Quick Terrain Builder Tutorial

[Chairborne 2594]

Check if you have set the correct path in Addon Builder.

Open Addon Builder > Options > Path To Project Folder.

The path for my addon is for example: P:\Cha\Cha_Lav25

And the path to project folder is the following: P:\Cha\

I use to get similar problems whenever i forget to set this right.

[TerrainAlien 10]

thanks Chairborne! had the project path same as addon path...this worked! now i got one problem left. island is there ingame, but without textures throwing error

"cannot load material file abc\abc_sample\data\layers\p_000-000_l00_l01.rvmat.

tried to binarize the wrp again via bulldozer, but bulldozer does not work with the message:

Bulldozer interface -BulldozerEnvelope.cpp

Failure occured during bulldozer command line execution

"P\:Bulldozer.exe-bulldozer -window -exThreads=ß -mod= noAsserts -nologs -profiles=P\:Bulldozer -cfg=P\:Bulldozer\Bulldozer.cfg -name=Bulldozer -connect=pipe\2702FA,8EDB"

Please update configuration manually.

I remember when creating the P: Drive bulldozer refused to install because something like "permission denied"

Edited May 17, 2014 by TerrainAlien

[Cyrano 10]

I had a similar issue with no textures in game. I tracked it to Addon Builder having an incomplete list of file to copy (specifically left out *.rvmat).

I fixed it by going to options in Addon Builder and replacing the list with the following:

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

Hopefully that helps.

Edit: for some reason when I posted the forum added a space between the final item in the list (the rvmat entry) and the semi-colon. Don't know if that would create an issue, but I would remove the space after copying just to be sure.

Edited May 18, 2014 by Cyrano

[Chairborne 2594]

replacing the list with the following:

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

This is also true.

I usually use the list Bushlurker used in his terrain guide with the addition of rvmat files:

*.pac;*.paa;*.rtm;*.sqf;*.sqs;*.bikb;*.ext;*.fsm;*.wss;*.ogg;*.wav;*.fxy;*.csv;*.html;*.lip;*.txt;*.sqm;*.bisurf;*.rvmat;

But since from what i understand things have changed with terrain builder i don't know if it's still complete and working.

If you get permission denied try running the batch file as admin (locate the "mapdisk.bat" file in the tools folder, right click on it and click "run as admin"), i know for a fact that i need to confirm it everytime i launch it because of the stupid security check Windows does.

[m1lkm8n 410]

Actually if you guys are serious about making terrains and adding for arma I would suggest you use pboproject

http://dev.withsix.com/projects/mikero-pbodll/files

It's a replacement to addonbuilder. I will not let you create an addon if there are any missing files, missing code brackets, etc.

saving you countless hours of frustration and forum posts.

[Cyrano 10]

I'm sure I'll use pboproject at some point (just found the documentation :)), but being a complete noob I was just happy to find any process that worked. Being able to finally, actually just get in a map of my own making and fly around has been tremendously satisfying.

[TerrainAlien 10]

yea, same here. i have to say that i thought object placement would be harder to do (guess thats the easy part) and i love to enjoy my first own creation;-) Dont forget to save a working example which is clean and works, you fuck things up very often with little changes.

[mikero 79]

I'm sure I'll use pboproject at some point (just found the documentation :)), but being a complete noob I was just happy to find any process that worked. Being able to finally, actually just get in a map of my own making and fly around has been tremendously satisfying.

Totally understandable.

*however* I hope to only say this once on this forum.

Addon Builder *cannot* build islands correctly, and it *cannot* actually make arma THREE pbo's under any circumstance at all.

I do hope you aren't one of those people naïve enough, or just plain stupid enough, to think that your island 'pack ok with addon builder' so everything is hunky dory. It never will, nor can it, ever, be 'ok'.

If you want to create things for arma2 & 3 use pboProject. If you prefer spending your time filling forums with pointless posts about this and that not working, stick to bis tools.

[Chairborne 2594]

Totally understandable.

*however* I hope to only say this once on this forum.

Addon Builder *cannot* build islands correctly, and it *cannot* actually make arma THREE pbo's under any circumstance at all.

I do hope you aren't one of those people naïve enough, or just plain stupid enough, to think that your island 'pack ok with addon builder' so everything is hunky dory. It never will, nor can it, ever, be 'ok'.

If you want to create things for arma2 & 3 use pboProject. If you prefer spending your time filling forums with pointless posts about this and that not working, stick to bis tools.

Would that affect vehicles as well?

Also what kind of problems would we encounter?

[kylejtown 1]

Just wanted to give a huge THANK YOU to Jakerod and others for their work here. You have helped me understand how to actually get a map in game, without to much frustration. Thanks again.

Also quick question: Do you have to pbo the map every time you want to test in game?

[bushlurker 45]

Do you have to pbo the map every time you want to test in game?

Basically - Yes.

Export .wrp (important!) and then binarize to .pbo as usual to test in-game...

You should find that after several "tests" the packing process becomes much faster since the packer program will recognise what parts have changed and only re-binarise the new stuff - while reading unchanged stuff from the packing "temp" folder...

Some packers are smarter than others - I'd recommend Mikero's PboProject for terrain packing....

