Haadur 40km

[Harzach 2507]

Wow, this looks fantastic! I love the dam/reservoir and flood plain. I think a lot of us will be playing A2 for a long time to come, so keep on plugging away.

[Leaulux 2]

Lower your standards, bro. Your original post is almost THREE years old; a 40x40KM Map is something that even a professional development team would have (time) issues with.

You need to focus on completing maybe 10x10 or 15x15 of what you have, and releasing the map to the Community.

Afterwards, you can just work on whatever you have left and port it over to ARMA 3 and continue.

[gabravo2005 40]

Holy Kaow! That looks absolutely beautiful! I say continue your awesome work in ArmA 2!!! Your map is stunning!!!

If I may, a suggestion, if you do make a military airfield, make just the basic layout of the airbase, with large taxi/apron areas, place some hangars, and a tower, but don't place a fence around the place. Leave a large open flat area around it so that people can make their own templates for a military base (Camp Bastion/Camp Leatherneck like) and it would save you time with object placement.

[tpw 2313]

Looks fantastic so far. I'd be perfectly happy if you released a version with just a few roads and the vegetation. Just having an environment that huge to drive/fly around would be great.

[jr_walker 10]

Thanks for the feedback all! ... and thanks for the tip gabravo2005, I can do that. @Leaulux, I'm thinking that maybe only 25% of the terrain needs to be highly detailed, the rest is really just desert. I'll keep plugging away...

Walker

[chrisb 196]

The pictures look great.

I have upped my vitamin pills so I should be o.k. to play when released in 3026, Arma 3 will be current by then..

Keep it going and maybe think about what tpw said, a large terrain with some roads etc, but pretty sparse, is great. Makes it into more of a blank canvass, I’d use the ‘Town Construction Set’ module in-game to put towns etc down anywhere I’d need them. I do this now with a few of snakemans terrains, i.e. 51km desert etc plus others, works just fine..:).

[Harzach 2507]

I agree with the "less is more" philosophy. A good road network, appropriate vegetation, and basic infrastructure are all that's necessary, and built-up areas are icing on the cake. Some get it right, but many great maps are spoiled by too much clutter/decoration/eye candy.

[Chapple 1]

Reminds me of Reshmaan, but more...A-Stanish..

[nouty 10]

This project is mad! I like it!

[fabio_chavez 103]

is it possible to get a WIP version of the map, to play around on it a little?

besides that, have you made any screenshots using AiA or something?

[james2464 176]

Nice work! I'm liking the rocks.

[phoenix_za 23]

Amazing looking island, Keep it up!

[jr_walker 10]

Hello,

Thanks for the comments. @Fabio_Chaves, yes, I do intend to release a WIP version and then update; it would seem a waste to have put so much time into the project and not release it because it was not “finished†to my expectations, (which by a rough calculation could take decades, lol).

For the initial WIP release, my intent is to get the base vegetation (a mix of “clutter†and millions of bushes, etc.) in place and a few roads (thanks to suggestions from tpw and ChrisB). To that end, I’ve completed the terrain/clutter mask. Using World Tools - by shezan74, Mikero’s Tools and some tools I’ve written myself, I have a semi-automated process for the placement of the non-clutter vegetation. Unfortunately, during my early efforts with the process, I didn’t realize that I needed more object position precision than was produced by one of the tools; as a result many of my non-vegetation models need to be manually re-positioned (I do keep two archives of the pew file but those were overwritten before I noticed the displacement issue). I believe I have a solution that will prevent the issue in the future. Combining the displacement issue with the 4096 object bug (described here [thanks Bushlurker]: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?151405-40K-sat_lco-SOLVED&p=2361820&viewfull=1#post2361820) that I also encountered for the first time as a result, I decided to take a bit of a break from the project.

The initial WIP release will have base ground textures based on simplified land-class, base vegetation based on simplified (and optimized) “remote-sensingâ€, a few rocks (note that rocks would generally be considered pivotal to the geography in this terrain), a few roads, a few structures and maybe an airport. The sat_map/terrain elevations will not be rectified (so there will be the occasional creek bed running along the side of a hill, for example). All-in-all, nothing I’m proud to release. On the other hand, I do have fun flying around the place and have had fun with skirmishes in the editor, so maybe others will too.

I expect to resume work on the project in early July and suspect a WIP release could be ready by early September.

[islesfan186 83]

This map looks great so far. HUGE as well. Will there be any airbases/FOBs, or will it just be varying terrain?

