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CaptainAzimuth

Terrain Test - An Idea For Wide Range Testing

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Of course, it's me again with another idea guys. Lol

Ok, so i was searching google images of different terrains, Biomes, climates, and i thought, what if BIS, or a very skilled modder (or team of modders from our wonderful community) made a series of mini Biomes or maps to represent EVERY SINGE environment there is. For example, a small map representing hills, another with mountains, next with flat wide grass land, then dry desert (boring), then Mediterranean (already Altis), then Cliff water ways, then dense temperate and jungle forests, and so on. (i think we reached a point)

Not big maps, or medium maps, but small test maps that don't take alot of time to make, and are medium to high detailed little environments so we can test out a variety of different possibilities of making Amazing things with this new version of the RV engine and such.

Thoughts? I just got this idea seconds ago, so i could use help.

Here are some pictures.

http://www.micksmisc.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/2011-07-12_11-52-05_447.jpg (181 kB)

6877752760_3d42684241_z.jpg

Tiger-Leaping-Gorge.jpg

temperate_rainforest_halfway_to_desert.jpg

http://wallpapersus.com/wallpapers/2012/11/River-And-Mountains-900x1440.jpg (367 kB)

http://www.wallpaperdisk.com/admin/wallpapers/pictures/river%20passing%20between%20mountains2837.jpg (274 kB)

http://www.beijinghikers.com/photos/HebeiBashang/Hebei-Bashang-Grasslands-hills_608x344.jpg (165 kB)

111111118983d717-f.jpg

669984717.jpg

Edited by DarkSideSixOfficial

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I couldn't agree more on this. Maybe I just don't use enough custom maps, but I always seem to be surrounded by green pine trees. Admittedly takistan clafghanistan and other maps arent like this but I cant help but feel that jungles/rainforests, tundra and grasslands are a bit under represented. That said, the community has provided an immense resource of terrains and with ARMA 3's shiny new graphics I doubt that my original comment will be valid within a year or two.

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I think even 'small' maps like that are a lot of work, Bushlurker was doing just as you mentioned quite a bit for Arma 2, but I think for testing stuff then maps like A2 desert is good enough, maybe a Utes type map that is setup as a Arma game military training and testing terrain, so it need not be 100% realistic to real life but more aimed at testing Arma AI for scenarios, I guess Utes did that well.

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I think even 'small' maps like that are a lot of work, Bushlurker was doing just as you mentioned quite a bit for Arma 2, but I think for testing stuff then maps like A2 desert is good enough, maybe a Utes type map that is setup as a Arma game military training and testing terrain, so it need not be 100% realistic to real life but more aimed at testing Arma AI for scenarios, I guess Utes did that well.

I was going for less of AI testing, and more visual integrity testing, as Altis provides more than enough challenges, however that may also be very useful.

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Swamps would be interesting to test out vehicles being stuck in mud (Lol in Arma 7). But really though navigating shallow waters would be a neat test for AI boat drivers.

---------- Post added at 01:04 ---------- Previous post was at 01:02 ----------

Check out Iceland. Extremely varied terrain (deserts, deltas, forests, volcanic terrain, beaches, snowy mountains, glaciers, etc.).

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A lot of the work in making maps isn't sourcing the terrain or aerial imagery, that's moderately easy, it's creating or sourcing all the regional specific trees models and textures, building models and textures and other object models and textures.

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A lot of the work in making maps isn't sourcing the terrain or aerial imagery, that's moderately easy, it's creating or sourcing all the regional specific trees models and textures, building models and textures and other object models and textures.

No buildings. I was leaning more strictly towards natural environments mainly, but some already existent buildings could be used to represent a small town. But mainly, the mini biomes would be just environment.

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What timmo1982 said- indeed, even if you were to make a terrain that was only 1 x 1 km, you would still need to create ALL the objects, trees, bushes, rocks, stones, twigs, sticks, fences, walls, grass, clutters, textures, diffuse/normal maps/ specular maps/ masks/ ambient occlusion etc... Not to mention specific sounds for a truly different biome.

However you go about it size wise it sadly would be a lot of work... Saying that it's a great idea but probably very time consuming too... :(

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Actually if you look here, you'll see that all foliage is generated automatically, with pre-optimized models. I think foliage would be a simple matter of tweaking some parameters. Stones, structures, etc would need to be modeled. If you've ever played with a game engine (such as CryEngine), you'll know that grass and twigs and stuff on the ground are quite simple, as easy as "painting" them onto the ground.

It's a great idea actually. Instead of creating one very large laggy terrain that is quite similar all over, create many 1 or 2 km^2 terrains for smaller skirmishes. Hell, you could make some pretty great maps just for sniper training and such.

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Aye, the tree generator is pretty damn cool, will save a lot of time and effort but there would still be a lot to do, even without buildings- unless OP is talking about a seriously underpopulated terrain, literally just foliage etc..?

For my own terrain, I'm planning to model everything myself, as the foliage there will be very strange so I'm not sure I would use Silvador myself..? But yeah, if you will be doing normal real world trees/plants etc it's the best way to go..! :)

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Bushlurker did something similar to this in A2. Not sure if you could port his stuff forward or not though (either for technical reasons or permission reasons).

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