Roma Surrectum II: New Battlemap Environment

[tone]

OK, it's time for us to reveal some of the changes that people can expect to see in RS2 for the battlemap environment. This is just a small sampler of the widespread changes that we've made. As you can see, everything is new: new skies, new ground textures, new trees, new grasses. This is still a work in progress but most of it is now done.

What we're trying to ensure is that each "climate" has appropriate ground textures, grass and trees. For example, in the temperate forests, you'll see beech, oak and birch trees plus one or two Scots pines (Scots pines not present in this preview yet). In the mediterranean climate you'll see a number of species of pine that are typical for the mediterranean as well as other appropriate tree species like the almond tree (shown here in flower in its winter texture). Similarly, with the grass textures, the plant species we've chosen are appropriate for the distribution of that climate - in the case of the temperate open forest, bluebells predominate.

We're making very good progress with these changes - ground textures are complete, grass needs some minor tweaks, and most of what's left is creating new tree models and textures.

We're noticing very little performance loss with these changes.

So, here we go.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Updates 7/5/09:


Macedonian Hiera Ile (General's bodyguard)




Macedonian Bottian Phalangites



Saka Elite Cataphracts



Alpine forest - Norway Spruce and Silver Firs



Dacian Xystophoroi


Alpine Wooded Terrain


Dacian Captain (right) fights Champion from our secret Celtic faction


Units from our secret Celtic faction advance through Alpine woodland



Winter in the Alps


Units from our secret Celtic faction advancing through the snow


Massilian Spearmen


Gallaeci Skirmishers


Achaian Phalangites (Free Greeks)


Phrygian Heavy Cavalry (Mercenaries)


Gallaeci units charge the enemy


Scythian Hoplites (Free Greeks)


Syracusan Heavy Cavalry


Syracusan Heavy Cavalry (again)


Syracusan Hipparchos (Free Greeks)

[0oLucko0]

lol...I don't know what to say? They just look so real to my eyes. Not only that, but few words can match or describe what you guys (RS2 team) have been able to achieve with this mod. Just mind blowing.

Fascinating work, much respect

[ISA Gunner]

Oh my God, oh my God, OH MY FREAKING GOD! All hail RS team! (excluding Marcus Tullius *shakes fist*)

*composes himself and disposes condom in bin*

Those textures....the grass, snow, trees, sand, sky.....absolutely amazing. There should be a new word...

Romasurrectuming, adj. : Beyond incredibly amazing.

Great work team. Looking forward to more stunning previews in the future.

[cnaeus]

i dont want to put up a bad mouth, but DAMN that looks nice. makes the waiting that much harder when we're expecting something as profesionally goodlooking as this.

really nice job, i really mean that.

cnaeus,

[the barbarian]

This is incredible! It is very nice. the grass, the trees....it's like in Medieval 2 total war. Good work guys! RS II will surely be the best mod ever made!

[MarcusTullius]

Originally Posted by ISA Gunner

Oh my God, oh my God, OH MY FREAKING GOD! All hail RS team! (excluding Marcus Tullius *shakes fist*)

*composes himself and disposes condom in bin*

And this is just the tip of the iceberg guys, there is a lot more to come

[ISA Gunner]

Let's just pray no large passenger liners visit TWCENTRE then Marcus Tullius.

[pacco]

Originally Posted by MarcusTullius

there is a lot more to come

Yeah!

[tone]

Yep.

[rogergargantua]

I cant believe this is Rome engine! It really looks stunning.......it will be a blast fighting in the new environments. A good change!!

I was also amazed about the look of the units! Same as above, I am totally stunned about how highly detailed they are. You guys can truly be proud of what you are making. Its unique in every way!

To be honest, I have discovered RS just a week ago. Before this, I played a lot of XGM and XGM-D (now called Diadochi ALX mod). So far, I really like the RS 1.5 mod! And I can predict that I will LOVE RS2.0!

- GARGANTUA

[tone]

.......it will be a blast fighting in the new environments

The problem is that you end up enjoying the scenery so much that you end up losing half your troops, or else the battles take double the length of time while you put things on pause and admire the view. Serious!

[florin80]

On what system were these picture taken?

[Praetorian_BGX]

Glorious

[tone]

On what system were these picture taken?

Mine.
Intel Core 2 QuadCore 2.4GHz overclocked to 3.2GHz, NVidia 8800GT with 512MB RAM, 2GB DDR RAM, 19" widescreen monitor @ 1440x900


Just to give you an idea of what sort of load we're talking about with the trees - most of these new ones are in the 20-50kb region (vanilla trees are around 5-15kb). You generally don't get many on the screen at any one time inside the distance that sprites get activated. So compared with a unit of troops where you may have 200 models each at 60kb or so on the screen at any one time, the load is relatively small.

[S u l l a]

Amazing!!! Congratulations and super well done! Really looking forward to RS2!

Sulla

[Baron Vlad Felix]

[MasterOfNone]

These look just great and it's good to see new creativity in aspects of modding still very much alive on the RTW scene. Having worked on the implementation of the Palm Trees mod, I know how tricky it can be to get these things working. It took me a fair few attempts to get them working correctly inside the FATW modfolder and, iirc, about 3 weeks of work just for a few trees attached to one climate.

Changing grass and ground textures is not difficult, but did you also change the surrounding tiles a la Muizer's technique? I never looked into that, but it looks like you have.

Great work!

[tone]

Thanks.

but did you also change the surrounding tiles a la Muizer's technique?

Yes, I dream in hexadecimal

[torzsoktamas]

Superb battlefields!!!!!The vegetation is extrimely good!!!!And what I like very mutch also is that I see some battlefiels with more hills, nut jost a little bit higher ground, some trees,....Its awesome!!!!!

Congratulations team,..and I see some new units too:that carthagian cavalry is very beautifull with those with textures!!And a question:there is a Hetairoi in one of the screens....Is it ptolemaic?-Its bronzelike armor is nice aswell!!!

[ray243]

Can show us how the rivers look like?