How will the "border" be generated?

[Misfit Leader 1]

Hello,

I were wondering, how will the border be generated ?

In ArmA & OFP we got infinite ocean.

Chernarus is supposed to be inland, so if anyone got an idea ?

Thanks

[sparks50 0]

"How will the "border" be generated ?"

Doesn't that Sakakah Al Jawf map for Arma have infinite desert instead of water?

I don't think theres any technical reasons to why all BIS maps has been islands before, so judging by the screens of Arma 2, it will be dry all-around this time.

[smellyjelly 0]

If there's no water, then hopefully it won't just be flatland. It doesn't look to great...

[suma 8]

I were wondering, how will the border be defined ?

In ArmA & OFP we got infinite ocean.

Chernarus is supposed to be inland, so if anyone got an idea ?

Insider info: we have some ideas, most likely we will end up with some extrapolation + random generation, but it is not decided yet.

We first need to implement features which affect gameplay or influence artwork creation, this is an isolated task which can be done very late in the development cycle.

[kegetys 2]

One decent way may be to make a basic huge terrain around the "real" terrain with a very low resolution heightmap and a mask. For example, something like a 512x512 heightmap + some simple mask for automatic vegetation creation that would cover a 256x256 km area around the real terrain. That could look nice on the horizon with high viewdistances and would also work as a decent looking terrain when flying with fast planes.

At the same time it could provide a very low detail terrain LOD, that could be used to draw Oblivion style "distant terrain" that looks nice on the horizon, but any vehicles etc. would not be drawn that far (The viewdistance slider could then adjust the range at which this LODing begins instead of adjusting the fog as it does now).

[Misfit Leader 1]

Thanks @All for the answers

[EricM 0]

That sounds nice... With a seamless tileable texture used as a mask and tree-clutter automatically generated outside the border as you go, you could have seemingly infinite countryside.

If you add random heightfield that's even better... especially for faster planes...

[Heatseeker 0]

No!

I understand Chernarus isnt supposed to have a coast but we need the sea, compared to OPF the sea really improved alot in Arma (boats, swiming, tides, etc), why throw it away now.

The game should have land, sea and air, and ofcourse.. fish .

[NoRailgunner 0]

There are so many boats&ships in vanilla ArmA and its really good to swim from Rahmadi to Sahrani and Porto....

Imho its a lot of work to get naval warfare working nicely in ArmA and ArmA2. Than you should have proper working aircraft carriers, landing craft, transport ships, ferries and some seaports with harbor facilities where stuff can be loaded or unloaded.

If you look where Chernorus is located you will have a long way to the next ocean. What about signs - "Arma2 worldmap end" in every direction N-E-S-W?

[kavoven 4]

No!

I understand Chernarus isnt supposed to have a coast but we need the sea, compared to OPF the sea really improved alot in Arma (boats, swiming, tides, etc), why throw it away now.

The game should have land, sea and air, and ofcourse.. fish .

OFP/ArmA never-ever focussed on marine warfare and I don't see any reason why it should in the future, as long as there are still ways to improve the warfare on land.

However I guess it will still be possible to make islands with Visitor and we still need some kind of "Desert Island"...

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Mayhaps Chernarus will have a lake? Or lakes? Or a river?

[Heatseeker 0]

Hmm i think this subject deserves a bit of thought..

Ok, Chernarus would make more sense without a coast but what would a infinite amount of tilled terrain give us? Nothing..

Ocean/shore on the other hand offers some interesting gameplay possibilities .

[Ezekiel 0]

It's probably a little far down the dev pipeline to be asking for the oceans and beaches back, but I'm personally *loving* the idea of an inland map. One thing that's always struck me as odd is the way the whole war and storyline is condensed onto these tiny island.. it makes little sense really. An island the size of sahrani would be obliterated by any armed force bigger than a glorified militia via shelling or bombing before any tanks ever set track on it. A standard self-propelled shell can be fired from one airport to the other.

This way, the map you play on is still massive but at the same time can be part of much larger forces at play - 20 T-72s can roll in across the border and it would actually *make sense*!

[Kirby 2]

How about do it what some other games do... Massive area, then at the edge its kinda harder to pass (mountains, whatever) then once you go past it, you end up on the other side of the map... not realistic but it works rather well, very smooth and can sometimes actualy add to gameplay ect.

[NeMeSiS 11]

How about do it what some other games do... Massive area, then at the edge its kinda harder to pass (mountains, whatever) then once you go past it, you end up on the other side of the map... not realistic but it works rather well, very smooth and can sometimes actualy add to gameplay ect.

