Working 4 Season Map

[mr_centipede 31]

Hello all, I was wondering if it is possible to use HiddenTexture in the map terrain and the trees model. If it is a possibility, then we could have a working 4 season map.

During summer, change the respective model to the approporiate textures. During winter, have the tree leaves texture to be fully transparent (alpha = 0) to simulate the trees have completely falling its leaves.

The idea seems simple, but wonder how much work needed to be done. But if it's possible, then maybe can put it in next expansion or next ARMA series

[Gunter Severloh 4055]

Hey Mr Centipede,

Are you suggesting a dynamic seasonal map, that it would change based on season,

not something we would add to a mission like in NIM weather?

As Nim weather has that sort of stuff, where you can put a thing down and the leaves

would be falling and such same for snow, i remember that back in OFP.

I like the idea, but I'd like to know how would that work out in the editor,maybe just change

the date and time and then the weather would adjust according to that. It would be interesting,

possibly they would have to add animations or some scripted thing integrated into the map.

What would be cool to see is leaves blowing across the ground in fall,

ive seen dust and such and that really enhanced the immersion.

I'd like to hear more about this if this is possible. great idea!

[mr_centipede 31]

I was merely suggesting... yes it should change when we change date in the editor. NIM weather adds in environmental effects, like falling leaves and snow. What I suggest is, in term of the trees, we have hiddenSelections on their leaves. When winter comes, some trees should not have leaves on them, so the sytem switch the leaves texture to a transparent one, and give the illusion it's a new tree model without leaves.

The same with terrain... the idea here is to use hiddenSelections just like in unit and vehice model, or setObjectTexture

[Gunter Severloh 4055]

Its like a transitional effect. The we could have it where if it has been snowing have like snow on the branches.

Another idea could be is after or even during a rain have it where the water is dripping

from the leaves or branches, Im sure that is something else and not like a texture thing your talking about but i like this.

[Decerto 10]

Sounds like what you can do in the Steel Beasts Pro editor. Some maps have multiple season settings like Autumn (Fall for the yanks) will give the trees orange and red foliage and winter of course adds snow over everything, while spring and summer are all green and sunny.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Wouldn't that require four times as much texture memory? Sounds like a stretch I'm not sure I want to do.

[TechnoTerrorist303 10]

Yeah four times as much texture memory and quite a lot more processing power/memory to deal with leaves being affected by wind etc. To be implemented properly the changing textures would have to do a kind of crossfade transition which would probably require all the spare power your machine had so that in the end you'd have about 1 fps.

Can't see it being done tbh although I'd love to be proven wrong.

[Gunter Severloh 4055]

Think of a whole forest whos leaves are falling at random, thats alot of stuff on the screen at once,

I can see it being an FPS killer, but is there a way to make somethig transparent but show yet blend in,

like create a fake backdrop yet make it 3d so that it looks as if its really coming from

the trees and around it if you were to walk around and through through trees.

[PuFu 4600]

What you are suggesting is more than possible, and would not be requiring 4 times nothing.

If every model out there would have hiddenselection, you could script via setObjectTexture to change it's texture in relation with the date set.

Something like NIM weather could be used for additional effects

[rübe 127]

I guess you'd still need to blend different textures together with some sort of a clever random/noise mask to achieve really good transitions. Especially the ground-texture would need such an approach, while the calculation of such a noise mask would need to incorporate lots of different world data such as height, time in shadow/direct sunlight, gradient and many more (which all contribute to the average temperature)... so that snow would last longer in dark/shady places and so on. Probably different techniques/procedurally generated masks would be needed for different transitions...

A snowlayer on objects such as buildings or trees maybe could be done with hidden selections too (affecting the model, not only the textures), but again, a procedural trick would for sure offer better results.. If you can't model believable transitions but end up with a "binary" seasons approach (snow on/snow off), I'm not sure it would be worth the effort.

All in all it's probably still a too huge task for a game such as Arma, though sure, at some point in the future I'd like to see this... some shiny day :)

It's all about priorities I guess, and in that regard, I'd like to see more detailed terrain/more terrain features first, such as good rivers and AI interaction with water, caves, really rocky terrain, working trains on rails, working bridges (AI), and so on... for in the end, the seasons do not change at one day/during one mission, so it's not like a season approach would offer better gameplay or anything.. But sure, it's a nice idea.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

As much as I would love that ability for class objects, it still requires two textures (the default, and that being set by setObjectTexture), and it also doesn't count for non class items like trees, rocks, and general landscape.

[I.M.G. 0]

I agree with this post,

All in all it's probably still a too huge task for a game such as Arma, though sure, at some point in the future I'd like to see this... some shiny day :)

adding ArmA II was all about graphics, lets request a physics & functionality boost for ArmA III