[universetwisters]

Which is better for making terrain? 3DMax or Autodesk Cityscape 1.8? I'm asking because I'm planning on making a map mod, and I need to know which is good for terrain.

[SiR R.i.P.P.E.R.]

Having worked with a lot of terrain editors, the best one IMO is CryEngine 3; it comes with a full set of terrain sculpting tools and is a real time WYSIWYG editor. Then use the heightmap in any program of your liking and displace the mesh.

3dsmax tends to crash when using huge planes with millions of polygons, so I'd recommend cityscape or some other terrain/city renderer for city creation.

Of course, you can still use splines and planes in 3dsmax to chop up the terrain to your liking, but that comes more useful when making "concrete-cast coasts" like I did for Vice City.

[universetwisters]

QUOTE (SiR R.i.P.P.E.R. @ Monday, Jul 30 2012, 22:58)

Having worked with a lot of terrain editors, the best one IMO is CryEngine 3; it comes with a full set of terrain sculpting tools and is a real time WYSIWYG editor. Then use the heightmap in any program of your liking and displace the mesh. 3dsmax tends to crash when using huge planes with millions of polygons, so I'd recommend cityscape or some other terrain/city renderer for city creation. Of course, you can still use splines and planes in 3dsmax to chop up the terrain to your liking, but that comes more useful when making "concrete-cast coasts" like I did for Vice City.

Is Cryengine 3 easy to use? I was thinking of using Cityscape 1.8 to make the terrain, roads, etc. and then add the buildings, minor bits, etc. in 3dmax (I think gostown used Cityscape, going by the looks, but I'm not too sure). I'm just concerned that I won't be able to make a big map in Cityscape and Cryengine 3 would take a while to get used to

[aacclapd]

QUOTE

@SiR R.i.P.P.E.R.: I'd recommend cityscape or some other terrain/city renderer for city creation.

to make big maps its better but if you make maps by dividing in parts. it is more useful cause you handle parts better.

[universetwisters]

QUOTE (aacclapd @ Monday, Jul 30 2012, 23:12)

QUOTE @SiR R.i.P.P.E.R.: I'd recommend cityscape or some other terrain/city renderer for city creation. to make big maps its better but if you make maps by dividing in parts. it is more useful cause you handle parts better.

Would it be possible to make certain parts of the city (like Islands, etc.) in cityscape and them "fit them together" in 3dmax for the final product?

[Limiter]

I was going to ask this question as well, and I was going to use Cityscape or Max, but now I got introduced to Cryengine. Never knew I could use this for IV mods.

To SIR Ripper, have you tried CryEngine 3 on IV mods yet? I saw your Vice City topic but from what I heard, it seems like they are all 3ds max constructed so far.

[universetwisters]

QUOTE (Limiter @ Tuesday, Jul 31 2012, 00:52)

I was going to ask this question as well, and I was going to use Cityscape or Max, but now I got introduced to Cryengine. Never knew I could use this for IV mods.

Is cryengine any good? It seems a little silly to me, using an FPS engine to make maps (but then again, it might be me )

[dunbrine47]

Of course all the good stuff is for windows...

[SiR R.i.P.P.E.R.]

QUOTE (Limiter @ Tuesday, Jul 31 2012, 00:52)

I was going to ask this question as well, and I was going to use Cityscape or Max, but now I got introduced to Cryengine. Never knew I could use this for IV mods. To SIR Ripper, have you tried CryEngine 3 on IV mods yet? I saw your Vice City topic but from what I heard, it seems like they are all 3ds max constructed so far.

I have used CE3 to sculpt the terrain of Vice City. I then exported the heightmap (.bmp format) in Cityscape and from CS I exported an FBX file into 3dsmax. The west and middle islands have been remade in 3dsmax (the Cityscape terrain was discarded). The east island (OCean beach) will be a mix of 3dsmax remake and cityscape terrain.

