Cyprus island map - Is it possible and yes it is the greatest idea ever

[achilleasp 5]

Hello people,

I want to make a custom map of Cyprus. Cyprus has been divided in 2 since 1974 turkish invasion of the island. It is split into a greek cypriot side (the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus) and the turkish cypriot side, a pseudo puppet state of Turkey. Its a really interesting island to make war scenarios on. I would love to make a custom map of Cyprus. I'd love to do mission scenarios or even do huge all-out war scenario between Greek-Cypriot and Hellenic Army vs Turkish army. Do you think making such a big map is possible? Do the editing tools allow for this?

Cyprus is 9,251 km². If not i am willing to minimize it as little as possible. Can this be done? 

I sort of tried making a smaller version of Cyprus back in Arma 2 but i got stuck at one point. After years of dreaming about it and now with a new pc coming in a few days (that can finally play arma 3) I would like to restart this project but i have forgotten everything.

Could someone point me to the steps i need to take to make this dream of mine a reality? Guides seem to be for arma 2 not 3...

 

[Cosmo_D41 117]

Best guides for A3 can be found here: https://pmc.editing.wiki/doku.php?id=arma3:terrain

When you read through that and the first Tutorials you can still join the A3-Discord #terrain to get help or ideas to certain questions: https://discord.gg/CWyp8yt

[RoF 241]

You would have to downscale it, its like 200km in width lol. You don't want a cell size over 10 really

[Alex150201 894]

Oh I would love to see this happen

[opteryx 1562]

It can be done, but it won't look good from the ground and the objects will be very sparse even with millions of objects.  Also, working with such gigantic sat rasters is a nightmare.

[achilleasp 5]

It would be amazing Alex. Trust me i'm gonna make this map the absolute fucking bomb, i just need to get there. Theres already big maps with like Take on Helicopter's "South Asia" Terrain. With 122km X 122km which it is is 14884km². I have a good computer to play this and i don't care how many GBs this map is going to be. Also Cyprus map would be slightly smaller than that. 

Any help on making this map would be greatly appreciated.

 

[RoF 241]

But Take on Helicopters is meant to be played from the air, so its not big on the detail. Add to that Snakeman says Arma gets funny at about 6+ million objects. So you will end up with a low detail map, with huge areas with nothing around. Be fine from the air, but playing on the ground is going to be boring as hell.

 

There is a lot of places that would make a good map, but you have to think about the limits of Arma. Sometimes you have to step back and say "yes it would be amazing, but It just wont work in Arma. And I won't be able to make it how I want"

[achilleasp 5]

Hello ROF, What if I didn't use the Google maps texture tapestry? I'm only interested in getting the size and the shape of the island. I can retexture it using in game textures. Island is super similar in morphology of the arma 3 island

[achilleasp 5]

Also I will populate the map fully. Every single town and village and then feel immense joy as I liberate each one. This is a big project that I will finish after a year or so. For the time being I just want to make the shape and size of Cyprus. I do not need to use Google map texture.  I'm also willing to cut the size into half, if it will help. 

[RoF 241]

11 hours ago, achilleasp said:

Hello ROF, What if I didn't use the Google maps texture tapestry? I'm only interested in getting the size and the shape of the island. I can retexture it using in game textures. Island is super similar in morphology of the arma 3 island

 

11 hours ago, achilleasp said:

Also I will populate the map fully. Every single town and village and then feel immense joy as I liberate each one. This is a big project that I will finish after a year or so. For the time being I just want to make the shape and size of Cyprus. I do not need to use Google map texture.  I'm also willing to cut the size into half, if it will help. 

 

It doesn't matter if you use a google image or make your own, you still need a sat image. Getting the island imported is the easy part.

 

As for fully populating it with objects... that isn't possible. The map is too big even if you half it, its still to big. Unless you want it mega low detail? Have a look at these terrains, this is what you would end up with https://www.pmctactical.org/arma3/downloads.php

They are fine for flying, but don't really work when on the ground, as you don't have cover etc.

 

Also there is no way you can make a nice big terrain in a year. I suggest you start making a small test terrain, then you will see the task ahead of you. Terrain making isn't easy, you have to learn buggy programs, configs, image editing etc.

 

But give it a try! Arma needs new terrain makers, just scale your dream back for the moment until you learn more

[achilleasp 5]

EDIT:

Okay i am scratching the whole of cyprus idea and, I'm interested in an area of the occupied lands. I've started on the https://pmc.editing.wiki/doku.php?id=arma3:terrain:real-world-data-tutorial tutorial. It seems a bit confusing at points/not clear enough. I am looking at an area of 30km so according to the guide it needs to be 30720m x 30720m, so grid Cell Width 30720 x Grid Cell Height 30720 in global mapper. I wanted it to be exactly 30000x30000 but apparently 1km is 1024m in the guide as he says 40960 is 40km size for terrain. I am not sure why he says 40km its 40.96..

Regardless (taking into account that in the guide 1km is 1024m), this would make the map i want to make (30720m x 30720m) 943.71840 km^2 (according to http://www.calculator.net/area-calculator.html?reclength=30720&reclengthunit=meter&recheight=30720&recheightunit=meter&calctype=rectangle&x=82&y=27#rectangle). Would this present me with any issues? Also how exactly is one supposed to eyeball the exact dimensions from globalmapper to terra incognita? Is it okay if I make terra incognita's selection slightly bigger to make sure it fits inside it the globalmapper selection?

