Tutorial for Visitor3 ?

[Chip360 0]

Hmm, well...

Does any1 know how you would use Terragen to create a map? I believe the Afghanistan Map was made using terragen (hence the .wrp files and such...)

I have created a cool crater like island in terragen and Im wondering what I would need to do to get it into Visitor with say... the Rhamadi Default sand textures...

Edit: I cant find anything to convert my .ter file into a .dem to be finally converted to .Xyz.... How sad :?

[fitzee 7]

Hi.

Im making a small map to learn visitor3. So far I have the land made and in game. The only objects ive placed are some rocks, like in the image. The problem is I can walk and shoot through them. Any help will be appreciated.

[Edge 2]

Opteryx, what tool do you use to pack your map? There's a packing/binarizing utility we are going to release and which will pack the addons correctly. However, it may be also somewhere in the config.

You mean HPP? It`s not the config... Here u can enter some Names which will be Displayed at the Map in Game.

Just would like to add that HPP is made when you export WRP, and is created based on keypoints you insert in Visitor. Release candidate lacks file KPtypes.dat. Just create it using Notepad, insert only this and save in Visitor3 folder:

Hill
BorderCrossing
VegetationBroadleaf
VegetationFir
VegetationPalm
VegetationVineyard
NameMarine
NameCityCapital
NameCity
NameVillage
NameLocal
RockArea
ViewPoint

Then you should be able to choose key-point type when you edit its properties.

Fitzee, these rocks are really big, so you have to be careful with maximum size setting. As far as I remember, safe threshold is 120% for these models. If they become bigger than 50m in any axis (50^3 cubic meters box), collision simulation may ignore them.

Nice map btw.

Edited March 9, 2013 by W0lle

[Atropin 0]

@Chip360 use Wilbur for convert ter to txt and rename txt to xyz

[USSRsniper 0]

Help me

Every time i import .xyz file or sattelite map, Visitor 3 crashes with Not responding error. But when I import .pbl file (image) it doesn't crash, but then other problem appears can't import sat maps.

I did reinstall Visitor 3....

[OFman 0]

If you changed .txt from Wilbur to .xyz it doesn't work.

My little map:

[Chip360 0]

It doesnt Work? I was like "Oh SWEET! THANKYOU SO MUCH GODD! THATS SO EASY!"

But now Im like... "Dude..."

Can anyone help me with my bulldzer problem posted in this section? Do you need the textures on for bd to work?

oh, Ps, If it doesnt work...

I figured out that GeoControl will create a pretty nice Grayscale image  (And Terragen Wont! Am I missing something Here?) Then I had to go into Photoshop and convert my .bmp into a 16 bit .png. After a quick config change (a little tweak is all) I had my map in Visitor... Im so stoked and I thank you all.. I have decided not to apply the textures yet (and fiddle with those 3 Images I "Have to create") and just take a breather for a min... But When I try to check it out in Dozer, I get a few Errors and it crashes...

Edit, Ps: Thats a pretty sweet island (I like the google etched into the texture, lol)

Question for all of you: Witch image/map is it that will directly be applied to the map? Not a colorful image that tells the game to color in sand and grass here and there, but the actual satellite photo of real terrain?

[USSRsniper 0]

OFman

I'm using .xyz file that was supplied with BIS's Sample Map.

Following this tutorial http://community.bistudio.com/wiki....ndscape

And Visitor 3 crashes with not responding error. Get exactly same error when i'm doing step "Import of satellite texture and surface mask", this is oficially, the worst software i ever used.....

[fasad 1]

Question for all of you: Witch image/map is it that will directly be applied to the map? Not a colorful image that tells the game to color in sand and grass here and there, but the actual satellite photo of real terrain?

What do you mean directly applied to the map?

The satellite map tells ArmA what the terrain looks like at a long distance.

The layer mask tells ArmA what detail mco (multiplier) texture to apply at the satellite map at closer distance.

The layer mask tells ArmA what detail co & nohq textures to display at very close distances.

[Atropin 0]

OFman

I'm using .xyz file that was supplied with BIS's Sample Map.

Following this tutorial http://community.bistudio.com/wiki....ndscape

And Visitor 3 crashes with not responding error. Get exactly same error when i'm doing step "Import of satellite texture and surface mask", this is oficially, the worst software i ever used.....

Maybe you try it with wrong size?

[USSRsniper 0]

OFman

I'm using .xyz file that was supplied with BIS's Sample Map.

Following this tutorial http://community.bistudio.com/wiki....ndscape

And Visitor 3 crashes with not responding error. Get exactly same error when i'm doing step "Import of satellite texture and surface mask", this is oficially, the worst software i ever used.....  

Maybe you try it with wrong size?

Was following BIS tutorial closely, put every number they tell you to...

