Terrain Builder - Project Destroying Issues

[yuukan 10]

This is not a flame post, I just want to highlight some issues that me and my team are facing,and in the process of resolving this I hope that the community can benefit from the knowledge if they are experiencing the same issue.

Me and my team are currently facing crippling issues with Terrain Builder (Visitor 4), when attempting to continue map development with Terrain Builder.

Our setup is as follows. (Steam Current content BuildID: 232541)

Each one of us has a mid to high end gaming PC, all running SSD hard disks, nVidia Graphics cards above the GT 680, Intel I7 core proccesors.

We keep 1 active project file between the team, which is strickly controlled and modified, by a single person. All other team members work on their own Project files. Each team member will download the "current" version of the project folder, before starting their work. They delete the project folder(P:\Project_Name) on their P:\ and over write it with the new "LIVE" project folder.

Adding content to the new "LIVE" folder is done by copying and pasting roads and objects into the current "LIVE" Terrain Builder project. In short the content is ripped from each project and merged into a single one.

We are launching Terrain Builder from our P:\ and NOT from Steam

Issues began occurring following the Arma 3 Tools update on 10/April/2014. Initial issue was spotted when launching terrain builder after the update.

I will be very clear. This problem is not due to us "merging" the projects. Following the method described above from our original and untouched Visitor 3 project, we can readily recreate all the issues listed below.

1) A random objects had sunken into the ground. (This was a somewhat random mix of Arma 2 buildings, along with some objects of the same type appearing to be sunken into the ground. eg. Custom Tree's had sunked into the ground in region A, however the same tree type in Region B, had retained their position and height.)

2) Terrain builder appears to lock up a pc, by maxing out hard disk I/O (input output) causing your PC to lockup(however you can still hear audio, move your mouse and speak via Teamspeak. All proccess that do not require disk access as the data is loaded into your RAM.) Opening any drop down tab in Terrain Builder stops this for a brief moment, before continuing again to consume large amounts of Hard Disk I/O. This behaviour continues for about 10-30 minutes, before resolving itself. (Potential leak when loading objects, or processing loop ?)

3) Object location changes when transferring the project folder between team mates.

-Objects that have been placed previously appear to randomly change their Height and their locations, when we zip up the project file and open it up on another computer.

-We have all downloaded the same project files, that we created and shared from a single location. (A3, CA and other folders.)

-Roads tend to "straighten out", or they simply loose all their turns after zipping and copying the file across.

4) Certain objects change location on local machines after saving the project.

- A portion of the map I have spend several hours updating and correcting the sunken buildings issue has, "resunk" several hours after the project has been worked on and saved. - With no changes done to the file or the folder.

I believe the problem is linked to the recent update

- This issue has been observed on 4 different user machines.

- The issue has been recreated on each machine with new Visitor 3 -> Terrain Builder imports being carried out. (.pew was imported)

- 2 Machines have been working with Arma 3 Tools before the update.

- 2 Machines have encountered this issue, after they had a first time install of Terrain Builder.

I would prefer to stick to Visitor 3, however we do not have access to the Arma 3 Objects with Visitor 3.

Edited April 24, 2014 by Yuukan

[luki 53]

Intresting points, i know from hotzeplotz he strugles with same issues about tb and a2 objs afaik. I was confused bymyself as i never saw such errors happening before and i cant reproduce it with my own objects. Is it really a software problem? tb is tricky depending what your doing.

[yuukan 10]

We are seeing it with Arma 2 content primarily, and some custom content.

Essentially we are working on the map pretty straight forward, by adding the content into the Templates library, placing them on the terrain and then adjusting the angle and position to get the right look and feel.

I would probably look at the content libraries in my P:\CA and P:\A3 folders if it wasn't for the fact that it is not all content of that type that is experiencing this.

I though initially that maybe we made a mistake and binarized some of our objects, however when we go back to the backup of our visitor 3 content it all appears fine.

I do not see any problem with working on this content in Visitor 3, and only experiencing these irregularities when we start working in Terrain Builder.

So the next option you would think is just to re-create the content libraries from scratch. Doing this hasn't resolve the issue either and still see's us experiencing the problems shortly afterwards.

[hotzenplotz 138]

Hi all, TB may be perhaps more complex, but far too cumbersome and not with arma2 objects compatible. But also fascinating that certain objects from Arma2 in buldozer right height have, in game to be half in the air. I don't have desire to adjust all the objects individually. Also this constant crashing, the use of add mapframe. On the whole I have the same problems as Yuukan.

