I want to remake my A2 map for A3. Tips?

[oktyabr 12]

Heyo,

I really, really want to try my hand at terrain making again and my project of choice is a redux of a terrain I made for A2:OA. I haven't touched Visitor (et al) in a few years and never the tools for A3... although I have them all installed, P: drive functioning properly, etc. But I have a few questions and hope that some of you might provide answers to help save me some time and trouble.

1) I understand that A3 is better with larger terrains than A2 was. I've read some of the tutorials but none specifically deal with the ins and outs of larger terrains. What flaming hoops might I encounter? Special considerations? I'm shooting for something more the size of Altis than Stratis... that would be ideal. Is there a point where things get MUCH more tricky to make happen? If so, I think I'd like to stay under that point. :)

2) How much of my A2 terrain source can I reuse? Textures/material definitions? Or am I better off remaking these from scratch?

3) Is World Tools still a viable asset for A3? I remember using it for forest design and fence lines and stuff in the past... and road builder? I build roads IRL and am pretty picky about how these work in game terrains too ;)

Thanks in advance for any tips, tricks, anecdotes and suggestions!

[m1lkm8n 411]

1) I understand that A3 is better with larger terrains than A2 was. I've read some of the tutorials but none specifically deal with the ins and outs of larger terrains. What flaming hoops might I encounter? Special considerations? I'm shooting for something more the size of Altis than Stratis... that would be ideal. Is there a point where things get MUCH more tricky to make happen? If so, I think I'd like to stay under that point. :)

Well obviously the larger you go the more time and effort will be required to fill the terrain with enough detail to be presentable. So if you are working by yourself be prepared to put in a lot of time.

2) How much of my A2 terrain source can I reuse? Textures/material definitions? Or am I better off remaking these from scratch?

You can use quite a bit of the source and just taylor the bits that changed to a3. For instance in your island config make the inheritance from either altis or stratus. The layers config is basically the same expect there are no more mco textures so you can just put "" marks and nothing in between.

3) Is World Tools still a viable asset for A3? I remember using it for forest design and fence lines and stuff in the past... and road builder? I build roads IRL and am pretty picky about how these work in game terrains too ;)

Thanks in advance for any tips, tricks, anecdotes and suggestions!

YES! world tools is still very viable. In fact neoarmageddon has created a tool to convert the export from world tools to a readable format by terrain builder. road builder is not really needed and i don't think works but with terrainbuilder you have the option of using shapefiles. Basically just drawing lines in your project which when exported have a special config so at game runtime they get converted to roads

[oktyabr 12]

Well obviously the larger you go the more time and effort will be required to fill the terrain with enough detail to be presentable. So if you are working by yourself be prepared to put in a lot of time.

You can use quite a bit of the source and just taylor the bits that changed to a3. For instance in your island config make the inheritance from either altis or stratus. The layers config is basically the same expect there are no more mco textures so you can just put "" marks and nothing in between.

YES! world tools is still very viable. In fact neoarmageddon has created a tool to convert the export from world tools to a readable format by terrain builder. road builder is not really needed and i don't think works but with terrainbuilder you have the option of using shapefiles. Basically just drawing lines in your project which when exported have a special config so at game runtime they get converted to roads

Thanks for the tips!

I've spent two days becoming acquainted with Terrain Builder and already whipped out a tiny "proof of concept" island just to see if I had the basics down or not. Time wise? Yeah, I spent months learning the tools for A2 and nearly half a year after that building my first island. I know it's nothing that is going to see big results in a single weekend ;)

Looking forward to firing up world tools again!