[Chip360 0]

Oh, So i can make it look like a pizza at high-range but once you get closer be more detailed?

Thats cool, I ges it means all of the images have to be exact right? Is their any good way to do this? or Any good settings for image size?

[USSRsniper 0]

"Make sure that there is 40x40 meters value set in Texture Layers. It is the size of square into which the detailed textures are mapped. " from BIS tutorial....

But where do i do this?

[fasad 1]

Yes, it can look like pink and white stripes at long range, then as you approach it, the mco appears (say adding some carpet like texture - not colour). Then as you get really close, it can change to checkerplate metal plate.

All textures can be whatever size you want, the rvmats tell ArmA how to scale them.

Saharni uses 1024 detail textures covering a few meters each.

The mco's are 1024 and cover 40m each

The satellite/layer mask segments are 512x512. Each pixel of the satellite map covers ~1m of game world. A reasonable total size of these images would be the number of meters your terrain is.

[Chip360 0]

Oh, also, I read and it said the map size is dependant on the pixels...

In Photoshop I have checked and It is a 512x512 pixel grayscale... It is Flipping HUGE in Visitor, and thats with the default values for terrain size given in the tutorial... What Am I doing wrong? I cant get my Terrain size down... Not to mention, I have had a look at the Rhamadi Grayscale png size, and it is also about the same as mine, however mine is probably 10 x's larger....

[fasad 1]

You're talking about heightmaps now?

If you map is 512x512 cells, your heightmap should be 512x512 pixels. You must also correctly modify you pbl import config.

eg:

class cfg

{

PNGfilename="terrain.png";

squareSize=10;

originX=0;

originY=0;

minHeight=-50.000000;

maxHeight=97.200000;

};

Note squareSize should equal the cell size of you island.

[Chip360 0]

You're talking about heightmaps now?

If you map is 512x512 cells, your heightmap should be 512x512 pixels. You must also correctly modify you pbl import config.

eg:

class cfg

{

PNGfilename="terrain.png";

squareSize=10;

originX=0;

originY=0;

minHeight=-50.000000;

maxHeight=97.200000;

};

Note squareSize should equal the cell size of you island.

Yes I changed subjects rather randomnly, sorry about that  I found your other comment very helpful thankyou

---------------------------------------------------------

What is the square size and the cell size? This was one of the questions I found myself asking when I first started reading up on visitor.

[fasad 1]

The second setting upon starting a new terrian

Cell size = the distance between two vertexes of the terrain grid. Smaller cell size = more detailed terrain, lower performance.

Sahrani uses 10/20m. I've been frequently told it is 10m, although I can only see a 20m grid in game. My V3 test island used 10m cells, and they appear as 10m cells in ArmA.

[Chip360 0]

Thankyou so much, I guess the key words here were pixel size, I changed to 256 and it is much smaller, however now it is rather rough looking.... and Im not sure why its so rugged, but I can probably figure it out. Thanks for the help!

Edit: Moving on to textures now

I think I am going to go into the program I created the Terrain with and change the "color preview" to a cool sandy color, this way I can just export an Image to use for my satellite texture. As Half ass as it is, it should get the job done for now. Ok, Now with the middleish texture, the mco I believe its called.. I assume I can do the same right?? What has to be different? Do I need to try and make the size smaller? Or add more detail or what?  Then When It comes down to the final mask, the close-range one that requires you to paint the colors of the Legend, do I need to have that for a preview in Dozer? Does anyone have any tips for making that? I believe someone said to go into Photoshop and use the masking function on the sat of my Island to paint the legend colors on. Is this all I need to do to get my textures going guys?

Edit 2:

Ahh, I see this is very helpful:

Quote[/b] ]Yes, it can look like pink and white stripes at long range, then as you approach it, the mco appears (say adding some carpet like texture - not colour). Then as you get really close, it can change to checkerplate metal plate.

All textures can be whatever size you want, the rvmats tell ArmA how to scale them.

Saharni uses 1024 detail textures covering a few meters each.

The mco's are 1024 and cover 40m each

The satellite/layer mask segments are 512x512. Each pixel of the satellite map covers ~1m of game world. A reasonable total size of these images would be the number of meters your terrain is.

Edit 3: You guys remember the Afghan Island that was released about a month ago? (Of course you do) The whole "Island" Was one texture. How can I do that for my own map? Would I make all of the image Maps the same and paint over the whole island with one color (for my close range map) pointing to my own texture?

Ok Final Edit (I swear): How Long should it normally take to import the Satellite and Mask? I kept closing my program after I thought it was freezing during the process but I noticed the png's and other files in the layers folder half completed... Does this take like 10-20 minutes?

