Something to bear in mind...

[TheJamsh]

We know PB5.1 has a higher tri limit, but remember that doesn't only apply to models...

Terrain is drawn with guess what? You guessed it, triangles. So now you can have larger maps as well . good news for anyone whose thinking of making entire planets in BZ2 . I wouldn't have thought about it unless i was told, so just relaying that to any mappers out there.

I strongly suggest anyone considering space maps reads through the changelog and looks at transparent textures etc. Theres a far less expensive way to do it now than an alpha channeled texture, and it works.

Remember, changelog is you're friend...

[Avatar]

You sound very cheerful...  cheerful and pleased...

Makes me think you've had some successes, possibly with a space map? 

I'd love to see space maps branch off as almost a TC of BZ2, just to show what they can do.

-Av-

[Warfreak]

Not really.

An ingame square is 2 polies. The standard building (4x4) takes up 32 polies of the terrain.
A 4096x4096 MAP takes up 8192 polies. A 8192x8192 map would take up 16384 polies. The only map bigger than this old max is 10k by 10k.
10000x10000 is the biggest map you can have, but it is only slightly bigger than 8192x8192. It generates EXACTLY 20k polies.

If anyone is wondering, I'm using 3DS Max to see what numbers it can land on correctly.

[TheJamsh]

GSH made another patch. Of course im pleased

Strangely, i've actually been doodling with the shell more than maps recently, apart from 'Rock Pools'. What makes me happy however is that online games could now get very big... and very long...

EPIC has loads of space-based stuff. It looks great but i don't know how it plays. Shane Ward did some space stuff for 'Assimilation' and while it was well-done at the time, you just knew it wasn't 'supposed' to work .

[TheJamsh]

I was under the impression it was going to be larger than that. According to a discussion on IRC ages ago... GSH will be able to clarify.

Either way, its an extra kilometre and a half at least. except its not... because you cant have 10,000 x 10,000, it has to be one of the power of two sizes to texture correctly. Otherwise you get some VERY strange occurences. My experience of it wasn't pleasant.

[Warfreak]

Exactly, and the next exponent of 2 is 16384x16384 and this generates around 33k. So in all actuality, the map size didn't go up.

[Avatar]

I'm pretty sure the polygon limit is visible polygons...  which is limited due to the fill rate of the GPU in your video card...

The size of a map would be more of a memory issue, not a video card limit.  An example of a video card limit would be if you set too high of a view distance.  Doing that you see polygons disappear when you exceed the fill rate of your card.

Pushing the polygon limit up might let you set a longer view distance terrain-wise, but no video card made could render all the way across a normal map now... not polygon by polygon.  Games with flight-sim viewing distances use other tricks to render such a large area, they certainly don't render each polygon of the terrain all the way out for miles and miles...

And for the record I love large maps but only if they're done with creativity.  Just having a huge desert to fight in isn't better than Dunes, but if you have one group on an island and one in the mountains with a desert between you it starts to interest me...

-Av-

[Commando]

As far as I know, the map size limit hasn't been changed in TA5.1.  It is the same as it always was.

[GSH]

Commando is correct. The terrain's max size has not changed.

Terrain is drawn as small patches, not one giant mesh. Thus, increasing the max poly count for .xsi models does nothing to the terrain code -- it's completely separate.

-- GSH

[Warfreak]

Either way of looking at it, map size is still the same as it was before anyway. 

[Steeveeo]

However, increased map size would be a neat thing to have for the bigger projects.

[mrtwosheds]

Not really. It can be really boring driving round really huge maps, and the slower vehicles take forever to get anywhere. They also tend to be ugly because the mapmaker gets bored of doing the miles and miles of terrain. I would much rather play beautiful well made maps with interesting props, plant and stuff on them.   

[Red Devil]

Big maps with fast ships are a blast!

I drive around Mega Mountain and other big maps like that about 70..90 and can get across them in about 15..20 seconds.  Now imagine a DM map the size of Mega Mountain with ships (and bots) that fast and weapons adjusted accordingly.

F-U-N.

[Mr X]

A large strategy map could be fun. Instead of the more traditional 4 players, you could have 8 or maybe more. Now that would be awesome, wouldn't it?

Actually, I may start making one...

[Feared_1]

A large strategy map could be fun. Instead of the more traditional 4 players, you could have 8 or maybe more. Now that would be awesome, wouldn't it?

The problem with large strategy maps is that running around to scrap pools, your base, the enemy base, and other places gets REALLY old REALLY fast. 8 players would be fun, but what happens when it comes down to those last 2? You might have two commanders with basically unlimited scrap running a massive base all by themselves 4000 miles apart.