Community Upgrade Project - CUP_Terrains

[kgino1045 12]

You've done really well, i really admire you.

[savedbygrace 2]

I registered on the CUP forums but haven't seen a whole lot of public activity. I presume the most of it is going on behind the admins section, so just to clarify...The absolute best place to report bugs after the initial release is on those CUP forums, correct?

What sort of bugs are you expecting and how best can the early testers help the CUP team find them? What I mean to say is, I realize that many of those terrains are not created by CUP, so bugs will likely be present within each one, e.g. tree out of place, objects at incorrect heights...These are not bugs that you guys plan on correcting, true or not true? (at least not at this point?)

Since you are simply attempting to adjust configs at this point to make them Arma 3 compatible, can you provide some examples on what sort of bugs we could help you isolate in that case. So that you guys are not rocked with all these silly bugs within areas that your team has yet to touch.

[cifordayzserver 119]

I registered on the CUP forums but haven't seen a whole lot of public activity. I presume the most of it is going on behind the admins section, so just to clarify...The absolute best place to report bugs after the initial release is on those CUP forums, correct?

What sort of bugs are you expecting and how best can the early testers help the CUP team find them? What I mean to say is, I realize that many of those terrains are not created by CUP, so bugs will likely be present within each one, e.g. tree out of place, objects at incorrect heights...These are not bugs that you guys plan on correcting, true or not true? (at least not at this point?)

Since you are simply attempting to adjust configs at this point to make them Arma 3 compatible, can you provide some examples on what sort of bugs we could help you isolate in that case. So that you guys are not rocked with all these silly bugs within areas that your team has yet to touch.

Yeah, we're not too active on the public side of the forums, I barely have time to read the skype channel and then still get work done. I'll definitely try to be better about it. We could really use a promotional guy who's DL'ing playing with, and taking promo shots/vids of the work we're doing. It turns into a real overwhelming task modding these days and having to do all of that, set up websites, repo's, keeping up with the discussions, etc etc etc.

So, for the immediate future, we don't have much control/ability to modify the terrains in terms of object placement, or texture blends, or xyz info. That all requires source files, which are only available for Sahrani right now.

The bugs we'd be looking for are textures issues on models, items not functioning as intended, visual, or config errors.

Honestly, I don't really foresee a lot of bug reports, as the package is fairly solid already in AiA. When/If we get source files we can address object placements, and move/replace some models that are currently used to make "composite structures". BI had a tendency of taking BuildingA an BuildingB, and smooshing them together to make BuildingC. So, we can't do a blanket replacement of BuildingA or BuildingB until we have source control and can replace BuildingC with a new placeholder, or new opened version.

The main focus of the project for the near future is:

1. Add existing JBAD enterable buildings that can be replaced 1 for 1 across all maps

2. Update all buildings to A3 configs/model details

3. Open as many buildings that were previously closed as possible

4. Add functionality to previously existing objects to increase the realism of the terrains, gates, dumpsters, trashcans

5. Update all the terrain configs to fully exploit all the A3 lighting, weather, sound, and friction effects

I'm going to work on getting the last remaining files pack-able today, then push it all to the repo. Should be do-able.

[von_paulus 0]

First let me thank you for all your hard work.

A quick clarification... Will this mod include all the islands included in AIA_terrainpack? Or will it have only Sahrani?

Will be there any chance for including the original OFP islands?

[miketim 20]

Great news. So you guys are still going for the standalone system right? So, I can download the central content for all the maps, and cherry pick which maps I want specifically right? ( in seperate downloads?)

[chortles 263]

First let me thank you for all your hard work.

A quick clarification... Will this mod include all the islands included in AIA_terrainpack? Or will it have only Sahrani?

Will be there any chance for including the original OFP islands?

You can expect the AiA TP islands, it's just that Bohemia Interactive a.s. only released unbinarized source files for Sahrani.

[cifordayzserver 119]

First let me thank you for all your hard work.

A quick clarification... Will this mod include all the islands included in AIA_terrainpack? Or will it have only Sahrani?

Will be there any chance for including the original OFP islands?

It will have all the islands. Sahrani is the only one I can edit/modify in terrain builder.

Great news. So you guys are still going for the standalone system right? So, I can download the central content for all the maps, and cherry pick which maps I want specifically right? ( in seperate downloads?)

