Crytek's Official Modding Portal | Levels | [ICMC] Castaway -Download NOW!

10.11.2007 22:15
ZapWizard Uber Modder	[ICMC] Castaway -Download NOW! The map is locked and loaded! DOWNLOAD Latest update: A Dozen final screenshots /Edit: Update to first post now that the map is further along: Premise: You are a special ops soldier on your way to North Korea when your plane is shot down over an unknown island. You are the only survivor, your new mission unfolds as you play. Features: -Large map based on a real-world location, 1-to-1 scale -Completely new missions. -Over a dozen separate objectives and goals. -One to three hours of estimated gameplay -Several optional objectives that change gameplay -Large complex cinematics with voice acting. -Large variation of playable areas: Beach, caverns, towns, camps, underground facilities, mine, mountain tops. -Map design allows for stealth or brute force approach -Many custom particles and textures Goals: -Map built with the goal matching or exceeding the Crytek puts into their own maps. (Sounds, details, cinematics) -Build an engrossing story that keeps the player going -Challenging AI and weapon placement (I don't want this to be easy) ------------------------------------------------------- /Old first post: I am attempting to duplicate the island used in Castaway as a challenge to get me started in map making. Here is a link to the island: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=-17.60960...&z=16&t=h&hl=en I have found tons of reference photos online, and of course the movie will also be a reference for the details, caves and such. I have no idea how far I will get on this project but I thought I would post it up for feedback. So far I have manually made very rough height-map in Gimp, and made a nearly perfect scale map in Sandbox2 with the texture of the island laid over it. /Edit update: This will be a 16 chapter/objective single player map with a full story line. /Edit: Jan 7th HUGE: See the beta introduction cinematic in high-def! [WIP] Castaway island -Jan 3rd -New screenshots __________________ DarkWater - - - Castaway - - - Videos This post has been edited 39 time(s), it was last edited by ZapWizard: 19.06.2008 05:49.

11.11.2007 00:06
Xanto Beginner	RE: Castaway island (From the movie) make a good looking map! <3 good luck ^___^

11.11.2007 00:08
Kang Uber Modder	Just out of curiosity: is that on the map the actual island they filmed on or is that the island shown on the map near the end of the movie?

11.11.2007 00:16
ZapWizard Uber Modder Thread Starter	The actual island they filmed on. __________________ DarkWater - - - Castaway - - - Videos

11.11.2007 00:23
TiTAN Trained Modder	thats cool, i had no idea it was by fiji __________________ Intel Q9650 @ 4Ghz \| ASUS P5E3 DELUXE \| 2 X ATI Radeon HD 3870 CF \| OCZ ReaperX DDR3-1333MHz 4GB \| Dell 2407WFP

11.11.2007 03:53
ZapWizard Uber Modder Thread Starter	Well here is where I am after a few hours, note this is my first time using Sandbox. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2366/1957...fca65db0b_o.jpg The texture is captured from Google Earth. Everything is very rough without detail so far. The hard part is that the island is relatively small compared to the huge sandbar. __________________ DarkWater - - - Castaway - - - Videos This post has been edited 2 time(s), it was last edited by ZapWizard: 11.11.2007 03:54.

11.11.2007 04:18
Vehn Hardcore Modder	how did you import the texture / heightmap?

11.11.2007 04:28
ZapWizard Uber Modder Thread Starter	Well the height map in gimp didn't work out well. What worked better was to just import the texture and then edit from there. I set my plane just at sea level and then lowered the surround areas as needed, and then raised the inside areas as needed. The import texture function is a bit broken it seems. You have to first export the terrain texture to a BMP file. Then edit this file (replacing the blank texture with a 1024x1024 image of the island) Then press the import button. You have to re-import after doing a "Generate textures" But it works great as a reference for shapes, beaches, etc,... __________________ DarkWater - - - Castaway - - - Videos

11.11.2007 05:36
Djayness Beginner	dude....if i had known that i would have probably finished my australia map by now. lol ARGHHHHH!

11.11.2007 07:03
ZapWizard Uber Modder Thread Starter	Eh, well all that work was for waste... the map was about twice the scale it should have been. Apparently the only way to scale a map is when you first make it, and only by the actual map size. (needed to be 512x512) The crappy part is that now my reference texture is horrible low res. The "Unit scale" seems useless /Edit So I figured the resolution thing out, too forever to find. Basically I made a 512x512map, then went to the vegetation brush tool. There at the very bottom is a "change tile resolution" button. That let me change all the tiles to high-resolution so I could have a better reference. The final result works great for distance textures. __________________ DarkWater - - - Castaway - - - Videos This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by ZapWizard: 11.11.2007 07:53.

11.11.2007 08:58
ZapWizard Uber Modder Thread Starter	Well it's 2am time to stop. Here is where I am at so far: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2047/1961...b038bb68e_o.jpg __________________ DarkWater - - - Castaway - - - Videos

11.11.2007 09:12
Vehn Hardcore Modder	are those reference pics from google earth or from another source?

