Schwemlitz, Germany WIP

[falcon_565 11]

thanks for answer. I understand. Is it possible to make it in a way optional? How I have to say it in english: it would be the last little piece for a really perfect island.

I think your worried about the grass being a little to light green. We know and it's on our todo list, it'll be recolored to make it more like the other grasses you see. It didn't get done today possibly tomorrow. Standby for more WIP screens I finished Groß Malchau today.

[falcon_565 11]

As promised more screens:

Imgur Album

Center of Groß Malchau looking south.

Center of Groß Malchau looking east.

North side of Groß Malchau looking south.

West side of Groß Malchau looking east.

East side of Groß Malchau looking west.

British paras patrol a wooded road south of Groß Malchau.

[Impulse 9 10]

Some updated screenshots of progress over the last three days.

A landscape shot approaching Bruchwedel from the east.

A Landscape shot, approaching Schwemlitz, with Bruchwedel on the left, and extending right to just shy of the left edge.

Heading south along a service road, running upon a burnt out section of trees.

Looking south past Groß Malchau.

Looking east from a small pond towards Schlagte.

Looking south along the road towards Bruchwedel.

Images Changed to External Links - 100kb Restrictions

Edited October 16, 2012 by Impulse9
Image Edits - External Hosting.

[mondkalb 1087]

This looks really good. Though don't forget about traffic signs and street lamps. :p

And the colour of the clutter objects looks odd. (http://i.imgur.com/pe27i.jpg), any chance you can get around tweaking that?

[falcon_565 11]

The last few days have been focused on backend work and taking care of details like cleaning up roads, small little bush and treelines, signage and micro terrain. I've got a few panoramic screenshots.

A landscape shot approaching Bruchwedel from the east.

A Landscape shot, approaching Schwemlitz, with Bruchwedel on the left, and extending right to just shy of the left edge (Same picture different lighting).

Heading south along a service road, running upon a burnt out section of trees.

Looking south past Groß Malchau

Looking east from a small pond towards Schlagte.

Looking south along the road towards Bruchwedel

Looking south from west of Groß Malchau

.

---------- Post added at 01:44 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:40 AM ----------

This looks really good. Though don't forget about traffic signs and street lamps. :p

And the colour of the clutter objects looks odd. (http://i.imgur.com/pe27i.jpg), any chance you can get around tweaking that?

Reference my above post yes we are going to change the color of the tall clutter object, our current texture is a placeholder. Also we're going to be using the german signs pack to get all the proper street signs and the plan is to do custom sign textures so all roads and navigation signs will be appropriate.

Edited October 13, 2012 by Falcon_565

[WA Lancer 94]

Yes. I have not gotten around to changing the textures for that yet. To be honest it was a 10 min thing

[chrisb 196]

Looks great.

Please don’t go overboard with clutter, it detracts from realism in many respects, travelling around the UK and Europe, plus having lived in Germany when I was very young, it always surprises me how much clutter some terrains have, when in-fact in developed countries lots of land is farmed or cultivated and over clutter can be out of place. Huge endless fields, of long overgrown weeds/wild flowers, what would be meadowland here in the UK (fast disappearing), can look really out of place, whereas low grass lands/ploughed fields etc are common all over the UK and Europe.

The balance you have looks right, to me at least, just a plea from the heart.. Saves me getting the mower out..:)

Does really look like a great terrain..

[falcon_565 11]

Looks great.

Please don’t go overboard with clutter, it detracts from realism in many respects, travelling around the UK and Europe, plus having lived in Germany when I was very young, it always surprises me how much clutter some terrains have, when in-fact in developed countries lots of land is farmed or cultivated and over clutter can be out of place. Huge endless fields, of long overgrown weeds/wild flowers, what would be meadowland here in the UK (fast disappearing), can look really out of place, whereas low grass lands/ploughed fields etc are common all over the UK and Europe.

The balance you have looks right, to me at least, just a plea from the heart.. Saves me getting the mower out..:)

Does really look like a great terrain..

Everything we do from a clutter perspective is inherently linked to realism. For this terrain we forgo the arma grass/clutter system completely in favor of using objects to simulate forest ground cover, fields of crops and high growing grasses. This allows these objects to be drawn orders of magnitude further than they are currently. At the lowest possible setting these objects are drawn at 500m an order of magnitude improvement from the current 30 clutter draw. Concealment is everywhere on this terrain and having to work hard to locate the source of fire, especially in forests, is the norm instead of the exception. This has a profound impact on gameplay.

