Request tutorial

[odyseus 19]

Hello guys,

So I did a little research on terrain tutorial and could not find much about and most of the things I found were outdated and all over the net. It would be nice to have a video tutorial covering the whole process of creating a basic inland based on real life image. If some is about to start a project please keep that in mind. It would be very helpful to the community. I know is hard work and I seems all the cool things you guys can do. Please teach the newcomers :)

Thank you.

[[aps]gnat 28]

Sorry, but for THE most difficult and time consuming mod task for the game resources ARE going to be limited.

Especially a video tutorial

BUT, you obviously haven't searched here because there are several very good and up-to-date tutorials here, in these forums.

[odyseus 19]

Gnat;2227837']Sorry' date=' but for THE most difficult and time consuming mod task for the game resources ARE going to be limited.

Especially a video tutorial

BUT, you obviously haven't searched here because there are several very good and up-to-date tutorials here, in these forums.[/quote']

There is where you are wrong Gnat. No offence but if I said i did search then I did search. Most of the tutorial are no longer on the net and the few there are, well they are just out of date. If I m wrong please prove me wrong. Don't just go assuming something you don,t know. Don't get me wrong I seen some of your work and love it. But hey man I totally understand. I m pretty sure it does take lots of time and lots of work. I m just saying it would be nice to have it. I also understand most people are no so wiling on teaching others. Unlike you.. I saw some of your tutorials on Oxygen2. Whish there were more ;)

[Pfhaota 11]

There is where you are wrong Gnat. No offence but if I said i did search then I did search. Most of the tutorial are no longer on the net and the few there are, well they are just out of date. If I m wrong please prove me wrong. Don't just go assuming something you don,t know. Don't get me wrong I seen some of your work and love it. But hey man I totally understand. I m pretty sure it does take lots of time and lots of work. I m just saying it would be nice to have it. I also understand most people are no so wiling on teaching others. Unlike you.. I saw some of your tutorials on Oxygen2. Whish there were more ;)

I will give you some pointers but far from a complete tutorial.

1) Base your work on this pdf by Bushlurker. http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=15141

2) To get real life data you have to use various free or paid services. The most important data is the DEM (Digital elevation model) used to give the general height of the terrain. A free source is the ASTER project which has a quite high resolution but often many artefacts. An alternative is the SRTM data which is not as detailed but more often correct. For US and coastal areas you can sometimes fine even finer DEM's. If you are doing an island you can find high resolution DEMs for Tsunami calculations. To crop the data and convert it to fileformats that can be handled by Visitor 3 use MicroDem (free), Qgis (free) or other alternatives, google it. When you've cropped out the area you want to use (make sure it's a perfect square with a defined size divisible with 1024 in metres, e.g. 10240, 5120 or 40960). I suggest using the UTM projection. Export it as a .xyz using "space" as the limiter.

3) Acquiring satellite photos for free is harder. There are ways to rip googlemaps but all are illegal, however somewhat endorsed on this site. Otherwise you can buy satellite photos or do your own satmap from scratch in photoshop. There are however some free sources of map data, OpenMaps being the best one. It will not give you any colour data but often the road network and points of interest etcetera. Qgis can handle import of satdata and rectifying (making it fit and project correctly), I think, but I've never done it.

4) The import process is explained in Bushlurker's extensive tutorial. If you have any problems give me a shout and I might answer them.

[[aps]gnat 28]

If I m wrong please prove me wrong.

As Pfhaota has shown, Bushlurker has been VERY generous in this sub-forum.

He would be my main reference, but there are other resources here.

And in the end, there will never be a "complete" tutorial for something so very very complicated and variable.

I m just saying it would be nice to have it.

We all know it would be "nice to have", but many of us have likely determine the "cost-benefit" equation is not ideal.

I also understand most people are no so wiling on teaching others.

Thats not a fair assessment.

Theres a difference between "teach" (a few small tutorials or a couple of large posts in forums) vs. "provide a school where the graduates get a full education in terrain making".

I'm sure even Bushlurker might suggest he doesn't know everything, enough to be Professor Terrain ! ;)

Only BIS people know ALL the detail.

[richardp 1]

It would help if BI started working for the community and updated the wiki, its in rather poor shape compared to other companies such as VDC. One of these days when the good ArmA modders move on nobody will replace them because it simply isn't fun looking through out of date OFP tutorials and resources. I'd only classify modding tools for ArmA(the only reason people buy and play the game) as loosely supported. Something tells me ArmA3 will be the Vista when it comes to modding for the ArmA series.

[odyseus 19]

To Pfhaota: Thank you Pfhaota. I will get on it ASAP. I let you know if something.

To Gnat: I dont remember saying anything about school. But hey. Thx for getting my point across.

