Community Upgrade Project - CUP_Terrains

[Chairborne 2594]

Sorry for the belated update, I've been updating a few things in SMD Sahrani, and working on getting together a working environment together for CUP Terrains.

AiA backward compatibility I think is fine/do-able, kju mentioned it a few weeks ago, I'll check my skype.

In the meantime I've been getting he working environment together and it's been a bit of a bear. I think I have a decent idea of the right workflow to get it all populated, and then it's just trudging through packing errors finding missing files or bad references and fixing them.

I started to do the Buildings PBO tonight, and it went fairly well, but there were a LOT of files with bad references. I am working under the assumption that they're garbage for now, to get it packing. I have a packing build now, but it's clearly a few steps behind where the last AiA Buildings release was. So I'll either have to redo that myself, or contact kju.

PBOProject is VERY picky when it builds a PBO, it checks all external references for all files you're packing... so, if something causes it to fail, you read the output, find the file, and figure out where the missing file or bad reference is. It's fairly straight forward, but time consuming. The problem with building from Bohemia's Sample Models, is, they include a fair amount of actual sample only content. So, there are RVmats for example that are not references by any models, or have pathing to files that do not exist. They serve to show how one would accomplish a certain goal, without providing a working model, only an example.

Most pbo packers don't care what you put in them, you could use them to pack video files and email them, but PBOProject checks EVERYTHING... which is good, it results in a much cleaner package, OR makes you aware of previously unknown bugs.

So, to say I have a packing build is a good step forward. As stated above, it's definitely a few steps behind where AiA is, but I should be able to fix that up quickly. Then onto the other majors, Buildings2, Structures, Structures_E, Structures_PMC, misc, misc2, misc3, misc_E, misc_baf, misc_acr.

The rest, are fairly small, and in need of less config work, doing the full conversion to A3 will take some time, and likely happen one by one, after the initial release.

I'm going to guess I should have a release-able build in 4-8 weeks?

So you're basically remaking all the models and rvmats one by one? :eek:

Man you're crazy lol. I hate doing rvmats, can't imagine going through every single one of them from A2 to fix them.

Good luck though, it looks incredibly promising.

[cifordayzserver 119]

No, I'm not redoing them, just getting rid of unused ones. The models I do have to go through one by one to change tune surface materials to the A3 ones and to add the physx lod.

I try to address any other issues as I go through them but rvmats are not one of my areas of expertise.

It's time consuming going through them one by one but it's needed to get the A3 functionalities working.

[andersson 285]

Your work is much appreciated! Thank you!

[bullhorn 18]

Subscribed. Having many issues with @AiA, can't wait for this to be out!

[JamesTheClarke 40]

I'm very glad to hear that CUP is going to release their own terrain pack soon. AiA unfortunately has become increasingly unstable - nothing serious yet, but I'm dreading the day a vanilla update breaks it for good.

Good luck with the mod development, thanks for the hard work!

EDIT: Just read that Sahrani AiA will be replaced with Sahrani_A3. Haven't tried that version yet but I've heard good things. Sahrani is one of the best Arma terrains, can't wait to give it a spin!

Edited May 7, 2015 by JamesClarke

[ineptaphid 6413]

Do you guys have any plans to integrate the new DBO ponds mod into your maps?Then we could experience them the way they were made once more!

[serjames 357]

I think they have their own Solution mate - check back from the beginning of the thread.

[bumgie 49]

I was looking for the tutorials mentioned, but I could not find any. I really would like to help but my skills are not up to the task, so those tutorials would really help me get started.

[cifordayzserver 119]

I'm very glad to hear that CUP is going to release their own terrain pack soon. AiA unfortunately has become increasingly unstable - nothing serious yet, but I'm dreading the day a vanilla update breaks it for good.

Good luck with the mod development, thanks for the hard work!

EDIT: Just read that Sahrani AiA will be replaced with Sahrani_A3. Haven't tried that version yet but I've heard good things. Sahrani is one of the best Arma terrains, can't wait to give it a spin!

Yeah, I will likely include SMD_Sahrani as Sahrani at this point, looking back to, and playing with the original files a bit, I'm having a difficult time making the original version look even close to as good as SMD, so I'm likely going to include that as is, or with the original grass/clutter blend, I'll have to see how it looks like that.

Do you guys have any plans to integrate the new DBO ponds mod into your maps?Then we could experience them the way they were made once more!

