Community Upgrade Project - CUP Maps 2.0

[CUP 1532]

 

The Community Update Project is here to bring the first release of our latest initiative Maps 2.0!

 

Maps 2.0 is the next step to bring our beloved A2 era terrains up to Arma 3 terrain standards, it's goal is:

 

• Increase terrain heightmap resolution where appropriate.
• Conversion to Arma 3 buildings when suitable replacements exist.
• Adding new interiors to older buildings.
• Adding new terrain features and locations.
• Maintain reliance on the existing Terrains: Core pack.
• Other creative additions that we haven't thought of yet.

 

 Content

 

As of this initial release the only terrain available is Chernarus 2020, however it is possible in future other terrains will be added to this pack when they reach appropriate milestones. 

 

In this initial release of Chernarus 2020, almost all vegetation from Summer Chernarus has been replaced with foliage from Arma 3. All buildings that were brought in with the Contact platform update, have replaced their older A2 counterparts, and the heightmap has been converted to a higher resolution in preparation for future updates. The satellite map and ground textures have had colour tweaks to make them a bit less fluorescent and generally more summery, the lighting that came with Livonia has been plugged in to give the map a more European feel and finally the ground clutter has been replaced with models that came from the Contact platform update. 

 

This is just the initial release of Chernarus 2020, something for everyone to get their hands on and be able to play with. It is by no means the finished state of the map, we have a number of plans for things we want to add and change to the map in the future. 

 

Why a new pack?

 

All upgraded terrains are being deployed into this new Maps 2.0 pack as they will not be very backwards compatible with the extensive plethora of missions that the Arma community has been making for the original Chernarus' for years now. So rather than forcibly break those missions we have opted to give people the option to take the new version if they want to. It is intended that players and communities will eventually switch out their old maps for the upgraded ones.

 

The Maps 2.0 pack is still reliant on the existing CUP Terrains Core package and there is an update to that pack to supplement this update. 

 

Known Issues

 

Some known issues about Chernarus 2020:

 

• Clutter "popping"
• Occasional mismatching of ground textures
• Wheat fields that appear out of nowhere. 
• Clutter conflicts when loaded with original Summer Chernarus

 

 

We hope you enjoy our efforts to breath new life in to these classic Arma terrains and we hope to be able to bring more to you in the future. If you are a content creator that would like to assist in this new direction come talk to us on our discord, we are always looking for fresh meat new recruits!

 

 

 

This thread focuses on Maps 2.0. For the other projects, please visit this thread or our website. Please report bugs at our bug tracker using the new Maps 2.0 in the tags section - bug reports in the forum tend to get overseen.

 

All download links are available on the CUP download page on our website.

[Devastator_cm 434]

Thanks guys!

Is ACE3 compat works for this version as well?

[LSValmont 789]

4 hours ago, CUP said:

The Community Update Project is here to bring the first release of our latest initiative Maps 2.0!

 

 

First of all Congrats on the release of such ambitious yet much requested project!

 

It seems that Arma 3 has finally reached the point in its life cycle focusing on polishing and general tuning up for better standards across the board including its most popular mod, which is CUP of course. (I am not just saying it, that is a fact with the backing of the steam charts!)

 

I am specially excited for:

- Adding new interiors to older buildings.

 

A feature that will finally bring all CUP maps up to truly modern standards and "open up" so many new possibilities for mission making!

 

Lets be honest, CUP is already a must have. I believe that perhaps at least 50% if not more of the missions released each year rely to some degree on CUP content and that alone is a statement of how much you guys have contributed to this community for all these years!

 

Not many would dare to say this but I believe that not even BI could have done it better! And your contribution to Arma 3 sales surely deserves recognition and praise. (At least a certificate from BI that Arma 4 will be free for all of the CUP team members and ex members if you are still alive when it is released!).

 

Outside of the terrains please consider bringing A2 female civilians (and even military personnel) into the scope of the mod. I know there are other implementations available but none share the quality standards of CUP and I believe you guys must have had thousands of requests from mission makers regarding females.

 

PS: Remember your motto: 😃

 

On 12/24/2015 at 8:55 PM, CUP said:

The Community Upgrade Project is an initiative to bring all the content of ArmA 2
[+ OA and DLCs] from BI into ArmA 3, upgraded to the ArmA 3 feature set.

 

And A2 had females! =p

[-ben- 499]

3 hours ago, Devastator_cm said:

Thanks guys!

Is ACE3 compat works for this version as well?

 

Should do.

[Damian90 697]

@CUP

Just a suggestion. Perhaps for Chernarus 2020, an airbase could be upgraded a bit? WIth fences (walls and wire fences) from vanilla game (if I could also suggest without holes? to actually represent a real military base with a proper protection, demanding breaching?). Perhaps with new air control tower, hangars.

Maybe also in the southern part of the base a sort of a proper vehicle maintnance depot with vehicle hangars/garages?

