Map Pack 2.0 Released

[Epimethee]

Couldn't resist checking it out a little bit last night and visited Shadow's underground city. Apart from a couple of texture problems on the underground streets, it just rocked! Thanks, Goggles. :D

[GogglesPizanno]

Yeah there are some weird texture issues that have always been a problem in conversions -- most of them dealing with street markings and the dreaded Sidewalk corner. I think part of the problem is the method in which the new game renders the textures.

I was able to clean up some of the edges on those (especially when zooming out)  by turning off the mipmapping on those pieces, but there are still issues that I cant yet figure out -- if they can even be fixed.

[rmt]

Just wanted to say a public thanks for this pack.  Should be the final pieces to have a releasable version of Pulp Fiction for  :ffvstr: .  Won't be perfect, but it will be playable with this in place.  I'm jammed this month and Foam wants to re-do some voice work, but hope to have it to Alex by month's end.  Will get the pack and start testing objects this weekend but am sure it will do the trick.

[BentonGrey]

Hey man, if I wanted to combine this with my mod, would it do funky stuff?  You know, would it overwrite anything I need?  As long as it wouldn't kill any of the new map components or anything, I think it'd be cool.  I just could really use the extra options that your map pack provides for telling stories. :D

[Boalt92]

Great job....looks good.

Don't worry about the minor glitches, just having these resources available is worth it!

How do you feel about using this pack (in part or in whole) for a public release mod?

B92

[AfghanAnt]

is there a way to merge this with what someone has currently installed without hurting anything else. I.e. What files is this map pack using

[BentonGrey]

It seems to be okay, I did it just a few days ago and haven't come across any problems yet.  Just make sure to back up your mod before you merge.

[GogglesPizanno]

For the benefit of those who seem to be interested.
If you want to integrate the maps into other MODS its really a pretty simple process ....famous last words....

0. BACK UP YOUR FILES!!

1. Copy the "/art/library/area_speciff1" directory from the Mappack to your mod.

2. Copy the "/art/library/area_specific/_textures" directory from the Mappack to your mod. This will copy over all the FF1 TGA textures (as well as the stock FFX3.2 DDS textures). They shouldn't disrupt anything provided you haven't added any custom TGA textures that share the same name as FF1 ones.

3. Merge the Objects and Characters dats.

I'm still doing little fixes to textures and anything else that people find that may be broken, so at some point there is going to be a final official 1.0 release. Though I'm guessing it will just be simple updates to textures and/or nif's.

[AfghanAnt]

Great that is just what I wanted to hear!  :thumbup:

[lmalonsof]

For those who want to use the maps (congrats GogglePizzano, great stuff!!!) with other mods, I've also tried this and it seems to work:

1.- Backup your files
2.- Use M25buildinstaller and select the maps you want to export. It'll give you some errors about textures: forget about it and go on.
3.- Install the maps with M25installer.
4.- Check out everything is fine (it should)

I've done this with 6 or 7 maps and everything seems ok.

Congratulations again GogglePizzano for your work. Superb!

[AfghanAnt]

For those who want to use the maps (congrats GogglePizzano, great stuff!!!) with other mods, I've also tried this and it seems to work:

1.- Backup your files
2.- Use M25buildinstaller and select the maps you want to export. It'll give you some errors about textures: forget about it and go on.
3.- Install the maps with M25installer.
4.- Check out everything is fine (it should)

I've done this with 6 or 7 maps and everything seems ok.

Congratulations again GogglePizzano for your work. Superb!

Why would you just move everything over and merge the dat files?

[Boalt92]

Why would you just move everything over and merge the dat files?

That's what I did.  Worked like a charm.

1. copy all files from your EXISTING mod (except the .dats)
2. paste them into the ffx3_mappack folder.
3. make backups of the ffx3_mappack .dats
4. merge .dats from your EXISTING mod into the ffx_mappack .dats
5. rename the ffx3_mappack folder.
6.  Have fun.

This way, your existing mod overwrites any conflicts, and if there are any problems, you've only screwed up the mappack and not the mod to which you've dedicated your life.