So, the pond fix requires editing of the terrain, I'm fairly sure I'll need source files for that. I MIGHT be able to do it by modifying the wrp, but I'm not entirely sure yet.

I was looking for the tutorials mentioned, but I could not find any. I really would like to help but my skills are not up to the task, so those tutorials would really help me get started.

So, the modding tutorials I do are in my signature. and linked

for your convenience

I haven't started the ones specific to upgrading objects yet. I'm trying to triage the work I have in front of me, as there is a ton to do in a very limited amount of time I have to dedicate. All my spare time for modding is currently spent trying to get the CUP_Terrains build together, tested, and released.

Then I will swing back and start focusing on the buildings/objects again, I will do tutorials as I do the work. I almost stopped work on CUP Terrains to do a quick tutorial on setting up the terrain editing environment, but the tutorials take quite a bit of time and focus to write/record/edit/publish, so I figured it would be best to put that idea on the far off to do list.

General Update - I've gotten nothing done, I've just had too much going on at work and home. The next few weekends aren't looking good either, and workdays, I can't really sit at/work at a computer after I've been doing it all day at work due to my back issues. I'm still thinking I can maintain the original estimate of 4-8 weeks, but time has been impossible to find lately. We will see.

[bigpoppablunts 53]

I'm completely worthless when it comes to terrain building or modification, but if there's anything like testing or whatever that I (or others) can help with... I for one would be glad to volunteer.

[hg2012trigger 13]

We Need ponds on chero plsss; )

[pvt_ryan 10]

Good to hear this project is still alive! Unfortunately my group initially opted for A3MP in quite an arbitrary manner, and it's all but impossible to convince the other members that making the switch and downloading AiA would be worthwhile in light of the fact that it's just as dead as A3MP. We'll certainly be utilizing CUP Terrain when it gets released, however.

[serjames 357]

lol luddites ?

[chortles 263]

Seems more like "better the devil we know" when confronted with the fact that both A3MP and AiA TP are depreciated and the successor to the latter has yet to be public.

[cifordayzserver 119]

So, I had a chance to catch up with kju a bit this weekend, and it turns out that a lot of the reconstruction work I was/am doing was due to using the wrong source. He's pointed me in the right direction now, and I'm DL'ing all the files. It should speed along the process quite a bit.

I had actually started manually re-constucting the configs and model.cfg's last night, but with this, I SHOULD be able to just copy/paste these over, and do some quick edits.

All going well, my previously advised timeline should hold no problem. I would expect a release by mid June? but obviously can't make any promises.

Also worthy of note, and not sure if I've announced it prior, CUP_Terrains will be uploaded to the Steam Workshop as well here, Armaholic, and Play With Six.

[domokun 515]

Great news. I'm glad to hear that he was able to help you.

Re-work is never fun.

I don't think I'm alone when I say that I'm more excited about this mod than any other...

[Janez 530]

I don't think I'm alone when I say that I'm more excited about this mod than any other...

Well... maybe CUP Weapon Pack. :D But seriously nice work, keep it up.

[serjames 357]

Just had my section wiped out on Takistan (AiA_Tp) please tell me you'll be fixing the Rock Geometry so that AI cannot see and shoot through it...

lol

[von_paulus 0]

Great news. Thanks for all your efforts, CiforDayZServer. :)

[haleks 8212]

Good news! \o/

[Undeceived 392]

Great news, CiforDayZServer, thanks for your hard work!

[pansyfaust 69]

I remember uploading a few models to the CUP tracker such as the glowing rail semaphore and a few other models which haven't made it into AIATP, have you guys got those or is there a way to upload them again?

[cifordayzserver 119]

I'm fairly sure we have all the contributed models. I'll have a look this weekend.

I got some progress done last Saturday, I'm still having issues though. I'll have to give rebuilding my source files a go as it was the same arduous process of removing unused rvmats from the mlods.

Hopefully I'll have a bit of time for it this weekend but likely not too much as I have a wedding to go to.

[cyruz 103]

Is there a way for you to define the correct audio areas for the tail specific samples, e.g. in Altis you have indoors, town, forest or meadow but I'm not sure how the areas are defined or what the process is, would be a nice addition to have!

[sargken 286]

I hope you guys do well, if you follow through with what you stated this will be replacing AiA TP for my unit.