Livonia object could also fit well the map.

[LSValmont 789]

I will do a quick fist impressions for you guys, just to clear some of my thoughts and also because this is the right time to suggest changes before everything is set on stone regarding Chernarus 2020.

 

First, the PROS!

1) Amazing performance. I get 90 FPSs basically everywhere! Almost no FPS spikes so object placement and distribution is very VERY optimized.

2) Great Buildings placements. I instantly felt at home despite not playing on Chernarus for several years now.

3) The new buildings with their detailed interiors and improved textures REALLY make a huge difference in immersion!

 

The CONS.

1) I really don't feel that Chernarus 2020 captures the isolated, obscure and sort of "neglected" country feel of the original just yet. (will explain more with pictures).

2) The distance terrain textures are still as bad as A2 or perhaps worst because it really shows due to Arma 3's clearer overall lightning and sharpness. (will explain more with pictures)

3) The old buildings with painted doors and low textures etc contrast waaay more now that we have the new buildings, so it looks like the map was made from two different teams or time periods (Which is true but shouldn't show).

4) The general feel of the vegetation is that there is less variety (trees, bushes etc) and also most vegetation use the same green, making everything look samey, specially on northern location where you expect the vegetation to change a little.

5) Everything looks so good and so sharp that it feels more modern and less abandoned... and it is not the livonia assets because on livonia the same assets look dated and neglected indeed so I believe is has to do more with the vegetation... since you are using the same lightning but there is something causing this effect for me.

 

Some pictures to better show what I am talking about!

Spoiler

 

 

The first image in the pair series is Chernarus 2020 while the next is Chernarus 2035. 

 

You can clearly see how much more Chernarus like is the 2035 version compared to the "happy" nature of current 2020.

 

The last minus one image shows those very poor quality distance textures on 2020, specially compared to those of 2035.

 

Lastly, you can see the huge difference in vegetation variety and just how natural it feels in 2035 considering the source material compared to the brighter version of 2020.

 

So far devs have removed lots of fluorecent green but it still feels "artificial" somehow.

 

Finally, all these comments are highly subjective so don't consider them as complains/complement but rather a point of view.

 

Thank you devs!

[zukov 490]

I like the new vegetations  and bulildings  i hope that is more playable than livonia.

a crazy suggestion for Saharani , vegetation from Altis and Malden and buildings a sort of mix with Malden and Tanoa (Tanoa has tall buildings) indeed Malden has  cactus and another palm. I don't know if, with terrain processor, is doable but ,i'm IN like volunteer for building placement to make a right Mexican / spanish  atmosphere and playable island

[Chairborne 2594]

its all good feedback, but as all things go when modding this game there's lots of ideas and not enough manpower 🤪 if there's skilled modelers or terrain artists hiding among you the door is always open.

cherno 2020 is still being worked on, we wanted the update out to start getting some more feedback from the community, expect more changes to come in the future.

[Bukain 86]

Thank you very much for the map! 

[Damian90 697]

@CUP@Chairborne

I made some effort to visualize some of these suggestions I made previously. It's up to you if you use them, tough hopefully this might be helpfull. So let's start with airbase perimeter security in form of walls and fences. I would see a proper air base protected like this.



I used only objects avaiable in vanilla Arma3 here. As we can see base is protected by a solid wall and a razor fence.



This area here is perfect to create a barracks area and also sort of storage and maintnance area for vehicles with hangars and garrages and other buildings. So mission makers could both create a proper areas to store ammo, weapons, store vehicles and repair them, and also isolate ground vehicles from air assets.



Some Livonia objects like this kind of hangar, can be used for both vehicles storage and maintnance area I presented earlier, and also to perhaps replace some other objects, like aircraft hangars. Also I would use the visible ground texture with concrete plates to use in vehicles storage and maintnance area. Other vanilla or Livonia objects could also be used like radar stations, control towers, barracks etc.

Hopefully this will be helpfull for you guys and can have potential for more interesting and modern Chernarus.

Cheers!

[sammael 366]

Congrats on the release

[dave_beastttt 135]

Great work on updating a well loved map

I think someone mentioned it on Discord, the castle tower at Zub is a little too high
 

[Chairborne 2594]

Issues go here: https://dev.cup-arma3.org/ 😀

[Predator14 17]

you really have to think about remaking the floors of your land because its just awful on the map cup: / and not at all to the arma 3 standard 😞

[-ben- 499]

7 hours ago, Damian90 said:

 

-Snip-
 

 

Thanks for the input.

 

I have a few ideas for a number of areas on the map already, there is also the benefit of having Chernarus Plus as an inspiration from Day Z SA. So we will see what the future brings.

