Various problems with A3 terrain making

[egilsandfeld 7]

Thanks for taking your time to help me out, Milkman :)

Okay so downloaded both of your zips, but only extracted addons.zip for now into ...steamapps\common\arma3\@Tunoe\addons, so that tunoe.pbo is now within that folder. I can load that up fine and here is what that exact same crossing looks like from my pov:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9959158/A3-Kryds.png (1440 kB)

By comparison to your fine looking http://i.imgur.com/GuynO4R.jpg I would say we're still a bit off. I guess that leaves it to my Arma 3 install? But I can see all types of roads on Stratis and Altis.

Before extracting your tunoe.pbo, I tried one last time with reinstall BinPBO + conversion tools and then binarizing my island again, but with same results. Guess now that I actually would have my "own" binarization of my roads in game if there we'rent sth wrong with my A3. Is this correct? Does anyone know what I should do about it?

[Shelestov 263]

Thanks for taking your time to help me out, Milkman :)

Okay so downloaded both of your zips, but only extracted addons.zip for now into ...steamapps\common\arma3\@Tunoe\addons, so that tunoe.pbo is now within that folder. I can load that up fine and here is what that exact same crossing looks like from my pov:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9959158/A3-Kryds.png (1440 kB)

By comparison to your fine looking http://i.imgur.com/GuynO4R.jpg I would say we're still a bit off. I guess that leaves it to my Arma 3 install? But I can see all types of roads on Stratis and Altis.

Before extracting your tunoe.pbo, I tried one last time with reinstall BinPBO + conversion tools and then binarizing my island again, but with same results. Guess now that I actually would have my "own" binarization of my roads in game if there we'rent sth wrong with my A3. Is this correct? Does anyone know what I should do about it?

Do You have A3 data unpacked to your p: drive? Or maybe You should reunpack it?

[m1lkm8n 410]

To be honest I'm at a loss here. It's very strange that I can view the roads in game and you can not with the same pbo.

I guess if it was me my next step would be to reinstall arma3 and then if that didn't fix it the tools as well.

Sorry for all the problems.

M1lkm8n

[egilsandfeld 7]

Da fuq!!! Woooohoooooooooo I did something and now there are roads in game :D

Not sure exactly, but when extracting your tunoe.pbo to my arma\@tunoe\addon, I moved my old pbo back a folder into just the @tunoe. That may have caused the issues with conflicting inside @tunoe folder. Anyway got roads now and they look excellent :) Thanks so much for your help, Milk! I guess then the problem is something with my rectitying the area. Well gonna check out my awesome roads now.... ;)

[james2464 176]

Nice work Egil but something isn't quite right: http://i.imgur.com/oqlfQO6.png

Could be a binarization issue or cell size/config/visitor problem. Is your cell size 2.5?

[egilsandfeld 7]

Yes James there was something not right in there. Though, in Visitor I changed my satellitte grid to 96 instead of 48, which apparently fixed it. Got the fix from here: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?161555-Need-Insight-On-Custom-Terrain-Issues&p=2470687&viewfull=1#post2470687

See but no touching...

So it seems that I can load Milkman's tunoe.pbo into my game with roads all fine. But if I try to pack a pbo with his tunoe\data\roads folder including content there doesn't appear any roads in game. So I guess that leaves it to the binarizer app, right? Two options:

1. Nagging Milkman everytime I need to update my roads for the final pbo

2. Getting some sort of fix for either the BinPBO, or learning how to pack properly with cPBO.

I'm taking the first solution is a bit too expensive in shipping beers, so does anyone know how to get it right with cPBO or other better packing/binarizer?

I've noticed sth with the line of files to be copied directly in BinPBO; After starting the program the first time after any restart of my computer, it display exactly this in that options line:

*.pac;*.paa;*.rtm;*.sqf;*.sqs;*.bikb;*.fsm;*.wss;*.ogg;*.wav;*.fxy;*.csv;*.html;*.lip;*.txt;*.wrp;*.bisurf;*.cfg;*.dbf;*.shp;*.prj0

Notice the end where it just craps out and inserts i "0". It's also missing *.shx which was there before. But even after restore this full line:

*.pac;*.paa;*.rtm;*.sqf;*.sqs;*.bikb;*.fsm;*.wss; *.ogg;*.wav;*.fxy;*.csv;*.html;*.lip;*.txt;*.bisur f;*.sqm;*.ext;*.cfg;*.prj;*.shx;*.shp;*.dbf;

it still doesn't give me roads. Could it be that the max length of this line is limited to exactly where that "0" is inserted? Could I leave something else out of that line to make room for the roads fileendings perhaps?