Yes, there will be "CUP_Terrains" which is the core of it, and then each individual terrain. We might split it out further, so that there is CUP_Terrains_Core & CUP_Terrains_Legacy or something like that, so that folks who are not using any older A2 assets who do not need the compatibility pbo's or the language/missions etc don't have to DL that. I'm playing around with that now.

The data folder proved fairly difficult to get packing, I got hung up on that and went to go rest my back and fell asleep. I might swing back now and try to get the other remaining pbo's packed so that Data is all that's left, but not sure.

[miketim 20]

Any intel on the filesize yet so we can prepare our anuses internet connections? :)

[cifordayzserver 119]

I just took a look at splitting it further and these should be the final numbers:

12gb = Cup_Terrains - With everything AiA included

IF I split out the natural/artificial objects from all the support pbo's:

11.2gb = Cup_Terrains

800mb = AiA Compatibility stuff/sound/missions etc

Then the terrains are ~50mb-500mb each.

14.0gb for everything.

[kothen 57]

My Hard Drive is ready

[kilo1-1 1]

Why the drastic file size difference from AIATP?

[cifordayzserver 119]

hehehe, whoops, i'm dumb, I just checked the size of the whole addon folder and I had junk in there... Revised numbers:

8.65gb = All Addons

Split:

5.75gb = CUP_Terrains - Only Natural/Artificial Objects

966mb = CUP_Terrains_AiA - Compatibility configs and Data folders

Maps:

50mb-500mb

Have I mentioned how amazing water looks in Experimental???

[LykosMactire 298]

And with this, ArmA Regains its ponds! do y'all plan on using Tanoa style water shaders once tanoa releases?

[kilo1-1 1]

hehehe, whoops, i'm dumb, I just checked the size of the whole addon folder and I had junk in there... Revised numbers:

8.65gb = All Addons

Split:

5.75gb = CUP_Terrains - Only Natural/Artificial Objects

966mb = CUP_Terrains_AiA - Compatibility configs and Data folders

Maps:

50mb-500mb

Have I mentioned how amazing water looks in Experimental???

That looks much more like the size of AIATP. And that is amazing you got ponds working! I am assuming the DBO_Ponds 'fix' is going on here?

[chortles 263]

That looks much more like the size of AIATP. And that is amazing you got ponds working! I am assuming the DBO_Ponds 'fix' is going on here?

More likely M1lkm8n's version, considering the deanosbeano-described issues with the DBO_Ponds fix.

@CiforDayZServer: I don't suppose that this means any water flowing, just inland water and pseudo-rivers?

[dunedain 48]

Looks fantastic. Thanks a lot for this. :)

[El Tyranos 1264]

You're so fast I don't realize the amount of work behind, but I thought it would take more time. Maybe the harder is to come with upgrading every building to A3 standard ?

[1212PDMCDMPPM 200]

Those screenshots are just amazing !! Thx again for working on this project ! A3 wouldn't be worth playing without such mods !

[nikiforos 450]

So with this mod we don't need AiA anymore?

[rekkless 240]

I am salivating at the thought of getting my hands on this. Surely it can't be too far away. This is certainly the most anticipated mod since ACE 3.

Anyway how will the compatibility go with other maps that require AIATP or A3MP to work. My squad also run A2 maps like Namalsk, Thirsk, Podagorsk, Caribou Frontier, Capraia and Fallujah that all require AIATP to work.

Will these older maps still be compatible with CUP Terrains?

Also what is your advice for those of us running SMD Sahrani? Do we keep SMD Sahrani or will the Sahrani in CUP Terrains be basically the same thing?

[evromalarkey 150]

If you want to stay close with CUP, be sure to follow us on our new facebook page. From now on it's our main social channel to stay in contact with you, we will post our WIP screenshots, videos and maybe also streams there.

https://www.facebook.com/arma3cup

you can also watch videos on youtube and you can follow us also on twitter!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDNEowVLtlCY1_CYgnsvCMQ

https://twitter.com/arma3cup

[ThreeDots 11]

I am salivating at the thought of getting my hands on this. Surely it can't be too far away. This is certainly the most anticipated mod since ACE 3.

Anyway how will the compatibility go with other maps that require AIATP or A3MP to work. My squad also run A2 maps like Namalsk, Thirsk, Podagorsk, Caribou Frontier, Capraia and Fallujah that all require AIATP to work.

Will these older maps still be compatible with CUP Terrains?

We are not changing the folder structure that was in AiA or Arma so islands depending on it will work with CUP too.