 

3 hours ago, dave_beastttt said:

Great work on updating a well loved map

I think someone mentioned it on Discord, the castle tower at Zub is a little too high
 

As mentioned issues go on the tracker, with either the Maps 2.0 or the Chernarus 2020 tag, so they go to the right board please. 😄

 

[Sgt Smash 34]

Tried to run this on a exile server but get spammed with this in my logs

Spoiler

12:24:39 Missing addons detected:

12:24:39 cup_chernarus_config

12:24:39 Warning Message: You cannot play/edit this mission; it is dependent on downloadable content that has been deleted.cup_chernarus_config

12:24:39 Unsupported language English in stringtable

12:24:40 Unsupported language English in stringtable

12:24:40 Missing addons detected:

12:24:40 cup_chernarus_config

I have the mod instaled and commandline setup and mission file name set, any ideas?

[Chairborne 2594]

Corrupt/incomplete download or mods loaded incorrectly from commandline.

[Muecke 114]

Hi, I had a good 3 hours match last night on this Cherna2020 beauty. Its just amazing how its better running than the regular one.

I don't think its to sharp or to good, its just great how it is. Only thing I noticed were the woods, they look like they have more space.

I could drive through every forest I saw and it's possible to look into it from air vehicles which means it's harder to hide in there.

 

But that's just cosmetic. Playing on it feels awesome with much higher performance. AI vehicles drive much smoother somehow.

Excellent work so far!

 

 

[old_painless 182]

Hi, thanks for the work on improving one of the best maps that BI ever made. There are many great elements, love the more varied buildings which you can enter. Haven't been into a town yet but looking forward to seeing that also.

 

In my opinion, though, the shrubbery and forests are not yet up to the level of old Chernarus. There are ferns but they seem overused, like both within forests and outside. My memory of old Chernarus were that the forests had more variation in the undergrowth/shrubbery. The forests in the new version seem barren, like just a bunch of trunks. I think that is a shame as is takes away from the forest atmosphere. And like Muecke I could also drive an armoured vehicle through forests, so something has happened with the density. I have all settings almost at max, so should not be a setting issue.

 

So my feedback would be to please look into improving the forests. Dayz (with all its flaws) is a great reference for forest shrubbery and atmosphere.

 

Thx

OP

[South Will Rise Again 11]

First, big thanks for your wondeful work for all the time you invest in the Community Upgrade Project. I play Arma since OFP and I can clearly say that CUP is one of the best mods out there. The following is an idea, not a rule or something like this, and it's not meant in a rough, insulting or offensive way. 

 

So, as I said previously, I have some ideas how to improve this map.

 

 

 

So the first image is Chernogorsk/International Hotel. In front of the entrance, there's grass. But it would be way more immersive to add cobblestone or something like that in front of it. Especially the urban areas "have to be" reworked. So, it's not only the hotel, also e.g. the pub or the municipial office.

 

 

 

 

That's the train station @livonia

 

 

And that's the Chernarus train station. No offense, but you won't find a train station inside of green grass in a city like Chernogorsk. (Remember: Just an idea)

Also the port could be looked at again. Maybe some of the nice Apex piers for a more modern look?

Hmm, also this. I would suggest removing this low-res beton decal and adding a dirt-ground texture instead, if you want this airport to stay a small poorish provinvial airport.

Next "point" is the textures.

 

The ground and street textures could really be reworked. I suggest taking a look at this website: https://www.cgbookcase.com/textures/

There's each kind of textures the cultured modder wants 😉

Or something like this:

https://opengameart.org/content/4k-seamless-grass-dirt-ground-texture-with-all-shader-maps

https://www.eisklotz.com/products/seamless-pbr-textures/bundle-65-seamless-textures/ (okay, it's not free ;(    )

But the third and biggest point is the satmap

I mean the grass is very lightish green while the forests are nearly black... 

 

Cool would be fields like @livonia. That could also make the satmap looking better (if there were fields)

Livonias satmap just looks epic btw. What about rivers, bridges?

And also in the landscape, it just looks empty.

Here at livonia, there are everywhere small "secrets",  rocks, stones, ruins etc. And the forests are pretty dense there. But Chernarus 2020 forests are everything but dense...

Like this...

 

I hope I don't sound offense or not appreciative. English is not my mother tongue and I live in the US for only 3 years now, former Germany. So, I hope you understand what I mean (there was also a similar post about airports and satmap previously). Tnaks for your understanding and greetings from Jefferson

[Redneck_89 1]

 

I forgot writing what I meant with the municipial office. some more houses and cobblestone instead of dirt might look better. And again, it's an idea, thanks for your work!

[Varanon 892]

Note that Chernarus 2020 is a work in progress and changes and enhancements will come in time

[xxbbcc 6]

Wow, thank you very much for all the work you guys did to bring the old content back into the game.

[-ben- 499]

[old_painless 182]

Looking good, Ben, great variety of shrubbery and the forest seems more dense adding to a very realistic scene. Thanks for your work on this great map 😀