RTS_10 "New Map Graphics & Features" (Stream - Part 1/2)

The map has come a long way from looking like neon green 2D squares to the polished 3D look it has now and I was actually pretty happy with it. But then I posted it to a discord server for some feedback and boy did I get a ton. The main feedback ended up being just how bland and empty it was, so when I started up my game dev stream I said first and foremost my goal was to work on rendering & graphics, and so I got to work.

First, the camera angle is now 55 degrees instead of 75. This means that the camera is a lot less top-down now giving the world a more 3D look and feel. You'll be able to see this in the screenshots.

Trees have a completely new look and style now. Instead of just being simple dark green triangles like they were before they now have full tree models.

This update has fixed several problems that trees used to have before. If you looked at old updates you'd notice that the trees near rivers were smaller than the ones on grassy tiles, this was due to how the visual had to be scaled. But this new tree model system fixes that so that trees between hexes are completely seamless.

Light Trees
Light trees are the first in a new category I call Hex Visual Features. Normal hex features are things that affect gameplay like a forest or a hill, but visual features are just things that are there to add detail. Light trees can spawn on grassy tiles (that don't already have a forest), and serve to add detail to the otherwise plain hexes.

The next thing I did for map features was something that I had been planning to do for a while but didn't expect to do this early on: Mountains.

I'm really happy with how the map is looking now, and I think it's definitely looking a lot closer to how it'll look finished.

Also, side note: I believe I fixed all currently known bugs in regards to map culling, so chunks should no longer disappear/reappear while still within sight like they did during the stream

Sincerely,
Blake Gillman

This update was broken up into 2 parts because it was done over a single stream of non-stop intense development, and I'm on burnout so I need some time to recover. To give myself that time I decided to break the update into 2 parts so that it's spaced out. I also will probably be extending my schedule to post an update every 4 days instead of every 3 since work has kept me a bit busy to be able to push an update every 3 days.