Map skirt, Horizon and Sky

[bartholimew]

Is the any way of adding a blue sky, even with stationary clouds or haze. I noticed there are clouds in the north base map in the abyss which is below ground level. The black sky is weird

Also a map skirt even a low resolution one would be pleasing to the eye. It seems development timed out and the quick fix was to lock in at an isometric view. Ofcourse we have unlocked that to 3D camera panning

The terrain graphics are pretty good. same with objects and units, very adequate, no problem with the physical attributes of the objects either, such as LOS and cover.

What the heck there are a dozen huge horizon and background graphics already there, can they be utilized?

[bartholimew]

Here's another, these are large generic files found in the environment textures folder, at 4096X2056 and I believe they were intended for horizon. There is a black.dds file at 1kb. I suspect this file may be invoked in a map script somewhere resulting in the black sky, and substituting that with the 4Mb safari.dds for example might work if i could find the script. Big graphic load on the hardware but would be interesting to see.

[zknight]

Wow good find on the image files... I know just where to put them. In the mission files for each level there is a field:

{
   level
   {
       file = bank
       land = summer
       time = brf_day
       backstage = environment\black
   }


So I replaced black with safari and got this:




For some reason I don't think the zoom level is programmed correctly for the images...looks like they never finished coding on how to show them correctly. It looks WAYYY too zoomed in. Maybe MATRIX should force them to fix that.

[bartholimew]

that's absolutlely smashing zknight. Yes the zoom is stretched about 4X. in theory increasing the dds file resolution by 4X would compensate but thats an exponentially huge file. Still on some maps these backgrounds look pretty good. Man they were so close.

[VassagoPT]

A step-by-step guide on how to do this is largely apreciated.

Some moded files would be even better

Btw, what application did you use to preview those .dds files?

[hadberz]

Just follow the path to the mission files, be sure and back them up someplace.
C:\Matrix Games\Hired Guns\basis\missions\

To edit the airport background, open mission_file in the folder airport using notepad. Find this line at the top.

backstage = environment\black

Change black to airport, so it looks like this.

backstage = environment\airport

The dds files are found here C:\Matrix Games\Hired Guns\basis\textures\environment and can be viewed using http://www.irfanview.net/ with the plug-ins installed http://www.software.com/irfanview-plugin

[bartholimew]

Those horizon files in the game arent so great, and could be improved, really there is only 3 worth using. The idea is to create a customized graphic for each map that lines up with the elevation and shade of terrain. A mod could be made that could include a customized unique skirt for each map. This is easily do-able. Bundle it up with a modded mission text file so people could just unzip it into the game. I'm outa time tonight but hey if there's any neo painters out there, this is probably pretty easy. Below the coastal fortress map I altered the seat_test dds to lengthen the sky to its edge.

[SeanD]

Guys this looks great. I'd be really interested to see what happens when a good modder and a talented artist team up!

[ShadoWarrior]

ORIGINAL: SeanD

I'd be really interested to see what happens when a good modder and a talented artist team up!

hehe ... you should check out my Total Rebalance mod for UFO:Afterlight.

Oh, wait, you meant to say "what happens to HG when a good modder and a talented artist team up!"

[gunny]

just curious if anybody took this any further?
Started playing the game again for another round because of the patch. I like the results of the pictures above and might incorporate that this time.

[Foraven]

The only thing missing is the day/night effects now. I'm sure it's possible to do it with alternate maps for each stage of the day...

[blemishednicely]

that's absolutlely smashing zknight. Yes the zoom is stretched about 4X. in theory increasing the dds file resolution by 4X would compensate but thats an exponentially huge file. Still on some maps these backgrounds look pretty good. Man they were so close.

I'd read somewhere in forum certain files are prone to blow if they exceed certain filesize restrictions, is that just XML's or could this become a conflict?

Also a thought I'd had..tho I admittedly haven't tried this graphic at all yet to see on my own but maybe the apparent blur was intentional, kinda out of focus to show your mercs aren't interested in that area (map's gotta end somewhere, right?), or it could've just been left that way to match in a finer blending for the seams before they finished & never got to it.

Definitely better with them IMO (even if they're just left blurry)-think it adds a real sense of environment, actually having a surrounding area...even if it is non-transeverseable, mb just me. Least it's still there woulda sucked had they cleaned it out & dumped them


P.S.
Whole heartedly agree w/ foraven on AM/PM FX. Coupes d'Etat at lunch are so gauche, where's the time to digest? some REAL Night Ops'd be slick...