Worldmap... is BIG.
- Thread starter Dubby
- Start date
My primary concern would be a setting like say, New York City, will it choke or allow the user to see a collection of skyscrapers in the distance? Otherwise assuming they are using all the standard game graphics technology of the day, the complexity of the scenery should not be an issue.
It would be hard to make a vehicle mod for FO3 as it is, a lot of the terrain is not going to be traversible (and its about ten seconds travel time between major points it seems). If you expand out into a flatter wasteland beyond DC though it should be less of an issue.
It would be hard to make a vehicle mod for FO3 as it is, a lot of the terrain is not going to be traversible (and its about ten seconds travel time between major points it seems). If you expand out into a flatter wasteland beyond DC though it should be less of an issue.
yoshee, there's one probable problem with that. I suspect the gamebryo engine just -cant- handle life size territory. oblivion was pretty darn big, but I suspect the entire map is around the same size as the entire map in oblivion - just the "regions" for the DC wasteland are smaller, and therefore the worldmap seems smaller. This is ALSO the reason why the terrain seems so un-vehicle friendly. It's a topographic map that has been scaled down by 6,000%, so subtle features become significantly less subtle and much more abrupt. A hill turns into a raised patch of dirt, for instance.
I have an idea.
Open GECK, delete everything (level the ground, take out the rocks, buildings, NPCs, etc.). Then, use this "extra space", change the ground's texture into a dark-yellow sand, like in previous Fallouts, and start the whole game from the beginning!
Open GECK, delete everything (level the ground, take out the rocks, buildings, NPCs, etc.). Then, use this "extra space", change the ground's texture into a dark-yellow sand, like in previous Fallouts, and start the whole game from the beginning!
DustyTraveller
First time out of the vault
Dubby said:
Hmm, I'm trying not get my hopes up here in case I misread your statement, but if someone scaled down all the non-landscape stuff (people, buildings, trees etc) Fallout 3 would be more on 1:1 scale vs reality?
That would allow modders to let the so-called towns to have a few more buildings/inhabitants without being within shouting distance from the next town.
haha yes, but that's not very wise to do in my opinion. The game engine standard is 128 units equals approximately 6 feet. In this case, 1 ft is precisely 21+1/3 units. This was confirmed for me by a developer on the inside, but it's also something you can figure out yourself by analyzing road width with the getdistance console command.
The other reason why scaling down is a bad idea, is you're warping the models which already have a default scale established in their own file. And, scaling with the editor doesn't work on -everything-. The other reason why scaling down is a bad idea, is the engine measures distances only down to a certain decimal point. If you scaled down too much, granted you could, movement would become jittery or stuttered.
The best solution is to segment the worldmap into pseudo exteriors which are actually large interiors with a heightmap and a skydome.
The other reason why scaling down is a bad idea, is you're warping the models which already have a default scale established in their own file. And, scaling with the editor doesn't work on -everything-. The other reason why scaling down is a bad idea, is the engine measures distances only down to a certain decimal point. If you scaled down too much, granted you could, movement would become jittery or stuttered.
The best solution is to segment the worldmap into pseudo exteriors which are actually large interiors with a heightmap and a skydome.
I've considered multiple approaches in regards to actual implementation, but I'm not aiming for realistic scale. I just want something that looks cool, I'm more than happy to have it be 1/60th scale. My final scale overall would probably be on the same magnitude if not higher.
The actual process involves a lot of height map manipulation, I will need to do custom elevation map work for anywhere I do, so the terrain will get quite a bit of fiction in it (like FO3). Whether I will use interiors for cities to further warp the scale (or for practical purposes) is still up in the air.
But my primary goal is to just have it look cool, and at the same time not have a player able to see Washington from New York. Early experiments with stacking a bunch of buildings together to build a skyline seem to have some potential, I haven't calibrated all the distances quite yet (need to settle on a timescale for the day which is what I base all measurements on).
The actual process involves a lot of height map manipulation, I will need to do custom elevation map work for anywhere I do, so the terrain will get quite a bit of fiction in it (like FO3). Whether I will use interiors for cities to further warp the scale (or for practical purposes) is still up in the air.
But my primary goal is to just have it look cool, and at the same time not have a player able to see Washington from New York. Early experiments with stacking a bunch of buildings together to build a skyline seem to have some potential, I haven't calibrated all the distances quite yet (need to settle on a timescale for the day which is what I base all measurements on).