Map Size

[ScorpionGuard 10]

Hi!

Could someone tell me how large a map I can create? I would like to make a map 700 miles x 700 miles. Is this possible to do?

[ArmAriffic 10]

700x700mi...Don't think so normal arma maps are like 10x10km

[mankyle 420]

map size is determined by two factors

- terrain size (512 x 512, 1024 x 1024, 2048 x 2048 or 4096 x 4096) in pixels

- cell size (5 m, 10 m, 25 m etc...)

So if you want yo create a 700 miles x 700 miles map you would have to choose cell and terrain size accordingly.

For example, largest terrain size, 4096 pixels.

1 mile is 1,609344 km or 1609 metres.

then 700 miles are 700 x 1609 = 1123000 metres

Divided by 4096 it gives 274,17 metres (rounding down)

The you would have to make a map 4096 with a cell of 274 metres.

Now for the sake of comparison, Chernarus has a 7.5 meters cell size.

It can be done (theoretically) but with big cell sizes you lose resolution in terrain and you would have to make a GIANT sat and mask to make it visually pleasant.

For example, I have a 1024 map with 50 meters cell size (50 km x 50 km map) and I'm using a 20480 x 20480 sat/mask. It doesn't look very well. I'm considering using a 25600 x 25600 sat/mask which would make loading the image file in GIMP a nightmare.

Conclusion: it simply it's not worth to make such a big map.

[[aps]gnat 28]

.... if it was all water, then maybe it would sort of be ok.

[ScorpionGuard 10]

Hi [APS] Gnat. The map is for water. I am trying to create a map for naval operations like on Fleet Command. As we talk about before. I'm hoping that Visitor 4 will give more options to work with on such a large map. Tanks guys for your answers so far.

Edited July 14, 2011 by ScorpionGuard

[ScorpionGuard 10]

Follow up question due to Mankyle. Is there no way to have a very large map with cell size between 10 -7 meter?

[mankyle 420]

Large map with cell resolution of 7-10 meters?

Biggest one would be a 4096 map

With 7 meters cells that would give 28672 meters.

with 10 meters cell that would give 40960 meters.

Those are the biggest map sizes with 7 and 10 meters cells. WAAAAYYYYYY short of the 700 miles map.

Also, such a big map with 10 meters cells will also mean that performance will go down the sink. I have had a 20480 meters map (10 meters cell, 2048 terrain) and performance was not very good.

Hope it helps

BTW, look in the mapping tutorials. There it is quite well explained.

[icebreakr 3159]

What are you trying to achieve with such a big islandterrain? Isnt 200x200km enough. Please do test yourself and check the framerates on different sizes. If you're having only water you can increase grid to 25-50m...

Edited July 16, 2011 by IceBreakr

[[aps]gnat 28]

Yeh, water only terrain performance should be quite high.

VOTE 1:

For people to stop using the word "island" in these forums when they really mean "terrain"

It confuses people.

[bushlurker 46]

Technically, you could use a 4096x4096 grid size with 170m cells - that'll give you a 696.32km x 696.32km mapsize...

Visitor will accept the parameters... you'd need to follow through with a basic 4094x4096 heightmap - blank 4096x4096 sat and mask, and see if you can get it in-game... Theoretically it should work.....

B

[ryguy 10]

Finally you could get some real use out of airplanes! I think the largest map I've ever seen was Sands by I forgot who. I believe it was around 12 miles or something?

[mankyle 420]

Well I'm now working on an OFP world map which is a 1024 x 1024 with a 50 m terrain cell.

That's a 50 km x 50 km map.

Performance is very, very good, even with more than a million objects. The problem is that a 20480 pixels sat/mask is a little bit low.

I'm trying to load a 25600 pixels sat but it gives problems.

That map is very good for combined operations, navy and air assets or air combat.

You can travel from one island to another in 3-4 minutes in a F35 at max speed.

Will probably reach early beta status in one month, but if you can accept a horrible looking sat it is already quite playable.