Forests and other stuff.

[monsterbrum]

I'm making an sort of ambush map with an forest, i'll post some sreens later.
but i've 2 questions: the first couple of props when you add an object are inviseble barriers?
and anyone have tips to make a forest goodlooking..?

should i make the forest ground's texture full "forest" should i add lots and lots of trees or just something else?
btw: when adding lots of trees you get the problem that you can't see the difference between your teamates and your enemies.. a bit then, saw much exedentely TK'ing at the native ice boat forest thing map

Thx.

[CtrlAltDe1337]

Keep in mind, try to make it pretty, but focus on playability.  Don't put too many trees or else it will lag.  Also keep in mind the leaf height as you mentioned, since its hard to see.  Put various sorts of shrubs and trees around to make it look like a real forest.  Add various sorts of terrain types; forest, grass, earth, etc.  Maybe throw in some rocky areas with Valley_rocks and such.

[Kong Ming]

I'm sorry I don't understand your first question.

Tips for making a forest look good:

Obviously a good variety of trees will help, but be careful, trees are very demanding on computers.  To help make the forest feel denser, use large bushes and scale them to 2 or 3 times normal size.  Many will look like trees and they use far less processing power.  Also, in general, when placing foliage, it's a good idea to use the randomize scale and rotation options for more diversity.  As for the ground itself, make sure you have a little variety in both elevation and texture.  You'll find you can actually blend textures together so patches of dirt or rock along with grass will look more natural than an endless repeating pattern of green turf.  If you want, you can further diversify the ground by using the color painting tool.  In addition to plants, I'd say remember to perhaps add some rockoutcroppings, a small creek, or some downed trees.  Small but distinct things like these help players stay oriented in the map and break up any repetitiveness.

[zagibu]

You can place a fair amount of trees, though, I'd say around 500 should still be ok. I think I have over 300 on Holmet castle, and so far, no one has complained. On my computer, I still hit the 120 FPS cap.

[monsterbrum]

Thanks all, screens coming soon

[Kong Ming]

Oh!  I think I understand your other question now.  Are you talking about the "ai_barrier" objects on the object list?  I'll assume you are.  ai_barriers prevent bots from passing through them as well as horses.  So they are most useful if you have somewhere you don't want cavalry to be able to go.  For barriers that block the players as well, use the "barrier" object.  Each has different sizes, and you can simply rescale them to whatever proportions you need.

[monsterbrum]

ah thanks thats what i wanted to know.

Lets see those screeeens!

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This is the spawn of the "caravan"
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Maby a good defendable spot, this is the only "hill"
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This is the forest edge, i tried to make it thicker than the rest of the wood so especialy archers could hide
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Spawn Of the "Banditos"
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This is the whole map, you see the fences, the lines of bushes and the river with the bridges are where the barriers are

I played a bit with bots in it, thats the reson fo all those horses 
and i noticed that cavalry can move pretty good in the woods.
as you maby saw, is that there is lots of unused space outside the barriers, thats stupit of me but i hope that it doesnt realy matter

All at all I'm pretty happy with my first map (and my bad english)