[m1lkm8n 410]

I've noticed that ever since I started using binpbo with a3 stuff binpbo started doing weird things. I have a text file with all my extension names I copy/paste into that field because binpbo no longer saves them.

Still doesn't explain why you can view the roads tho.

Does cpbo actually binarize though? I thought it only packs pbos.

[Private Evans 498]

I've noticed that ever since I started using binpbo with a3 stuff binpbo started doing weird things. I have a text file with all my extension names I copy/paste into that field because binpbo no longer saves them.

.

Good to know I am not alone ...I thought it is me just being stupid :D

[bushlurker 45]

I've noticed that too - it's like it can only remember so many, or so long a "string" or whatever...

Definitely the sort of thing that should be checked in the New Tools before they appear... ;)

B

[egilsandfeld 7]

Okay I think I finally figured it all out :)

Seems like there is not supposed to be any Tunoe folder inside my Steam-A3 directory. That's usually where I have the folder so I can load my island up in Buldozer fine. So I removed that. Second thing I did was to copy the line from AddonBuilder.exe (former BinPBO) to a txt doc, and guess what? It was filled with wierd symbols near the end just where I have my roads extensions. So I fixed the line and pasted that back into AB, and I could load up my Roads + Objects now :D Only thing not working atm is houses and stuff on the map it self, but that's not important for me right now.

Thanks for your great help, M1lkman. Really appreciated. Guess I just had to mimic what you did about pasting in from a txt.

Now on to working on fixing roads <-> Objects :)

#BackInTheGame!

[m1lkm8n 410]

What do you mean that the houses are not working?

[egilsandfeld 7]

Oh it's just that they have dissappeared from the map in game now. I can still hover over them though and it will display a title of the house, and I'm still able to see them in game.

So I'm really happy you guys can help me (and maybe others) out here. Got a new problem for you:

The illumination at night time is insanely bright. All lights really lightens the world up, it's too extreme. Does anyone know where to turn the brightness down? (No it's not my settings, as other map are balanced well with lighting) :)

Edited November 21, 2013 by EgilSandfeld

[Private Evans 498]

Don't know what they are doing atm (something to do with the stable/devbranch patches I guess) but suddenly my footstep sounds (snow) are not working anymore...will be the best to concentrate on basic stuff (sat,layer and heightmap improvments) for the moment :rolleyes:

Edit: Ambient Seagulls are gone now as well .....fishes still spawn fine though

time for a break :)

Edited November 22, 2013 by PrivateEvans

[egilsandfeld 7]

Yeah probably ;p

[egilsandfeld 7]

Alright I sort of got the illumination at night fixed now by tweaking with the lighting settings. Only thing not properly right now is the sat_lco layer on the island ingame which is way too bright. At night time it's good enough but at day with the sun it's way too bright.

Today I managed to get a nice soundscape put into my beloved little island :) It consists of correct species of birds, wind, flies, bugs. A thing there I'm would want more though is to tweak so that the coast sounds can be heard from more than just about 10 metres away from the coast. In my EnvSounds: CfgEnvSounds:

class Coast
		{
			name = "Coast";
			sound[] = {"A3\sounds_f\ambient\waves\beach_sand_small_waves1STEREO",0.625893,1,4000};
			soundNight[] = {"A3\sounds_f\ambient\waves\beach_sand_small_waves1STEREO",0.6294328,1,4000};
			volume = "coast";
		};

I've tried changing "4000" to both 50, 200 (default 200) but it still won't make any difference I don't think. Any ideas to change the sound attenuation to a longer distance?

Ps. for new comers, this was how I got modified sounds into my island: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?87771-Individual-cfgEnvSounds-per-terrain&highlight=envsounds

[egilsandfeld 7]

Here's a image with original sat_lco overlayed, so you can see the giant difference in brightness:

Does anyone have any clues how to dial the brightness back? It's like the brightness on object is kind of okay, while on the ground textures it's just way too bright.

[egilsandfeld 7]

Ahh managed to pull this up from the BIS hat: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?168452-Figuring-out-the-blending-between-satmaps-and-ground-_co-s-and-where-things-go-wrong&highlight=good+middle+mco

Now I can adjust the sat_lco properly as I have made a group of layers in Photoshop, so that I can "counter" balance the Sat_lco so it will look properly in game. Neat! Screens will appear soon!

[egilsandfeld 7]

Anyway as a big thanks for your help so far, I have some screenshots for you of my terrain so far :)

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/707/kqyn.png/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/163/gfzi.png/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/856/5huq.png/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/42/8l6y.png/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/826/eayz.png/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/534/dol9.png/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/18/sdpu.png/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/855/33vo.png/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/30/15y6.png/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/19/9ix8.png/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/40/a1yk.png/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/51/ncsq.png/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/713/gyda.png/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/22/gi6h.png/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/856/mvdm.png/

http://imageshack.us/a/img713/1424/gyda.png (1828 kB)

[m1lkm8n 410]

Looking good! Keep it up!