B92

[tommyboy]

Just wanted to add a belated "thank you" for this.
I know from my own half-bottomed attempts how much work it involved, so thanks for making sure I dont have to do it properly.. :P

[Boalt92]

One quick note on the graphics glitches (in case anyone is interested):

On my laptop, the glitches made the city look a little grubby and lived in.  On my PC they're a huge headache.....so I went and "hid" all the detailed objects using nifskope and BINGO, glitches gone.  The roads are a little bare in terms of markings (lane lines and crosswalks only), but it's a heckuvalot better than big ugly smudges all over the place!  Still can't do anything about the dark corners, but I can live with that.

Hopefully, we'll (ie: somebody who actually knows what they're doing) figure out this bug and really take advantage of this map pack.

B92

EDIT:
:doh:
I hope nobody else realized this, otherwise I'll feel really silly.  I took a look at "t_roadmarkings_master_01.tga" and guess what....there are smudgemarks on the texture!  Alpha them out and BINGO....no more smudge marks in the streets.  You don't have to disable EVERY detailed object....just fix the stooopid texture!  And you still get all your street markings!  Let's hope the corner bug is this easy...

B92

[GogglesPizanno]

You edited your own post before I could mention that.  ;)
Its one of those things on my list of "updates"

[Lunarman]

I've been looking into the dark corners and as far as i can see they're just not going to work. I have no idea why, 'cos O go them looking correct in Nifskope they just don't look right in game.

[GogglesPizanno]

I've been looking into the dark corners and as far as i can see they're just not going to work. I have no idea why

I think it has to do with the layering of the decal textures.

Ive figured out a partial fix.
It will make the corners non dark and match the sidewalk, but it clips the ends of the crosswalk off where it meets the sidewalk edge. So its still not perfect but it looks a lot better. See below. I've looked at it both in Nifskope and FFedit and it appears to work. Downside is it requires editing each corner piece on a map in nifskope...so its a bit of tedious work.

[lmalonsof]

Why would you just move everything over and merge the dat files?

If you don't want to install all the art files, for example if you're doing a mod maybe you don't want to distribute all your art folder (quite big), you just want to have installed the maps you need and then make the compilation.

On the other hand, I agree that maybe the best way it's to merge.

[Boalt92]

not perfect but it looks a lot better

I was prepared to live with dark corners, so this is WAY better.

There are about 25 or so maps that would need to be fixed.  I you post the solution, I'll do 5 of 'em (maybe more, depending on how long it takes). 

Maybe we can get some volunteers to help with some of the others (nudge,nudge...wink, wink)?

B92

[Boalt92]

GP -- I've been trying to reproduce your partial fix.  I think I found it, but now I'm not sure.  I removed the alpha channel on one of the t_footpaths textures and pasted the pavement over the section that was invisible, but can't remember what I did next (was it the emissive color in texturing properties?).  Any advice?

Also, I tried swapping textures with a FFVTTR map.  They look fine, but the FFVTTR map is so much brighter it really stands out from the FF1 stuff.  I ran a FF1 building model through the Nif converter and that took care of the lighting issues, but I don't have the time or patience to do it for every model in FF1!  Is there a way to mass conversions?  (I also did the opposite: darkening FFVTTR textures so they would fit in with FF1 stuff).

I would love to use the FF1 terrains, but, barring that, I would at least like to use FF1 resources on FFVTTR maps without them looking too dark.

If anybody has any ideas on how to get around this issue, I'd love to hear them.

B92


EDIT--
I really need to check these things out a little further BEFORE I post  :doh:
Seems there's a "convert entire folder" tool on EZ Nif Convert.  It'll take some time, but all the FF1 resources can be lightened to run on FFVTTR maps.  They don't totally match FFVTTR buildings and such, but are still great to have, nonetheless.  Thanks again for your efforts, GP (even if you can't solve the corners problem!).  Oh yeah: Alex...great skillz on this tool!

[Renegade]

Last year I built a new corner without the crosswalk lines and no alpha. It's not an exact perfect match, but it's pretty close and way more tolerable than the dark corners. Unfortunately there are at least two different sized corners as well as some differently textured ones so it didn't fit every map and I never got around to making different versions.

