Schmalfelden, Germany Map

[Stavanger 0]

nice Screens... have you higher resolution of these Screenshots?

Regards,

Stavanger

[belgerot 33]

I think it is a wonderful map, probably one of the best I've seen in a long time. The atmosphere is there, especially since it is based off of a real location you get the feeling of what it's actually like there.

I like what I see so far, but I'm against anything that would drastically change the feel of the map.

[Nicholas Bell 0]

Quote[/b] ]Are there no canals or ditches along the roads? Or does that introduce too many problems for A.I.?

The terrain elevation vertices are based on a 10 meter grid, so it is not possible to create roadside ditches. Making the grid smaller would make ditches possible, but has a negative impact on FPS. In any case it's not possible to change this map as the grid is established when the map is first created. Dmitri is working on a small map (jungle them) with a small grid: http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....=dmitri

Quote[/b] ]Do you think that you maybe could make the map bigger

I wish, but it's not going to happen. The original map was 10 km x 10 km, but I realized I was never going to be able to get it done in a reasonable amount of time. Schmalfelden is a quarter of the original area and it's going to be 6 months until it's done. So it's not hard to imagine that it would take 2 years for me to do a 10 x 10 km map at this level of detail, even given some economy of scale and improvement in my skill. Much time would be spent waiting for the computer to load and process the huge files necessary for this size map.

Creating the towns is the real consumer of time. If I could find a new area, larger area with little habitation I would consider that. Problem there is the terrain meeting that criteria is going to be mountainous and heavily forested, which creates it's own set of issues with frame rates. Plus why do another North Sahrani? I've looked at some areas in Ukraine and Russia, but they are heavily populated with large towns/village spaced every few kilometers, so not much help reducing the work load. In any case I've thought a lot about this and Schmalfelden is my compromise between what I wanted and what I can manage to actually finish. There's a lot of good reasons why BIS created Sahrani the way they did - they understood all the resource limitations.

Quote[/b] ]I just finally got to play last night on the latest map.

Mr Cash2009 - Looks like you had quite an interesting and realistic engagement. Good to know the frame rates were better. They should continue to improve as I revise the all the forests. Thanks for the report!

Of course the final goal of thinning out the forests is to able to introduce a second version with edge growth and undergrowth in the forests. I took a breather from the main job last night and did some experimenting to see what that would look like:

There are 5 squads and 5 M1A1s in my FOV - added to provide a more realistic frame rate with more load on the CPU than just me and the terrain. Without the scrubbery I was getting 38 FPS. With it, the FPS dropped to 35. Of course this was without anyone moving much, and it was only a small area of the map (remembering that all objects in the FOV whether actually visible or not have an impact on FPS).

[teilx 4]

great work

hope is not the last germany Euro map

[MehMan 0]

Nice, I've always missed the scrubbery on the edge of the forests.

Good job so far!

[icebreakr 3159]

Nicholas Bell: this pic says it all - love it! This kind of undergrowth makes it ideal for ambushes or hiding infantry along the road so tanks cannot spot them. Not to mention sneaky satchel/mine attacks loveeee it

[[GLT] Legislator 66]

Well .. has anyone tested if the AI can't look through this nice forest shown on the pic? Would be cool to know if the AI really wouldn't see the player behind it. I know of Durgs vegetation fix but somehow I can't see any improvement.

[Nicholas Bell 0]

Yes, it works great. I set myself behind the bushes and ran a squad toward me with a waypoint order seek and destroy on the other side. In numerous tests they only spotted me when they went through or around the shrubs. Here's a very blurry video (I know squat about making movies) of a squad running by on the other side while I'm standing watching (not kneeling or prone).

http://mihd.net/5wa0hid

In another test the enemy stopped and stood there for 5 minutes looking right at me (and around looking). Here's a still shot:

[mrcash2009 0]

nice Screens... have you higher resolution of these Screenshots?

