EZ Question for ya

[Tawalkana 0]

I was thinking about getting my hands dirty by making a map for the arma community. I would like to know the terrain size (512,756,1024,2048,etc) I would need to make to a replica of a city that is about 10x10 miles or about 17KM i think is about right. I'm American so KM gets me a lil screwy some times .

I am thinking about making a map that has Najaf, Karbala, and Hilla but I am a little clueless on the limitations of map sizes I can do for this game.

[Nicholas Bell 0]

Visitor can handle it - that's smaller than the BIS maps. Can your system and graphics editor handle working on the satellite image required for that size map with multiple layers? A flattened image for that size map will be around 200 mb, and if your like me you'll want to work with more than a few layers to keep things straight and make editing easy.

You also have to ask your self about in game performance issues with a map with that many cities (and therefore objects).

I'm not sure how to put this without sounding negative (which I of course do not intend), but perhaps you should consider something a bit smaller for starters, since it's your first. This map making is a real pain in the you-know-what, and perhaps you've noted the number of announcements of new islands under construction in the last 6 months doesn't equal the number released. They take a looonng time to do. I just released a beta of a 5 km x 5 km map which I started in January. I stopped keeping track of the hours when I passed 250, and I've got a ways to go before it's done. (must admit there is something quite addictive about this despite the difficulty...)

In any case there's a load of information in this forum if you search (and remember to set the search to the "beginning" of the forum, time-wise) and plenty of folks with lots of experience willing to help.

Welcome! (muhahaha!!!!...)

[Tawalkana 0]

Visitor can handle it - that's smaller than the BIS maps. Can your system and graphics editor handle working on the satellite image required for that size map with multiple layers? A flattened image for that size map will be around 200 mb, and if your like me you'll want to work with more than a few layers to keep things straight and make editing easy.

You also have to ask your self about in game performance issues with a map with that many cities (and therefore objects).

I'm not sure how to put this without sounding negative (which I of course do not intend), but perhaps you should consider something a bit smaller for starters, since it's your first. This map making is a real pain in the you-know-what, and perhaps you've noted the number of announcements of new islands under construction in the last 6 months doesn't equal the number released. They take a looonng time to do. I just released a beta of a 5 km x 5 km map which I started in January. I stopped keeping track of the hours when I passed 250, and I've got a ways to go before it's done. (must admit there is something quite addictive about this despite the difficulty...)

In any case there's a load of information in this forum if you search (and remember to set the search to the "beginning" of the forum, time-wise) and plenty of folks with lots of experience willing to help.

Welcome! (muhahaha!!!!...)

I have been around. I was actually around for OFP :P... Persian Gulf War Mod with Quakergamer and M9ACE :P... So basically don't make the map huge because people with low end PC's can't load it.

Still none have answered my question on how big a map needs to be for a city that is 10 miles x 10 miles. 1024x1024? 512x512?

[-IC-Wedge 0]

It depends on what is surrounding it. I am just finishing up an island that is 1024. It takes me about 15 mins to drive from one end to another (With road layout and Terrain into account).

As Nicholas said, i started with something alot smaller....my IC training isle. Its only about 6 months later that i have attempted to start something of this size.

I would say that 1024 would be a good size island to have that sort of town/city. I feel, Please dont take this the wrong way as that is not my intention, that you maybe biting off a little more than ArmA would like you to chew. A city 10 x 10 miles would be nice.... but for it to run effectively would have to be fairly sparcly populated.

Just my 2 cent :-)

[Tawalkana 0]

Wedge @ April 27 2008,21:16)]It depends on what is surrounding it. I am just finishing up an island that is 1024. It takes me about 15 mins to drive from one end to another (With road layout and Terrain into account).

As Nicholas said, i started with something alot smaller....my IC training isle. Its only about 6 months later that i have attempted to start something of this size.

I would say that 1024 would be a good size island to have that sort of town/city. I feel, Please dont take this the wrong way as that is not my intention, that you maybe biting off a little more than ArmA would like you to chew. A city 10 x 10 miles would be nice.... but for it to run effectively would have to be fairly sparcly populated.

Just my 2 cent :-)

Well since I cant' incorporate 3 ciites An Najaf, Kerbala, and Hilla. I will probably just do them seperate. I"m trying to do An Najaf which is about 10x10 miles of just the actual city, not counting the outskirts :P

[Nicholas Bell 0]

I apologize, I didn't understand the question. "Normal" parameters set when initializing the map in the Satellite Grid Calculation In Visitor is 1 meter per pixel. A 10 x 10 mile map would be about 16,384 x 16,384 pixels for the satellite & mask images.

As a point of reference, Sahrani is 20,480 x 20,480 pixels.

[Tawalkana 0]

I apologize, I didn't understand the question. "Normal" parameters set when initializing the map in the Satellite Grid Calculation In Visitor is 1 meter per pixel. A 10 x 10 mile map would be about 16,384 x 16,384 pixels for the satellite & mask images.

As a point of reference, Sahrani is 20,480 x 20,480 pixels.

Thank you. I was looking around for the answer but couldn't find it.