Mapping for Far Cry 2 Created 15 years ago2008-09-26 00:37:48 UTC by satchmo

This video shows that mapping for Far Cry 2 is only for dummies.

Everything is made from models and pre-fabs. No more individual architectures.

The only limitation is not your imagination, unless your imagination is very limited.

Yeah, I can't say I like where mapping seems to be heading with games lately. All the effort, skill and imagination is being taken out of it, which is really a shame.

I'm not sure I agree entirely. While this editor seems to be extremely dumbed-down, I still think you should consider the amount of effort it would take to make large environments like this if you were given a program like Hammer. It'd be so time consuming most people would just give up, and it wouldn't be efficient at all. Instead, individual models are created outside the editor, and the map editor's only function is the placement of these objects. Map editing programs seem to have moved beyond the point where they're needed for the creation of the actual content in the map. Since the use of models are so prevalent in today's games, the level designer's job looks like it's shifted more from an artistic endeavor to a strategic one, merely planning out the layout and putting the pieces all together.

Yeah, it hurts to see our favorite form of artistic expression overshadowed by the use of pre-designed content used in great redundancy, but there's few other ways to achieve the kind of graphics we're seeing today. You just can't expect to reach a realistic level working with geometric blocks. The only other viable option is to design the entire map within a modeling program, like they did with Halo.

This is the video for the console version of the map editor. This is not the editor that the PC version will get (if it gets one), and is not the editor that Ubisoft used to make the levels for the game. No doubt it'll be similar - so don't go expecting Hammer's 4-window style view anymore.

Anyway, nearly all modern engines use heightmaps now, not to make the mapper's job redundant, but to make it easier for the mapper to work on large-scale, natural-looking terrain. Remember that real mappers can ask their co-workers to make the models that they need for them.

If you're lucky, the PC editor will let you use custom models. Anyway, you should be comparing this to the editor found in Halo 3, for example, or the old Tony Hawk games. Not Hammer.

Looks like Far Cry2 is goingto be sick. easy eddition, but who doesnt like that?

or the old Tony Hawk games.

I was going to make the same point. That shit was awesome.

Anyway, nearly all modern engines use heightmaps now, not to make the mapper's job redundant, but to make it easier for the mapper to work on large-scale, natural-looking terrain. Remember that real mappers can ask their co-workers to make the models that they need for them.

Damn right. I tried making realistic moutains from eye sight and it was just too much.

Also Tony Hawk's editor was awesome, every game I'd always make the same sort of levels like maze city or glitch town. Ah some glitches appeared by accident like putting a ramp next to a rail and somehow falling through the floor

I had a game called delta force: black hawk down, and its editor was something similar to what your talking about, satchmo.

You would choose from 10 terrain maps, eeach with its own height and textures. Then you choose from a huge list of over 800 objects to populate your map. There was absolutley no "brush" or "texture" tools whatsoever.

Sounds to me like an inflatable map. Easy to make, and you have to be a retard to mess it up.

the part where he hangglides into the forest and the voiceover says "take a moment to marvel at your own creation" pisses me off

Still, i pre-ordered FC2 yesterday, so i refuse to diss any aspect of it.

I don't think my computer can run this game.

I'll have to tackle it after I build a new rig.

I have no time to play games anyway. I have to rush to finish my book.