Regards,

Stavanger

I made them small and what size they are is all I have.

That said, I found some more nice location and "snap" moments, so I will make a further bunch of screen grabs, don't know why but taking pictures in this map seems fun.

I will make thumb/hi res later today.

I feel this map needs some real crisp screenies, im willing to help.

[[GLT] Legislator 66]

@Nicholas:

Now THATs really awesome. Guess I'll make it a DAC map when it's final. Really impressive work you've done

[Uziyahu--IDF 0]

Just make sure to have openings in the bushline of various widths.

Keep up with the chaos. : ) Chaos makes things look more natural.

[-HUNTER- 1]

This map is totally cool. Ive had more fun on this map in a few hours then months on sahrani!

Because its completly flat, and with nice farm areas and little towns. It could pass as The Netherlands easy.

Its a small map, but still EXCELLENT for arma warfare!

Its not lagging for me that much, only with nightvision and people shooting.

[mrcash2009 0]

Ok ive done some more screen captures of this wonderfull map, this time all enlarged version are in hi-res 1280x1024.

I took time out to take snaps of the loverly forests but then also ventures out into the villages and open country to get some good snaps. I tried to get the best i could as this map deserves it. Its all direct grabs from ARMA to Photoshop the only thing I have done is added brightness to a few, no extra processing or filtering is added, what you see is what you get on all setting high

( ** NOTE: any sites mirroring this map that want to use the screen grabs please feel free to use them, that realy was the point ** )

1280x1024

1280x1024

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1280x1024

pic6 pic7 pic8 pic9 pic10 pic11 pic12 pic13 pic14 pic15 pic16 pic17 pic18

[Nicholas Bell 0]

Very nice images, Mr. Cash. Thanks you for posting these! Must admit I get a great sense of satisfaction that I have been able to contribute something folks are really enjoying. Small payback for all the mods others have done which I use.

Quote[/b] ]Just make sure to have openings in the bushline of various widths.

Oh, yes. Will do. My little test only included about 100 meters of treeline shrubs. It took a little time but eventually the bad guys found the holes or went around the ends.

Quote[/b] ]Keep up with the chaos. : ) Chaos makes things look more natural.

Within the limited number of bushes, scrubs and small trees that are available I will do my best. There are some bush types which block movement - I may leave those types out to assist the AI.

Work continues on thinning out the forests, and adding some stuff to spice up the towns. The object count is down from the original 280,000 to 145,000 and I seem to have crossed some threshold in doing so, because even in the old un-thinned forests which are super dense, I'm still getting around 50-55 FPS. Everywhere else I'm maxed out at 60 FPS. (course adding any units seems to cut this almost in half no matter where - demonstrating the effect of units on the CPU load).

Given family obligations and what is left to complete on forest thinning, I am going to forgo issuing another version this weekend. Instead I will shoot for releasing the next version which will be close to v1.0 with all the forests thinned out and all the objects I can easily place, completed. I don't think I am going to be able to do signs with town names because it doesn't appear to be a simple paint job - it will require use of Oxygen to modify the sign. Out of my league.

The next step will be to either work on the autumn version of the "thin-forest" map, or work on adding the treeline shrubs. From that point there will be 2 versions of the map - the "thin-forest" version, and the "treeline shrub" version for those who are willing to accept the FPS hit to gain some concealment.

I will release the "thin-forest" map source files before starting work on the autumn version or the "treeline shrub" version. My goal is by next weekend (May 18) but it may take a few days more.

