New to map making

[acoustic 82]

I need some assistance with map making.

I have read the stickies up top but still feel a little confused. I have some questions and need some guidance.

1. I would like to use OA objects for my map, so which ones do I need to extract to CA folder?

2. How do I use a satellite image if I don't have one. (not a real place)

(Yes I have read the sticky that talks about fantasy and real images but still don't follow)

[dougboy101 0]

for creating a fantasy sat image, buy L3DT

Edited January 31, 2011 by dougboy101

[bushlurker 45]

Best possible place to start is with Sgt Aces Tutorial

That'll help you get the tools installed, the basic CA folder sorted, and even get you all the way thru to in-game with a sample terrain... you can then adapt those basic tutorial files into a working basic project structure of your own... its a good way to start...

to answer your questions tho...

1> Only the objects you intend to use I guess - like "structures-e" if you want the OA houses, etc... there's been a thread or two about this recently - the models need tweaked slightly for use in Visitor... try reading Here for starters...

2> the Sat_lco file can indeed be a real satellite image, or it can be a completely made up one that just looks convincingly like one...

If you're modelling a real place, there may be a real sat image you can use as a starting point, if it's a made-up terrain, then you're basically stuck with making your own... You don't need to start from scratch though - L3DT standard edition is full featured and free - its a good heightmap editor up to 2048x2048, plus it'll generate quite decent masks and textures which can be used as Mask_lco and Sat_lco files in Visitor! - the free version will only generate these up to 4096x4096 - pretty cheesy for a serious project, but OK for testing...

The Pro version will edit heightmaps up to 4096x4096 and beyond, and do masks and texture layers way beyond 20480x20480... much better! and - fortunately, you can get a 3 month demo of that - fully working, if you ask the author nicely....

Try fooling with basic free L3DT first - save that 3 months of usage for when you're serious and ready to start...

Did I mention that L3DT will allow you to actually generate the whole heightmap from scratch as well, if its a "fantasy" landscape you're planning... ?

Have fun!

B

Edited January 31, 2011 by Bushlurker

[tupolov 520]

Just don't underestimate the effort required to create a map. Its months of work and the bigger the map, the longer the process. I started a map back in Nov 2010... I'm targeting a March finish (its only 10x10km).

You don't need really high res sat pics as often this picks out too much detail on the ground. Real life sat pics and data help you place most of what's on your map, which is a big help. I can't imagine trying to fill a 10x10 or 20x20km "fantasy" map, that's going to take some planning.

Do the tutorials first and create a test map with some of the things that you want to use (roads, ponds, clutter, vegetation, villages, runways). Make sure you've got a good process for creating masks for clutter/vegetation. Make sure you can edit the heightmap to deal with anomalies, edges of the map etc. Work out how to use World Tools (along with the scripting) to place objects, fences and powerlines. Understand and plan how many towns/villages/areas you are going to create - make sure you create the key points for them so mission makers can use them. Create small building blocks of clusters of buildings as templates for town/village creation...

There's lots of tools you'll need:

GIMP

GlobalMapper

RoadPainter

World Tools

Eliteness

RTE

Ultraedit (or other advanced file editor)

ConvertWRP (to convert current maps to PEW format - to see how the "pro's" do it!)

Visitor (obviously!)

BIS Tools 2 (BinBPO etc)

Sat Pic Downloader such as MySatellite

Recommended Process (braindump):

1. Create sat pic and heightmap that match, preview in Visitor. Use GlobalMapper to get heightmap data and matching sat pic data.

2. Fix any height map anomalies (holes etc) and also create 1-2m depressions where you want ponds or lakes.

3. Fix edges of map so that they are raised and reasonably random (to work better with the TerrainSynch)

4. Select the texture for terrain sync and fade this into the edges of the sat pic (to make the transition from your terrain to the auto-terrain look smoother)

5. Create your mask initially with clutter in mind, add layers for vegetation, plants, trees, rocks, roads. Avoid the edges of the map. Create your initial config.cpp file with all the necessary parameters.

6. Pack up your map (BinPBO) and test in Arma 2/CO (no Mods)

7. Use World Tools to create vegetation, plants, trees, rocks based on your mask, import into visitor.

8. Create a sat pic with the roads mask layer overlaid.

9. Pack up your map and load with Arma2 and RoadPainter addon.

10. Use RoadPainter to create all roads and import into Visitor, link up the roads by manually placing crossroad/terminator pieces.

11. Use the Visitor avenue script to add trees, signs, plants running along roads. (You could also use World Tools by creating a feather to the roads mask).

12. Use world tools to place powerlines across the map (use a world tools script to do this)

13. Place key points for all areas where units maybe placed in missions

14. Pack up your map and make sure the map displays correctly in Arma 2

15. Start placing buildings, objects etc either in RTE or Visitor (cut and paste elements from other maps will help build up templates).

Good luck!