They are a little tedious to work with because an instance has to be placed one at a time in every corner, and you have to tweak the axis and rotations a bit to get them lined up horizontally and vertically. Also, you have to hex the existing corners away (I just lowered their Z planes so that they dropped below street level and set the new corners on top.

In order to move them in the editor, I gave them bounding boxes. Then at the end, I swapped out the bounding box version nif for one without the box so that the corners wouldn't be affected by the player's actions.

All of this was pre-niftools, so it's likely that it's much easier to work with  now than it was through hexing.

If the ToyBox was up you could download the mappack of converted maps I posted last year and view the results for yourself. Alas....

---RENEGADE

[GogglesPizanno]

Since there is the occasional mention from people about more maps for FFvTR specifically now that several meshers have gone FFvTR only and new players coming on board with the New budget release of FFvTR, I thought it might be a good time to revive this thread a bit.

Initially my map pack contained the stock FF1 maps as well as some of Humanton's simpler to convert map.
I am all for converting more maps from FF to FFvTR, but I need some help.

• What maps from FF1 are most requested by you?
• Before i release any new conversions, I want to get permission from the original mapmakers.

So if any of you made maps for FF or know people who did (especially Ewzzy) and are willing to give permission for conversions to be made to FFvTR, let me know. I can work on getting some updated maps to help ease the transition to the new game for those who are on the fence.

[Lionheart]

Okay, you asked for it.  :)

Most of the maps I use in FF1 are from the FXForce site, so I figured that's where I'd start. Obviously, this is a huge list (and I didn't list them all), but I thought I'd post the ones I was most interested in. They're not listed in any particular order, just how they appeared on screen as I scrolled down. If you'd like me to break it down in order of most interest, I can do that later tonight (as opposed to being on company time this afternoon).

---------------------------------
HUMAN TON

I don't remember off the top of my head which ones you included in the beta map pack, so I'll have to check on those later (I'm at work -- lunch -- now).


GENGORO

Batcave
Gotham City
Parking Lot
Castle2
Egypt Map
Alien City
Gold
Forest
Inside_Warehouse
Inside_Warehouse2
Jungle
Castle Map
X-Mansion
Autumn Map
Sewer System
Island2
Storm
Dark Storm
Underwater
Volcanic
island
snowy forest

CONDUIT

Downtown
Island3
Pyramid
russianmilitarybase
Western

EWZZY

Desert Base
Beach
Tide
Crystal
Pandemonium
Junk

CMDRKOENIG67

Difficult to choose. He made a bunch that are perfect for fantasy and sci-fi. That is part of makes FF so great -- you can use it for whatever world you want, not just superheroes.

ds_asteroid_m
ds_alpha_catacombs
ds_key_mordaz_interior
ds_key_mordaz
ds_large_cemetary_winter
ds_large_cemetary
ds_the_tardis
ds_catacombs
ds_dungeon
ds_forest_stream
ds_castle_dracula
ds_polarmaps_3pack
ds_rainforest
ds_marsmaps2pack
ds_moonmaps2pack
ds_ancient
ds_arctic
ds_arctic_base
ds_desert
ds_the_yukon

[Mystik]

definitely the underwater map, sewers and gotham city

[herodad1]

i always liked the robot factory( with the auto-guns), the college campus with the clone ray firing randomly, pans floating island,and the time wheel map.

[GogglesPizanno]

i always liked the robot factory( with the auto-guns), the college campus with the clone ray firing randomly, pans floating island,and the time wheel map.

The maps themselves were released in the original pack (minus the guns/clone ray etc...)

[bat1987]

X-mansion and Gotham city if u ask me! :D

[laughing paradox]

definitely the underwater map, sewers and gotham city

These are the top 3 I would request, too.

I also really liked the Egypt map.

[GogglesPizanno]

I'll start taking a look at them.
Also, Conduit let me know that he's cool with converting his maps over, so that probably where I'll start for now.

[laughing paradox]

I was just curious to know what the status of this project was. I had to reinstall the beta Map Pack recently which reminded me of this.