jptiger 1 Posted May 12, 2013 hey guys, first of all i'd like to say i don't want to be a pain in the behind. for quite some time now i am trying to make my own map in arma2. however so far, everything i have tried failed. there are too many tut's out there, and almost everyones give completely different instructions, incomplete and/or are horribly outdated do you guys have any advice what i can do, or what tutorial/walktrough i can follow what works and is not too outdated. (fantasy or real world) for learning purposes i am not looking to make it much bigger than 5x5 50elv. thanks in advance. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
m1lkm8n 411 Posted May 12, 2013 Hi Well zerog has a nice tut on how to get the dem data from global mapper provided you want real world stuff. http://www.mediafire.com/?ycfhtabips2zar4 Then there's bushlurkers website which has his tut that goes over pretty much the entire config had what each section and file means. Bushlurker.com What I would do is get l3dt as well for editing your height map. It's a great program. It's standard version is free and the pro version is only 39$. Pretty my much those tutorials are what I used when I started and then just digging around inside arma2s config setup in the pbos to see how they did it. Good luck. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bushlurker 46 Posted May 12, 2013 (edited) Hi jptiger! Sounds like you're keen, and determined! - that's good - they're handy qualities for terrainmaking! ;) It also sounds like you're a little lost and overwhelmed, which often happens with terrainmaking beginners. Making terrains is a little different from most other modding, it's a real jack-of-all-trades job... You need to be able to... code configs, without being a coder, understand basic map stuff, without being a geographer, understand things like erosion, without being a geologist, know where and why and how plants 'n trees grow, without being a biologist... About houses and town layouts, without being an architect or city planner... Use Art programs, GIS systems, Spreadsheets, Crazy DOS Tools... its endless... and it's endless fun! :) To start with, however, you need to get the basics under your belt - ignore everything else like "L3DT", "Global Mapper" "DEM's", terrific though they all are - and get the fundamentals solid... And the most fundamental of the fundamentals is - the Tools and the P:\ drive... Everything relies on that foundation... if they're not right, then everything else will always be wrong... When I started making terrains for Arma 2 - not that long ago - I started with Sgt Ace's Tutorial... it's still the best place to start. It's tried and proven working 100%, should take you about an hour to do (there's not much input involved, it's a simple assembly job really), and it gives a terrific boost to beginners confidence, being able to go through all the basic necessary steps and then stand on the terrain that you actually made - all in a single evening... Unfortunately, nowadays, Sgt Ace's Tut is starting to get a little out of date... It was amended just at the transitional period between Arma 2 and OA and contains some seriously out of date advice - right at the beginning - the all-important Tools Install stage. The rest of the tutorial is fine though, and for that reason I suggest that you start with My Beginners Guide (Use the "Armaholic Link" in the first post and make sure you also download the Source Files package)... The first section of this tutorial covers the new Tools install procedure... It's much easier than before... thanks to Mikero's "Arma2P" utility it's just a matter of doing a clean tools install and following up with a run of the Arma2P utility and you should have a perfectly configured tools setup - ready to go... As soon as you've completed that section, you'll find that my Guide then refers you out, back to Sgt Aces Tutorial! (but directly AFTER the out-of-date part) - that's because the rest of his tutorial WORKS! - You want to follow through and do this section too - assemble the readymade files as per instructions and get your feet ingame and on that terrain! If you've never made it this far before then it's a Major sense of accomplishment! Once you've recovered from that, your next thought will be... "OK, I wanna make my own now... I know, I'll be sneaky and adapt this tutorials files - I know they work"... and thats a Great Idea - learn by example... Unfortunately, without a little further guidance it's easy to get confused as to which file is which, what they do, which ones to change.. Sgt Ace doesn't really explain what any of the files are, he just tells you where to put them... you need something a little more in-depth, otherwise, you'll end up with problems like many of the beginners posts here, their files are a mishmash of elements of tutorial files that need repathed, or renamed and aren't, and it's those simple errors causing all the confusion... This is where the main section of my Guide kicks in - the sample files are a "Direct Dump" straight off my P:\ drive of this simple 5x5km terrain. Since the files are directly off my P:\ drive, they're inside my "Namespace" or "Tag" folder, many of the files are also "tagged" specifically for use with this terrain, and there's matching paths using these names in many of the config files, rvmats, etc... The rest of the guide basically steps you through the fileset - there's a brief explanation of EVERY file, what it's for, where it's meant to go, and what parts you can or need to change... It's a more complex terrain than the Sgt Ace Tut one, with several different ground surfaces, etc, and it's therefore a more complex tutorial... it might take you a couple of evenings to complete but, at the end, you'll have a whole new terrain (well, the same one actually ;)), but repathed and restructured to your own personal space - just as you would if you were making a terrain from scratch - you really CAN use that as a basic template for your own project - all the tricky parts have been done, tried and tested... By the time you get to THIS stage you can start to allow yourself to think about making your own project - whether you want to go Real (DEM's and Satellite Images) or "Geotypical" (L3DT is the toy for that!) for learning purposes i am not looking to make it much bigger than 5x5 50elv Not absolutely sure what you mean by "50elv", but 5x5km is an absolutely ideal size to start off with! and it's also coincidentally the same size as the Sample Files you'll have been working with... If you get to this stage and you're still not ready to commit to a project and just want to fool around some more and experiment, then there's a Bonus Heightmaps Pack of 5x5km readymade terrains to match the Guide. If you decide to play around with them then that would be a good time to go to the L3DT website and ask for your free 3 month copy of the Pro Edition... that's what I made the "Afghan Valley" Satellite & Mask image from the Source Files with (and all the rest of those "geotypical terrains" series). Take your time - take it step-by-step and make sure each step is correct and you have at least a vague idea of what & why you just did what you did before moving on to the next step... It'll all come together with patience & simple repetition... And above all - remember to have fun! ;) B Edited May 12, 2013 by Bushlurker Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jptiger 1 Posted May 13, 2013 wow, that is overwhelming :) first of all i like to thank you a lot for taking the time to help me, it will certainly help me to get on my way. first i am going to read it a couple times (that will be tomorrow, or soon, since it is 6am already :) and read the guide (that will take time :) fortunately i have some train trips coming up) thanks again. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