[dougboy101 0]

Agreed with Tupolevs comments about map size. for a starter terrain definitely go smaller, and use as a practice to get your head around conifgs, road placements etc.

I did the opposite in grandoise fashion, and am making a "near Future" map based on real world terrain, that way i can have creative license to fill the map as i see fit. mine is 60X60km, i started in november, and have only just tweaked the satmap from l3dt to my liking.

Whatever you do, draw roads on your layers mask. then use roadpainter to draw roads over them. this removes the annoying dissapearing roads that isla duala and a few other islands have.

[Chill xl 10]

my best advice would be to plan and design as much ahead as possible before you start working in Visitor. Translate this plan and design into map "masks" or layers that will act as a guide where to put and place all the objects, buildings, roads, forests etc

[acoustic 82]

Thanks for all the responses. The standard edition should be fine as my map will only be either 4km by 4km or 2km by 2km (just a training purposes map for my own liking).

I am still having problems on what the heck to do to make a sat image. I have the tool downloaded but am still very lost. What is a sat image even for?

[dougboy101 0]

Sat image is you nice big long distance image, eg in chopper with 10k view distance. the tex mask (attributes map in L3dt) is a basic colour map where each colour is a texture on the ground, the view distance for textures is only 100-200m (I think) therefor you need a sat image (texture map in l3dt) to fill out the horizon.

for learning I suggest you create your own climate and materials in L3DT, the climate is a mathmatical set of rules for creating your attributes map based on heights and water levels. I did this with a lot of trial and error, to get snowy mountain tops and lush valleys. ensure that the colour of the textures assigned to your attributes map colours is similar to the sat texture. snowy white mountains with green grass up close doesnt work that well!

[acoustic 82]

Could I get a tutorial on making a satellite image?

[bushlurker 45]

Hi Acoustic...

There's some bits and pieces of info around, though there's no set way of doing one... L3DT makes a good "base" for subsequent enhancement... take a look at Icebreakr's recent stuff - I'm pretty sure he starts with an L3DT Pro base texture, then enhances it manually... (a lot of work in those few words!)...

There's a slightly outdated Wiki page on the topic.... almost all of that info is still completely relevant - it talks about Sahrani from Arma 1 as an example - but all of the basic principles remain the same... essential reading, that one...

I think Alliex briefly mumbles about Sat & Mask files in his tutorial series... not sure, but you can grab them off my crappy wee website - in the "Resources & Tutorials" section, look for "Alliex's Other Tutorials"... they're also a little out of date, but still mostly relevant...

Another good place to look is in ZeroG's "resources" sticky at this top of this forum section - plus search this whole Forum section itself for "satellite" + "show posts" and start reading!

What is a sat image even for?

dougboy covered this pretty well...

When you're on the ground on a terrain, what you see directly under your feet is a hi-res texture file - these are laid in a big circle around you - out to the same range as clutter is visible to - thats what makes the ground look super-detailed close-up... further away - on hills in the distance, or everywhere, if you're flying above say around 50m or so - what you see is the Satellite Texture - its basically the "distance ground texture"...

B

Edited February 1, 2011 by Bushlurker

[acoustic 82]

Hi Acoustic...

There's some bits and pieces of info around, though there's no set way of doing one... L3DT makes a good "base" for subsequent enhancement... take a look at Icebreakr's recent stuff - I'm pretty sure he starts with an L3DT Pro base texture, then enhances it manually... (a lot of work in those few words!)...

There's a slightly outdated Wiki page on the topic.... almost all of that info is still completely relevant - it talks about Sahrani from Arma 1 as an example - but all of the basic principles remain the same... essential reading, that one...

I think Alliex briefly mumbles about Sat & Mask files in his tutorial series... not sure, but you can grab them off my crappy wee website - in the "Resources & Tutorials" section, look for "Alliex's Other Tutorials"... they're also a little out of date, but still mostly relevant...

Another good place to look is in ZeroG's "resources" sticky at this top of this forum section - plus search this whole Forum section itself for "satellite" + "show posts" and start reading!

dougboy covered this pretty well...

When you're on the ground on a terrain, what you see directly under your feet is a hi-res texture file - these are laid in a big circle around you - out to the same range as clutter is visible to - thats what makes the ground look super-detailed close-up... further away - on hills in the distance, or everywhere, if you're flying above say around 50m or so - what you see is the Satellite Texture - its basically the "distance ground texture"...

B

Don't most games not have a satellite picture? Most of the time on them, I can fly real high and it is the same.

On a side note. All I want is a simple Desert landscape (no trees but random little vegetation wouldn't hurt). How easy is this to make into a sat pic?

[dougboy101 0]

L3DT its easy as. basic sand texture, then rocks on slops for hills etc, the odd gravel if you use a water map

[acoustic 82]

Do what now? How would I place all of those things?

[bushlurker 45]

L3DT is a bit confusing at first - it's not the most intuitive program in the world... the userguide is essential reading...