[rekkless 240]

We are not changing the folder structure that was in AiA or Arma so islands depending on it will work with CUP too.

Excellent news, So if I am correct if I didn't want to use any of the maps within Cup Terrain (We will be using all your map, but lets just say we don't) I would only need to download CupTerrains_Core main mod file and all the other maps would still work?

[cifordayzserver 119]

And with this, ArmA Regains its ponds! do y'all plan on using Tanoa style water shaders once tanoa releases?

So, the pictures of Chernarus are stock A2 ponds, they automagically reflect the horizon and the sun. So there is no need to change anything, we MAY end up tuning them a bit, but really, they look amazing IMO. I've never been much of a fine tuner though. Fabiano Sanchez did a lot already to tweak how Chernarus looked for AiA which is carried over in this mod, and I believe he will continue the same work on the other terrains.

That looks much more like the size of AIATP. And that is amazing you got ponds working! I am assuming the DBO_Ponds 'fix' is going on here?

There is NO fix involved on our end here. This is ALL BI dev's fixing engine side stuff, and changing how RVmats that are defined as water are interpreted. I'd assume DeanosBeano's and M1lkm8ns fixes at the very least pointed the dev's in the right direction.

More likely M1lkm8n's version, considering the deanosbeano-described issues with the DBO_Ponds fix.

@CiforDayZServer: I don't suppose that this means any water flowing, just inland water and pseudo-rivers?

DboPonds I believe has some very natural looking flowing water rvmats? but I"m not entirely sure. I'll have to give it a closer look after release.

You're so fast I don't realize the amount of work behind, but I thought it would take more time. Maybe the harder is to come with upgrading every building to A3 standard ?

I'm actually quite slow :-( This project is really just a copy/paste of AiA_terrainpack. It's taken me an embarrassingly long time to get the working directory set up and packing properly. Shouldn't be long now though. And Threedots has gotten a lot of REAL work done!

I am salivating at the thought of getting my hands on this. Surely it can't be too far away. This is certainly the most anticipated mod since ACE 3.

Anyway how will the compatibility go with other maps that require AIATP or A3MP to work. My squad also run A2 maps like Namalsk, Thirsk, Podagorsk, Caribou Frontier, Capraia and Fallujah that all require AIATP to work.

Will these older maps still be compatible with CUP Terrains?

Also what is your advice for those of us running SMD Sahrani? Do we keep SMD Sahrani or will the Sahrani in CUP Terrains be basically the same thing?

This mod will work EXACTLY the same as AiA, and it will maintain backward compatibility for mission makers, IE, no one will have to change ANYTHING they've done with AiA in mind.

This ensures that ANYONE who's ever worked on a terrain since A2 released, can "plug and play" their terrain in A3 with no changes on their end.

For SMD Sahrani, I'm not 100 percent sure yet. I played a little with trying to bring the original data up to snuff, and it did not work out well. I'll most likely use SMD Sahrani as the default version.

Excellent news, So if I am correct if I didn't want to use any of the maps within Cup Terrain (We will be using all your map, but lets just say we don't) I would only need to download CupTerrains_Core main mod file and all the other maps would still work?

That's right, Right now just for testing I have it setup as follows:

@CUP_Terrains - Natural and Artificial Objects (buildings, misc, signs, plants, structures)

@CUP_Terrains_AiA - Compatibility Addons (data, languages, missions, sounds, ui, unit/weapon/vehicle "dummy" pbo's)

@CUP_Afghan

@CUP_Bohemia

@CUP_Chernarus

etc etc etc

So... If you have an A2 community terrain like Namalsk, or Thirsk or Celle, you ONLY need @CUP_Terrains and @CUP_Terrains_AiA (*this is not a final naming convention)

Right now, ThreeDots has already done all the work to all the roads, rocks, plants AND signs, so they are FULLY independent of the @CUP_Terrains_AiA portion of the package. Moving forward that will be the case for ALL the objects/buildings.

So, eventually, if you have a terrain that has done all of it's A3 compatibility work, then all you will need is @CUP_Terrains.

The great part about the whole thing, is that anyone right now, can just start working on a terrain with the existing A2 library, and just work away, and it will plug/play with our mod in A3, saving terrain artists a TON of work.

[MusTanG 21]

Great work, been following CUP since before AiA dumped out.

Cant wait for the community players to realize what CUP will do for us in the near future.