Teamwork.

[novisionary]

I want to make an area map much like the ones used in the games.

 

I know nothing of programming.

 

I wonder, if I were to finish a good area map, say, a small village and surroundings, would there be programmers interested in doing the rest, adding people to fill it up and all that? I can't imagine how much work that would be, but it would'nt be much fun for me if I were to create such a map only to have it go unused.

 

These are only idle wonderings, I still have to work a lot more on the artisitc side before I have very clear ideas.

(I like painting, but I´m afraid it's not feasible for a work of this scale. Perhaps photoshop is the only way to go.)

 

I suspect any work of this kind, that is, creating entirely user made content, would only be realistic with a group of specialized people, a programmer, a graphics artist, a writer et cetera.

 

The big idea is that if a single area could be created and filled with life I could start working on another one and such.

 

So, what do you guys think?

[Kulyok]

Lots of people were and are asking for areas for BG2 like the one you just suggested. Maybe not as many as there would be a few years ago, but there are still requests from people at Classfields forum at SHS http://www.shsforums.net/forum/565-classifieds/ and so on. If you post your offer there, you might even get a reply very soon - good artists are rare and very valuable.

 

The problem is, artwork itself isn't as tedious as making the area ready(you'll have to "draw borders" for your area in DLTCEP, do the light maps and so on and THAT's no fun) - so are you up to the last bit? Because adding people and writing a quest is a piece of cake(a long one, but when you're inspired, several weeks should do it, and coding is easy). Making a "finished" area out of a single .png file? Maker, no. Nonono. Been there, done that, burnt the T-shirt.

 

Bottom line: if it's "hey, guys, take this ready-for-installing-into-BG2 area, do whatever you want with it, PM me when the mod is ready, give me the credit" - yes, it's very likely you'll succeed. (Although chances are high someone will grab your area and do nothing with it, but, well, such is life, and someone is bound to use it a few months later). If it's "One great .png/.tiff/.bmp area file here, does anyone want to use it in their mod?" - possible, but far less likely.

 

Best of luck to you, in any case!

[Avenger]

For Glory of Istar, i did most of the wallgrouping (and lots of other work in converting a bmp into are/mos/tis/wed).

I don't have that much time anymore, but i could do it, maybe,If your area graphics is good enough, i could be convinced.

Our artist was able to provide searchmap, lightmap and heightmap. I'm almost sure that with lots of work, somehow even wallgroup info could be squeezed out from 3ds.

If you use plain photoshop, then probably these are not so easy to get.

[novisionary]

Hm, I had not given all the underlying stuff much thought. Are these things explained in detail anywhere? I guess they must be, I don't know where.

It sounds to me like much of this would best be done alongside the other graphic work, but I'd like to see good documentation to figure it out.

 

I have done mapping before, on an engine where tha map was split into a colormap, heightmap, shadowmap, reflectionmap, passabilitymap and one more I think.(That one had visible height differences too.)

I never realized the IE would have an actual height map, it always seems so flat.

[novisionary]

And I wanted to add I'll probably be using GIMP. IS there a program you would recommend over either GIMP or Photoshop?

[Avenger]

The area building tutorial is here: http://www.simpilot.net/~sc/dltcep/index.htm

[novisionary]

Not as bad as I feared from your description. Tedious, but not a real killer.

 

The wallgroups seem to be very tedious, and light maps seem to be a hassle.

Either way, it won't matter much until I have made some graphics.

[Avenger]

I think a primitive lightmap could simply be generated from a greyscale version of the area map.

[picollo]

If u want, I can help with making wallgroups, search& lightmaps. Untill it doesn't require to make doors, it's easy, and not so much time consuming. Doors are pain in the ass, but I can do it as well.

[edheldil]

I think a primitive lightmap could simply be generated from a greyscale version of the area map.

 

 

Actually, I think a primitive lightmap would be best made as full light everywhere. The color of ground (or its L channel) does not corellate with avatar lighting that much.

Possibly a lightmap could be generated by the modelling tool, just like heightmap.