Also, since Im using the same folder as the sample, Im not really sure what should normally be in the data folder before applying the sat and mask. Should I move all the Rvmats in there? Arent those generated or something? Or should I just leave the whole folder alone?

[luki 53]

If you changed .txt from Wilbur to .xyz it doesn't work.

Sure, it works without any problems ( i use Wilbur 1.26 )

mfg

[Chip360 0]

Alright.... When I try to import my Mask and Satellite (Which IM not even sure if they are currect sizes for my island) The progress bar stops about 2/3s of the way through... then the program stops responding and eventually windows explorer shuts it down

How long should it take to bake on a measly extremely shitty Amd 3000+ (1.81 Ghz) and A single flippin gig of Ram? (Im updating to a suber Computer by Christmas, pooring a ton of cash into it, itll run Crysis on full settings like my comp will run Ms Word.... so bare with me )

Also, I have no clue what size the textures should be...

My Grid Size is 512x512

Terrain Cell size is 10 m

And Terrain size is 5120 x 5120

IN the calculator, I put the size of the png image I used to generate the island, which is 512 (512x512)

and the default segment size is 512 pixels with an overlap of 16 pixels.

These are my settings....

--------------------------------

Now my maps are as follows:

sat.bmp (the far one) is 2048 x 2048 and ways in at 12 mb.

sat_ico.png (which is just a copy of the same image, only saved as a png, for the purpose of just getting the damn textures in dozer) is 2048 x2048 and ways in at 9.5 meg.

My mask_ico.png, is all yellow and is 27.1 kb.

My config is correct, as im using the sample one.

Im totally tired so Im going to get some sleep, but can anyone help me out?

[csj 0]

Yeah, what he said plus

everytime I try to load buldozer for the sampleMap I get this

and then it shuts down

[DBO_ 0]

Quote[/b] ]My Grid Size is 512x512

Terrain Cell size is 10 m

And Terrain size is 5120 x 5120

IN the calculator, I put the size of the png image I used to generate the island, which is 512 (512x512)

and the default segment size is 512 pixels with an overlap of 16 pixels.

Quote[/b] ]

These are my settings....

--------------------------------

Now my maps are as follows:

sat.bmp (the far one) is 2048 x 2048 and ways in at 12 mb.

this should be 5120x 5120 [ 512x512 x10m = 5120]

Quote[/b] ]

sat_ico.png (which is just a copy of the same image, only saved as a png, for the purpose of just getting the damn textures in dozer) is 2048 x2048 and ways in at 9.5 meg.

My mask_ico.png, is all yellow and is 27.1 kb.

Its LCO or lco not ico , these should also be 5120x5120

the texture created when you export a pbl file which in sample

is called terrain.png should be 512x512

Quote[/b] ]

My config is correct, as im using the sample one.

that config is correct for the sample map ,if its correct for the map your creating is debatable and you may need to investigate.

[Second 0]

Quote[/b] ]My Grid Size is 512x512

Terrain Cell size is 10 m

And Terrain size is 5120 x 5120

IN the calculator, I put the size of the png image I used to generate the island, which is 512 (512x512)

and the default segment size is 512 pixels with an overlap of 16 pixels.

Quote[/b] ]

These are my settings....

--------------------------------

Now my maps are as follows:

sat.bmp (the far one) is 2048 x 2048 and ways in at 12 mb.

this should be 5120x 5120 [ 512x512 x10m = 5120]

Quote[/b] ]

sat_ico.png (which is just a copy of the same image, only saved as a png, for the purpose of just getting the damn textures in dozer) is 2048 x2048 and ways in at 9.5 meg.

My mask_ico.png, is all yellow and is 27.1 kb.

Its LCO or lco not ico , these should also be 5120x5120

the texture created when you export a pbl file which in sample

is called terrain.png should be 512x512

Quote[/b] ]

My config is correct, as im using the sample one.

that config is correct for the sample map ,if its correct for the map your creating is debatable and you may need to investigate.

My map with same size as his, goes well with 512x512 sized .PNGs

I've "crafted" guite a punch of different yet mostly small sized maps this far and there has not been any problems this far with satelite or layer mask sizes, they always have been 512x512 in size. No crashes this far. Well right now i'm having problems with right textures and soiltypes (maybe my ownmade layer mask is problem, i don't yet know).

Filenames are just sat.png and mask.png

Well can't say that it's 100% flawless, as my layer mask isn't read as it should be. Final layer mask (that M_000_000_lco.PNG) is quite a bit different from original. Most likely i'm having problems in layer configs and not with map size.

[fasad 1]

The segmented layer mask should be different to the source file you import into visitor. The source image can use any colours you choose (as per your config), whereas the output files always use black, red, green, and blue only. These colours (in the same order) represent the nth terrain in that particular segment, so red on one segment may be a different terrain type to red on another segment.