Every natural object we select has proper collision LODs which means no longer can AI shoot through grass. And firefights with both AI and players become much much more fun and dynamic. In addition we are using the grass objects to simulate the concealment afforded by ditches on the sides of roads, even with a 5m cell size creating these micro terrain features is nearly impossible. All of this creates a much more realistic terrain. I agree that European farmland tends to be neat and lacks the overgrowth found in other parts of the world. Despite this the oprotunities for the infantryman to conceal himself still abound really the only places that offer absolutely no concealment are plowed fields of dirt (which we include). Even in cultivated feilds growing short grasses going prone can quickly conceal infantry. The ability to detect infanty (and vehicles) from unrealistic ranges have long been an achillies heel of this engine and a problem this terrain adresses in a big way.

The overall effect leaves this terrain a very true representation of the north German plain. Throught the entire process we have carefully used reference photos and satellite pictures to capture the details of this real location. I think once you get hands on with this terrain your fears will be put to rest. The terrain feels very open and many places have unrestricted kilometers long sight lines. Driving and walking around feels eerily like walking though rural Germany. However when things get hot and you hit the prone key your perspective changes and I think you'll grow to like the fighting chance you get to get to cover and get back in the fight.

[chrisb 196]

Everything we do from a clutter perspective is inherently linked to realism. For this terrain we forgo the arma grass/clutter system completely in favor of using objects to simulate forest ground cover, fields of crops and high growing grasses. This allows these objects to be drawn orders of magnitude further than they are currently. At the lowest possible setting these objects are drawn at 500m an order of magnitude improvement from the current 30 clutter draw. Concealment is everywhere on this terrain and having to work hard to locate the source of fire, especially in forests, is the norm instead of the exception. This has a profound impact on gameplay.

Every natural object we select has proper collision LODs which means no longer can AI shoot through grass. And firefights with both AI and players become much much more fun and dynamic. In addition we are using the grass objects to simulate the concealment afforded by ditches on the sides of roads, even with a 5m cell size creating these micro terrain features is nearly impossible. All of this creates a much more realistic terrain. I agree that European farmland tends to be neat and lacks the overgrowth found in other parts of the world. Despite this the oprotunities for the infantryman to conceal himself still abound really the only places that offer absolutely no concealment are plowed fields of dirt (which we include). Even in cultivated feilds growing short grasses going prone can quickly conceal infantry. The ability to detect infanty (and vehicles) from unrealistic ranges have long been an achillies heel of this engine and a problem this terrain adresses in a big way.

The overall effect leaves this terrain a very true representation of the north German plain. Throught the entire process we have carefully used reference photos and satellite pictures to capture the details of this real location. I think once you get hands on with this terrain your fears will be put to rest. The terrain feels very open and many places have unrestricted kilometers long sight lines. Driving and walking around feels eerily like walking though rural Germany. However when things get hot and you hit the prone key your perspective changes and I think you'll grow to like the fighting chance you get to get to cover and get back in the fight.

@Falcon 565 & @WA Lancer

A very detailed and appreciated answer, thank you.

I am now really looking forward to your new terrain even more (cant wait)..it really does sound like my type of terrain. :D

Thanks again, great answer and post..:)

[Tobie 10]

great work! looking forward to your map! =)

[falcon_565 11]

So I almost finished Hagen today. Here's some screens for everyone to enjoy!

Imgur Album

NW of Hagen looking south towards Schlagte.

NE of Hagen looking towards the center of town.

Center of Hagen looking West.

M1A1 overwatching fields north of Bruchwedel

[papanowel 120]

It is very promising :)

[Stagler 39]

get some furrows up in dat field SON

[WA Lancer 94]

I can only imagine horrible things happening if i tried doing actual furrows in the terrain. It would need to be a .5m cell size or something... Oh god the horrors

[Brainbug 10]

a normal map should do fine. Although some asparagus fields would provide nice cover, but for technical sake let's just pretend that the asparagus season is just over^^

EDIT: Or maybe you use objects, a bit like the elevated dirt paths and field edges on the Tarin Kot, Oruzgan map.

btw, I can't see any of your screenshots, the image hoster seems to have some issues.

