here is the final render of the world map v. 1

Click here for homepage click the 'View Large World Map' link to see a bigger image but you will either have to play the game or mod for wtp to see all the details that I have put in there

Some stats:
rendered in 3ds max7 w/o any post work
psp8 to create the textures
full image 8000x6336
Mos size 61.9mb
vertex count 36781
poly count 32999
triangle count 72660
texture/maps used 179
different elements 34
rendering time about 1 1/2 hrs.
start/end time Mar 17 2006 - Dec 6 2006
263 days worked, conservative estimate hours worked per day 5 = 1315 hrs

Crazy or dedicated??

this has been a learning experience for me. There has been 2 versions created but half way through the first I had to start over since my computer is a hunk of junk and I created too many polys for this computer to handle thus the restart.

What program did you use? It's absolutely gorgeous!

Thanks
updated first post
3ds max7
psp8

Hi Sir-Kill,

It looks very nice indeed. Is there any chance you can send me the base of this map. I mean just the plain .MAX file, without textures. I would like to experiment my own and there´s no time to create the new one from scratch for me... If not, nevermind. BTW, I´m planning to make some tutorials for 3ds Max, mostly for creating indoor and outdoor areas, default camera systems and also some texturing tutorials... In PDF, of course...

So??

I'd love to have a copy as well, if you don't mind... I'd be really interested to see how you did it!

I have been debating on this request I cant put my finger on why I have to say no but I do sorry.
to Valiant, I am not sure that it would be very usable to you being a very low poly model it is kind of exact to this application alone. I think I have moved almost every other vertex and turned half the faces. one more reason it has took me so long.

to K'aeloree, how I did it was using Valiant's tutorial on iwd snowy areas (the modeling part) but replacing nurbs with planes since the former uses too many polys and I do not care for the controls of nurbs. even with using planes the first model used around 1,000,000 polys and it took me about 3-10 seconds just to move one vertex

anyway I used a plane with about 10 - 10 L & H segments. then selecting certain polys I used tessellate where I needed more details mainly the mountains, rivers& lakes, and shore then repeat, repeat, repeat. this way the bottom of the ocean only has a couple 100 polys instead of 1000's. this gave me a rough amount of polys.
using the cut tool and insert vertex adding more where I needed. since tessellate would not work anymore after the displace modifier was added permanently.

texturing/mapping is where I made up for the lack of polys mainland is made up of 6-8 gradient maps with a lot of mix mapping. lakes rivers and lava I used bitmaps and opacity maps.
well pic's are worth 1000 words and I have babbled long enough.
camera1_wireframe
camera2_lit_and_smooth&highlight

Heya Sir-Kill

I completely understand what are you talking about. I would behave the same way you did being in your position. So don´t worry about it, it´s okay...

And what do you think about my tutorial idea?? Do you agree with me in it?? I hope so...

But when I´ll be done with my small mod (...one area graphics left for me to do...), I will create some independet areas, and, if you find it useful, you´ll may use it in WTP...

So? What do you think now??

the tutorial was great it worked just like you said.
however this 800 mhz comp does not handle scripted materials well (SimbiontMAX) but the displace modifier was invaluable

I'd love to see your work in wtp

The worldmap looks vaguely like Iceland.

-Galactygon

Screenshot of the new Worldmap ingame:

This worldmap is 3968x3136 so it is approximately half size of Sir-Kill's original image above. We are debating using this size or the full size. This one is about 4 times the size of the BG2 Worldmap. Full-size might be a bit too big for players, though it is nice to look at!

It looks like the icons are a bit bigger than they should be on this size. (I think full size would be better.)

The only problem I had with the full size map is that it takes ages to scroll around the map. I know pushing the edge of the screen moves a bit quicker but still...there is a lot of map!

The other option would be to reduce the existing icons by...50%? This is fairly easy to do in BamWorkshop, 30 seconds work really.

The existing icons will only be a small number of the planned icons. We are hoping for in the region of 50 for our initial release, hopefully not using any of the original ones for the area's in that release.

Of course any other idea's are welcomed.

Maybe you could give the option of having a smaller map or a larger map? I know it would be more work, but I think some players would really appreciate it. I'd love the ability to be able to explore a gigantic map - it gives the feel that the world is actually that big.

Regardless - wow, and I can't wait to try it out myself!

Okay here are two screen shots of the full size 8000x6336 worldmap:

http://www.blackwyrmlair.net/~rabain/WTP/bigwmp.JPG

http://www.blackwyrmlair.net/~rabain/WTP/bigwmp2.JPG

Just to give you an idea of scale the first image shows the same lake as in the first screenshot above. The second image shows the Watchers Keep icon against the large size map.

Also note that the part of the map you are seeing in these screenshots is the mountain range in the extreme top left of the main continent as seen in SK's full worldmap in his post above.

Also note that the location of Watchers Keep in both size versions of the worldmap is at the same co-ordinates as it appears on the original BG2 map. These maps at either size are HUGE (yes with capital letters)!!

Hi guys,

The best choice IMO would be to use a half-sized map picture with resized map icons to 75%. I was looking at those two screenshots with original worldmap that Rabain posted. Problem is that on original worldmap you can see textures used for rendering and they are starting to be very big and simple comparing with hills, or mountains... and on half-sized worldmap not. For example snow is going to be a bit blurry in the original.
Just a thought...