Your needs are pretty simple though - there's several built-in simple "climates" that might suit you with a bit of tweaking... You really need to read the userguide for specifics - once you grasp the way L3DT works its really straightforward...

Basically you'll want to - load your heightmap - run the water layer which will establish sea-level - if any... Then run an "Attributes" cycle - here you'll choose a "climate" - try "rock, grass, sand", or "desert" - this is the layer which can be used for a Mask_lco..

Then theres a couple of other cycles you can run for lighting, bump mapping, etc - then finally you run a Texturemap cycle, and it'll generate a texture layer to match that Attributes layer - this is the layer you can use for a Sat_lco...

You can vary the resolution of these layers - try lo-res till you know what you're doing, then crank it up to 10x for your final hi-res layer generation... you can also fool around with the "materials editor" and make your own "climate" - this is where you can really make L3DT stuff shine - the default materials are fairly cheesy - it can look a lot better once you start making your own...

Best way to learn with L3DT is just to fool around with it...

B

Edited February 4, 2011 by Bushlurker

[acoustic 82]

I have generated all of my maps.

Which one do I use for mask and which one do I use for sat?

How do I crank up the resolution?

Wasn't that hard after I read the manual, thanks.

[bushlurker 45]

Export the Attributes map as a Mask and the Texture Map as a Sat... when you generate the layers theres a multiplier parameter - this works in the usual 1x, 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x etc scale - though you can just type values in...

This is the only real area where you'll find a limitation in the Standard edition - the max res for these layers is 4096x4096 - apply for a 90day demo of the Pro version - when you're ready - and that limitation disappears - for a while :)

B

[acoustic 82]

I don't have the options to export them as so, should I just rename them that to fit it?

[bushlurker 45]

Yup - export as whatever.png - rename to Mask_lco.png and Sat_lco.png...

B

P.S. - change the AM (attributes map) .png export options to "colour"!

Edited February 4, 2011 by Bushlurker

[acoustic 82]

What do I do from here? How do I export them into Visitor? Do I just place objects after that?

Sorry for all the questions :P.

[bushlurker 45]

Now its time to do Sgt Ace's Tutorial - all the way - beginning to end, right up to running around on the final terrain in-game...

Then - you just do the same thing over again - using your own heightmap, mask and sat files - repathing, renaming and adjusting any & all necessary parameters, files & paths to suit your own island dimensions, and your own projects naming system..... That should get you to the basic working core project stage... after that it's roads, vegetation and objects...

B

Edited February 4, 2011 by Bushlurker

[acoustic 82]

In the tutorial it says for me to use the tutorial map and download it. Should I use that or should I already have made one of those?

[bushlurker 45]

You have to download the tutorial and work your way right thru it - theres a lot more files and stages involved than the ones you've prepared so far... the tutorial contains all of these and by working your way thru you'll learn how they all fit together and rely on each other... plus it'll help you get the tools installed and your P:\ drive build environment established... once you've done all of that you'll have a definitely working setup. Then you can mimic what you did in the tutorial, but substitute your own heightmap, mask & sat files...

It's a fairly involved undertaking getting everything setup to start with, plus theres several interrelated config files to deal with, ground textures and rvmats... setting up Visitor to suit the size of terrain you're making... the tutorial will gently introduce you to these basics, plus provide a structure and support files you can adapt and reuse...

Theres no real substitute for working your way thru the Tutorial...

B

[acoustic 82]

You have to download the tutorial and work your way right thru it - theres a lot more files and stages involved than the ones you've prepared so far... the tutorial contains all of these and by working your way thru you'll learn how they all fit together and rely on each other... plus it'll help you get the tools installed and your P:\ drive build environment established... once you've done all of that you'll have a definitely working setup. Then you can mimic what you did in the tutorial, but substitute your own heightmap, mask & sat files...

It's a fairly involved undertaking getting everything setup to start with, plus theres several interrelated config files to deal with, ground textures and rvmats... setting up Visitor to suit the size of terrain you're making... the tutorial will gently introduce you to these basics, plus provide a structure and support files you can adapt and reuse...

Theres no real substitute for working your way thru the Tutorial...

B

So why did I make my own sat and mask files be4? What other file do I need?

[Gnome_AS 10]

So we could suggest you do the tutorial? :p

Really though, B is right. The best way to sort this stuff out is to complete the tutorial. Then you'll have a pretty good oversight on things, and a good working base. Until you can see the global picture of how it all works together, you can't really develope each of the individual pieces accurately. Simply due the fact that they interact with each other in many different ways. So having a global perspective on things is beneficial. Plus having everything working and in the right places helps. Alot ;)

.

Edited February 5, 2011 by Gnome_AS
grammar

[[evo] dan 79]

you might to do Sgtaces tutorial first, and get that tutorial island working, and then do Alexies tutorial's as it makes things a lot easier. And of course if you run into a problem, someone has probably already answered it so make sure you have a good look around.