B

[kylejtown 1]

Thanks for the info.

Another quick question: Does bulldozer not respond to control commands yet because I can't seem to move the camera around at all.

Also, The objects I've placed in terrain builder appear in arma 3, but their is no icon in the mission editor showing that they are their.

Edited May 23, 2014 by kylejtown

[Cype_Revenge 651]

Thanks for the info.

Another quick question: Does bulldozer not respond to control commands yet because I can't seem to move the camera around at all.

Also, The objects I've placed in terrain builder appear in arma 3, but their is no icon in the mission editor showing that they are their.

Yes its a Bug! :(

[Cyrano 10]

I see in this thread everybody getting their roads working, so I'm sure it's something I have failed to do (or not do), but:

I cannot see my road in TB or in Buldozer (but I can in game).

I've followed the tutorials (http://wiki.armamapmaking.info/arma3:terrainbuilder:basic_road_tutorial for example), and the road shows up fine in game, and on the in-game map. Just not in TB or Buldozer.

Here's an image of what I see in TB with Buldozer running. The poly line is visible, but no road. Now it is entirely possible the road is there and I just haven't clicked the right 'view' button. But the layer is visible and I have clicked the 'view roads' button several times without change.

Don't know if it is related, but following the tutorial linked above, the instructions call for me to create a layer called 'Road', but in the database properties it says to fill the '_LAYER' field with 'roads'; I did both as directed.

Edit:

The issue was I had missed the step to add the editor.sqs file into the scripts folder. Now TB and Buldozer is hanging/crashing on starting Buldozer with this script 'correctly' in place, exactly as Juhansson reported back in post #126.

Edited May 25, 2014 by Cyrano
progress, but still borked

[Fogu 10]

Hey Cyrando take a look @ this Site and follow the first steps.

You have to create a little sqs file to see the roads in Buldozer.

Has anyone found out how to smooth the Roads via TB ???

[Cype_Revenge 651]

"Originally Posted by Mondkalb"

If you use Arma3 as buldozer in Visitor, press "S" until it says "Brush", then use LMB to increase the terrain, and RMB to lower the terrain.

Also you can do the following

Left Alt + M + Mousewheel will change the intensity

Left Alt + B + Mousewheel will change the brush size

Left Alt + N + Mousewheel will change outer brush size only

Left Shift toggles a leveling-mode.

[Juhansson 1]

Anyone know why im getting a error message when trying to import heightmap XYZ of a size 2048 x 2048 cell size 4m to a new project? What i do is, start a new project, add mapframe click ok -cancel. Then i try to import the heightmap and i get following error:

Import - Zone of imported data is too far from project reference zone. Data cannot be imported.

[badluckburt 78]

Anyone know why im getting a error message when trying to import heightmap XYZ of a size 2048 x 2048 cell size 4m to a new project? What i do is, start a new project, add mapframe click ok -cancel. Then i try to import the heightmap and i get following error:

Import - Zone of imported data is too far from project reference zone. Data cannot be imported.

It means your heightmap has Geo data indicating where on the planet it's located and that location falls outside the Mapframe boundaries. If you remove that data it should import fine.

[Juhansson 1]

It means your heightmap has Geo data indicating where on the planet it's located and that location falls outside the Mapframe boundaries. If you remove that data it should import fine.

Problem solved. Thank you!

[Fogu 10]

"Originally Posted by Mondkalb"

If you use Arma3 as buldozer in Visitor, press "S" until it says "Brush", then use LMB to increase the terrain, and RMB to lower the terrain.

Also you can do the following

Left Alt + M + Mousewheel will change the intensity

Left Alt + B + Mousewheel will change the brush size

Left Alt + N + Mousewheel will change outer brush size only

Left Shift toggles a leveling-mode.

Thanks for the info, but when I smooth my roads via hand it takes ages to do the job.

I am looking more for a “script†solution where I only have to do the fine tuning via hand.

I bet BI has that script somewhere well hidden on an old c64 not connected to the inet, so no one can get his hands on ^^

[Cype_Revenge 651]

Fogu ,i don´t no if it works:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?173599-Smoothing-Terrain-Visitor-Script

[NeoArmageddon 957]

Fogu ,i don´t no if it works:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?173599-Smoothing-Terrain-Visitor-Script

This will only work in Visitor not in Terrain Builder. Are you using object roads or shapefile roads?

With shapefiles you can select all vertices under the road and smooth them with the terrain tools. But I highly recommend the manual mode in buldozer. It takes longer (10km road in ~ 5 min) but the results are far better.

[Fogu 10]

With shapefiles you can select all vertices under the road and smooth them with the terrain tools.

hmmm this isnt working for me.

When I select the vertices nothing happens.

[bushlurker 45]

Yeah - that option seems to be non-functional currently - Works fine with Polygons, but not polylines...

I reported it on the bugtracker - HERE a while back, but it doesn't seem to have been picked up on yet... Feel free to vote it up!

B

[cavemanmods 1]

I got the map in game working fine, objects on it too. One thing though, in the in game editor the buildings and plants etc do not show up. They are there on the map in game but are not displayed in the editor as squares or circles.

Is this a known error or is it my problem, config or TB mistake on my part? (I'm using the tut's config.)