[G] Using Invisible Cliffs

Timetwister22

United States538 Posts

July 09 2012 20:27 GMT

Recently while working on an upcoming project, I discovered a method that essentially allowed me to make bridges look like legit bridges. In other words, you could see things under them. Upon my discovery, SUPEROUMAN used this technique on his map Cherno to give his bridges a nice and legitimate aesthetic look.

So today, I thought I'd like to go ahead and reveal the method that makes this possible to the community, as there has been much speculation on how it was done. Take note that in the following instructions, I used this technique to make a bridge simply as an example. The same technique can be applied for other uses which I shortly discuss after the instructions.

Instructions
1.Make a bridge.
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2.Designate a cliff type for the bridge.
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3.Open "terrain cliffs" in the data module.
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4.Find the cliff type you used on the bridge, select "cliff mesh", and set it to 'none'.
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5. You are left with a bridge with an invisible cliff. Sometimes you might need to use the 'Same level cliff' tool to reset the cliff to its new non-existing model. However, there is an issue. Part of the black squares are pathable. This is a result of the missing terrain cells that are removed when you remove the cliff model.
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6. To re-add the cliff cells, go to the "terrain objects" tool and use 'show terrain cells'. This will allow you to reapply the missing, yet pathable, terrain cells.
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7. When doing this, you should get something like this.
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*Side Note*
If you try and apply tile where the invisible cliff is, you will get these strange deformations. This just means that you've gone past the pathable terrain and that you need to remove those terrain cells that are causing the deformation.
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8. Once you complete this step, you can see that the terrain cells match the pathable terrain much more closely than the other side, which still has missing tiles.
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9. Add doodads, water, skybox, etc to cover the black spots and give the bridge look. The only disadvantage to this bridge idea yet is that when using reflective water, the bridge itself does not reflect. However, doodads and units do which does look kinda funny.
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10. To fix this, just turn off the reflectivity of the water, or just don't use water at all. Lava, skybox, etc are certainly safe from the reflective effect.
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Of course, the idea of making cliffs invisible can be used for way more things than just bridges. It can be used to make your own custom cliffs, or to put things under the map such as support columns, buildings, etc. Simply put, this allows you to place doodads, water, etc where you otherwise couldn't because cliffs were blocking it.

Do be careful though. I would not use this on cliffwalkable cliffs, as players may very well get confused when their colossus starts walking over a cliff that isn't there, or over something that doesn't look like a cliff. For that matter I would only really use this in areas where cliffwalking is clearly not possible in the first place.

To this day, the only issues that I have come across while testing are the reflective water issues I mentioned in the steps, and how the doodads you use to hide the black squares affect pathing. All I can suggest is to test in game to see whether the doodads on your bridges are effecting pathing as intended, and adjust them accordingly. I have not really tested frame rate changes as a result of this, but I certainly do think this should be looked into.

With all that said, I hope this helps make your bridges and cliffs look more awesome. Happy mapping!

Gfire

United States1699 Posts

July 09 2012 20:29 GMT

BTW, this doesn't work with the 1.5 beta editor. So there's a strong possibility it won't be possible once patch 1.5 comes out, unless we can get Blizzard to do something about it.

Timetwister22

United States538 Posts

July 09 2012 20:44 GMT

On July 10 2012 05:29 Gfire wrote:
BTW, this doesn't work with the 1.5 beta editor. So there's a strong possibility it won't be possible once patch 1.5 comes out, unless we can get Blizzard to do something about it.

I went ahead and tested it to find that it is indeed still possible, it just requires a slightly different approach on dealing with those black squares. In 1.5 you can no longer use the 'show terrain cells' tool to add those missing, yet pathatable, cells. The solution is to simply make those pathable cells occupied by the black squares unpathable by using pathing paint or pathing blockers. Of course this means you will have to make your bridges wider at first since you will be shortening the width by about 2 tiles on each side. Nevertheless still possible, just a bit more painful.

Superouman

France2195 Posts

July 09 2012 20:54 GMT

Thank you~~ Mr Blizzard

OxyGenesis

United Kingdom281 Posts

July 09 2012 21:40 GMT

aha yes I did this exactly the same way. 'Hiding' the cliffs was the difficult bit. I wonder if there is a way to do it with a transparent texture rather than a mesh type of 'none'? That might work in the 1.5 beta.

I have actually spent the last hour taking screenshots ready to write a tutorial on this, only to come on and read this! I guess you did discover the technique first so it's only right you make the tut. Here's the header I made.