11.11.2007 17:02
ZapWizard Uber Modder Thread Starter	The satellite image used as a texture is from Google earth. I made a large version by zooming in till it looked like I reached google resolution limit. I then exported 12 tiles of images and then manually stitched them into one large 2048x2048 image (Texture size of my map) The reference images shown above so far is someones vacation photos I found on the internet. I found over 30 reference images that are usable so far. __________________ DarkWater - - - Castaway - - - Videos

12.11.2007 03:08

warfjm

Beginner

quote:

Originally posted by ZapWizard
Well the height map in gimp didn't work out well.

What worked better was to just import the texture and then edit from there.
I set my plane just at sea level and then lowered the surround areas as needed, and then raised the inside areas as needed.

The import texture function is a bit broken it seems.
You have to first export the terrain texture to a BMP file.
Then edit this file (replacing the blank texture with a 1024x1024 image of the island)
Then press the import button.

You have to re-import after doing a "Generate textures"
But it works great as a reference for shapes, beaches, etc,...

Can you give a better discription on how to do this. I'm trying to do a map using google earth and the only thing I have right now is to hit the "Print Scr" button, past it to MS Paint, edit it there and then save it as a .bmp. I want to know how to transfer the .bmp picture to the map and then edit the terrain around the picture.

Does any of that make sense?

12.11.2007 03:33
ZapWizard Uber Modder Thread Starter	Google earth has a "Save as image" function that captures what you are currently seeing to a JPEG. What I did was start at a set zoom level, capture an image, save it as 1, move the view to another part of the island, and save that as 2. And so-on until I have the entire thing. Make sure you have enough overlap to cover up the google logo, and to align the images. I then open up GIMP2 and make a new document that is pretty large in size. I drag and drop the images one after another, each is a separate layer that i can move around like photos on a desk. I roughly align them and then do a function called "Scale to layers" This increases the page size enough to see all the layers laid out. I lock the first lay in place, and then move to the second. On the second layer I set the transparency to 50%. I move the image around slowly using the keyboard until it lines up perfectly. I set the transparency back to 100% making sure none of the overlapped areas look as if they moved. Once that is good I lock that layer down. Rinse and then repeat. Once complete I cut and pasted a section of ocean to fill in any gaps, and then resized the image to 2048x2048 (The texture size that Sandbox2 exported of my map) You have to do an initial export to a file name in Sandbox2 and replace it with your own. Now I make a new map, export the texture, replace it with my new file, and re-import. I then edited the terrain using the map as a reference. If you paint and area with say sand, and want to re-color it, paint it with sand, re-import the texture, generate the texture again, and then re-export. Doing this allowed me to keep the beautiful reef colors in the image. But nearly everything else was eventually replaced ----------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------- I now have a premise for the story, I have a lot of detail written but I am not post it as of yet as I would rather work on the map then the story currently. But basically since there are North Koreans in the game, nukes, etc... you get the idea. I have some cool twists though. The hard part however is steering the character on such an open map. ----------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------- /Edit: Lots more photos online here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zapwizard/s...57603074021169/ __________________ DarkWater - - - Castaway - - - Videos This post has been edited 3 time(s), it was last edited by ZapWizard: 12.11.2007 03:47.

12.11.2007 04:12
warfjm Beginner	Thanks!!! That helps a lot!

12.11.2007 09:03
ZapWizard Uber Modder Thread Starter	I learned voxels (tough buggers) and made a cave: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2337/1980...684f25b8e_o.jpg There seems to be a bug where light passes right through land onto the cave wall. My work around is to put some huge rocks in the way to block light (Doesn't work from all angles) Calculating the light map didn't help. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cave entrance: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2112/1979...088f57c05_o.jpg -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some graves (For fun and possible a story later) http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2300/1980...ed529c947_o.jpg -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am carefully making paths that will lead the player along the story line. With such a relatively small map the paths work really well at guiding the character to different scenarios I have thought out. The game needs a machete, I have spent too much time moving plants out of paths. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2144/1979...316426e7a_o.jpg -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Overall map. The player will start off in the east most part of the beach and slowly make his way clockwise around the map. Paths, rocks, and sharks will be use to guide the player along. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2304/1979...25583f43b_o.jpg __________________ DarkWater - - - Castaway - - - Videos This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by ZapWizard: 12.11.2007 09:04.

12.11.2007 13:48
et_fone_home Trainee	nice mod, looks very interesting, i like the graves with the feet sticking out.

12.11.2007 20:51
NeonTerror Trainee	Dude this is looking fantastic. __________________ Support or take what you can. For whatever reason it may be, its not my business.

12.11.2007 23:26
ZapWizard Uber Modder Thread Starter	I have written out an extensive storyline to go with the map. It is 13 chapters, or goals per say. I few friends have read it and so far they love it. PM me if you want to help out on the story line. (It gives away too much story to post publicly) I have made full use of the entire island. I am trying to make sure all the goals are balanced, as far as assault -vs- stealth. I have even more respect for Crytek now because balancing those two is pretty tough. Also it is tough to think of ways to keep the player from skipping around or back-tracking too much. Especially with a map this small. I am going cheap with some things (Basically sharks inhabit all the water) Man I have a lot to learn though as far as building scripts and such, the only reason I made the island so quickly is that I work in a CAD program all day. __________________ DarkWater - - - Castaway - - - Videos

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