Terrain Improvement (dev branch)

[xendance 3]

Never was fixed in ArmA 2 so I wouldn't hold out much hope of it being fixed in A3. I think it's an engine limitation or something.

ArmA 2 didn't have parallax/displecement mapped terrain, did it? Look at the video I posted above.

[MavericK96 0]

ArmA 2 didn't have parallax/displecement mapped terrain, did it? Look at the video I posted above.

Yep, where the ground will "warp" around based in viewing angle? Same thing in A2. I made a post about it a looooong time ago, even.

[xendance 3]

Yep, where the ground will "warp" around based in viewing angle? Same thing in A2. I made a post about it a looooong time ago, even.

The amount of half-assed implementations is staggering it seems :|

[dnk 13]

Propose your easy fix that wouldn't take much time to implement. Note when expecting (X) to be fixed you need to consider both how (Y) much time it will take and (Z) how important it is.

So, how much time is this going to take to fix, and

how important is this really?

Personally, I notice it about once every 5 hours of gameplay for like 5 seconds. I'm sure it makes sense for them to focus on this world-ending bug instead of other things. Yeah. Priorities.

[xendance 3]

Propose your easy fix that wouldn't take much time to implement. Note when expecting (X) to be fixed you need to consider both how (Y) much time it will take and (Z) how important it is.

So, how much time is this going to take to fix, and

how important is this really?

Personally, I notice it about once every 5 hours of gameplay for like 5 seconds. I'm sure it makes sense for them to focus on this world-ending bug instead of other things. Yeah. Priorities.

My point is that why have an effect like that when it's clearly unfinished. It's clearly visible when you're prone on steep hills / cliff sides.

[dnk 13]

Simple answer: having these microdetails and extra detail level looks much, much nicer than a simple, flat, featureless texture. If this very minor issue is the price to pay for that, I'm cool with it. As I said, it's such a nitpicky problem that it's silly to get negative about the devs over it. They have much bigger fish to fry, as every complaint thread and tracker ticket will attest to.

I hope it gets fixed, but there's no reason to call out the devs as "half assing" it when they don't literally perfect the game in one or two passes.

[metalcraze 290]

BIS should increase the parallax bump distance on terrain at least twice as well as close-range texture range.

This will have no performance impact with any kind of modern hardware and will make terrain look much better close too.

Some textures look really good with that bump on terrain but it disappears way too fast.

[NordKindchen 12]

I am going to release my WIP data.

I find myself walking over the reworked areas over and over again to get an idea of what ALTIS might look like if recreated and I think people could enjoy what is allready there.

Also I want to know what the overall consens is about the rework.

Its not finished at all and in the final product I would have adjusted a lot more like darker areas under trees etc. But it allready has some really nice areas. Especially around the airport.

Gonna public the link here soon.

---------- Post added at 04:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:51 PM ----------

For those of you interested: Heres the WIP file of my work.

[Greenfist 1863]

Are you saying that you're dropping the development completely until further notice? :(

Downloading now.

[St. Jimmy 272]

Good job NK! Looks very promising.

[NordKindchen 12]

Here are some comparissons between vanilla Arma and Arma with my WIP addon + Bad Bensons midrange textures.

1

2

3

4

5

Greetz

[LondonLad 13]

Image 3 out of the 5 looks great (especially as they are almost like for like in terms of screen positioning between both photo's)

[marcai 1]

Here are some comparissons between vanilla Arma and Arma with my WIP addon + Bad Bensons midrange textures.

1

2

3

4

5

Greetz

Well... Damn.

[foffy 58]

If I can ask, what is with the red and blue stripes on the environment? Is that WIP data?

[big_t 1]

Here are some comparissons between vanilla Arma and Arma with my WIP addon + Bad Bensons midrange textures.

1

2

3

4

5

Greetz

Wow! Just Wow!! That is just fantastic.

Jumping in a little late on this thread but I need to ask...... How fast can this be implemented into the current build of Arma3?

[NordKindchen 12]

If I can ask, what is with the red and blue stripes on the environment? Is that WIP data?

Yes that are my guidance lines. S I can identify were the areas are that need adjustment.

