Special Ground Textures (like in OFP) possible?

[KKB 0]

Is there a way to get special textures to appear on top of the normal terrain, like the Fields and Heli Landing Pad Markings in OFP? There are textures like that in ArmA, take a look at heli_*_ca.paa files in \CA\misc\data.

I thought this is the solution (from the Visitor Manual @ BI Community Wiki)

Quote[/b] ]

Detail Texture Resolution Setting

You need to set proper size of area, on which detail textures will be mapped. On ArmA islands, we use 40 meters, all textures are made in order to fit to this size. You will probably need to tweak size of original textures to fit your map's values. Clutter density values can be updated accordingly. - Make sure you have Panel of Objects visible (set in View menu). In Panel of Objects, choose "landscape-textures" from first roll-down menu. - On the bottom of panel, there is Layers space, there should be one line. RMB on it and choose to Edit layer. - Name of layer is not important. Name it as you wish. - Resolution IS important. Note that available values are ([terrain size]*2expN). For big maps, you may use quite big number (~100-200 meters, ugly look guaranteed). For Abel, I chose 50x50 meters. Using Sahrani surfaces as they are will thus make them look 1.25x bigger, they stretch on surface 25% bigger than on Sahrani.

This just doesn't work (Visitor from the RC3 Pack).

I think its impossible to include them in the satmap, since 1px = 1m resolution is not detailed enough, and going more detailed is insane, and even if you had them in the satmap, they would disappear once the player gets close, since the generated surface textures take over (go to North Sahrani, on the satmap there are Fields, you see them from the distance but you'll never reach them, once you're there they become simple grassland.

It's possible to map the desired texture on a plane in O2 and put the p3d on the map, but that doesn't feel right (and they wouldn't perfectly align with the surface), there has to be a better way.

Any suggestions?

Cheers, KKB

[Edge 2]

I would simply use objects for anything more complex than an improvised landing pad (where some soil/sand texture with no grass seems to be appropriate solution). There are few Heli*.p3d models in Misc.pbo; however, you may want to either flatten the area or to make a model whose points' property for vertical alignment would be "fence" (which has performance impact, "on surface" flag can suit the model better and is used in Arma helipad models.

[KKB 0]

Thanks for the reply, I'll do it this way then

I take it that the Quoted part of the Visitor Manual is obsolete, or is referring to something else entirely?