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mugaben

Forest markers

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I while ago, my forests on my map was marked as green like they should be, so you could se them on your map in-game.

Now, i see nothing.. Does it have something to do with copy/pasting? I recently copyed everything, deleted it, updated my terrain image, and inserted all objects again (Fastes way I know of)

If so, how do I fix it?

Should I delete layers folder, and load terrain/mask again maybe?

I used world tools 1.6.1 forest generator to make forests

Thanks

Edited by MugAben

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It's automatic by ArmA2 when the object is placed as "NATURAL OBJECT" into Visitor3.

In the A2 map the green areas are set by the software when the forest density reach a certain value. If lower you can see trees as empty green circles.

About world tools imported trees, on V3 those trees are shown as vegetation objects, and not under the FOREST layer, due the forest is a procedural way that V3 has to place trees, that is not the same used by world tools, that places objects one by one.

To show imported trees you must click on the button just left to the artificial object layer visibility button.

Hope this helps :)

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Can find that button :O

Cant find artificial object layer visibility. :\

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ostrov_background.gif

I've found a screenshot on the net about this area of V3 editor.

The button just RIGHT to the BK button (with green circle) is the NATURAL layer, right to the natural layer there is the ARTIFICIAL LAYER. World tools (and other trees) will be placed on NATURAL LAYER.

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Yes, thanks. But this is allready on. I can see all nature objects/forests in v3. They just dont show in-game.

---------- Post added at 02:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:34 PM ----------

Or well, they show ingame.. And on the map, only as green circles. This is the part I dont get.. One binpbo pack and they are there as green forest areas on the map, the next they are all circels.. :S

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Or well, they show ingame.. And on the map, only as green circles. This is the part I dont get.. One binpbo pack and they are there as green forest areas on the map, the next they are all circels.. :S

Green circles means low density forest. If you're satisfied by your forest don't worry about green circles. If you need more dense forest do it without looking at ArmA2 ingame map. The passage from green circles to green polygons is automatically done by the software when needed and you can't deal with this.

Also zoom on the map can (if i remember well) change the visualization.

Hint: ignore this, is not important for making maps, and tactical guys can understand the forest type by those symbols.

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Then why does it go from green "normal" forest marker, to green circles without changing the forest?! The density was the same as before. It wasnt the forest I made changes to,

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Yeah wouldnt be the first wierd thing in editing/modding for arma :D

Well looks like im gonna make all forests again.. But thanks to your forest generator thats not so difficult anymore. :)

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Whether you get individual little green circles or solid green areas on the in-game map is down to forest density - like Shezan says...

You can set the level of density required to get solid green forest areas with the config line...

minTreesInForestSquare = 3; // or whatever value you want - its a "per terrain cell" thing...

Same thing with rocks...

minRocksInRockSquare = 3;

So with the config settings above, I'll get solid green for trees, or the "rock symbol" for rocks, on any 10x10m area (my cell size) which has more than 3 rocks or trees...

What I don't understand is why it would change after an import / copy/paste...

B

edit* wow! just realised that was my 1,000th post! hehehe...

Edited by Bushlurker

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Well I dont get that it can change either.. without.. changing anything...

Take a look at this:

FOREST1.jpg

Forest2.jpg

Forest3.jpg

And this is with minTreesInForestSquare = 1;

On 3, there is nothing but green cirkels..

Settings in forest generator, is everything on 100% allmost for maximum density..

Generator mask is 512x512, map is 5120x5120 x 1, and cell size is 10

This should work?

edit: Maybe its terrain size? What should it be on? 10? 40?

Edited by MugAben

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Hmmm...

That is kinda strange...

I see what you mean now from your pic #1 - the config line IS working - you're not getting the little individual green circles, they ARE "blocking" together into shaded green areas, but yeah - lots of them, instead of one big combined "forest" wad of green...

It's strange because looking at pic#2 the trees do look fairly dense, whereas looking at pic #3 - the "trees in Visitor 2D" shot - they don't look so dense - you can see individual trees there - with lots of white in-between... normally when I place a forested area of even average density theres so many green tree symbols in Visitor, so overlapped that you can't make out individual trees, and you can't see the underlying ground at all!

I'm thinking, since you say you're running World Tools at maximum density theres something wrong with your settings in that - despite appearances in pic#2...

I'll try to grab a few screenshots off my own project later and post them - it's difficult to explain sometimes...

B

*edit* - ok... dunno what the limit is for screenshots - 5 hopefully...

visforest.jpg

Small forested area in Visitor - see how heavily overlapped the trees are?

