Help needed! Making map. Stuck on the guide

[achilleasp 5]

Hello guys! I'm trying to make a map of my island, Cyprus. Cyprus has been divided in two since the Turkish invasion of 1974. I want to make a map of Cyprus and then make a scenario where conflict between the two parts arises.I've been using this guide http://www.armaholic.net/brazil/editing/references/ZGMARMA2_Map_Making_Tut_PART1_2.pdf

I'm stuck really early at page 4. I want to make my map 1:1. How much in resolution would that be? Is it possible? is it too big? how much would you recommend i scale it?

Also at page 6 at "go to FILE, then EXPORT RASTER AND ELEVATION DATA and the EXPORT XYZ GRID. The following dialog will open up:" I cant find EXPORT RASTER AND ELEVATION DATA. I have this http://s11.postimage.org/qq3t0h83n/Untitled.jpg ....

I would really appreciate some help! Making this map is like my dream! Having served in the army for 2 years i think i could make a really bad ass scenario! Any additional guides or tips that you suggest i should read/keep in mind please feel free to post them! Thank you

[Pfhaota 11]

Use Export Elevation Grid option and choose .XYZ there using space as delimiter.

I'm stuck really early at page 4. I want to make my map 1:1. How much in resolution would that be? Is it possible? is it too big? how much would you recommend i scale it?

It is too big. It can be scaled down too whichever dimensions you need. However, I wouldn't recommend it as you would need to REALLY scale it down in order to make it possible to create. Chernarus is 15x15 km, your map would be 240x240km. I would recommend doing a small portion of the border area (5x5 or maybe 10x10 at a maximum) in order to get a hang of it, and later, if you still like creating content to arma, create a new map. However doing anything close to a full scale Cyprus is impossible.

Edited December 4, 2012 by Pfhaota

[achilleasp 5]

Use Export Elevation Grid option and choose .XYZ there using space as delimiter.

It is too big. It can be scaled down too whichever dimensions you need. However, I wouldn't recommend it as you would need to REALLY scale it down in order to make it possible to create. Chernarus is 15x15 km, your map would be 240x240km. I would recommend doing a small portion of the border area (5x5 or maybe 10x10 at a maximum) in order to get a hang of it, and later, if you still like creating content to arma, create a new map. However doing anything close to a full scale Cyprus is impossible.

Thank you for the reply PFhaota!

I want to make it as big as i can.. I don't mind it taking a long time. I'm not in a hurry! Is 15x15 the biggest i can go? Also what happens after you reach the end of the map? lets say i only do the occupied part what does the player see once he reaches the end?

Using this website http://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-distance-calculator.htm

It shows that my cyprus map is 225kmx130km (including sea). Doesn't this mean i'm well within the limits? Am i not calculating it right?

[jakerod 254]

I wouldn't recommend making it 1:1. The size that you make depends on how many meters you want between each terrain vertex. I wouldn't recommend going above 10m. That means that the biggest you could make, without running into bugs, would be 20.48km x 20.48km. What happens at the end of the map is determined by how you set it and how the map is designed. Normally it just turns into "low-res" land meaning no clutter and there is generally a weird texture border around it although it is possible to deal with that. With an island it is all water.

[achilleasp 5]

I wouldn't recommend making it 1:1. The size that you make depends on how many meters you want between each terrain vertex. I wouldn't recommend going above 10m. That means that the biggest you could make, without running into bugs, would be 20.48km x 20.48km. What happens at the end of the map is determined by how you set it and how the map is designed. Normally it just turns into "low-res" land meaning no clutter and there is generally a weird texture border around it although it is possible to deal with that. With an island it is all water.

What kind of bugs are we talking about if i go beyond 20.48x20x48km?

You go for CORNER w/ Size - Global Projection (UTM - meters). Now you have to decide how big your ARMA2 map shall be and enter the according values in the Width and Height field. Note that this has to be an exponentiation of 2. I recommend one of these values:

5120x5120 (~25km²)

10240x10240 (~100km²)

20480x20480 (~400km²)

For a comparison: Chernarus is 15x15km i.e. 225km², while Takistan is 13x13km i.e. 160km². Most user maps out there (that have been released yet) are either way 5x5km or 10x10km in size. Note that the larger the land mass is, the more it has to be filled with objects. That means more work for you, a later release date and more CPU load. Find a good balance here and remember: you don't work several months on a map just for yourself, you work for users that want to play on it.

I think I'm beginning to get it now! I took a 20480x20480m piece of land from Cyprus and now i'm at the universal map downloader part and it crashed on me so redownloading:/ But i think it's going ok up to now...

Update:

Google Maps banned me for 1 day hopefully. Downloaded too many map tiles :P

Edited December 7, 2012 by AchilleasP

[jakerod 254]

It isn't the size of the map that causes the bugs. It is the size of the heightmap. If you make a heightmap that is 4096x4096 you can't place objects in the upper right quadrant. The reason I said 20km x 20km was the biggest was because I recommended a max cell size of 10m and 2048 * 10 is equal to 20480 which is 20.48km. You could do a 2048 x 100 if you wanted to but it wouldn't look too good from the ground.