The smaller map would be my preference too Valiant. Too much detail on the large map is not necessarily a good thing.

The 75% map icons is a good idea too!

Here are two more worldmap locations for you to drool over:

http://www.blackwyrmlair.net/~rabain/WTP/volcano.jpg

http://www.blackwyrmlair.net/~rabain/WTP/waterfall.jpg

as far as the textures go in the icons post that is actually 2 different textures, the scale makes you view them at different locations. I have at least 3 different mountain looks

rab you might want to crop the image to keep a good scale. crop the image the the same size as the original bg2 map size

Yeah, Sir-Kill, good idea. No need to have a world map much bigger than original Bioware artwork.

To Rabain: pictures looks fine, is it 50% scaled down??

If you're talking of the "real" in-game map, I don't think it's good to "force" the map to be almost as big as the BG2 worldmap. This is a much bigger area, so why to restrict it. I think it's very cool and spectacular for players, and offers a lot of space for mods. A little scrolling occasionally isn't so horrible; the worldmap is not viewed in every minute after all. I'm with the "50% map size / 75% icon size" suggestion.

I'm not completely sure what Sir-Kill was saying in his post.

The image in my first post that has the screenshot in the post is our worldmap image reduced by 50% compared to the image Sir-Kill made in 3DS. That image is 3968x3136 after being reduced from 8000x6336.

The mapicon sizes in the screenshots have not been reduced at all from how they appear in a normal BG2 game.

I do not believe that anyone is suggesting that our Worldmap should be the same dimensions as the original BG2 worldmap which is a sad 1470x700. If that were the case then the icons would be appearing on a Worldmap that looks something like what you see on the WTP homepage when you click on View Large Worldmap. I think we would lose a lot of the time and effort SK has put into the detail to be seen on a larger version.

Let me give you a comparison. The BG2 worldmap covers Amn, the Cloudpeaks and some of Tethyr. Our worldmap covers an area similar in size to most of the Faerunian continent. It needs to be bigger!

I agree, that it would be a pity to loose all of the details by reducing size from the original.
Also, if I remember correctly, the world map scrolls automatically to show your party location, so you are not forced to scroll the whole map each time. But will it work smoothly with the large files like 62Mb .mos etc.?

The mos at full size is 64mb, at 50% it is 15mb.

On my pc it works fine, not sure how large files would affect slower pc's.

I'm on dual 3.2 pentiumD's with 2gb of ram, 2x256mb graphics cards.

Fine machine, Rab, but not everybody has so powered pc you have, for example I have only 2.2 GHz, with 1GB ram and only 128MB graphic card and have no money to upgrade it... And I´m sure there are others that still have a prehistoric machine, something like 800 MHz proc, 256 MB ram. Believe me, they exist and they love to play BG2. No doubt they would have problems with this worldmap size....

50% or even smaller worldmap/75% map icons.... My suggestion.

If you are talking about the 8000x6336 reduced to 3968x3136, the new image is actually less than four times smaller after the reduction, because ~50% change on the height/width results in ~25% on the area of the image. Of course it's still much bigger than the BG2 wmp if you say that's 1470x700.

Valiant: I think that a large MOS will only result in higher RAM usage, and depending on the speed of the HDD (as well), it might load for a longer time. Once it's loaded, there shouldn't be serious problems. That is, for the owners of PCs with smaller RAM/HDD it's just a question of waiting some time; once (or rarely). It should be tested though.

CPU doesn't have much role here, though the overall performance of the PC certainly determines how smoothly WTP will run.

I have an 800 mgz comp w/ 500 ram. but I also got a new one that is way better now

anyway here is an image (tho looks really dark on my old comp monitor) but one of the details it is a cave where the rivers head waters come from that you cant see on the smaller image. in future versions I might to add some marble columns but again you will not see them on a smaller scale.

the only thing I'd think would be acceptable would be is to crop the image size and not scale it.

Ok, guys, another question. Sir-Kill´s worldmap is so pretty, that it would be a damn shame to use original map icons. Have you ever thought about using map icons similiar to Icewind Dale 1 style?? First, making them is pretty easy, and second, they will look much better on this type of worldmap. After all, this map is not hand drawed like original is, it´s rendered. It needs something better that original map icons...

What do you think??

I think we ought to use the original SKills map, since even SK upgraded ,
that gives hope.
Otherwise we would not show any progress, or present any competition to Mac.
Just kidding I-Phone rules!

We've decided for the initial release to go with the large worldmap.

The size of the worldmap in the download will be neglible as the download will be massive anyway due to all the areas included.

We hope the large worldmap won't be put too much strain on players pc's and may, at a later date, release a lite worldmap at the smaller size.


@Valiant - thats not a bad idea about the IWD 1 icons.

We had toyed with using minimalistic icons like the ones used in the Total War series worldmap. (Rome and Medieval 2.) Or at least I had toyed with that idea, the only drawback is that the icons are not unique to a particular place, though I suppose the place names are on the Worldmap anyway. See pics:

http://www.blackwyrmlair.net/~rabain/WTP/0001.png
http://www.blackwyrmlair.net/~rabain/WTP/0002.png
http://www.blackwyrmlair.net/~rabain/WTP/0003.png

All suggestions are welcome.

My feelings exa-ca-ta-ly

Upgrade or die
P.S. GO SUNS

I like those small houses in pict. nr. 3...