Dalian Plant Re-Release (DesertCombat Version)

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Apache Thunder
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Dalian Plant Re-Release (DesertCombat Version)

Post by Apache Thunder »

A random user PMed me asking about this map. It was a map I and DACV worked on a couple years back. (it's been quite awhile since I last released this, so I don't know to what extent I had a part in. DACV most definitely was involved with this map. Or was it Gulf of Oman? I'm sure DACV may drop by if I'm wrong.)

Apparently the links all died and this was one of the things I worked on that slipped my mind so never remembered to fix.

So just a few days ago I got a message asking to re-upload it and just prior to doing so, noticed all the flaws that map had compared to how I do maps now a days. I didn't rebuild the map or anything, but I did redo some things to make it run a little better and look a bit better too!


So consider this a long overdue update to this map:

Download Link:
Dalian_Plant_v2f.rar
Be sure to remove any previous versions of this map if you have any as I no longer make use of the patch rfas. This doesn't apply to the BF242 version of the map of coarse as I have not altered that map in any way.

Screenshots:
SPOILER
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This is the "DesertCombat" version of the map. NOT the one for BF242 mod. This map is self-contained and all that's needed is DesertCombat 0.7 and of coarse Battlefield 1942 with latest patches. I do most my BF1942 dev work with Origin version fo the game, so yes this and all my previous projects should work with Origin version of this game as well as the retail version.


Changelog below:
1. Redid all lightmaps.
2. Fixed a few AI bugs.
3. Fixed handweapon animations. Fire animation still doesn't work, but now soldiers hold new weapons correctly.
4. Added functional LightmapShadowBits.lsb file.
5. Fixed missing Chl3 UVMaps on a few statics.
6. Claymore moved to sniper kits and vehicle drops moved to Heavy Assault kits.
7. Claymore updated to new trigger system. Claymore is now a proper projectile again. :D
8. Reorganized level code to be more editor friendly. (may need changes to open correctly in Battlecraft, but Editor42 shouldn't have issues opening this map now)
9. Extended canvas area of heightmap raw file. The heightmap edges aren't a problem now. (no longer any land near aircraft carrier for example. ;) )
10. Fixed animation speed of BF2 parachutes.
11. Ported BF2 winsock for air_repairstation building.
12. Added collision physics to helmet particles from e_soldierdeath fX.
13. Ported some BF2 HUD textures.
14. Ported few BF2 vehicles. (Jeep FAAV, Tunguska, M6-Linebacker, Humvee, Jep_Paratrooper, tnk_type98, Jep_Vodnik)
15. Improved Water alpha coding. Water looks better near land.
As you can see I got quite OCD about things and decided to fix one thing after another with bringing in some of the vehicles from the BF242 mod being one of the final changes I did. (most of which are direct ports from BF2 with the exception of the tnk_typ98 vehicle. That was ported from BF2 by DACV to Vietnam and I later ported the code to BF1942 for BF242 mod. All the other BF2 vehicles on this map were ported by me)

This map doesn't stray too far gameplay wise to how it played before. The only gameplay change was Singleplayer. In COOP/Singleplayer, I removed the blackhawks on the aircraft carrier and instead have two AH64s. This is due to the fact that a lot of bots would spawn into the blackhawks but never switch to driver seat (they seem unable to spawn directly into the pilot seat) so they idle there until a human comes and flies them to the ultimate destination. Faulty DC AI code I'm guessing.

The south docks was made an uncap base as well so that if the Iraqi side caps all the bases, the bots won't be stuck on the carrier. (spawn settings are set so they can only spawn there when there is vehicles available to spawn into)

Landing Zones was something I never learned with BF1942, so it will be up to someone else to add boats if they want to fix singleplayer to how it should be for map like this but at this point I have no plans on making boats work in any of my projects. :(

Conquest mode is unchanged aside from the BF2 vehicle replacements. The main change to the vehicles themselves is the M6-Linebacker and the Tunguska (the M6-Linebacker isn't a BF2 port though. I basically just modified the missile turret launcher box thing on the DC M2A3 to hold 4 missiles and changed it's the vehicle name and the projectiles it fires. I could go and port the BF2 one, but at this late in the game, it's a waste for a single vehicle on a single map for a vehicle that already looks close enough to the BF2 version. :P )

I fixed the missile fire sounds and ported the BF2 1p HUDs and redid the crosshairs. They are now the correct colors as they appeared in BF2. They still don't look 100% like BF2, but in BF1942/Desert Combat, it's good enough. :D

Hope ya'll enjoy this release. The performance of this map should be improved over the last one. I re-did all the lightmaps with 3DS Max (though I did use Max in the initial release, but I had used TGAs at the time, so it took up a lot of video ram) and now the lightmaps are really close to how BF2 has the map lighted and also now use DDS DXT1 which is definitely the recommended format that lightmaps need to be in. ;)




No promises, but I'm working on a new map port from BF2. Now a days it takes a 44 oz soda and some motivation for me to get back into modding again, and lately a caffeine fueled modding marathon has gotten me around to having 40% of all the objects from Operation Road Rage ported to SM/RS files. I have the StaticObjects.con file, and the terrain ported over. But the map is just a skeleton dummy folder as I have not coded up anything yet. Still porting meshes. I will only be working on this if I got a soda on hand, so I can't give any time table on if/or when I'll finish it. :D

