3D Cities for Falcon…
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Well long ago I was on to this. First my 3D Studio Max and general 3d knowledge suck big time. I’m a total newb and if I don’t make sense at some points please bare with me.
Now building the towns is a pain… also the approach to just tosh 5-10 buildings over the city tiles ain’t that pretty, very good instead of nothing but not enough. Also Airbases surroundings and near by villages - cities are naked.
Well thankfully there is a solution (I hope) to our problem. And I say I hope cause what I will just present u bellow I couldn’t test it in Falcon first. Why than bother u? Well I ain’t knowledgeable enough on 3ds and also importing those 3d objects to Falcon and test them… but I have the knowledge to judge that this solution will help us BIG TIME and make city production a piece of cake (kinda). Also I’m sure as I others guys might struggle with the same subject Like Tom Catz and it’s a shame to spend huge amounts of time when there is this tool around…The tool is for 3DS Max… works with Design version too 2011 and 2012 and 64bit. I personally tested it.
The tool name is GhostTown. It’s free for now. (later on the developer says will go commercial in a symbolic price).
What can u do with it? A whole city in just a few minutes with enough detail level for games and surely I believe for our beloved Falcon.
It’s a Plugin for 3DSMAX and run’s scripts. The whole thing is on a package and the potential is enormous. Already the Dev works on the next version that makes miracles and as I saw it will help us big time create unbelievable details for Falcon… What about a whole Railway network??? Huh? Maybe not moving trains but that’s a start…The tool as is now offers us full production potential and we could easily start making cities or sites or Rivers Parks Factory Blocks u name it in a blink of an Eye. Hell if I can do it an OldFart Robin Hood than it will be great for u HardCore dev’s and I have high hopes on it.
Enough talking for now let me give u a taste…
My first city after 20 minutes (including a video tutorial watch) first contact with the tool:Second city:
My started - testing project on Volos city in Greece:
Sketch (didn’t worked as expected I fubared it lol):
But… wait… Here it comes to life:
Let’s look closer:
Wow I can go create round roads too… (and not only we can follow the exact real map of a city):
I couldn’t create a video on how to create those but there are a few ready made.
So watch in HD please and have towels near by…
Overview:
Basic Tutorial:
Ok now pull your self together we have work to do…
Links:
GhostTown Blog: http://kiladghosttown.blogspot.gr/
GhostTown Forum: http://www.kilad.net/GTForum/
GhostTown Tutorials: http://www.kilad.net/GTForum/viewforum.php?f=3
GhostTown Download and installation instructions: http://www.kilad.net/GTForum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2
Direct download link: http://www.kilad.net/ghosttown/ghostTown_0.317.mzp
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hmmm is that all?? To get u totally Bazinca… here are some WIP of the Developer Videos…
AND
a PHOTO:
And Custom scripting… that is there already…
I rest my case…
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Hi Arty, thanks for going to the effort of posting this thread!
Now, if only we can actually start seeing update pics of theaters like with the above modeling, I would say this forum will be flooded with gratitude on a global scale…:razz:
Again I want to emphasize this thread which is vital … https://www.benchmarksims.org/forum/showthread.php?11931-Free-Falcon-ground-terrain-graphics&p=161139&viewfull=1#post161139
Yes, I am a pain about it because once BMS has new ground structures especially military ground structure models to scale able to break down when bombarded it will be spectacular from a pilots perspective……this would be with the adding of the F.L.A.R.E approach.
Thanks again for this positive approach and finding a solution to make BMS theaters better, alive, practical, tactical, strategic and combat ready…
ARMAII Terrain Coming Soon to Theaters BMS F4 - TOTAL WAR CONCEPT - A-A / A-G and GROUND BATTLE SIMULATOR!
Suburb’s, Towns, villages and Cities imagine take over from hostile enemies as you send in troops and suppress enmy forces from entering etc
Also working with JTACS
Long live FLARE……keeping the Faith!
PS:- Please … Support the effort, “THANK”…the first post!
PM or post a reply in thread to Arty or BMARTINS if you have something to contribute!
Cheers.
:drink:
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Good project. BTW, just to explain some “problem”:
- remember to make some distance lod for each building.
- make damage lod and destroy lod too for each distance lod.
- each building need to be one lod. Don’t do a single object for 10 building. In that case, when you drop a bomb on it, all the lod will be damage / destroy.
- make a hitbox for each one too.
As you can see, it can be a mess to do 50+ building with this process, but it’s needed for quality job ;).
From city lights thread…
Now as I have basic knowledge on 3DS I couldn’t create the city roads and build the buildings there.
Also I believe it would be better to integrate the actual roads that Falcon has so to see the vehicles pass through the city. Any help how to do this? Also I need some help cause whatever I do with lines in MAX doesn’t end well I don’t connect the edges of them well??? can some one help please?