I have to say i agree with "richardp" For a game that had at least 3 sequel a complete manual from BIS would not be bad. We will pay for it if thatis the case, which is "Cost benefit"!!!!! :D

[raptor 6 actual 13]

As Gnat said, Bushlurker and others here on the forums have proven to be VERY helpful in giving advice to me. I might suggest (though not the ideal situation), but in my case, my neighbor (you could pick a friend) and I sat on TeamSpeak for about two nights, and read Bushlurker's tutorial, word for word, page by page. We stopped and asked questions if we had them, and if we didn't have the answer, we searched here in the forums and lastly, posted a thread.

Bushlurker's tutorial will walk you through getting Visitor setup and getting the ca\ files opened up. Gnat himself has done a huge amount of work making tutorials for setting up the tools to get you ready...I'd take his advice, he know's what he is talking about. He's not trying to be discourteous.

Though the search function here sometimes offers too vague of responses to a search query, you just have to spend time researching.

Like I said, if nothing else, follow Gnat's tutorial to setup the tools, then grab Bushlurker's tutorial on microterrains, and see how far it gets you. If you have questions, just ask in a PM if necessary.

Good luck.

[mondkalb 1087]

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Mondkalb's_Terrain_Tutorial

Written at the beginning of this year.

When you say tutorials are out of date I immediately assume you know already everything about mapmaking to be able to judge the quality of the tutorials out there, which would leave you without the need for tutorials in the first place.

Please - next time, be considerate about the time, effort and quality people invest in their free-time to pass on their knowledge. Which is often taken for granted by most people who keep forgetting that it is absolutely not a thing that is common.

[odyseus 19]

To Mondkalb.

Thank you for the link, and no i don't know anything about map editing and as you can see i m not afraid to say so therefore i m here to ask for help. Here is my problem people assuming stuff.

In my previous post you will see i m very thankful for all the posting people have made. But hey i guess you are just assuming again right?

[[aps]gnat 28]

..... make a start instead of posting .... about what we all assume.

Then people here will try to answer your specific questions/challenges/problems.

What I KNOW is lots of people try their hand at Terrain Making, but very few ever finish a terrain (myself included to a certain degree!).

Not because they didn't have a video tutorial, but because they discovered what every everyone was saying. Its %$#%$# hard work, taking 100's of hours.

Unfortunate but true.

Those who perceiver and succeed make some truly beautiful pieces of art!

[odyseus 19]

indeed. I will on my own time. Right now i m doing a little modeling aircraft that may just need some pointers from you. :D What you say?

[mondkalb 1087]

Gnat;2236578']

Not because they didn't have a video tutorial' date=' but because they discovered what every everyone was saying. [b']Its %$#%$# hard work, taking 100's of hours.[/b]

Unfortunate but true.

Exactly! And thats why I keep repeating myself when speaking to anyone trying to learn terrain making:

Do not start with a giant project as your first terrain!

Start small and simple to get used to the steps involved in creating the terrain. This way you learn the basics and shortcuts. And without these making a new terrain that is 5km x5km, or even 10km x 10km is most definitely never going to get finished. Usually resulting in that community member leaving his attempts at making terrains out of frustration.

[Twin2Win 1]

As true as what you say Mandkalb I'm still making a huge terrain for my first project =) It's easier for me to learn about all the issues at once instead of dragging it out over multiple projects. I've learned so much from your tutorial, Ace's, and Bush's! And PMC's as of late given my terrain size. You all are great terrain makers and I'm honored to say I've engaged in conversation with you all =) Odyseus, one thing I can tell you now, your going to hate roads, I just get that feeling =P

[odyseus 19]

Hey twin2win let me know if you need help. I m learning modeling and willing to help so that i can learn myself. :D What you say?

[Greenberet40 136]

Hello

Try to see my blog http://greenberet101.blogspot.com.es .I try to explain step by step how to make a map for Arma. I advice you that its a long way :rolleyes:

and keep to update my blog ( every week more or less) .The only problem its the language :o i make this blog for the spanish lenguage comunity for Arma but you have a point of reference when you start to make a map for Arma2 -OA.

[smokedog3para 365]

There are quicker ways to create islands L3DT for 1 and to populate them are some excellent tools out like world tools road painter and random generating forest and towns which can make the process a lot faster

Sangin took 8 months of 16 hour days 7 days a week all placed by hand, when i made Serria Leon it took a month at most as i used the above tools have a play with what's out there.

[odyseus 19]

Hello

Try to see my blog http://greenberet101.blogspot.com.es .I try to explain step by step how to make a map for Arma. I advice you that its a long way :rolleyes:

and keep to update my blog ( every week more or less) .The only problem its the language :o i make this blog for the spanish lenguage comunity for Arma but you have a point of reference when you start to make a map for Arma2 -OA.

http://imageshack.us/a/img594/7179/fin1q.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img405/4251/pacqd.jpg

Great stuff. The language is nor problem for me, I speak Portuguese therefore I can understand a bit. I should be getting some days off work and will start working on it PRONTO. Hey by the way. If you need any help, i am willing to help out in exchange for learning. ;)