Hen's gm_desertdune

[taurus]

Pretty much what everyone else said. Also the pure black shadows make me think you have a leak.

Here's some more reference: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=36506

I actually think his first images were better and the reference you give feels more like beach sand to me. Looks odd. I don't travel deserts often (at all) but I know when the desert is that light the planes are often dry and flat. Usually there they perform speedtests with crazy vehicles.
http://www.steveshamesphotos.com/images ... sert03.jpg <--- not so crazy vehicle though...
http://www.racecar-engineering.com/arti ... -on-earth/

The dunes just needed pinched tops and possible the scale was off.

Edit: I misread a thing.

[nub]

With a map like this I don't think you need to worry as much about the displacement resolution. I think using 4 will be just fine. Displacements are pretty cheap to render in Source last I checked...could be wrong about that though.

I know that in Gmod, things can get laggy real fast. But regardless, I don't think that's enough reason to lower the displacement resolution. Plus, you used what...10 textures total in this map, counting individual sky faces? Low resolution textures by today's standards at that. And no models obviously since it's a sandbox map (no pun intended). This map is a total cakewalk to render. There's nothing in it but displacements, a few brushes, and a skybox. I doubt anyone will have trouble running it regardless.

[Hennius]

With a map like this I don't think you need to worry as much about the displacement resolution. I think using 4 will be just fine. Displacements are pretty cheap to render in Source last I checked...could be wrong about that though.

I know that in Gmod, things can get laggy real fast. But regardless, I don't think that's enough reason to lower the displacement resolution. Plus, you used what...10 textures total in this map, counting individual sky faces? Low resolution textures by today's standards at that. And no models obviously since it's a sandbox map (no pun intended). This map is a total cakewalk to render. There's nothing in it but displacements, a few brushes, and a skybox. I doubt anyone will have trouble running it regardless.

The map is using displacement power of 3 not 4. I didn't go all out to create the best possible detail as it is purely meant to be a test of lighting and sand dune wavey style displacements. Yes the textures are low-res by todays standards, if i wanted to include high-res textures from the start then i wouldn't label this a "Test" or "Experiment".