A new modern campaign?

The huge “master type maps” will likely stress the computer and possibly the game engine. I would assume you were planning to break the master up into several big maps?
 
DoubleD said:
@Concord, I know with @Ithikial's WWII Lions of Carpiquet some players have had crashes on some of the larger maps, this is during gameplay with heavy artillery and on occasion trying to play real-time. I've had no issues so I'm guessing it's rig related. You could take a duplicate of the map then cut each in half so map A is north, map B is south, and work on them separately. You're going to cut up the map for gameplay anyway.
Click to expand...
Anyone trying to play Carpiquet in real time is braver than I am. :) There's also a lot of 'content' on that Northern Master map such as different textures, flavour objects etc so the game needs to load quite a lot up front. Try scaling down textures and model quality prior to loading if you hit troubles.

Once F&R is released, I can assure from personal experience there will be the new gold standard for the community in stress testing your PC with loading certain maps. Leaves my own Carpiquet (and Concord's efforts here - no offense :D ) for shame in that department. As per the FR Beta AAR over on the BF forums, each Berlin Master Map took 25 mins for my top of the line PC (from 2013) to load. The game will crash if it can't cope but most of this is negated by the limit of 16km2 max map sizes. Just keep in mind that 16km2 open desert is very different on stressing your system compared to 16km2 of urban or forested area. Ever notice why CMSF2 deserts seem to load quicker than CMBN hedgerow maps? Then you have gameplay/action occurring on top of the map which puts more stress on the system.
 
I'd recommend also going into your graphics card control panel and making sure your CM install(s) are using your actual card and not your mobo or something random. In CMFB I got a huge performance boost using my 2070 Super instead of my alt card.
 
Well, 6 months after commencing this gargantuan map (August 2020), a major milestone has been reached - all 64 central zone features have finally been completed!
I have already commenced the next stage, which is all the filler terrain that connects the zones.
I don't anticipate it will take as long to do the filler terrain, but it's still work intensive (especially the inner city) and will need to be done by spending only a few hours per week.

Below are the final 3 zone features. If they look a bit weird, it's because I've had to turn down all graphical settings to minimum while working in 3D to avoid crashes.
The most common has been an "Out of Memory" error generated by the game, even though I'm now on my new 'super' computer.
I will download and install my graphic card's (AMD Radeon) control panel to confirm the game is using it and see if there are other things I can do to optimise.
Thanks for the help and suggestions guys.


Lumber Yard

Lumber Yard.jpg


Freight Hub

Freight Hub.jpg


Farmer's Market

Farmers Market.jpg
 
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Another Major Milestone reached. This monster map has taught me a lot about self flagellation. ;)

Still progressing though.
The outer 2 layers of battle zones have all had their filler terrain placed. That's 48 out of 64 zones completed.

I was hoping to submit this map to the CM community as one glorious 4km x 4km master map. Ain't gunna happen.
The game engine just can't handle it. 7 minutes to load the 3D view. Out-of-memory errors. Random crashes. Even on my new Hulk computer rig. Phooey. :cautious:

I'm going to have to split it, if I want to complete it.
Maybe 4 maps, each 2km x 2km (4 x 4 battle zones).
Maybe 16 maps, each 1km x 1km (2 x 2 battle zones).

Ultimately it will be broken down into 64 battle maps for the Urban Warriors campaign, each 500m x 500m. That's the plan anyway.

First, I will complete the road network in the center zones that I haven't finished, to provide continuity.
Eventually, I will assemble screenshots from above to make the campaign map. What you see there will be exactly what you get on the battlefield.


The view north

north.jpg


The view south

south.jpg
 
Damn dude that is some impressive work!

In playing my 10k game against @Drifter Man I've noticed some odd happenings too, occasionally vehicles will stop moving for a few seconds - similar to the way they automatically pause themselves when another vehicle is in their way, except nothing is! Even in convoy all vehicles will have this pause concurrently. I put it down to the game engine spazzing out a bit because it's not used to such a huge map or number of units on the field.
 
The largest official maps I've seen are operation LINNET II (4 x 2.5 km) and the Oosterbeek master map, which you aren't supposed to play whole (3 x 2.5 km). But they have much less stuff on them than your map @Concord.
No glitches so far on my side of our battle with @Stafford (3.8 x 1.8 km).
This is all CMBN.
 
Yeah I suspect that all those buildings and window frames are eating up it's memory.
But I've sometimes had a crash with not even an 'out of memory' pop-up, when I have turned on foliage as well to have a look.

I've been working with very low graphics settings within the game (not pretty). Not sure if it even has an impact on operations.
I will bump them back up while working on the smaller map sections.
 
I'm looking forward to completing this beast and working more on my CMFB map for another campaign.
That map is more simple and more rural and I think it will be easier and more fun to create.

The urban stuff is a grind and a PITA.
When you place buildings together, rather than the engine giving them uniform exteriors for walls and windows, it's random and looks crappy.
So I go in and make it uniform. Clickity click click click. I know all the keyboard shortcuts by memory now.

The worst aspect is if you want to knock down interior walls to make a larger space, like I did with many of the central zone features.
It takes over 30 clicks to cycle through to an open wall. Then another 30 clicks to do the other side of the wall. Mind numbing. o_O

I hope the map will be of use to players. The campaign I had planned has been overshadowed by the grind of map creation at the moment, but that was the original goal.
Although my motivation is running on fumes, I'm not in the habit of giving up on a project just because it's challenging. Ever closer to the finishing line now.
 
Concord said:
I noticed on the Battlefront website they advertise the games as 'up to battalion' size, so maybe we are pushing their engine far beyond expected loads.

Click to expand...
In a CMFB PBEM I'm playing (A war without mercy), there's two rather large towns in a big map. Plus there's a brigade of forces under my command (US), while I guess a 1+-2 battalion worth of infantry and ~2 companies (?) of German vehicles. While we're straining the engine, it has hold up so far and we're nearing the end. The mental effort to play the thing is also quite heavy, but rewarding at the same time.

Anyway I think the large map will be great to play on! Especially with modern forces (y)
 
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