This, because the heightmap (and CS for that matter) tend to make the terrain edges appear jaggy where the terrain is supposed to go vertical. On the other hand, in order to make the beach and seabed (for the entire map), CE3 gave me the perfect tools to form them the way I wanted.

So IMO you'll have to use the best of both worlds. For example, CS's freeways are low-poly and I'll make them from scratch in 3dsmax. Something similar goes for the pavements: all CS pavements are square-tiled. That means that you can't have custom pavements like the ones you'd find in front of AAA in Miami.However it is good enough for making generic roads, IF you detail and finalise the terrain base in CS.

[aacclapd]

QUOTE (universetwisters @ Tuesday, Jul 31 2012, 00:34)

QUOTE (aacclapd @ Monday, Jul 30 2012, 23:12) QUOTE @SiR R.i.P.P.E.R.: I'd recommend cityscape or some other terrain/city renderer for city creation. to make big maps its better but if you make maps by dividing in parts. it is more useful cause you handle parts better. Would it be possible to make certain parts of the city (like Islands, etc.) in cityscape and them "fit them together" in 3dmax for the final product?

in cityscape you must do the hole map and then divide it in 3dsmax.thats what i do

This post has been edited by aacclapd on Tuesday, Jul 31 2012, 09:36

[SiR R.i.P.P.E.R.]

QUOTE (aacclapd @ Tuesday, Jul 31 2012, 09:33)

in cityscape you must do the hole map and then divide it in 3dsmax.thats what i do

It depends on the resolution you need for the terrain. I divided the heightmap in 9 parts of 1600m each then imported in CS. I did that so I could get detailed road models without downscaling them. Perhaps your method is right, I haven't tried it.

[aacclapd]

QUOTE (SiR R.i.P.P.E.R. @ Tuesday @ Jul 31 2012, 10:50)

It depends on the resolution you need for the terrain. I divided the heightmap in 9 parts of 1600m each then imported in CS. I did that so I could get detailed road models without downscaling them. Perhaps your method is right, I haven't tried it.

of course, also valid way to do it.
but is there any way to create your own road segment or crashbarrier segment in cityscape?

This post has been edited by aacclapd on Tuesday, Jul 31 2012, 10:02

[universetwisters]

QUOTE (aacclapd @ Tuesday, Jul 31 2012, 09:33)

QUOTE (universetwisters @ Tuesday, Jul 31 2012, 00:34) QUOTE (aacclapd @ Monday, Jul 30 2012, 23:12) QUOTE @SiR R.i.P.P.E.R.: I'd recommend cityscape or some other terrain/city renderer for city creation. to make big maps its better but if you make maps by dividing in parts. it is more useful cause you handle parts better. Would it be possible to make certain parts of the city (like Islands, etc.) in cityscape and them "fit them together" in 3dmax for the final product? in cityscape you must do the hole map and then divide it in 3dsmax.thats what i do

Is that simple or hard to do? (Also, I'm sorry if my questions seem a little stupid to you guys, but we all have to start somewhere ). Maybe I can post a map of what I'm planning on doing when I get home from work, if that'll help

[SiR R.i.P.P.E.R.]

To export the heightmap from CE3 you just go to Terrain->Edit terrain, then click export heightmap. You can either import the entire heightmap in CS, or slice it in smaller pieces (i.e. my 8kx8k map has been sliced in 16 pieces 2kx2k each) and import in CityScape. From Cityscape you just click File->Export .FBX and save the file in your respective 3dsmax folder. Afterwards you import it in 3dsmax and you have your terrain in place.

[universetwisters]

Alright, just got home from work, and here's what I'm trying to make for the map. So far, cityscape's looking good for the terrain and basic roads

[stilldre]

So far of my experience is Cityscape 1.8 the best & easyiest terrain/road maker there is..
There is also few alternatives that can get you terrain and roads in no time: Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler '13 & Cry Engine 3

[jpm1]

i may arrive like an hair in the soup , but why noboby never uses Blender ??