Than we can add real roads with respect to Falcon ones or random again with respect to falcon ones.Also as for scaling so that the city we create will fit to the area that Falcon has?
Now about the destruction… to create destruction - damage model for each city (I will request it from the DEV.) will be a killer… Maybe some or some custom buildings per city that we find for free like stadiums towers factories etc can be created with destroy lods the rest I have in mind to split a city let’s say to x segments (depending on the city size and spreading) for example small cities 4 segments when u bomb one 1/4 of the town goes off… and not a building…
I believe for starters and a quick test and FPS wise maybe this approach would be better? (Have in mind I’m a newbie)
About the night and lights. there are road lamps that can be activated also can be applied to the whole Falcon road path and light em up… (LOL talk about FPS kill Here… :rofl:)… Also one guy there has found a way to make the buildings windows light up at night so no more flat night tiles but real 3d ones… test and proceed I believe cause those will impact FPS big time…
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hmmm
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@Skynight… m8 this tool can use custom scripts so guys with more knowledge can create instead of city blocks Military installation areas… Also for Airports surrounding buildings like big warehouses Huge parking’s etc… The last are already there create a gap area where the airport will be and than create areas where u want the buildings and the huge parking all u have to do than is press build and sit back and enjoy seeing it create them in just a few sec’s…
Yeap that easy…
Now for military buildings like troops Camps etc use low height buildings put some custom made there also and than hit build… First instead of city textures create military building textures and there u have it…One more thing… this tool creates, than u can change whatever u like… select it and do whatever u like with it… easy… u have the starting building than play with it… Put AAA on the roof or SAM or what ever…
That is why I was talking About open 3D library for Falcon that way we can have access to ready custom 3d objects and just put them there…
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Another think… About elevations… on the same city… one solution I thought is brake them in gradually elevating blocks… maybe not well connected but from far will look perfect we are not playing the hand that kills here. we don’t want super trooper detail just not Flat cities…
Any one else on it?
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Now about the destruction… to create destruction - damage model for each city (I will request it from the DEV.) will be a killer… Maybe some or some custom buildings per city that we find for free like stadiums towers factories etc can be created with destroy lods the rest I have in mind to split a city let’s say to x segments (depending on the city size and spreading) for example small cities 4 segments when u bomb one 1/4 of the town goes off… and not a building…
You’ll have two problem:
- The first one you have pointed -> when you drop a bomb somewhere, you’ll destroy the whole part of a big town, instead a particular building. Well, of course we are not supposed to destroy a civil building, but I like to think about all problem we can see in the future.
- second one can be really a issue for people flying low altitude: in Falcon, only one hitbox can be set per object, and the hitbox can only be a rectangle. With a city part with different building at different height, your hitbox will never be exact. It will be too high for some building (and then, you’ll explode event if you flight over it) or too low (then you’ll pass trough building without any fault…).
I also think about a problem with targeting vehicle driving inside the city at this time because for Falcon, it’s like a car driving inside a object.
For all this reason, I think the best solution is not create district on a single 3D object but save the building individually, each one, and import it to Falcon with Falcon Editor. Of course it will be a more time killer job, but it’s the only solution for quality job ;). You can continue to do the whole city in a single file in 3DS max, but it’s better to import everything individually.
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… and if vehicles can be in the city anyway … what about TGP lasing a vehicles inside a city if inside city’s hit-box … ?
second one can be really a issue for people flying low altitude: in Falcon, only one hitbox can be set per object, and the hitbox can only be a rectangle. With a city part with different building at different height, your hitbox will never be exact.
Not a relay problem IMO, since IRL, a pilot is not supposed to fly between buildings
EDIT: For me, only valid solution … place one building after one building on 3D world … etc… time consuming? … yes … but we don’t pay for time.
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Well one building at a time ??? that ain’t gonna work… why one city will take more than one year to finish… One real city block (about 15 buildings) Some math here: one small city will have >1.000 buildings… so LOL u get it… non doable.
Another thought is this…at least one block = one building or one object… and lot’s of parks with grass, roads thicker than usual to reduce number of buildings. Also not all cities with such detail…
I get u Amraam but u see this goes to a project like the never ending story… than photoreal buildings and than project dead… lol
Now about the hitbox I can’t do anything on this… what we can do is predefine some low alt buildings as military targets inside (maybe not inside but at the city boundaries and hit only those…) also TV-Radio buildings should be City targets… that way it will be ok. Also the correct should be that bombs will not be able to pass through the buildings as they will do now…
Also troops and vehicles also shouldn’t pass through buildings as they are not there… but this is also code - path manipulation. For now that is why we should import and respect falcon paths… that way we will see troops pass through a town… but we will be able to lock them? the buildings will not block the radar? also for moving targets if I release and they stop behind a building the bomb will pass through the building?the problem will be if we deploy units inside the city than they will be vehicles inside the building making tgp undoable… In the future maybe some more detailed paths inside the city and a way to have the units movement could result in a realistic solution…
Are they issues that can be fixed in the future?