[achilleasp 5]

I am also willing to pay someone experienced and credible 50 euros to complete the tutorial and make the map for me. From the videos and other tutorials, placing objects, such as buildings, props, armies etc and making missions seems pretty straightforward to me and i will take it from there

I will show you a map picture of the area i want to be completed and then you can upload it somewhere (i imagine it is a large file) and i will pay for uploading costs if needed. If anyone is interested please contact me

[RoF 241]

Well then you ain't going to learn anything! You are looking for the easy option, an will no doubt post in a few days when you get scammed like so many others on here.

 

You are paying 50euro for something that takes half hour, an most of that is waiting for sat map to download. If you cant even do this bit , you might as well stop now. As you have far bigger hurdles to come

[achilleasp 5]

Thank RoF for your response but i don't understand your comment. Why is it an issue that i am looking for the easy option? If someone credible (e.g., experienced map maker who has uploaded work etc) is willing to do it for me i fail to see the issue??? I'm more interested in learning and working at the part after the tutorial which is scripting missions, placing objects etc.

If noone is interested, i will try and do it myself. In fact, thats what I've been trying all day today. But I can't continue unless i know that the map size i described above will run with no issues and unless i have answers to the questions i posed above (and many more to come i imagine). Would you happen to know the answers? I need to know I'm doing the initial steps right. Thanks

[Cosmo_D41 117]

I dont really understand your intention: You want to create a huge map of your dream location but are not willing to create the location yourself?

Doesnt make sense to me (and to RoF too as it seems).

 

It is not that you can easily separate the first parts of the terrain creation from the rest. You will always have to adjust your heightmaps when new objects are placed, you will always have to adjust the satmap (especially when the area is scaled down. You will always have to go back to terrainbuilder for placing/adjusting roads. Why not do that too and learn from the beginning (as you will definitley need that knowledge for the later parts).  Mission creation is the very, very last part and has nothing to do with terrain creation at all, so if you just want to learn that better take a finished map.

 

And as RoF said, for 50€ you wont get anything you cant easily do on your own with a little reading. No one is going to adjust your config, your clutter, your mask etc. for that money (at least no one that knows how to do stuff). Finally its your dream of a map location, why not do that on your own?

[achilleasp 5]

Yeah I got frustrated because I got stuck. I still don't understand why some got upset..  I figured now the issue and I'm doing it I'm half way through I've just removed a couple of roads to be less than 9000 (now 5446). 

 

Cosmo I am not sure what the issues that you are discussing are, but I guess I'll find out in the near future! I'll keep this thread updated on my project. Hopefully someone will answer my questions... 

[Cosmo_D41 117]

What i am talking about is: Map Creation is not just done by exporting some satmaps and heightfields to Terrainbuilder. Those data still has to be adjusted as not everything will be ready to place objects or fit your needs.

 

I.e. the exported heightmap of a village will not be ready and even to easily place buildings etc. it has to be manually adjusted, terrain flattened, roads evened etc. Thats what i meant as it seemed to me that you believe you could get some ready to place terrain where you just can toss in some objects and your map is done. Thats unfortunatelly not the reality

[achilleasp 5]

I see... That is a shame. I thought that once you got the map into the in-game editor things would get a lot easier to work with... From what you are saying I am guessing Terrainbuilder does not do terraforming. Oh well, if thats what it takes to see my country freed (at least in game lol) i will do it lol!

I've got a question. Does the game allow non-square map sizes? The map im trying to make would benefit more if it was a rectangular shape. For now I am making a square one just like in the guide with same size too

[achilleasp 5]

ugh, getting a 0xc000007b error when i launch QGIS, anyone know how to fix? I've done all the steps from this guide https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/how-to/windows/how-fix-application-was-unable-start-correctly-0xc000007b-error-message-3613164/

[RoF 241]

Why are you using qgis, when you have global mapper? Just make the square in global mapper and export. Import sat map and export. That's it done! You can import roads etc, but tbh you will have to fix every one in TB, so I just do them by hand

[achilleasp 5]

Thats what the guide says. I'm on step QGIS Transform https://pmc.editing.wiki/doku.php?id=arma3:terrain:real-world-data-tutorial

 

I got QGIS to work by downloading the 32bit version (weird my system is 64bit). Moving on!!

[achilleasp 5]

I'm getting GRASS init error: GRASS was not found for QGIS so i cant use the v.transform function. I've tried unistalling but nothing seems to work :/ Has anyone had this error before?

 

[opteryx 1562]

If you're not already, I suggest you join the Arma Discord terrain channel.

 

https://discord.gg/hbgUdQ

[achilleasp 5]

Update on the progress:

So I am up to the qt compile stage of the tutorial. I have qt but when i click to build or to run the tool from Github, Qt gives me :-1: error: Qt Creator needs a compiler set up to build. Configure a compiler in the kit options.

How do I fix this issue?

[achilleasp 5]

Come on guys, anyone here can help me with the Qt part of the tutorial? The tutorial really doesn't provide any information on how to use Qt. Any help would be much appreciated.