  


                                NENIA Extreme
                           
map:Nenia Exteme
size 22 by 19
file size: >19 megs
memory 128 megs
world type: Unique/Hallucigenia
# of players: 2-10
designer: Brull
designer info: e-mail - brull@mediaone.net
               icq# 22556017
made with Annihilator 1.5, Bryce 4, Photoshop, and hpi view and pack

Requires TACC and TAMEChpi V13
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Notes:
I started working on this map at the beginning of the year. Took
quite a while as I had other stuff going on then when I was %90
done I had a hard drive crash and lost nearly everything. My Bryce
save, all my renderings, and, of course, the map I had been working
on for months. When I realized what had happened I just sat blankly
looking at my computer screen for a few hours. After reinstalling
everthing I found I did have a %75 done version of the map on another
hard drive. But in the interim I upgraded from Bryce 3 to Bryce 4 and
ran into a problem. My basic ground height went from 91 to 48. A large
discrepency. Which might not have been too bad if I could have 
re-rendered all my sections but I had lost those.
And, considering I had many serious gaps missing in my original map
and it really hadn't fulfilled my real intentions of what my map
should look like I decided to do it all over again. This time I would
do it right and not wimp out on things that I had done earlier. One
item were layered cliffs. Sure I had cliffs of different heights on
my old map but they were each seperate and non-connecting.  I didn't
want the hassle of melding together cliffs with different textures
on them. But I did on this map in several places. I found out it 
really wasn't that difficult and the results are just stunning!
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Objective:
This map offered up several challenges that were daunting at first
but I felt the need to do them, anyway. No one else had really done 
a strata cliff system. And none so intricate as mine. It's very
tedious, frustrating work getting the strata from one section to
match up with the strata from another. They are always going to be
just a little bit off. Which is why I really can't release a tileset
of this map. There was too much work done in annihilator and photoshop
to get the map to look as seemless as I hope it does. There are some
places where I had to fudge a bit but I doubt anyone will really care
or could find those places. 
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Bugs:
Fortunately, I was able to compress up to 17 megs. Normally
Annihilator quits compressing at 15 megs. What this means is that
using some finely honed skills at file size reduction (though you
probably couldn't tell by the file size) I was able to cram in
more, larger, and more detailed cliffs and hills for the megabyte.
At around the time I wasn't able to compress anymore I also lost
the ability to render a final minimap. So anything that I added
after 17 megs will not show up in the minimap. Sorry.
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Dedicated with love to my friend Mary who
drew the hill at the very bottom center and
insisted for some reason on changing the lighting
settings......Thanks much!
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Also included is my bryce 4 save of the Hallucigenia tileset (I also
have the bryce 3 save if anyone is interested.) Working with this tileset
is very easy. I did most everything with a flow of 3-5 notches and at
maximum softness except for the flat sections.
To create hills/cliffs just build up from the ground height. To create
puddles/lakes just dig down from the ground height. The tileset is seamless
at every height I have checked.
The beauty of this tileset works in the materials lab - setting the diffuse/diffusion
to "fading." This gives me different colors at various heights. So I can have
blue water,purple land, and red hills all in one easy step. Add in "redlayers"
for strata and the rest for just basic texturing and you have an easy to use
tileset where its very hard to make mistakes with.
Some small pointers. To make domes just set the height to maximum and click a
few times. At maximum softness you'll get a small mound that grows with every
click. I also hit the "erode" effect give a cool, weathered look to Nenia.