Doesn't work in ArmA, especially fast planes cross the border very easily and it wouldnt make any sence to teleport them to the other side of the map.

Extrapolation+random generation sounds fine, especially if it also generates random trees. (Endless sparse forest at the end of the map)

Something which makes the end of the map noticeable would be nice though, like a mountain range or a river.

[Frank-O 0]

2 cents worth...

Please don't use mountains. Don't want to fly or fight in a fishbowl.

What happens if you eject in said random landscape? SOL? Respawn?

Walk it back to spawn? Abstract truck takes you back to border? Or you just get teleported to map edge closest to where you ejected off map?

[Kirby 2]

Well it wouldn't be that obvious, because it wouldn't "teleport", it would be smooth and seeable from the other side, as if it was a continuous map. I've seen it done effectivly but just cant remember where.

Well, It could be a possibility even if some maps opted for the standard island type...

[NeMeSiS 11]

Well it wouldn't be that obvious, because it wouldn't "teleport", it would be smooth and seeable from the other side, as if it was a continuous map. I've seen it done effectivly but just cant remember where.

Well, It could be a possibility even if some maps opted for the standard island type...

I know but it wouldnt make any sense in this game as the area is so big that going off the map and coming back in on the other end would mean that you effectively traveled like 12km to the other side without actually traveling all the way there, even if you make it look smooth it would still be too weird from a gameplay perspective.

[jakerod 254]

No!

I understand Chernarus isnt supposed to have a coast but we need the sea, compared to OPF the sea really improved alot in Arma (boats, swiming, tides, etc), why throw it away now.

The game should have land, sea and air, and ofcourse.. fish .

OFP/ArmA never-ever focussed on marine warfare and I don't see any reason why it should in the feature, as long as there are still ways to improve the warfare on land.

However I guess it will still be possible to make islands with Visitor and we still need some kind of "Desert Island"...

Possibly because you play as Marines as far as I know. If you don't play as Marines there is a lot of marine equipment (UH-1, M1, Osprey, Harrier? etc.)

You could do what the Delta Force series did and just have the same height field repeating over and over again.

One game that used that whole "go around the world" method was starfighter and it would be kind of cheap in this game because you could easily sneak behind enemy lines then.

[Heatseeker 0]

You could do what the Delta Force series did and just have the same height field repeating over and over again.

That would be the best option, infinite tiled terrain all around but i still think it would be a shame to loose the sea .

[jakerod 254]

You could do what the Delta Force series did and just have the same height field repeating over and over again.

That would be the best option, infinite tiled terrain all around but i still think it would be a shame to loose the sea .

You could still keep the sea on one side or something. Picture of Port

Good chance there will still be sea. Who would waste their time building a harbor if there wasn't going to be an ocean? I suppose it could be on a river or something though. It is also possible they could just put land on 3 sides or make it a peninsula and put it on only 1 with the other 3 edges being water.

[Pirin 0]

Boiling pits of tar!

[kavoven 4]

You could do what the Delta Force series did and just have the same height field repeating over and over again.

That would be the best option, infinite tiled terrain all around but i still think it would be a shame to loose the sea .

You could still keep the sea on one side or something. Picture of Port

Good chance there will still be sea. Who would waste their time building a harbor if there wasn't going to be an ocean? I suppose it could be on a river or something though. It is also possible they could just put land on 3 sides or make it a peninsula and put it on only 1 with the other 3 edges being water.

I love this idea since it would create much more atmosphere when you're "feeling" that the map isn't just an island, but part of a continent or something

[jakerod 254]

You could do what the Delta Force series did and just have the same height field repeating over and over again.

That would be the best option, infinite tiled terrain all around but i still think it would be a shame to loose the sea .

You could still keep the sea on one side or something. Picture of Port

Good chance there will still be sea. Who would waste their time building a harbor if there wasn't going to be an ocean? I suppose it could be on a river or something though. It is also possible they could just put land on 3 sides or make it a peninsula and put it on only 1 with the other 3 edges being water.

I love this idea since it would create much more atmosphere when you're "feeling" that the map isn't just an island, but part of a continent or something

Only thing I can't figure out is how to realistically end the roads. You can't have them just stop or all of a sudden do a loop and head back in. I wonder how they are going to do that. I suppose putting mountains at the end and making it a really small country might work.

[paragraphic l 2]

Only thing I can't figure out is how to realistically end the roads. You can't have them just stop or all of a sudden do a loop and head back in. I wonder how they are going to do that. I suppose putting mountains at the end and making it a really small country might work.

They create the area themselves, I don't think they would put a road going in/out at the edge of the map. It's a recreated area but they still use their creative freedom on it I hope.