Map Making Question

[yell0w_lantern]

I realize that not many people actually make maps in Max but I'm hoping that this question can be answered anyway.

How do you UV map a terrain without having it look too obviously like repeating squares of the same texture?

[Trelau]

You have to look for "tilable" texture. these are generally squared textured of a motif drawn in a way that it can repeat itself indefinitely without being too noticeable.
I don't know if it helps but just try googling tileable texture to see if it what you're looking for

[yell0w_lantern]

Is there a recommended size limit or ratio. Like if the map is 256 X 256 how big of an area could it do before the resolution get too ugly?

I was also wondering if there was a tesselate command for the mapping.

[Trelau]

For the resolution question, i've never done map in max so i'd have a hard time telling the limit for good looking texture once imported in freedom force.
If by tesselate you mean choosing how many time the texture actually appear...hum, i don't remember, hav'nt open max in weeks. i just do a planar mapping on the ground and scale the guizmo (the plane representing the orientation of the projected mapping)

[GogglesPizanno]

You might try looking at some of the blank terrains from FF to get an idea as to what works.

[DrMike2000]

You can make say three variant tiles that all match up with each other on the edges, and map them to the terrain in a kind of random fashion. This works really well for artificial environments like paving, or space-station metal floors, but can also work for natural environments like rock piles.