Ok, so i know i promised some vid tutorials on creating trees at the very least... however, i am still stuck on getting my mic to work. I am almost ready to simply use another computer for the sound file and then overlay it onto a recorded tutorial. I also am stuck finding a high quality vid capture program that i like... most ive tried (free) have had there issues and have annoyed the crap out of me. Trying to record for more then about 5 min, and the compiler within the programs seems to get angry with me. So, maybe ill break it into 5 minute segments, tho this is quite annoying as i would prefer to make each tutorial a single file.
Beyond the annoyances I have found, I have also started work on creating some fresh zones along with attempting to break down the graphics engine in an attempt to better understand what I can and cannot do with it.
A few things Id like to be able to use:
-Higher res textures then 2048x2048
--Simply because I want higher quality on my terrain and dont want to have to attempt to manually break a high res texture into tiles and then blend the edges... so far this has failed badly.... the terrain has a white edge along the seam.
-I would like to figure out if the engine could support bump mapping
--The entire feel of the game would be enhanced tho as of right now, any object bumpmaped simply compiles as white
-I would like to see if multiple layers of clipping can be applied
--This would mean zones that look closer to the revamp of the commonlands from live including grass and whatnot rather then simply static blades of grass here and there... tho this may be the only option
-I would personally like to see support for the blend based textures instead or in addition to higher resolution support.
--This would make creating quality zones much much faster as well as look much better. Using heightmaps for textureblending would add to realism and could negate necessity for higher res support beyond 2048x2048.
-Normal Mapping
--I know this is a stretch, but if normal maps were supported... well... zones would be in a hole different state then they are... and the size of the files would be tons smaller... instead of needing to increase poly count on pointless things simply to get rid of the (o, thats a box... nice house) feel.
-Texture animation for .s3d or OZ compileing to .eqg formats
--I know its beed said, but texture animation is beyond necessary... unless you like still motion water... that is more like ice... and if eqg was cracked... then even more would be possible.
Ok, enough of my ranting of what I would like to have at my disposal to create zones, and now for a few screen shots of some stuff that was done using the current limitations as well as lower quality low poly trees with lower res textures to enable better seeding and higher volume of trees.
In this photo, you can see the breakdown of the texture at a closer standpoint... the entire zone was given a single 2048x2048 bmp for the ground to enable simple painting of paths and whatnot. The original bmp was generated through baking for the max blended material into a single image... however, the resolution simply is not enough to look even remotely decient... unless u like flying above at about 1000 feet looking down.
All trees are created with the lowest polys needed as well as 512 res textures.
Let me know any input...
Also as a side note, windows 7 x64 does support OZ 8.3... however any newer version crashes upon compile.
An Update on modeling, OZ, and stuff
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