3D map of the city (centre?)

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3D map of the city (centre?)

Postby mrlipring » Mon May 09, 2005 2:37 am

I'm going to regret this, i can feel it. This is something that, if there are people interested, will take over our lives, it's such a massive undertaking, but it'd be stupidly cool.

Do we have any game modders/mappers/etc among us?

I'm asking because i'm very much considering attempting to map out at least some of the city. I'm a total n00b at this, so i'll almost certainly need help if it's to progress at any sensible rate. I'm still undecided as to what game engine to do it in. Source seems like the obvious choice, because it's so powerful, but is it considerably harder to use than, for instance, the Q3 engine? or even the original HL engine?

Source is definitely going to be more able to deal with the scale of thing we're talking about here...

Can you imagine the sheer geeky pleasure of running around the trongate on your pc? or sniping someone in st enoch square from halfway up buchanan street? I'm not wanting to do this SPECIFICALLY for the gaming side of it, but it would be a nice bonus.

It would be very, very, VERY hard to do, and it'd be a hell of a lot of work, but man, just think about it. all the nooks and crannies... the BRIDGES!

imagine being here with a sniper rifle...

Image

First though, i'll have to gauge interest, and see who's willing to help, and who actually has skills in this area.

3d modelling? graphics stuff?

Obviously a large part of it would be swanning about whichever area we choose, collecting photographs for textures, and for modelling's sake.

The more i think about it, the more work i think it'll be, and i know i'm STILL underestimating it, but come on, imagine it!

A large part of mapping for games is keeping it even. in most maps for objective-based games at least, you don't want one side to have any particular advantage, or everyone will want to go the allies or whatever. We don't have to worry about that aspect at least...

Come on then, who's as stupid as me and thinks we can actually pull some of this off? :twisted:
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Postby Fossil » Mon May 09, 2005 5:50 am

I like this idea mrlipring. Would love to see it as a GTA add onalos.
Driving up Union st the wrong way :) . But yeah a HL map in Glasgow... but would the code monkeys only shatter our dreams :?

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Postby KonstantinL » Mon May 09, 2005 10:05 am

Where's that photograph taken from? I can't work it out in my head.

Great idea about the map. Unfortunately I know nothing about computer mapping!
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Postby Seamey » Mon May 09, 2005 10:45 am

it's from queens park isn't it?

I used to wonder if there was a simcity modle of Glasgow - but i guess there would be too many derelict properties and the residents would either be complaining, stuck in traffic or fighting each other.
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Postby KonstantinL » Mon May 09, 2005 11:49 am

I've tried a few times to do a Glasgow Sim City but it's very hard to start because if you start from the city centre you have masses of commercial zones and of course in game commercial zones are the last thing you lay down in a successful city.

It's also very difficult to 'draw' the Clyde in scale to your city.

I might have an other go tonight! You've planted a seed in my head now...
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Postby mrlipring » Mon May 09, 2005 1:21 pm

Yeah, the photo's taken from queen's park. I guess this project will stop one or two of us from ACTUALLY going out with a sniper rifile. Or at least delay it. ;)

Alchemist, i like the look of that, but it's a bit too clean and bright. I assume that can be fixed in textures etc. How fluid is actually walking about and exploring in that? The draw distance looks good too, but it does look a bit clinical and lego-ish, if you get me. Doesn't look as natural as some of HL2 did, but again i guess that's down to the textures and models used. Can you explore the buildings in that engine?

Image

Image
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Postby Alchemist » Mon May 09, 2005 3:52 pm

mrlipring, yeah the HL2 engine is nice, but it's back to
the jolly old licensing issue and how many folks have
a copy of HL2 to run a Glasgow mod.

Fiddled about with VRML for years, but never liked the
interface for the viewers and yeah that looks even more
like legoland :wink:
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Postby mrlipring » Mon May 09, 2005 5:10 pm

Yeah, the 30 bucks outlay will be too much for most people, but i haven't seen another engine that would do the job as well.
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Postby highlander » Tue May 10, 2005 3:33 pm

No point in this people!

