll explain better than me :
http://www.quadropolis.us/node/30
lm must be under 5 (the number is in the border bottom right in edit mode)
For grass, I have no idea , I just copy/pasted venus grass line. I really don't know what <agrad:0,0.2> do.
I used the Circle 64 hard brush and few Noise for blendmap.

Today I corrected my map with Lucky's technique and I added grass. It looks SO MUCH better now! I'm still tweaking some small things that probably nobody will notice but that annoy me Will update the new and improved version very soon, hang on!

Ulukai {l Wrote}:Today I corrected my map with Lucky's technique and I added grass. It looks SO MUCH better now! I'm still tweaking some small things that probably nobody will notice but that annoy me Will update the new and improved version very soon, hang on!

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Helluva lotta updates! v1.6 already lol I'm glad it's the maps being updated and not the game. I'd rather download 10MB worth of map data than 400+MB of game data LOL!!

</offtopic>

UPDATE 06/11/2011: v1.7 is ready. There is finally grass now! Screenshots are updated.
Please download it here and update your links to my map: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?9raa0vt2v1dtwc4

Thanks LuckyStrike-Rx, this wouldn't have been possible without you. I also changed the light value a bit as you suggested. See changelog in original thread post for further changes.

Since the map consists of a large outdoor area, you might want to set /grassdist to 1000 to see grass all over the map and not only around you Only do this if you have a powerful machine, it will impact your framerate.

Whoa, that's a really sweet map, can't wait for it to be included in Red Eclipse. That is, if it will be included in the default installation, it does seem to deserve a place. Will probably download it when I have time. Again, looks great, good job!

i have one issue with this map just from the screenshots, the topography is totally flat and the river should look more natural and curvy. since a lot of the gameplay is outside, i would suggest making it feel like one is outside, changes in the terrain not only makes a map look more interesting, it makes gameplay more interesting.

Thank you for your feedback. I understand what you're saying but I don't totally agree with you It's not a river but a lake / pool so making it more curvy would feel unnatural to me. Also, it would eat up more space of the map and given that it's already pretty small I prefer to keep it that way.

There are more "flat" maps in RE (deadsimple, echo, venus, ...) and yet they are fun to play. It asks for other techniques and more man-to-man contact, which I like. I tried to bump the terrain in some places and I also want to encourage people to jump on the temples, the middle roof where the grenade is located and the roof of the corridor. This can be done by using parkour and give you the advantage of the surprise.

I put the map is in the repository for 1.2, quin have to watch it before adding it to the official map cycle.

Terrific map with a variety of elements well combined together.

Good luck for the inclusion among the official set of maps, I think it deserves it.

LuckyStrike-Rx {l Wrote}:I put the map is in the repository for 1.2, quin have to watch it before adding it to the official map cycle.

That's great, thank you.

NetMassimo {l Wrote}:Terrific map with a variety of elements well combined together.
Good luck for the inclusion among the official set of maps, I think it deserves it.

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it and I'm glad you enjoy the map!

I noticed some errors and found many things that could be improved to Ares, so I have v1.8 out. This is a big and important update because I have optimized this map to run with better framerates and I added support for Bomber-Ball. The performance of this new version is comparable with maps like Venus, Forge, Isolation and many others now. I hope it could make a big enough difference to maybe make it to the default rotation of RE v1.3.

Download Ares v1.8: http://www.mediafire.com/?k5lorjm7xrew9j0

28/02/2012 - ARES 1.8
Added Bomber-Ball support.
Fixed some minor geometry glitches.
A LOT of texture tweaking: I changed the offset of many textures so that the stones of the building really look like whole stones now. Some textures are replaced with others. Here and there I added some more detailed texturing.
Sound tweaks so that the torches aren't audible anymore when walking above them. The blowing wind is less disturbing now as well.
Added noclipping zones around the torches, allowing wallrunning.
MANY changes to the surrounding rocks. They are flattened a bit without losing their shape. This makes the map A LOT less resource hungry and should improve your framerate. Also the bottom and sides of the water zone has been flattened to improve framerate.
Adjustments to the rocks at the temple sides to make wall running / climbing easier.
All playserstarts were deleted and redone.
Improved bot paths.

Some comparative 1.7 / 1.8 screenshots (sorry for the bad quality) with some visual differences:

Rocks and building stones

Stairs

Texture details and removed the ceiling geometry

Stone texturing

Quick question:

Where should we put the file? Since it is included in the game, should it go into the main RE directory map folder (you know, the one in the Programs Files folder) or the My Games/Red Eclipse folder in the Documents folder (where all of the custom maps I download get placed)? Just wondering.

inpersona64 {l Wrote}:Quick question:

Where should we put the file? Since it is included in the game, should it go into the main RE directory map folder (you know, the one in the Programs Files folder) or the My Games/Red Eclipse folder in the Documents folder (where all of the custom maps I download get placed)? Just wondering.

If you place it in your home folder (my documents) the game will give this file priority and use this newer version if you select the map in the list.

As for now, the updated version is uploaded to my server (Ulukai's Killing Ground) for who likes to test it online. I called it ares18 because otherwise it would conflict with the existing map in RE 1.2. In order to vote for it online on my server, just download the map to your home folder, rename all files from ares to ares18 and then use the vote menu as usual to select ares18. People who are on the server and don't have the map on their clients yet, will download it immediately from the server.

Hey nice, that you are still updating your map. I like Ares, since I know it (don't know which version, but teamcolours where not included ). Also very interesting is the hint, that your improvements (reducing of "polygons", or heightmaps or whatever) speeds up the framerate. This is an important fact for me and could be useful for my own map.

downloading...

Razgriz made me some suggestions to add skytextures under the map and to add some bushes as well. I didn't think I would like the vegetation, but I do so here is v1.9.

Download Ares v1.9: http://www.mediafire.com/?kmbruf5wprbavzw

06/03/2012 - ARES 1.9
Added some bushes to bring a more natural atmosphere to the map.
Skytextured the pushed-in cubes under the grass surfaces to make it less noticeable when diving under the map in spectator mode.
Fixed 2 more geometry errors.

Added a license file, updated the download links.

Slightly off topic, but has anyone made a decent tutorial on texture brushing? I am making a new map at the moment and was hoping it would allow me to make some dirty/broken variations of textures.

4rson {l Wrote}:Slightly off topic, but has anyone made a decent tutorial on texture brushing? I am making a new map at the moment and was hoping it would allow me to make some dirty/broken variations of textures.

Use http://sauerbraten.org/docs/editref.htm ... e_blending as a reference, you should be able to start experimenting with these commands. It worked for me...

Anyway, you will need to edit te CFG file of your map, where you will add a line to determine which texture will blend with another one
After that, you can select your brush and the size of it in the editor.
Finally you start painting by clicking. I don't know whether clicking and dragging is possible, I used to click everywhere I wanted to blend.

Update has been included in Red Eclipse as of revision 3766. The fixes in this update have allowed the map to be put into the regular rotations. Thank you for your work.

Thanks for the update. It's because I keep working with the editor and I see other great maps from the community that I can make my existing maps only better.