Should Roadways be texture or object?

[raptor 6 actual 13]

Hey everyone. Man, you are all going to get tired of answering my questions. But, here is another one. I am making a map of Fallujah, Iraq. Thus far, I have it to scale, and it has a HUGE amount of roadways.

My question is this: Would it be better for me to make special texture tiles for each grid or just stick with the roadway objects? Which one will be less laggy. And I understand that making special texture tiles will be very time consuming, but I'm willing to do it.

Some info:

The Fallujah map is set on a 25 x 25 km map, and the island (city) itself is only like 6 x 5 km.

[.pablo. 0]

making a special texture for every 50x50m square in the city (like in the swedish military island we've all seen pics of) would be impossible for a city with an area of 6kmx5km. why? a texture limit of 512.

to do the math:

6km=6000m

6000m/50m=120 grids

5km=5000m

5000m/50m=100 grids

120 grids x 100 grids = 12,000 textures, a bit over the 512 limit

- you could consider creating custom textures for just the grids with roads on them, but if there really are as many roads as you say there are, you would probably go over the limit that way as well.

- you could use textures for only some of the roads (perhaps for the most object-dense parts of the city), and maybe edit the textures to use the sand texture you're already using (so you won't have to create transition textures). this is the best option in my opinion (if you really don't mind the work), though i would still be wary of the 512 limit.

to get a bit off-topic, i've actually been looking for pictures of this island since i found the 1m satellite image of the city that i'm assuming you're using, but i couldn't find any mention of it anywhere and just gave up. do you have a villagephotos account or something where you post pictures of your progress? i'd really love to see what it looks like now.

but an even bigger question (and to get even more off-topic): how did you approach getting location information from the satellite image onto the island? in other words, how did you make sure that everything would be in the right place, and that you wouldn't end up 50% of the way through making the island only to discover that things weren't aligned properly? did you just build "out" from one location? sorry if i'm not making sense, but i'm just paranoid about having roads and such not being in their exact positions on my island, and i can't figure out any set way to make sure i won't make a mistake...

[raptor 6 actual 13]

Heh, well, first off, I used GlobalSecurity.org which had about eight satellite photos. I just used the scale that was posted in the lower left hand corner.

I also printed out the pics, and went to a local printing company that made transparent overlays for me.

But the main thing I've used, is the knowledge (and I could be sadly mistaken) that I am using a road piece that I think is 25m in length. So, I measure how far a road is, and use the roadway in WRPTool as a ruler.

It may not be really pretty, but so far, it looks pretty good. Though I've just started. I can post some pics of the sat pic I'm currently using and show you the progress. Maybe you will be able to see the way they look the same.

[.pablo. 0]

i'd love to see your pics! also, check out this fas.org website, it has the entire city available as a single image at 1 meter resolution (12mb). good stuff:

http://www.fas.org/irp/imint/fallujah.html

and did you really just start? i recall seeing pictures in some forum a couple months ago where someone was making a map of fallujah; was that you?

[raptor 6 actual 13]

Nope, that wasn't me. Sorry, as a matter of fact, I'm am totally willing to make a collaborative effort, lol, but I'm just a NOOB compared to all of these other guys. But, like I said, when i have free time this week, I'll get the pics posted for you

[raptor 6 actual 13]

Ok, here are just two pics, one of a satellite image I'm using, and the second of the road thus far. I have outlined in blue to help show where the roadways that have been laid are.

I know, this might not be the best quality, but when you drive on it, you can already imagine the street to street fighting. It just motivates me to continue no matter if it's out before ArAs comes out.

Satellite Image

WRPTool Preview

[.pablo. 0]

wow, i have to say that looks really good. i might've been wrong about someone else having started a similar project, i honestly can't remember too well.