Razani, North Waziristan Map

[Blackhawk 0]

Looks Friggin' good, Now we need some Taliban units with Chinook's and the 101st Airborne and we got ourself's Operation Anaconda.

(We already got all those units so we just need this map )

[icebreakr 3100]

Pavehawk: heh, gladly, but we're still busy with Operation Thunderkill on Barbuda =)

[Nicholas Bell 0]

Sorry, no new images to show.  Working on more mundane things like the mask.  I had the map mask setup with small 256 pixel segments but that was causing stuttering every few seconds while flying over the map.  So I've had to change the mask segment size back to 512 pixels - no performance problems there.   Since the ArmA can only have 4 textures per segment, this has a big impact on how varied the ground will appear.  With the smaller segment there are of course more of them (segments) covering the map, allowing for more opportunities for different textures fairly close together.

A typical example is where I have a  road shoulder texture (necessary to stop clutter objects from "growing" in the road), dry riverbed, and farm field.  That's 3 textures, leaving only 1 texture for the rest of the terrain in the 512 square pixel segment.  With a 256 pixel segment I could often isolate the farm fields in their own segment, allowing for 2 base textures in other areas.

Maybe this is more information than you want to know

As far as scrub placement, in addition to "hand" placement,  I am using the random object placement script with varying densities to match the actual density, if not the exact placement.

And although I know "caves" are on people's want list for this map, that's way down on my priorities.  I've looked at Oxygen enough to know it's nothing I'm going to learn easily or quickly.  Whole different skill set than map making.  I have managed to re-colored rocks in their own PBO to better suit this maps terrain colors.  I know it's laughable, but that was quite an accomplishment for me!

[Namikaze 0]

I've been playing around very slightly in Oxygen and Visitor the last week or so, and I believe that in order to make caves and/or tunnels, they'd need to be modeled objects that get added to the map, is that right? Someone made a Cheyenne Mountain addon that was basically just this huge mountain with everything modeled inside of it, so I'm pretty sure this is the only way to add caves/tunnels.

[Inkompetent 0]

Wow. Incredibly stunning map! I'm really, really looking forward to fight in that environment. So open and yet so much concealment makes for an infantryman's hell or heaven

[colonel well 0]

I've been playing around very slightly in Oxygen and Visitor the last week or so, and I believe that in order to make caves and/or tunnels, they'd need to be modeled objects that get added to the map, is that right?  Someone made a Cheyenne Mountain addon that was basically just this huge mountain with everything modeled inside of it, so I'm pretty sure this is the only way to add caves/tunnels.

hi, it's me for cheyenne mountain addon , but xpetit realesed cave look here :

http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....=xpetit

if you need a p3d tunnel tell me  

[Alex72 1]

Amazing work so far Nicholas! Thaught the first image was a photo too...

Regards

Alex

[Nicholas Bell 0]

[Nicholas Bell 0]

[Average Joe 0]

One has to say...

nice

[MehMan 0]

Looks awsome! I like the terrain, it's not too hilly but neither too flat. Only thing that might be needed is a bit more cover rather than concleament. Really love the bush placement, looks really really real!

Great work so far.

[Stewy 1]

Simply stunning mate - that's ART that is!

[pauliesss 2]

Really nice.

[cheritto 0]

wahou stunning work, hope to see some vilages inside, and why not an insurgency mod as in Project reality mod from BF2. I like the river, but i d prefer it if his shores would be flatter.

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Great stuff, Nic. I think that (going along Mehman's idea) some more rocks would do it quite nicely, but it looks lovely as is, and it most certainly is your map. Excellent work.

[NoRailgunner 0]

Nice terrain! What about AI and their pathfinding skills on this map?

Are you using 3DE from mapfact?

[mrcash2009 0]

The dogs bollocks.

Thats all I can say

[MarkJ112 0]

Nice work looking forward to it!  

[Nicholas Bell 0]

Thanks - hope it meets all your approval when you get it in hand!

Rocks - understand.  I'm not done yet.  Next week I'll get some shots with completed rocky areas.  But some areas are pretty smooth - following the real world image best I can.

AI Pathfinding - As noted early there is not problem for leg units at all.  In fact they look more intelligent than they really are

Vehicles, unfortunately do not understand that they should not drive up steep hills or cliffs.  They will need plenty of waypoints - especially on the hairpin curves (which I have not shown yet).

I honestly have not had the time to look at MapFacts 3DE.  I was under the impression it was more for use in placing objects on existing maps for missions, as opposed to creating maps.

Villages - as noted earlier in the thread, the area has a lot of small villages and compounds all over the map.  I wouldn't be surprised if Bin Landen was hiding in one of them. The recent US strike in North Waziristan was off map to the upper right.  This area has been under Taliban control for a long time, and may be the future target of the Pakistani Army.  Guess no one has made a mod for them yet.

The rivers do not have water - they are dry.  They only have water in the springtime during the snow melt.  There are portions of the rivers with smooth slopes down to the riverbed.  These areas usually have villages and small farmfields.  The steep canyon slopes are not my doing - blame nature

MrCash2009 - sorry it's not Jolly Old England. All dry and nasty, I know it's a disappointment.  

[bravo 6 0]

Fantastic job so far!

The textures look very nice and the background sat_image is very nice and looks very realistic

keep it up

[MehMan 0]

I honestly have not had the time to look at MapFacts 3DE.  I was under the impression it was more for use in placing objects on existing maps for missions, as opposed to creating maps.

No no, the exact opposite! They created a whole island using that tool and in splendid detail!

[Kerry 0]

Ooohhh my goddd,

amazing!!!

[EricM 0]

Nicholas : Theses are 2 different things

- RTE by ionos = mission making (the one you think of)

- 3DE by solus & mapfact = map making

[mcpxxl 2]

@Eric 3DE --> Silola and mapfact ;-)

@Nic All objects implemented on 3de island are done with

3DE editor and then importet to Visitor.

Ace did only the blank island with Detailtextures

[OChristie 0]

Nicholas Bell you have done it again,

What a truely amazing map in the works, It looks absoulotley amazing, If you want and help or anything atall like that just ask!!

Cheers