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Timetwister22

United States538 Posts

July 09 2012 21:46 GMT

On July 10 2012 06:40 OxyGenesis wrote:
aha yes I did this exactly the same way. 'Hiding' the cliffs was the difficult bit. I wonder if there is a way to do it with a transparent texture rather than a mesh type of 'none'? That might work in the 1.5 beta.

I have actually spent the last hour taking screenshots ready to write a tutorial on this, only to come on and read this! I guess you did discover the technique first so it's only right you make the tut. Here's the header I made.

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Where I did discover this process with my own ideas and knowledge of the editor, I will say that I think this has been done before me. I've seen screenshots of people using invisible cliffs to make their own custom cliffs, and iGrok has said he's used this technique before while experimenting with bridge types. Thus I won't directly take credit for the general idea, but I will of course take credit for being the first to write a guide on how to use this technique. Also, thanks for the header! Looks quite splendid :D

iGrok

United States5142 Posts

July 09 2012 22:10 GMT

On July 10 2012 06:46 Timetwister22 wrote:

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Whoever writes the tutorial should get credit IMO.

NewSunshine

United States5938 Posts

July 09 2012 22:16 GMT

This is actually pretty sweet. First we find Jacky's trick for making bridges, now we learn something more comprehensive, progress ftw! :D

SigmaFiE

United States333 Posts

July 09 2012 22:21 GMT

This is awesome work by all involved (you know who you are). Great tutorial Timetwister! I cannot wait to try this now.

LarJarsE

United States1378 Posts

July 09 2012 22:27 GMT

#10

what is the point? can units go below and above the bridge?

NewSunshine

United States5938 Posts

July 09 2012 22:31 GMT

#11

On July 10 2012 07:27 LarJarsE wrote:
what is the point? can units go below and above the bridge?

No, the point is aesthetic. It works like just normal terrain. Like how everyone wants to make sweet looking snow maps, bridges are just something cool, that give a map nostalgia points.

Timetwister22

United States538 Posts

July 09 2012 22:34 GMT

#12

On July 10 2012 07:27 LarJarsE wrote:
what is the point? can units go below and above the bridge?

No, because the cliffs are still there, they're just invisible. The point of this is to give mapmakers the ability to be more creative when working with aesthetics on cliffs and bridges. From a players perspective, this won't really matter as the terrain features are the same. But from the spectators point of view, there is some some serious potential for eye-candy and general aesthetic appreciation.

IronManSC

United States2119 Posts

July 09 2012 22:35 GMT

#13

Yeah I finally was able to work it out

[image loading]

Guardian85

162 Posts

July 09 2012 22:35 GMT

#14

I call sticky.

Guardian85

162 Posts

July 09 2012 22:37 GMT

#15

*whispering voice* Psst Ironman Resize image?

I dont see the bridge atleast.

Btw awesome aesthetics and details there.. is it something your working on?
Reminds me of the campaign mission where you escourt colonists.

IronManSC

United States2119 Posts

July 09 2012 22:45 GMT

#16

On July 10 2012 07:37 Guardian85 wrote:
*whispering voice* Psst Ironman Resize image?

I dont see the bridge atleast.

Btw awesome aesthetics and details there.. is it something your working on?
Reminds me of the campaign mission where you escourt colonists.

It should resize automatically after a refresh or so. If it doesn't then try firefox or google chrome.

moskonia

Israel1448 Posts

July 09 2012 22:49 GMT

#17

On July 10 2012 07:27 LarJarsE wrote:
what is the point? can units go below and above the bridge?

Wow that would be a cool feature, is there any way to make a bridge you can go under?

Guardian85

162 Posts

July 09 2012 22:58 GMT

#18

On July 10 2012 07:49 moskonia wrote:

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Wow that would be a cool feature, is there any way to make a bridge you can go under?

Gave me an idea.. but i dont know if making them walk there is virtually possible..
But i was thinking of a "cavelike" tunnel.. where you have area transition locations at each side of the tunnel.. making them walk through a pre calculated width of the bridge.. depending on their walk speed.. and more or less spawn on the other side.

Only problem is .. i dont know if this would be considerd as a custom feature... and people could use it as a advantage to hide certain units..

Other then that i dont see how you can make two different pathable heights.. since from what i know pathing is interdimensional.

Guardian85

162 Posts

July 09 2012 22:59 GMT

#19

On July 10 2012 07:45 IronManSC wrote:

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It should resize automatically after a refresh or so. If it doesn't then try firefox or google chrome.

Im using Firefox.. but yes the image seemd to change after refreshing the page.

NewSunshine

United States5938 Posts

July 09 2012 23:14 GMT

#20