@Big_T I am currently not workung anymore on it. I feel the game is not finished in so many ways...Especially animations, Explosions and FLIR

On top of that BIS stated that they would focus on the infantry part of the war and therefore put less effort in vehicles. Well if they put their focus on infantry, then why is there no way to deploy a weapon?

Also the camouflage system is not well thought through. One part of it beeing that bushes dont reach to the ground, which makes them impossible to hide under at distance. Another is that with the current implementation a diver suite hides better than a ghillie suite at distance.

However the new tactical battlefield mod brought back my attention to the game. And I still find that Arma 3 has immense potential. Only that the above flaws make the game so much less enjoyable for me....

I am even thinking about creating my own effects mod since I believe Optical Snare stopped working on his blastcore.

Well but on top of that I am a student and my time is limited. The last 4 weeks I had nightshift after nightshift to get the university work done^^

So theres that.

Anyway best regards!

[NordKindchen 12]

Ok - I am on the topic again! Gonna start working on it again.

If someone wants to help: I could use someone that finds interesting areas on bingmaps and saves me the areas. Anyone interested hahah^^

Edited December 8, 2013 by NordKindchen

[Fushko 59]

Here are some comparissons between vanilla Arma and Arma with my WIP addon + Bad Bensons midrange textures.

1

2

3

4

5

Greetz

Holy shit. Great job.

[St. Jimmy 272]

OK after watching those pictures I wonder that is the camoflage so good that this isn't necessarily even needed anymore but of course would be a nice feature.

Some places could be more sandy like in the original but dam... let's hope you get some help. Those textures would really put every game in a shame.

[NordKindchen 12]

Actually everyone with even gimp can help me^^

Thing is: I found out that bing maps is an incredible awesome place to get environment textures from. even better than google maps.

But to get textures that are good enough one needs to make screenshots and add them together one by one.

Also you need time to actually find interesting and usefull environments on bing maps.

Time that would be better spend in integrating this textures into the game;)

So if anyone is interested? Yes yes?^^

[CaptainObvious 95]

Actually everyone with even gimp can help me^^

Thing is: I found out that bing maps is an incredible awesome place to get environment textures from. even better than google maps.

But to get textures that are good enough one needs to make screenshots and add them together one by one.

Also you need time to actually find interesting and usefull environments on bing maps.

Time that would be better spend in integrating this textures into the game;)

So if anyone is interested? Yes yes?^^

Hell yes I'm interested! Let me know what you need and let's see if I can deliver, I know a thing or two about PS.

[NordKindchen 12]

Great to hear!=)

All I basically need are high resolution images of interesting parts of the environment.

What you need to do is the following: Go to bing maps and search the world for places that seem to fit in a certain way for armas islands. Towns are not so much needed. More mountains hillls fields etc.

You should take care that the shadows cast by the sun are not to long. Other than that all kinds of contrast of the photo are welcome. They can be altered later.

Then you go to a heigth of 100 feet and take screenshots of the screen. These screenshots then need to be put together to give a high resolution picture.

its easy but a bit time consuming^^ But hey! You learn geography on the fly!=D

Best regards and big thanks!

[jumpinghubert 49]

nordkindchen, your last results are outstanding!

[progamer 14]

Great to hear!=)

All I basically need are high resolution images of interesting parts of the environment.

What you need to do is the following: Go to bing maps and search the world for places that seem to fit in a certain way for armas islands. Towns are not so much needed. More mountains hillls fields etc.

You should take care that the shadows cast by the sun are not to long. Other than that all kinds of contrast of the photo are welcome. They can be altered later.

Then you go to a heigth of 100 feet and take screenshots of the screen. These screenshots then need to be put together to give a high resolution picture.

its easy but a bit time consuming^^ But hey! You learn geography on the fly!=D

Best regards and big thanks!

Why not just use satellite images from Lemnos?

[Greenfist 1863]

I didn't quite get the process, NordKindchen, could expand on that a bit?

I might be able to help. I've been spending hours a day with photoshop at work for last 7 years so I'm quite comfortable with it. I know nothing about modding but PS I do. Heck, I could even do this at work since the christmas time is a bit slow there. (Just kidding. Okey, boss?)