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My suggestion.
We don´t need all the cities to get destroyed. We are intended to make precision strikes.
So:
- Just make 2 lods (one for far and one for close).
- No damage lod (we only have to keep it in structures that are strategic).
- Since we do not wish to destroy civil buildings they can be done in big blocks (with less objects and faster work).
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If your really want to know IF it works and HOW it works - DO IT!
“Some people make things happen, some watch things happen, while others wonder what has happened” -
Hi all,
Well in doing some research of my own out of interest I would like to see that it would be more about making good quality theaters full of content not just a building on a hill or a very small nuclear plant barely visible or floating buildings thats so …… “Old Falcon 3.0” Design poor in quality in today standards!
Falcon 3.0 ground structures shouldn’t be allowed anymore delete them please ugly to be polite, looking forward as BMS further develops it does need a new database full of new and exciting models/ground structures.
Now that we have DirectX9.0C with more modern code and theater tools like above, its just a matter of time before you have a theater that is a pleasure to fly in similar to Israel but with new modern ground structures and I mean reasonable sized structures that cover or spread out like in my link in above post or similar to Kimpo Air Base which was a new addition to Falcon.
Yes you need a spread of all types of ground structures to make it realistic, capital cities liven up the theater adding quality and depth good for video making, now suburban areas are good war zones and excellent for acquiring targets.
Personally I’m sick of the Falcon 3.0 look ugly as hell, time for modern new look in ground structure’s covering all types!
Damn its 2013 nearly, please with F.L.A.R.E, I’m on my knees here typing and begging!
So yes please more 3D accurate to geographical placement and scale with modern textures.
Ie.
Airbases, Capital Cities, Suburban Neighborhoods, Military Installations, Army Bases, War Zones (Suburban and Rural), Large Oil Refineries (land and sea) etc etc etc I mention more here…
Some Youtubes I found as ideas:-
Few more ……
Please check out some modern games on YouTube, it doesn’t have to be at that HD quality but at least more like what you see in the videos Arty provided or what I’m posting or close to it or even more like Kimpo Int’l Airport, right!
Point is flying thru vast empty miles of terrain really puts more focus on terrain and lack of content to enjoy as a combat sim by having less content to blow up.
Just encourage this it really is the way to go forward and incorporate FLARE with all ground structures.
Regarding ground structures, may I ask …… Why aren’t we seeing more of this in the theater section instead of Falcon 3.0 models, textures and terrain?
Just want to encourage the possibilities are endless with 3DSMAX from what I have learn’t, and eventually I would love to learn one day!
Once we have the new model ground structures in the database they would look awesome with the efforts of the theater DEVS
ie GUAM
Well its more of a vision and many other members post the same expression of interest but always met with certain arguments with negativity, why its vital to start on a good footing now with new ground model structures for theater DEVs, right!
Keep the faith Falcon Pilots it might take a few more years but worth it!
Please … Support the effort, “THANK”…the first post!
PM or post a reply in thread to Arty or BMARTINS if you have something to contribute!
Long Live F4!
Cheers,
:drink:
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while others wonder what has happened”
You REALLY shouldn’t talk bad about Mower!!:lol:
RAM22
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@RAM22:
You REALLY shouldn’t talk bad about Mower!!:lol:
RAM22
Cheers,
LS -
@ skynight none of the links above work plz check it.
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Forum was freezing on me links were not copying now I have a hole in the screen….rrrrrrr… LoL
Sorry check again lets discuss and encourage more positive change if possible looking forward and the FLARE approach please lets ROCK BMS…
Lets use this thread for meaningful thought and discussion on this subject…please use BMS discussion thread for all other chatter…
I read how so many people favour BMS or F4 in general like the flight model, but hate the Terrain and other non fixed/updated items yet to be implemented stuff.
I guess in a community Forum it starts by a discussion in Forum then spreads in PM’s and then to the ears of others who have the skills to experiment and act with the skills to do so.
Where I fit in for now is in the discussion creativity stage, the technical stuff is for others as they join in and have those skills granted that BMS team accepts the thread and discussion and allows it to flourish.
Main objective start, encourage, speak out, state facts and figures, video findings and maybe it will all end up in the sim, but you got to be positive much talent in this big world and community.
Maybe in near future take up some course in 3DSMAX game modeling and help out!
