South East Asia Map

[dmitri 0]

Posted this in the wip thread originally, making a separate thread here.

South East Asia Map work in progress

Seam12.jpg

Low view distance, infantry\helicopter operations only map.

Fictional Vietnam setting intended to simulate different terrain types - coastline beaches, inhabited rural area and rice paddies separated from jungle by hills and valleys.

The map is photoshopped together from actual sat images of Vietnam.

Intention is to have an OGR style map for ArmA. Higher resolution terrain that sacrifices view distance for the chance at non urban close quarters battles (I miss OFP's high detail terrain setting ). Many small terrain features for small to medium sized infantry engagements\PvP.

Worked on it for three weeks day and night during January, but haven't had time to resume it since then. Completed a small area so far, roughly 700 square meters. Original plan was a 5km by 5km map. Sat map has been painted for about 50% of it.

Seam05.jpg - beach

Seam01.jpg - embankments and fields

Seam02.jpg

Seam09.jpg

Seam10.jpg - log for cover

Not sure if I'll get the time to complete my intended goals with RL work getting in the way.

That said, I'd like to release a "preview" version of the map at some point, regardless how incomplete it is.

If it doesn't get another release after that, I'll release all the working files to a mod that feels it needs this sort of terrain. Though you might not want it with the problems described below :

Being a six cell map (as opposed to Sahrani's ten cell), it requires a decent spec machine. The higher terrain resolution means view distances above 700m crash ArmA instantly. 500m on the other hand plays smoothly with a moderate amount of troops and optimised graphics settings. ..AI vehicles are broken. Unless someone can tell me otherwise, this appears to be an engine bug related to the increased cell density. Even on flat terrain, the AI drivers crawl along as though approaching the edge of a cliff.

Dmitri

[dmitri 0]

Roughly the area completed so far, left of the river:

Replying to the comments from the WIP thread..

Thanks for the positive feedback Nice thing 'bout posting pics is you can leave out all the bad bits.

This, along with the eagerly anticipated HWM U.S UH-1 and agamoths nam dudes and we have a "next generation" Vietnam pack.

Cant wait to use it.I did the 1st AirCavalry division Mission for VTE and if you like i can do one for this island to be packaged with it .

I've played your mission on LAN. The island is directly inspired by the awesome VTE mod. I don't think there is a standalone Vietnam game out there that can match the OFP version of VTE (and soon the ArmA version ).

Dmitri, If you decrease the range of different kinds of trees and other objects in the same area you may be able to increase performance if you are concerned about it.

I'll try this. Though I think Opteryx is right that most of the performance issues are terrain resolution related.

I would like to replace BIS's good looking but performance draining bush objects with ones similar to VTE's simplistic but very efficient sprite\poly plane bushes.

Haven't had the time to create new objects though, complete noob regarding O2.

Partly why the island is at best "Vietnam inspired", since I have to get by with BIS's European vegetation.

I had to ask, does it lag ingame?

It isn't an overly complicated map, but the cell size does

kill the engine. Runs smooth at 500m with optimised graphics settings on my system (8800gtx, amd 4400).

[sparks50 0]

Looks awesome, there really is alot of nice maps being worked on nowadays

[max power 21]

The island is quite nice... some of the things I notice, though, is that your ground textures seem a bit repetitive.. like the repeating pattern launches out at me.. and some of your trees appear to be distorted in terms of scale for some reason.

All in all it looks like a great map. Too bad ArmA can't simulate how muddy that seems to be. It looks like it would be like walking through oatmeal!

[Maddmatt 1]

If a 500m viewdistance is too much to get decent performance with your map, you can force it to be lower through the mission editor with the setviewdistance command.

Something like

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">setviewdistance 200

in the init field of a unit in the editor would force the viewdistance to 200m. This will probably be needed for lower spec PCs

You could also use fog to try to get better results.

The map's looking good

[fizix 0]

Maybe now that BIS released most of their models in source it wouldn't be too hard to modify a tree to look a bit less european.

Good work!

[dmitri 0]

Good work!

