Hey guys!

[CookedNoodles]

I'm currently working on a MMO racing game (We've been working on it for 2 years now)

Some Pics :
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/639784/SS2.jpg
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/639784/ocs.jpg

And we're starting to get to the point where we need a world map, and I really had no idea where to start. So I do what most people do : google.

After looking through a few sites I finally arrived here, and All I can say is that I've been totally blown away by the maps some people make here, So I'm looking forward to sticking around and just seeing how it all works

[Steel General]

Sounds like an interesting project you're working on... Welcome Aboard!

[Redrobes]

Do you use a game engine or program the graphics yourself. Do you have tech limits on what you can use.

Id look in the finished maps section and see whats similar and look at the WIP thread for the map to see what was done there. Theres a page of thumbnails to make the choice easier.

[NeonKnight]

Welcome to the Guild!

[CookedNoodles]

Do you use a game engine or program the graphics yourself. Do you have tech limits on what you can use.

Id look in the finished maps section and see whats similar and look at the WIP thread for the map to see what was done there. Theres a page of thumbnails to make the choice easier.

At this point the engine is pretty custom at this point. There aren't really any good MMO engines out there that don't cost hundreds of thousands of dollars so we ended up doing everything ourselves. We started with a publicly available engine for rendering etc... and have tagged on custom collision, sound, networking, animation, gui framework etc etc etc

All tech limits are self-imposed

Thanks for the advice!

[Redrobes]

Is the map gonna be used for the character UI or for the texture that is part of the 3D in game bit. For instance if the map is the floor then it has to be realistic and also the res of it could be huge. ID software uses hyper textures for the game map which is a very high res texture thats mapped in pieces at run time. Then again it could be a low res version of that. I think we need a lot more info about the kind of map your after.

Was there anything in the Finished map thumbs that could be used with permission or even something to base the kind of map on.

[Ramah]

Judging from the screenies and the fact that it is a race game I would guess he wants a world map that shows the location of the various tracks?

Looks really cool btw. Good luck with it.

[CookedNoodles]

We're looking for a 2d map for the 'over world map' pretty much like Ramah described.

Players can use it to navigate between the towns in the game (from the towns they can access tracks).
This is what guild wars does :
http://www.guildwars.com/images/theworld/elona-lrg.jpg

Ideally with different environments : desert, mountains, tundra etc...
Something like http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=7100 is perfect.
The layout doesn't really impact us at all as long as we can place our towns on, so I'll probably shoot out some PMs to people when thats unlocked oh and that includes you Ramah

All we need is a picture, and then we can animate some clouds and possibly water glittering on top.
The only technical constraint imposed is that we need it to be in a good resolution to be full screen.

[Ascension]

1 more post and you can send messages. So just reply to this with something like "oh, ok, that's cool" (all posts have to be at least 10 characters long -- letters, numbers, punctuation, spacing, etc all count).

[Redrobes]

Ok gotcha. Its pure UI eye candy stuff and not for the 3D engine at all.

If you look through this thread

http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=3407

you will see a map I did for Galrion. That was enormous and pretty involved but if you want something up to 2Kx2K pixels then I can do that no prob.

If thats what you need then you can go and get this little app...
http://www.viewing.ltd.uk/cgi-bin/vi...nstant_islands

and run through some, hitting the Next button until you find one you like. Then take a screenie and post it up here. If you want just a bit of the land within the panel then put a red box around it on the screenie. Put a few stars on the map where you specifically want desert or tropical or whatever if thats something you had in mind but the mountains and possible rivers will be fixed from the map.

EDIT -- Ah, I thought this was in the requests box but this is an intro... are you dead keen to make this map yourself ? Well, ill make it if you like but the island tool is a good starting point anyway as its a free utility.