The main reason I chose this map was it was one of my favorites back in the day and plus it also made use of BF2's cloud system. Since in the past year or so, I found away of reviving BF1942's cloud system back from legacy code from Rallisport Challenge, I can now replicate this system (for the most part, can't do two different cloud textures on the same map though. :( ) in my new map. Dalian Plant didn't have any clouds set up in the sky.con file, but this map does, so it's another reason why I chose it. ;). I no longer work on the BF242 mod, so this will be exclusive to DesertCombat, though others are welcome to fix that in the future. ;)


However, unlike the previous BF2 ports, I FINALLY found a good way to preserve most of the detail the original BF2 statics had. The big problem previous BF2 ports had in this game engine is the fact that BF1942 only supports two UV map channels. One for the main color map and the one used for lightmaps. BF2 however supported 4+ with the major one being the chl2 detail map. The problem is, statics in BF2 have a color map that lacks a lot of detail, but provides a "color" of a specific material/area of a mesh with the chl2 uvmap using a seperate texture that provides all the details via detail map. There's other less important texture channels like the dirt map, and the bump map that is used in tandom with the detail map (usually on the specular level channel once imported into Max, detail maps show up in the specular color channel on a material once imported into max)

Long story short, most statics I can just swap the chl1/chl2 uvmaps and use the detail map instead. However this won't work on all statics. So for the exceptions (namely buildings and a lot of other large stuff) I found a compromise. What I will do is have all the detail maps temporarily made the color map in Max, render out flat lightmap of that object with no lighting. Once done with that, I discard the detail texture assignments and restore the colormap ones before finally exporting the object to SM.

Then after the map is done and has all the lightmaps rendered out, I'll go back and "overlay" the detailmap lightmap channel files I made onto the lightmaps of the objects I did this for and this will effectively restore some of the lost detail. It won't be 100% quality compared to how it appeared in the native BF2 engine, but it certainly beats the alternative. This process does make the port process take longer because of all the steps I have to go through, but I've done enough objects like this to have memorized the process, so not going to alter it now that quite a few has been finished. (with one regret being that I could have instead used the detail textures as the main textures and just had the colormaps in my lightmap files for overlay later which would mean even better quality as the colormaps don't have a lot of detail most of the time and the loss in detail from being on the lightmap channel wouldn't be as noticeable, but I've done to many objects now to switch, so I'm stuck with how I got it going now)

Note that unlike BF2, my Battlefield Heroes'42 mod never had this issue since the developers of that game despite it being in the BF2142 engine, decided to not use seperate texture channels for detail and they used a single texture per material approach much like how objects in BF1942 were done. The only exception being the shipwreck object. So for the most part, the maps in that mod look 99% close to the original.


If/When I release the map, it will be in a separate thread. ;)
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BotHunter
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Re: Dalian Plant Re-Release (DesertCombat Version)

Post by BotHunter »

Thats SICK! :D
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Diamondback
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Re: Dalian Plant Re-Release (DesertCombat Version)

Post by Diamondback »

Looks rad, well done once again! Get back to modding you genius!
See my Strasbourg map project here.
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Apache Thunder
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Re: Dalian Plant Re-Release (DesertCombat Version)

Post by Apache Thunder »

Well after seeing how much better I can make BF2 maps look, I did decide to port another BF2 map. I've got around 48 or so objects out of the 143 objects finished and the object positions and terrain ported over already. I'll show screenshots once I have it lightmapped. It's going to be Operation Road Rage from the Armored Fury booster pack. :D
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Re: Dalian Plant Re-Release (DesertCombat Version)

Post by Shrooms »

I like the bot spam at e4 just flew a heli over that control point and got many kills. The ground textures look really well done but the buildings texture looks so bland either way its fun to play :D
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Apache Thunder
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Re: Dalian Plant Re-Release (DesertCombat Version)

Post by Apache Thunder »

Yeah the bland textures was a result of the BF1942 game engine limitation. BF2 uses multiple UVMaps to handle additional texture layers. However BF1942 only supports two UVmaps. One for the main texture, and the second used for the lightmap channel. But my next BF2 map I'm working on now won't have that problem anymore. I plan to "generate" colormap lightmap files for most of the statics and instead use the detail textures as the main texture. Then after I lightmap the map, I merge the colormap lightmaps I made to each objects lightmap file and voila! Missing detail restored! :D

I have a batch program that will do this for me, so I won't have to do all likely 500+ lightmap one by one, which would take forever. :P
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Re: Dalian Plant Re-Release (DesertCombat Version)

Post by duffman »

I am impressed! ..and you don't work for a game development company?
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Apache Thunder
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Re: Dalian Plant Re-Release (DesertCombat Version)

Post by Apache Thunder »

I lack the several collage diplomas necessary for that. I suppose I'm just not compatible with today's society. :P
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Re: Dalian Plant Re-Release (DesertCombat Version)

Post by mistamontiel »

Paper wahwahwah :| Knowledge/education MUST be FREE !!!

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Cheers AT ruler of BF1942 modding !!!!
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Re: Dalian Plant Re-Release (DesertCombat Version)

Post by Swaffy »

Apache Thunder wrote:I lack the several collage diplomas necessary for that. I suppose I'm just not compatible with today's society. :P
All you gotta do is make a portfolio of your modding work. Or present it in a way they will understand what you've been doing all this time.
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