Edited October 15, 2012 by Brainbug

[Tonci87 163]

Everything we do from a clutter perspective is inherently linked to realism. For this terrain we forgo the arma grass/clutter system completely in favor of using objects to simulate forest ground cover, fields of crops and high growing grasses. This allows these objects to be drawn orders of magnitude further than they are currently. At the lowest possible setting these objects are drawn at 500m an order of magnitude improvement from the current 30 clutter draw. Concealment is everywhere on this terrain and having to work hard to locate the source of fire, especially in forests, is the norm instead of the exception. This has a profound impact on gameplay.

Every natural object we select has proper collision LODs which means no longer can AI shoot through grass. And firefights with both AI and players become much much more fun and dynamic. In addition we are using the grass objects to simulate the concealment afforded by ditches on the sides of roads, even with a 5m cell size creating these micro terrain features is nearly impossible. All of this creates a much more realistic terrain. I agree that European farmland tends to be neat and lacks the overgrowth found in other parts of the world. Despite this the oprotunities for the infantryman to conceal himself still abound really the only places that offer absolutely no concealment are plowed fields of dirt (which we include). Even in cultivated feilds growing short grasses going prone can quickly conceal infantry. The ability to detect infanty (and vehicles) from unrealistic ranges have long been an achillies heel of this engine and a problem this terrain adresses in a big way.

The overall effect leaves this terrain a very true representation of the north German plain. Throught the entire process we have carefully used reference photos and satellite pictures to capture the details of this real location. I think once you get hands on with this terrain your fears will be put to rest. The terrain feels very open and many places have unrestricted kilometers long sight lines. Driving and walking around feels eerily like walking though rural Germany. However when things get hot and you hit the prone key your perspective changes and I think you'll grow to like the fighting chance you get to get to cover and get back in the fight.

SOunds like Tank country to me

[Alex72 1]

Looking great guys! :love:

PS. Please fix your image filesizes. The screenshots looks tasty, but lets stick to the forum rules of max 100kb/image. Most of them are far over.

Thanks. ;)

[Stagler 39]

I do believe there is a furrow ground texture in A2. That was what I was referring to, actual furrows is I think unfeasible.

[WA Lancer 94]

SOunds like Tank country to me

I think tanks will get murdered by AT4s that were prone 100m away.

I do believe there is a furrow ground texture in A2. That was what I was referring to, actual furrows is I think unfeasible.

Yes. and they have been in for a while. Not sure if you can spot them in the screen shots.

[falcon_565 11]

I've been busy this week in reality but we are quickly closing in on an alpha release. The town of Hagen has been finished and the road network is now 98% done, just need to do another sweep for trees, bushes etc lingering on the road. The satmap and layers masks are coming along as well. Here three new screenshots for everyone.

http://i.imgur.com/SbmYT.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/A17yE.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/QXW1Y.jpg

[nikiforos 450]

Very nice I can't wait :bounce3:

[topas 1]

Looks very promising (I believe I said that earlier). Anyway, do you intend to make it a present day representation of the terrain, filling it with contemporary objects (like roadsigns or characteristic german infrastructure for ambience), or will this terrain allow different era settings as well (cold war, ww2 etc.).

Looking forward to release and more progress.

[falcon_565 11]

Looks very promising (I believe I said that earlier). Anyway, do you intend to make it a present day representation of the terrain, filling it with contemporary objects (like roadsigns or characteristic german infrastructure for ambience), or will this terrain allow different era settings as well (cold war, ww2 etc.).

Looking forward to release and more progress.

We're building it to be representative of the modern terrain (using contemporary road signage etc). That being said it will also be representative of a cold war time frame as well since we are not including anything that looks like it's been added in the last 10 years or so. For example a handful of the fields have wind turbines in them and we will not be including those to preserve a cold war feel. In short this island will work well for a cold war/ modern day conflict but will most likely be noticeably modern for a world war II scenario.

[falcon_565 11]

I spent my terrain working time today polishing the terrain and adding in lots of little details, here's a look at my current project, road signs!

[mondkalb 1087]

Ahahahahahahaahaha. That so reminds me of making my Celle 2 map. Keep it up.