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A Guideline to Terraining and the Hive's Terraining Section

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M0rbid

M0rbid

M0rbid

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A Guideline to Terraining and the Hive's Terrain Board Section

Hello dear Terrainers,

I registered that there are many users still interested into wc3 terraining, not only senior members or legends (those are mostly gone) but also new users, that did not really get in touch with the power of the WorldEditor except from some fiddling around. So I decided to write a little Introduction into the world of terraining for you all and also a little view into Hive's Terrain board. Even though this post is mainly for beginners, there might be some tips for advanced terrainers aswell.
Here are the main themes that I will deal with:



What is terraining?
Basically terraining is using the World Editor to create an environment for your story and triggering in which a game takes place. However the possibilities of the World Editor allowed terrainers to start terraining for a different reason than creating maps. I don't know who first came up with the second way of terraining, but it has become a very advanced and very interesting categorie of wc3 modding. So basically World Editor terraing can be divided into two subcategories:



    • Terraining playable maps: In this case the terrain goes along with a gameplay, it's fully playable, meaning units can move around, the gameplay can be executed in this terrain. This is mainly what the WorldEditor is intended for.
    • Terraining artistic screenshots:
      This kind of terrains are done only for getting a screenshot. Those mostly are more complex, detailed and eye-catching than normal terrains, because they use techniques that are not compatible with a normal gameplay. Over the years many techniques have been developed to create great pieces of art.
      Basically this could be called: Terraining for a screenshot. Mostly with an artistic touch.

How can I learn and improve my terraining techniques?
There are lots of useful and well-written tutorials around the Hive, that allow you to learn and improve your terraining, not only as a total newbie, but also as an advanced terrainer. Here are some of the most useful Tutorials:


What is a Terrain Showcase?
A terrain showcase is a thread where a single terrainer presents his best terrain works. Those can be but are not limited to artistical screenshots. However those gallerys are not only to show off, but to inspire other terrainers and get feedback aswell as being a motivation for the terrain himself and theones looking at it.
Here you can find most of the Hive's Terrain Galleries: http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/terrain-board-267/complete-list-terrain-galleries-134047/

Where can I find the best Hive Terrains?
The best terrains ever created and submitted to the hive can be found here:
http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/terrain-board-267/legendary-terrains-65435/
This can be an aim to work for aswell, but also to only take a look at some epic terrain pieces.

What are the Terrainer's main tools?
Except from the WorldEditor itself there are a few, tools, doodads and things, that can help the terrainer to improve his terrain or give him totally new possibilities.
Here is a list of the most important terraining helps:



    • The Misc.txt - file
      The Misc.txt is a file that allows you to increase the steepness of your hills, to make you able to create custom cliffs, it also allows to enlarge those.
      The file is attached to this post or available by a direct download link (Link to download the MiscData) Just create a custom folder in your WarcraftIII folder with the name "UI" and place it into it to make it work, after that, start your World Editor and raise new hills.
    • The High-Res Doodad Pack
      This Pack by Born�Modificate is not only epic-sized, but also of epic quality and grants thousands of high quality possibilities to increase your terrains quality. It can be downloaded here: http://www.wc3c.net/showthread.php?t=83031


What are Terraining Contests and how can I participate?
In the Arena Section of the Hive there are terraining contest on a regular basis, that are open to join for everybody, may it be a beginner, an advanced or a legend around terraining. The challenges are about specific topics and mostly screenshot terrain arts are the submission, however this depends on the contest. Take a look at the Arena to find out about wether there is a contest going on right now. The Arena can be found here: http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/arena-226/

Other useful links for terraining.



Useful resources found only in this forum.



____________________________________________________________________________________________________

To be continued later, enjoy your stay.
With best Regards and good luck for your terraining,
M0rbid and Keiji!
 

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Raven0

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You should change the color of the title text to something else as it's hard to read atm.

I think "Wheat" fits the best

Thanks for writing this, I've only been here for over a month or so and i've already answered countless questions regarding the MiscData.txt file and the UTM.
 

Oziris

Oziris

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M0rbid

M0rbid

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I know that some of those things are mentioned in the old sticky, but that one is so outdated that I decided to create a new one with more information.

I also implemented an index now, that directs you to the single topics.

I am currently thinking about an image or layout for the headline and more topics to add.
 

M0rbid

M0rbid

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Oh yes, thanks, that'S something I forgot to mention. I did not have enough time to look into every single tutorial of the Hive, so if you have another one that you want included, please just post it here ;)

Thank you guys!

Fladdermasken: I added your tutorial to the expert ones!

Colours will be changed as soon as I have an overall colour image and layout!
 

Celaquil

Celaquil

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Well, yes. But then, there is already a thread like this stickied, though I will admit that M0rbid did a better job with his one, that and there really is enough stickied threads. If anything this thread should replace the http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/terrain-board-267/those-just-starting-terrain-32419/ thread.

Though there isn't a terrain moderator to take care of it any longer, so we'll have to wait and see if the higher ups will promote one.
 

Adiktuz

Adiktuz

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ashbringer753 said:
I'd like to say something about the miscData.txt , it makes water walkable, so all units will be able to walk on it. So i wouldn't recommend it for playable maps or more specifically, maps that include naval units.
Click to expand...

not really, you can edit it so that water is still not walkable even if you deepen the terrain so much...
 

M0rbid

M0rbid

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Well I took a closer look at this http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/terrain-board-267/those-just-starting-terrain-32419/ thread and I wanted to know what you think about a few issues.
I think this: http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/terrain-board-267/101-dos-donts-terraining-33437/index3.html is not necessary to be linked to anymore, because it is to unorganized to really be helpful in my opinion. It's funny and rather good but not of use for a beginner, what do you all think?

Also I am unsure about the wc3c part of it, because I am unsure wether all those links still link to active threads. I doubt so. But if someone could clarify about that, I would be very happy.
 

Ryuthedragon

Ryuthedragon

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I post here because i don't know where i can say it, but the B2M's high res doodad pack is a bore to import due to the hudge number of textures. There is a lot of useless textures in the file. You can delete them because they all have "mip#" in the file name. I removed all these files and i had no problem with my import. If i'm posting in the wrong topic, just delete my post.
 

Celaquil

Celaquil

Celaquil

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Considering the new thread by Talavaj, and the fact that there's been posted a great handful of maps and threads by amazing users containing amazing doodads that's gotten all but disgracefully lost in the vast sea of threads, I added a new section containing links to most of these threads, if you know of any more threads like that, let me know and I'll gladly add them to the list.
- These resource supplying terrainers should in truth have their very own hall of honor, they are my heroes.
 

Celaquil

Celaquil

Celaquil

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Update:

Finally got arsed into adding those two tutorials fladdy suggested from Belgarath and bhusta to the tutorial list, I also changed the link at the bottom of "Advanced Terraining" so that it portrays a proper description of what the tutorial is about, instead of just being a "link."
 

Celaquil

Celaquil

Celaquil

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Another update:

Fooled a little around with colours and fonts, I think the guide looks more inviting now.
I also added the information concerning the Terrain Board Jury at the bottom of this
post and removed the other sticky about it.
 
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