The project is all ready underway costing in the region of £300,000. Still to find out where it will be available!

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Postby mrlipring » Tue May 10, 2005 3:35 pm

links? And will your average bod be able to download it and wander, or will it be a prorietary thing? Will it be maintained?

Bollocks to them, i say we should still carry on.

I was thinking also, it would be useful for building replicas of certain buildings we explore, or deem to be worth it. Just single buildings.
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Postby adouglasmathie » Tue May 10, 2005 3:46 pm

I know its not the same thing, but there already is a 3d map of the CC at buchanan steet and st vincent place.
I am talking about the bronze relief map for blind folk.

Could this provide a shortcut for you guys? Presumably the Council must have a record of the artist, who in turn must have some notes/drawings.
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Postby Alchemist » Tue May 10, 2005 3:49 pm

mrlipring wrote:links? And will your average bod be able to download it and wander, or will it be a prorietary thing? Will it be maintained?

Bollocks to them, i say we should still carry on.

I was thinking also, it would be useful for building replicas of certain buildings we explore, or deem to be worth it. Just single buildings.


Your answer to your first question will be, "FAT CHANCE" :x

Sorry, was not aimed at yourself, but to those that doubt it can
be done without the use of "code monkeys".

Progress so far, is that to get as many people involved, best
to keep things simple. So that's the "code monkeys" been
dropped of the roof of the Petershill flats for starters :twisted: So
no C++ fiddling with OpenGL APIs, no creation of an engine
from scratch.

Looking into the way in which textures and photographs can
be manipulated within the Quake engine. Working with an
open source mod, seeing how the texture mapping limitations
are.

Best to keep things simple, leading to better results.

Going to start work at home this evening on a quake
mod of a Glasgow tenement (with outside loo) , at least it
will keep me out the pub for a while at least :wink:
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Postby mrlipring » Tue May 10, 2005 5:39 pm

I'll look forward to it alchemist. :)

I play enemy territory, so i know what the Q3 engine can do, and it's not bad.

The advanced lighting and just generally betterness of source was making me lean towards it, but if the Q3 engine is easier to mod for, why not give it a bash first? :)
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Postby Molendinar » Tue May 10, 2005 10:56 pm

ok here goes, I haven't had time to reply properly to this thread the past few days, but here comes my tuppence worth. I've been thinking about all of this a LOT over the past year and most of what I've been trying to do is get the tools to achieve this or something resembling it.

In comparing engines that are out there, the best open source option I've come across is Ogre;

http://www.ogre3d.org/

It has full directx 9 support and opengl support, allows advanced shaders (hlsl, glsl cg etc) which give you the normal maps per pixel lighting etc whihc make the "next gen" games like Doom3 and HL2 their amazingly realistic look.

Modelling wise look at Blender

http://www.blender3d.org

free so you can put that pirate of 3ds max away

Also, I've splashed out of my self employed pocket for photomodeler pro 5, I'm currently working on a variety of models of things and buildings in Glasgow which will be making its way onto these pages shortly (yes honestly really) Anyone who's talked to me recently has had their ear bored off on this topic, but I'm getting there....

Also worth checking out is the company my mate owns;

http://www.zmapping.com/

He was tendering for the glasgow job, but don't know if that's happening or not, sounded to me like the council wasn't too clued up technologically ... I don't think anyone else has the same capability really have a look at the models yourself, pretty detailed amazing stuff

Anyway, it's an amazing topic and could have many uses. As a self employed self supporting person I've been thinking along the lines of a commercial purpose for it all but it would be good to have some community thing too, so I dunno what to do really. - just thinking out loud.

ANyway, interested to see what you guys have to say
Last edited by Molendinar on Tue May 10, 2005 11:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Pgcc93 » Tue May 10, 2005 11:09 pm

Looking forward to your renders Molly the provisional sketches were pretty cool 8)
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