Hedgerow Construction - Advice Needed

(Eh?) #1

After a long hiatus, I’ve decided to pick up my first real map - so far just called Farmhouse - and bring it to completion. I’ve encountered a problem that’s fairly critial to the design: realistic hedgerows are tough. The hedgerows were going to block off large portions of the map for vis reasons, they’re the green bars in this early sketch:

http://gatorpictures.com/Wolf/SketchVer1Hedges.jpg

Here are some sample pictures of what I’m trying to emulate:

http://www.gtunlimited.com/cornhedg.JPG
http://www.iwt.ie/images/hedge/roadside_sm.jpg
http://www.qlf.org/greenways/res/hedgerows.jpeg
http://www.twenot.nl/Specials/Refs/Norm60.jpg
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/stephen.johnson/air/rame2.jpg

Unfortunately, I just don’t have the experience to know what kind of brushwork would look reasonably close to those pictures. Frankly, the stuff I’ve tried so far has looked far too artificial. The first attempts were modeled after the hedges near the allied radio in Marketgarden, but that texture on tall rectangular brushes looked way too blocky. Next I tried some simple patch meshes which weren’t too bad, but I have no idea how to cap them appropriately:

http://gatorpictures.com/Wolf/HedgeProblem.jpg

So how would you approach this problem? Continue with the hump-shaped patch meshes? Something completely different? I’m not looking to blow away viewers, just looking for something that looks reasonably realistic. Any and all suggestions - or examples of similar work - are appreciated. :slight_smile:

(Drakir) #2

I read your problem and took at shot at making a hedge myself.

This is what i did:

Used 3 textures from the models folders and made a new shader for them.
Used booth patches and brushes to create a lush feeling and not overusing models for framerates sake.

Mapfile with the stuff i made:
Contains: .map and .script
http://alenet.mine.nu/files/hedge_prefab.zip

Hope it helps in some way!

(Loffy) #3

Fast! Insert target_speaker with bird-song!
// L.

(Schaffer) #4

That looks real cool Drakir.

Eh? Just looking at the plan layout you have there may be a real bad choke point along the central road if that’s the only way through. Maybe you could put another road or have a field with a fence that you can’t get a past. One of the articles in the ET Mappers Bible and Guidibes (about 7.3 I think) mentions about multiple routes and that there should be at least three. The problem if you don’t have something likes this is that the map will tend to becomes some sort of spawn camp map for the allied team since they would get pushed back. I like the idea of a hedge row map through. Should be really cool

(MadJack) #5

Just a suggestion Eh?.. Don’t use simple patch meshes as those don’t stop VIS unles you use caulk underneath it so while it might give an acceptable look, it will defeat your primary purpose of blocking VIS.

(Eh?) #6

Wow…I’m extremely impressed by the complexity of your hedges, Drakir, and the speed with which you created them. Nice work! I’m digesting the details now, and have learned a lot about brushwork already. This design looks far, far better than anything I’d come up with by myself in the next six months - thanks for saving me a whole lotta time! :smiley:

It looks like either making the third hedge layer a solid structural brush from ground to 10’ or so, or adding a fourth solid layer behind the first three will be necessary to block vis. A custom texture similar to the first three - but with no transparency - would be a good solution…I think. :slight_smile:

The hedgerows have breaks in them, so the road is only one of many ways to the farmhouse. Attackers can take the road, the large field to the left, the field to the right, or the river at far right. My concern right now is that there actually might be too many ways to the objective, spreading the action out a bit too much with smaller teams. Once the attackers capture the forward spawn in the boathouse or barn (not sure about the location yet), there are three ways to the farmhouse basement and the objective: front door, back door, or underground tunnel.

Thanks for the patch mesh tip. With things so open on this map, it’s been a sink-or-swim experience regarding vis blocking. It’s fairly cut and dry geometry, though, so understanding it isn’t too bad. The hardest part for me so far has been how to convert photographs and ideas, and turn them into reasonable visuals in Radiant…it’s an art, and not a particularly easy one!