[chrisb 196]

Looking forward to it. :)

[jr_walker 10]

@islesfan186 At least one airbase; I'll probably solicit suggestions for what permanent structures/areas folks would like see.

Quick update: have about 30km of about 300km of main roads put down... looks like there could be maybe 500km of non-main roads.

Got a little bored with roads so I put in a few more rocks; I'll be very happy when this thing is completely rocked and roaded (:p).

Updated WIP Pics: http://s387.photobucket.com/user/jus2sayhey/library/Haadur

[chrisb 196]

Pictures look really good, seems like it should be a very good 'performance terrain', which is great. Hope there's going to be a few fuel stations, with all that road..:D

[sv5000 127]

Wow, epic looking map!

I really hope you keep at it

[m1lkm8n 410]

yea! stick with it. its looking amazing!

[jr_walker 10]

Thanks All.

@ChrisB

Yes, I hope the map performs well; it’s largely desert so it lends itself to sparse coverage.

Note that I’m not making arbitrary decisions about the coverage (I don’t have that kind of imagination).

The terrain is modeled on the Mojave Desert. I'm sure I don’t know the proper names, but the basic vegetation is sparse dry grass, moderate amounts of creosote bushes, and significant amounts of something we call “rabbit brushâ€. Near water sources there are things like scrub oak, cotton wood trees and tule reeds. In the higher elevations there actually forests of trees called pinion pines. Rocks are prevalent in the area and are three basic types that I reference as lava, granite and sedimentary (no offense to the geologists).

I use basic clutter for dry grass and rabbit brush; that is what you see most in the screenies. For everything else I am using a technique I think GIS folks call “remote sensingâ€, that is I look at the sat map and determine if the splotch I’m looking at is a rock or some type of vegetation, then I determine what model to use and how to size it.

For creosotes and pinion pines I am creating a mask in Photoshop by selecting color ranges on the sat map, I process that though Shezan74’s world tools 1.8, I further process those results through some code I wrote, and finally process that using Mikero’s tools to get the objects into the terrain – I will only run that process at the end of the terrain development due to the large number of resulting objects.

For everything else, I am placing the objects by hand (I match to the shape and size of the satellite splotch the best I can) which is very time consuming but nicely punctuates the satellite imagery. Turns out that while there are no BIS vegetation models specific to the area, by reducing the size and height of some existing models, I’ve gotten some very acceptable results (at some point I may post RL reference photos vs. in-game).

Per the request of some, I haven’t spent much time detailing the terrain but am trying to get a significant portion of the main roads completed (maybe not all), and some auxiliary roads completed (unfortunately, I was not having good success with RoadPainter/2, so I am doing the roads by hand as well). Then I will get a flushed out airport in-place, at which point I’ll likely provide the version to anyone who wants to provide feedback.

With ARMA III, apparently terrain size is no longer an issue, nonetheless I am knee deep into this project and intend to continue with it.

I don’t know why I can’t seem to write a short post…

Cheers,

Walker

[Harzach 2507]

Thanks for the update, JR - looking fantastic. It is starting to remind me a little bit of Razani, only on a far greater scale. I also really appreciate and respect that you are taking the time to get it right. Looking forward to it!

Edited August 11, 2013 by Harzach

[chrisb 196]

Its great that your taking so much time on details, but as said a while back, don’t worry regards it being sparse, that works really well with the setting, also we have town construction tools so can easily place settlements if required for mission making.

The fact your going for an A2 release is also a big bonus, for me and many others, I would think, so thanks for that. :)

[sup3r6f0ur 2]

Don't let ArmA 3 discourage you from finishing this, I and many others still play ArmA 2 and still get excited over big projects like this. Keep up the awesome work and I'll be looking forward to a release, even if its 8 years down the road :)

[=kct=blackmamba 44]

the screens look amazing JR Walker, very nice.

this one might stand out from all the other big ones Fayshkhabur included ;)

[jr_walker 10]

A few more steps forward, not quite as far as I expected.

> Took some time to make a simple, but long bridge (and trying to get AI to like it…they don’t like it yet)

> Spent a few days putting together a gas stop

> Spent a few days getting an airport in-place, presently very sparse (AI friendly though)

> Spent a few days updating the sat_lco

> Spent a few days trying to find a tool to expedite making roads; two methods helped make the road smooth length-wise, but none would etch the road (i.e. make it flat from side-to-side), so back to 25m at a time by hand

> Many days placing road

Next steps: continue with roads and complete low elevation vegetation masks.

A couple of pics of the additions…absolutely WIP.

http://s387.photobucket.com/user/jus2sayhey/library/Haadur

Walker