Looks like this in buldozer...

vissamebit.jpg

Not too heavily dense up-close..

insideforest.jpg

And in-game with trees per forest square set to "3" it looks like this...

ingame.jpg

I reckon I should really try "4" or "5" for that parameter - the forest has much more sorta "feature" in the mask than it does in-game...

and World Tools settings...

fGen.jpg

I'm nowhere near maxed out on World Tools density - so between that and the difference between our Visitor 2D screenshots I'd guess its a world tools setting or parameter problem - you're not getting as dense a forest as you think for some reason...

Might be worth flipping to the World Tools tutorial thread and seeing what Shezan has to say about it...

B

Edited by Bushlurker

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I'll try to give my explanation on this.

All seems related to "square size" of your project and square size of world tools:

Supposing your project is a 20km x 20km map, and you have a forest mask of 5120x5120

Each pixel of the image is, on real map, a square of 4x4 meters (5120 *4 = 20480 meters)

When world tools place an object, it places it within the 4x4 meters square identified by the pixel under exam. So (if MAX OBJECTS PER PIXEL = 1) you have one tree each 4x4 meters, if placement probability = 100%

If your map has a grid size of 10x10 meters on Visitor 3, on each grid we could accomodate 4 pixels (4x4 4x4 4x4 4x4) and 4 half pixels (4x2 4x2 2x4 2x4) + a 1/4 of pixel of your world tools mask.

In a 100% density environment (assuming max objects per pixel still = 1) you will have, on each visitor 3 grid block, 4 objects + a random number of objects between 0 and 5 that could enter into the grid from the 5 partial pixel areas of the world tools map.

The number of objects that enters in a V3 grid is related to that.

If your appearance percentage is lower than 100% is probable you cannot have the minimum object number on the grid size to make it become a dark polygon on Arma2 map.

The 1st image represents a 100% placement probability with the above settings, with 1 object per pixel. In this case we have 6 objects on a Visitor 3grid.

The 2nd image represents a 100% placement probability with the above settings with 2 objects per pixel. Much more objects now on the V3 grid.

IF YOU HAVE LESS THAN 100% PLACEMENT PROBABILITY THIS COULD CHANGE THE NUMBER OF PLACED OBJECTS.

Maximum objects number on pixel is used if you have small masks and BIG maps, where each pixel of the mask represents 20-30 meters and placing one single object on this square, even on 100% probability, is still too sparse to have a decent forest.

worldtoolsexample1.gif

worldtoolsexample2.gif

Hope this helps

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Aaah... The luxury of having the designer of a tool take the time to drop by and explain it's workings! Thanks for that explanation - and the illustrations Shezan!

It's all a lot clearer to me now as well!

Looking once more at Dampet's issue (and not at 4am for a change!) I noticed this line...

Generator mask is 512x512, map is 5120x5120 x 1, and cell size is 10

That's an awfully small mask - mask mapper-era heightfield sized really! - Wouldn't that need a hefty "max objects per pixel=10" in Forest Tool? - without that, even at 100% probability, trees are gonna be fairly thinly placed? (100% = 1 tree per 10m^2?)...

B

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(100% = 1 tree per 10m^2?)...

Yes

this is the way i've created WT to have a percentage of appearance on color and a maximum number of items on the same square.

This way i can deal with small masks with big squares to make them more dense (increasing max object number), and with big masks with 1:2 or 1:4 ratio by working on probability placement (usually to reduce density, in this case).

Or use both... it depends :rolleyes:

Oh, in my use i'm applying more than one mask to my maps. One map could be used for rocks, one for garbages, one for trees, one for...

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Got it! I'll try with a bigger mask.

And yes, increasing the obj. pr pixels to 4, gave me close to the results I wanted. Didnt think of that. But now the forest are a bit too dense. The forest marker increased a bit, but still not as I want it.. You can only see it when zoomed in on the map. And this is still with minTreesInForestSquare = 1;

Forest4.jpg

Forest5.jpg

Forest6.jpg

I will try with a bigger mask, perhaps this is why arma messes it up somehow.

I'll report back later. :-)

---------- Post added at 05:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:18 PM ----------

Changing mask size from 512 to 5120, in simulation object count goes from 100.000 objects, to 9 million objects.. O_o

Well.. lets try. :P

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Well, it helped but somehow I still have trouble with it.

I have to zoom really close before the scattered wood-areas, and buildings show up on the map at all.. :S

My forest cannot be anymore dense than it is, otherwise performance starts to drop and the forest gets unrealistic and unuseable. The config parameter is at 1;

Maybe I just have to tinker a bit more with the whole thing and try it again and again.

And again, thanks for the helping hand. :)

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On a forest with 2x2 square i usuallu set 3-5% of probability.

You must try until you discover how it works :)

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Yeah. The problem was partially that I used a to small forest-mask, and I sat the "texture size" option in visitor, to 10 - not 40. This fixed everything. :)

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