If you have a nay attitude you might as well say its all crap and be honest about it, its what people are really politely saying…
But I rather encourage change even if it takes a few years in development as BMS is a non for profit sim developed in private time for free.
Okay there may be some set backs I can only imagine as I have learnt allot simply by reading, but by first working with new ground structures and placing them in the database and modifying a few tiles in theaters being worked on it will look spectacular and worth the effort, time and patience. You would be thanked a million times and make many people F4 pilots happy.
Look I am one among many here who say the same in this forum and else where.
Stay positive and discuss options, proposals, idea’s to help with theaters in this thread… I encourage those who have the skills and experience which count for the most part to work on new ground structures before any Theater release so we the community actually see modern theaters for F4 after so many years with repetitive ground structures copied from the original Falcon 3.0.
Well, I post with good intent and honesty to better the sim its all I can do to encourage something better, and respecting all that is done by those who have the experience with Falcon 4.0.
Be happy, stay positive, look forward and keep the faith!
Please … Support the effort, “THANK”…the first post!
PM or post a reply in thread to Arty or BMARTINS if you have something to contribute!
Long Live F4!
Kind Regards,
SkyKnight
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Ground Structures like this needed in Database it doesn’t have to be the same quality but close to it:
Now imagine battalions, infantry, tanks etc etc entering the suburb you recon on first flyby come about drop some CBU’s or LGB’s
Weakening Red Side from advancing and gathering strength you have a tactical advantage from an aerial strike either a mission for day or night with all the night lights on.
I mean please make the dream… can you see the vision. … with F.L.A.R.E…;)
Kinda like this Youtube a suburban strike from an F-16… Its all I could find regarding TGP in populated buildings sites.
Please ignore the actual content…thanks.
I used this video to illustrate what BMS could do with suburban strikes in TGP mode, I’m sorry about the choice of video, Please watch the video with that in mind only … if there is a better one please PM I will change it, okay…Thanks
So the point is on the illustration of the TGP view and acquiring target’s in a suburban war.
Also these…
Maybe this one but still lacking I think ……
Again deeply sorry about the graphic content, its all I could find.
A few more awesome just imagine air strikes in BMS suburbs hitting a battalion of tanks driving thru you stop them from advancing boom….flare and chaff… gone…RTB… this is why we need Suburbs, cities and ground structures in 3D models on new terrain for BMS.
Please guys respect and ignore the causalities and graphic content in video’s only illustrating the suburban strikes for ground structures and suburbs to be placed in BMS (If there are better videos PM I will change them). It was hard to find something respectful to use as ideas for BMS.
So please watch the youtubes for ideas to create theaters:-
Please we need destructible ground structures and suburbs in BMS….for Air Strike SEAD missions and placed into campaigns!
Please … Support the effort, “THANK”…the first post!
PM or post a reply in thread to Arty or BMARTINS if you have something to contribute!
Long Live F4!
Cheers,
:drink:
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Ground Structures like this needed in Database it doesn’t have to be the same quality but close to it:
Now imagine a huge Oil Refinery Plant another military target to PB (TGP), DTOSS, CCRP or CCIP etc etc
Just more to the strategic implementation of an Aerial War experience adding the FLARE approach with roads, power lines, trees, lakes, rivers, vegetation, warehouse, fencing around perimeter etc etc etc
All designed to be destroyed and rebuilt by the devs after I drop a few bombs with a Pop-up Attack or Low Fast and furious Flyby…… LoL
Please … Support the effort, “THANK”…the first post!
PM or post a reply in thread to Arty or BMARTINS if you have something to contribute!
Long Live F4!
Cheers guys,
:drink:
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Ground Structures like this needed in Database it doesn’t have to be the same quality but close to it:
As you can see much more entertaining ground structures, now imagine again with FLARE approach and all these models I have posted would be in the database as structures that are destructible in flames as you bomb them.
The fact is that entire plant is more interesting than just a nuclear building from Falcon 3.0 placed on a hill, right.
Well thats it from me I hope thats enough to encourage those with talents to build these models in the community and kick it off anyway.
I reiterate these ground structures add value are also more professional to the Falcon 4.0 sim a WAR simulator and strategic and tactical aerial combat experience.
Fingers crossed this and much more will be added in years ahead with F.L.A.R.E. concept.
Lets make it happen even if quality is not as close but good enough like Kimpo Air Base in Korea Theater, which I think is okay as far as modeling and texturing, polygony bla bla bla not my thing but the standard and quality was better than past, right!
Think and stay positive community effort is part of shaping this sim!
Please …… Support the effort, “THANK”…the first post!
PM or post a reply in thread to Arty or BMARTINS if you have something to contribute!
Long Live F4!
Kind Regards,
SkyKnight