Thanks Fiz Glad you like it, since it's partly your idea to begin with.

The island is quite nice... some of the things I notice, though, is that your ground textures seem a bit repetitive.. like the repeating pattern launches out at me.. and some of your trees appear to be distorted in terms of scale for some reason.

Yup, that's the medium distance detail texture kicking in. Will look into to it.

Haven't noticed the tree size issue while playing on it, but I can see what you mean from looking at the shots. Some of it might also be down to using triplehead to take the screens, perspective distorts things big time. Easy to correct in Visitor anyhow.

If a 500m viewdistance is too much to get decent performance with your map, you can force it to be lower through the mission editor with the setviewdistance command.

My sorta-kinda-solution has been to set the initial fog in the islands config to about 500m distance.

[granQ 293]

great work, I so respect all the island makers and hope you can finish this off.

Hope you find time to finish it, and I think its better to release 2000 versions (not for the homepages that try host the latest version, and maybe not good for some people that judge it too soon).. but really help motivation, to be able to play with your friends, get some feedback.

Haven't tried it yet because I also got tons of projects but this is great and hope in the future that when I try this with VTE i won't get disappointed.

[xSOmbRAx 0]

OMG! im waiting for this

[xav 0]

Will there be an airport/airstrip or bases?

[icebreakr 3113]

And what about the villages and factory complexes?

[dmitri 0]

and I think its better to release 2000 versions

Thanks for the encouragement GranQ. I have enjoyed your mods Yeah, it would be nice to have someone to test the map and give feedback. This sort of thing eats into my limited time though, packaging maps and uploading etc. I know what I need to do, just need to make time to do it. First release will need to perform better than it does now, and be at least twice the area currently completed.

Will there be an airport/airstrip or bases?

At least two medium sized bases planned. Airstrip isn't a priority right now due to the low viewdistance and AI driver issues.

And what about the villages and factory complexes?

Small to medium rural villages, yes. A small one is just visible on the left of the first shot. I have no large urban areas planned since I think there are enough maps focusing on this. It isn't something that is personally important to me. I'd rather see a complicated network of rice paddies.

[The-Architect 0]

Got to make sure that all the areas of the map are usable by ai as well as player. Very step inclines are a problem as are extremely dense vegetation. The vinyard on Sahrani is a good example of a nice idea but a poor map design.

If you're going to do built up area, even if they're just villages, be sure to put grass cutters along the main throughfares and to give each building their own simulated land, a gaerden fence, some banana trees etc.

If you're going to add military bases remember that standard practice is to take away all the vegetation for some distance from the edges to prevent pesky bad guys from creeping up.

It would be nice to see some natural ambush points with good fields of fire too. Places we can set up surprises.

Good luck with the map, it looks the nuts at the moment.

[dmitri 0]

Good points Architect

Very step inclines are a problem

Continual extreme shifts in elevation are something I'm working to avoid. Partly why I never play on Northern Sahrani.

even if they're just villages, be sure to put grass cutters

Not using any clutter at the moment. Only slowed performance down with no effect on gameplay. Might change later.

give each building their own simulated land

Already heading in that direction. Still very much WIP (the nasty blocky mask map). Indistinct placeholder texture, but each hut is surrounded by footprints.

It would be nice to see some natural ambush points with good fields of fire too.

A central priority.

[mrcash2009 0]

This reminds me of Ghost Recons Original Expansion "Island thunder" map(s) .... looks real nice.

[WingedSerpent1969 0]

just found this wip.......wow

how is it comming along?

i wished more maps would concentrate on small size and more detail. looking forward to this one

[dmitri 0]

just found this wip.......wow

how is it comming along?

Going ok, working on it when I get time. Real life all consuming, gotta pay the bills. Some parts are looking quite special, it's the parts that don't that take time. Will release whatever I have in July.

[WingedSerpent1969 0]

yeah rl is a bitch....

thanks for the update

[Uziyahu--IDF 0]

Even 400 meters distance wouldn't be so bad, since 100 meters in ArmA looks like 300 - 600 meters in real life.