And the long load of Bulldozer sucks

Best Greetings Hotze

Edited April 23, 2014 by Hotzenplotz

[yuukan 10]

@Atsche

How did you transition over from Visitor 3 to Terrain Builder.

Did you import your .Pew or your .WRP file ?

Edited April 24, 2014 by Yuukan

[k4ble 71]

yup, i got the same issues as mentioned above.

Most frequent is Content (A2 and costum mostly ) not saving their hight values,

ending up in the floor afther reloading the project.

[LIMIT 10]

hi all

ive got same issue with TB, was working fine before the update

really need help

[luki 53]

@Atsche

How did you transition over from Visitor 3 to Terrain Builder.

Did you import your .Pew or your .WRP file ?

No i never do this, i always create a fresh new project and use source files from old project like terrain sat mask ect. I cant speak of a2 or a3 objs as i use only my own.

So i alredy said to hotze you guys should figure out whats exactly causing this, i assume you have clean project setups.

Fact is this stuff pops up after the last update. Did you tried exporting everything from visitor 3 and use it on a completle new project?

Edited April 24, 2014 by Atsche

[yuukan 10]

After many hours of testing and observation we've managed to tackle most of the issues.

I'm going to log for the evening, and tomorrow morning I'll post a reason and method to fix for each of the bugs / issues encountered.

[egilsandfeld 7]

Please do. Got some issues with A2 objects sinking into the ground after restarting TB:

http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9959158/Arma/SunkenSelectedTrees.PNG

But only some A2 vege objects

[yuukan 10]

Hi Folks

I've thrown in the towel here and moved back to Visitor 3 for the bulk of my work, I have resolved a few of the problems, however there are still problems that greatly impact the build of the project.

Comments about the issue and possible resolution are below in Red

1) A random objects had sunken into the ground. (This was a somewhat random mix of Arma 2 buildings, along with some objects of the same type appearing to be sunken into the ground. eg. Custom Tree's had sunked into the ground in region A, however the same tree type in Region B, had retained their position and height.)

Objects sinking into the ground appears to occur when the object file has been binarized after you have placed the object on the map.

To resolve this try extracting your Arma 2 content into your CA folder again.

2) Terrain builder appears to lock up a pc, by maxing out hard disk I/O (input output) causing your PC to lockup(however you can still hear audio, move your mouse and speak via Teamspeak. All proccess that do not require disk access as the data is loaded into your RAM.) Opening any drop down tab in Terrain Builder stops this for a brief moment, before continuing again to consume large amounts of Hard Disk I/O. This behaviour continues for about 10-30 minutes, before resolving itself. (Potential leak when loading objects, or processing loop ?)

This is something that I cannot appear to find a fix or resolution for.

Reccomendation here is that you select one of the drop down menu's when you are in Terrain Builder, as this will clear the lock as long as the menu is open.

3) Object location changes when transferring the project folder between team mates.

-Objects that have been placed previously appear to randomly change their Height and their locations, when we zip up the project file and open it up on another computer.

-We have all downloaded the same project files, that we created and shared from a single location. (A3, CA and other folders.)

-Roads tend to "straighten out", or they simply loose all their turns after zipping and copying the file across.

This one was interesting. Terrain Builder does NOT store all the parameters for your project in the project folder, it appears that certain values like map or object heights are stored in Terrain Builder itself, as it generates new files with each project you open.

To resolve this try copying your active "Terrain Builder" folder along with your project files. You will need to overwrite your current Terrain Builder with your team mates Terrain Builder folder.

4) Certain objects change location on local machines after saving the project.

- A portion of the map I have spend several hours updating and correcting the sunken buildings issue has, "resunk" several hours after the project has been worked on and saved. - With no changes done to the file or the folder.

This one was interesting. Terrain Builder does NOT store all the parameters for your project in the project folder, it appears that certain values like map or object heights are stored in Terrain Builder itself, as it generates new files with each project you open.

To resolve this try copying your active "Terrain Builder" folder along with your project files. You will need to overwrite your current Terrain Builder with your team mates Terrain Builder folder.

In Summary:

I still encounter problems with some objects not sticking to their true relative size, along with roads becoming disjointed, disconnected and even loosing their left and right turns, because I do not have a view indepth of how Terrain Builder functions, it is not possible for me to fully determine why that works in Visitor 3 does not work in Terrain Builder. Visitor 3 is the matured tool set, and for now I will be sticking to it. I do hope that the team at BI will keep up their work and keep up the development with Terrain Builder, as it does seem to function generally there are still bugs and issues that need to be addressed with it.

Edited May 2, 2014 by Yuukan