[egilsandfeld 7]

Thanks, M1lkm8n :)

Got a couple of new questions:

1. I got e.g. the vergepost_f in my map. They were all placed with ZGM's 3d Editor, and when placing them their z (placement vertical) was correct. But when I imported it in, they were all stuck down into the ground with only 5cm or so appearing out of the ground. Is there any way to adjust them all, like I did to this one?

http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9959158/A3_Vergepost.png (412 kB)

I know this one has a relative height of -0.1 after adjusting it, while all the others have different heights in visitor. Is it possible to correct all at once?

2. In the picture above there appears grass in the middle of the road. Is it possible automatically remove clutter underneath the roads? Normally the clutter is removed but a few places it still appears up through the asphalt.

3. I miss silhouettes of houses, bridges, objects, trees, bushes and forests on my in game map still. I found out that if I save my work in Visitor (.pew and .wrp) and copy that entire folder to my steam...\arma3\Tunoe, then all objects including forest and trees appear on the map, but then it removes the roads from both the ingame world and map. How do I avoid copying my P:\Tunoe folder to A3 and still have forest + objects appear on ingame map map? Note they are appearing in game world, just not on the map itself.

[ZeroG 23]

Thanks, M1lkm8n :)

Got a couple of new questions:

1. I got e.g. the vergepost_f in my map. They were all placed with ZGM's 3d Editor, and when placing them their z (placement vertical) was correct. But when I imported it in, they were all stuck down into the ground with only 5cm or so appearing out of the ground. Is there any way to adjust them all, like I did to this one?

http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9959158/A3_Vergepost.png (412 kB)

I know this one has a relative height of -0.1 after adjusting it, while all the others have different heights in visitor. Is it possible to correct all at once?

Open up ZGM Import Objects for Arma 3.vis, then go to line 1411: case "vergepost_f": {_zP = _zP - 1.12125}; and raise the bold marked value to a height that gives you the same result as with that one in the pic.

Your island is looking nice!

[egilsandfeld 7]

Working like a charm, after deleting the all vergepost_f in visitor, going into 3d editor and retrieving all my placed vergeposts, exporting them and importing them with your fine script :) Excellent, thanks a lot ZeroG!.

Some of my questions may seem a bit silly, but I write them in case any other newbie terrain makers have the same issues I do. So again thanks a lot for helping me out!

Any clues to these babies:

2. In the picture above there appears grass in the middle of the road. Is it possible automatically remove clutter underneath the roads? Normally the clutter is removed but a few places it still appears up through the asphalt.

3. I miss silhouettes of houses, bridges, objects, trees, bushes and forests on my in game map still. I found out that if I save my work in Visitor (.pew and .wrp) and copy that entire folder to my steam...\arma3\Tunoe, then all objects including forest and trees appear on the map, but then it removes the roads from both the ingame world and map. How do I avoid copying my P:\Tunoe folder to A3 and still have forest + objects appear on ingame map map? Note they are appearing in game world, just not on the map itself.

[egilsandfeld 7]

This is how it looks when only the @Tunoe is in my Steam\A3 folder:

This is how it looks when I add an extracted PBO of Tunoe in Steam\A3\Tunoe:

As you can see, the first displays roads but no objects/nature at all. Second shows objects and nature all fine but no roads (and roads disappear in game as well).

I'm really confused if it's something in my config.cpp or what it is. Have been searching google and this forum and can't find anyone else who has the same issue. Help!

[OChristie 0]

I love seeing people picking up and getting violently infected with the terrain development bug! That is brilliant! If you need any advice feel free to ask and ill pitch in! But that is down to some values in your config either being overwritten or replaced. I cant find the values exactly but it basically dictates to the game at what point the density of trees and width of roads start to become visible. :)

[egilsandfeld 7]

Yeah you are probably right, OChristie :) But where? I got some additional clues.

- When in game and moving AIs around I can't select any house for them to enter (which I normally am able to on other maps). Only thing kind of working is the move marker snapping to corners of houses and to other objects than houses. AI can't move to a position inside the house eg..

- On the map I can hover over houses which will then display the text/name of the object, but I still can't see it.

- My friend reported his AI's are moving straight through the houses, though I can't reproduce this bug.

- "Forest" area sounds doesn't trigger and I think the "Meadows" sound template is used on the entire island. This could be an effect from there being no defined forests though...

My config.cpp is here in case anyone has the time to spot anything: http://pastebin.com/4u1weueZ