[mr burns 132]

About the signs, i just stumbled over scars pack again and it has some really nice german stuff, like the "lebensgefahr .. bla" sign which would perfectly fit around the quarry: http://armed-assault.de/screenshots/scars09sign-1_0_2263.jpg

Sign Pack

I doubt that 4 signs out of 20 are worth reqiuiring the whole pack for the island, i´d rather see them inbuilt in the schmalfelden pbo - but dont know if that is possible. It would also require scar09´s permission but that wont be a problem imho.

edit: added link

[FABfm 0]

Hi

Nice pictures mrcash2009 I did a slideshow with your images Click Me

@Nicholas Bell

Very good work ! Your job is incredible and very beautiful

[canukausiuka 1]

I've had a small video up for a while using your map as well:

Its in the open for the most part, though, and the view distance is pretty cut down (FRAPS was killing my frame rate unless I decreased it... performance was fine w/o FRAPS and w/ a larger distance). Oh, and my video making skills are crap.

[Uziyahu--IDF 0]

There won't be a "thin forest" version WITH tree shrubline?

Remember to have a few German estates that aren't so well-kept.

[mrcash2009 0]

Nice to here Nicholas, great to have the variations and the autumn version too.

What you have nailed in this map is that "something" missing from the woodland in Sahrani. I love the desert areas for Sahrani and some wooded areas, but to be honest im using your map for woodland missions its just perfect for it.

Cant wait for the updates, I will probably flip around and take some snaps of the next releases, if you want any Id be glad to help.

[[GLT] Legislator 66]

I don't think I am going to be able to do signs with town names because it doesn't appear to be a simple paint job - it will require use of Oxygen to modify the sign. Out of my league.

Have you tried adding new textures to the town signs of arma? Here's a picture how they look like. Well they "almost" look like in arma. Would be better than nothing :-/

[mrcash2009 0]

Well, isn't there a modder here that would throw in some help and paint some signs for Nicholas?

I realize the source will be released but it would be nice to have that done before you pass it out and sign it off as it were.

[Nicholas Bell 0]

Canukausiuka - Thanks for posting! Looking forward to the I44 mod. Schmalfelden works for eastern France & Belgium, but a bocage map would really be neat. Of course there's the issue of how to make the hedgerows using a small cell map and still have it large enough to be useable and maintain a decent frame rate.

FABfm - You've given me the idea of making a screen saver slide show with Mr Cash's beautiful shots. Somehow they look better than in game. He has a good eye for composition.

Uziyahu--IDF - I need a better naming convention Let me clarify:

The original super dense forests of v0.8 are gone. No more.

All maps will have thinned forests.

One set of maps (summer and autumn) will not have the edge growth.

Another set of maps (summer and autumn) will have edge growth.

Hope this makes it clear.

Legislator - The signs are composed of separate p3d models which take the arrows, names, and distance numbers off a single paa image. That is all the names and numbers are on one image. I can do a paint job and change the names, but getting the arrows and numbers correct requires modifying the p3d file to use the correct area on the paa image. I'm sure I could figure it out in a week or so, but that would be at the expense of working on the map. I'm sure making the modifications is child's play for a modeler experienced in Oxygen.

[mr burns 132]

Seperate Summer & Autumn versions are a nice move from you, but you could aswell just save the time for the autumn version and let people use the replacement pack instead. At least i dont see a need for 2 versions for that matter.

With replacements the woods sometimes look strange from above (e.g. a perfectly square field of autumn trees between some lush green ones) but that´s not a biggie imho since the map is more suitable for infantry combat anyway.

[[GLT] Legislator 66]

I've just played a DAC mission on Schmalfelden ... and woooow

280 enemies, 70 groups and 30 fps at 2,5 km viewdistance on the ground. Never seen anything amazing like this. It was world war 2 feeling having dozens of tanks driving across the country while artillery impacts nearby. It's even better than DAC 2.0 in Sakakah because the waypoint calculation of the AI works better.

But we noticed that one thing is a real must-have. Please place some hay on the fields. The players cry for some cover Some civil guard towers at the forrest edges would be cool too. Because of the terrain we'll use spotters from higher ground.

I'm eager to see the next release version. If it takes one or two weeks longer to finish it - be it. Take all the time you want.

[mattxr 9]

Yeah this is a loovly map.