ArmA II's infinite land

[Alex72 1]

eww nice land

As everyone except you know - thats the german release and will not look like that in the 505 version 3 weeks from now. Not even the german will look like that after an upcoming patch to match the 505...

[Focha 0]

Instead of infinite terrain they should make a round world. And then detail some parts of it (like the map of ArmA II) while others remain less detailed until a new map was added with more detail, depending on where you are, the LoD could be different and that way the round world would not be a performance issue. Guess that would be at least more realistic instead of infinite land to the edge of the world (that did not make any sense... oh well). That was a thing used in for example Delta Force games where it had blocks of the same terrain going to the infinite. LOL Let's all think on the infinite and make a global headache. :)

Regards.

[frederf 0]

I think that ArmA2's planned system of continuing terrain is better than a small spherical world or Delta Force's method.

[sparks50 0]

People should avoid buying the Morphicon version in my opinion. It may be tempting to get the game earlier, but you will be rewarding them for pushing out a unfinished game.

[Hyp3rdyn3 10]

I think it's a gross simplification to shift blame entirely onto the publisher for the state of the infinite terrain. BIS clearly have not given it a high priority and I tend to agree with this decision.

[maddogx 13]

The infinite terrain is just eye candy in my opinion. I can't wait to see what the real version looks like, but it not being there isn't exactly a game breaking bug.

[Steakslim 1]

The infinite terrain is a cosmetic feature at best and isn't crucial to the game outside the added immersion. They said at the 505 session that they were having problems that did not allow them capable of implementing it by the Morphicon release. All of this was discussed a week ago, so we all knew it wasn't gonna be present in this friday's (or in this case "today's") release but will be rectified in the next patch (probably). I see no reason to blame Morphicon, as if BIS felt the game wasn't "ready" they would of asked for a delay. I know the business end of such a thing probably isn't that simple but they seem to be keeping a tight grasp on their product and were quite confident about the upcoming release.

The article earlier by PCGames.de even caught BIS by surprise it seems (especially by breaking the embargo which seems to be happening quite a bit ala Tascali with the preview a few months back), and i'm sure we'll know more in time on what went wrong with them, but I do not think the Morphicon release is as much of a mess as the "scare" let on, especially after watching Bert's live feed earlier.

[Baldman 10]

I think people are fogetting that this infinite land is attached to ARMAII and letting their imaginations run wild.

I think its intention is only to allow the land locked corners of the map to be used without invisible walls making them utterly useless for mission editing. They arent intended to be worlds within themselves. Exploring them is going to be about as fun as exploring the infinite oceans we're already privvy to.

[sparks50 0]

Yes, but its sort of a immersion breaker when theres a huge brown border at the map, where the world abruptly ends.

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/969/arma221.jpg

[maddogx 13]

Yes, but its sort of a immersion breaker when theres a huge brown border at the map, where the world abruptly ends.

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/969/arma221.jpg

True. But we also know it won't be like that forever. So if you're getting the german version, just ignore it for the next 2-3 weeks. And if you're getting the 505 version.... just ignore it for the next 2-3 weeks.

[myshaak 0]

I think people are fogetting that this infinite land is attached to ARMAII and letting their imaginations run wild.

I think its intention is only to allow the land locked corners of the map to be used without invisible walls making them utterly useless for mission editing. They arent intended to be worlds within themselves. Exploring them is going to be about as fun as exploring the infinite oceans we're already privvy to.

I agree with you on the most parts. The idea of infinite land in the game is there only for preventing players from "OMG, am I going to crash in the invisible wall?!" fear.. BUT! I also see great potential in this idea. So far, the infinite terrain is only a landscape full of grassy hills, nothing more.. but do you know, what we could get, if someone (most likely BIS) found a way to add trees, roads, objects and even cities there? A F***ING ISLAND GENERATOR!

The idea of generating fully detailed terrain behind the borders of standard map during MP sessions is IMO not real.. the farther you go, the more data has to be accumulated, stored and exchaned between all players.. talk about high ping and synchronization. Single player? Different story..

[lapa 1]

Yes, but its sort of a immersion breaker when theres a huge brown border at the map, where the world abruptly ends.

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/969/arma221.jpg

OT, isn't that a river? :)

[myshaak 0]

OT, isn't that a river? :)

Great find, but I can't find anything like a river on the Chernarus map so close the map border... it's most likely the "Guba bay"

[Lou Montana 101]

Why not some kind of Worms 1 solution ?

random terrain generated based on a text string, so it will be generated for everyone the same... !

4 first letters, 0 or 1, will be north/west/south/east "island or border",

next 3 could be maximum height, etc etc

So no need to have 1.5GB map, just one < 1kb string :) (but better have a good CPU ^^)

[myshaak 0]

Why not some kind of Worms 1 solution ?

random terrain generated based on a text string, so it will be generated for everyone the same... !

4 first letters, 0 or 1, will be north/west/south/east "island or border",

next 3 could be maximum height, etc etc

So no need to have 1.5GB map, just one < 1kb string :) (but better have a good CPU ^^)

I doubt it's that simple.. otherwise Deutschlanders would get this feature in their release already :p

[thaFunkster 0]

I demand another planet!

Sorry, couln't resist

L o l. )

[Baldman 10]

I agree with you on the most parts. The idea of infinite land in the game is there only for preventing players from "OMG, am I going to crash in the invisible wall?!" fear.. BUT! I also see great potential in this idea. So far, the infinite terrain is only a landscape full of grassy hills, nothing more.. but do you know, what we could get, if someone (most likely BIS) found a way to add trees, roads, objects and even cities there? A F***ING ISLAND GENERATOR!

The idea of generating fully detailed terrain behind the borders of standard map during MP sessions is IMO not real.. the farther you go, the more data has to be accumulated, stored and exchaned between all players.. talk about high ping and synchronization. Single player? Different story..

Thats alot of "ifs" for something not even listed as a possible feature.

I'd love to see it and more come from the game, Im a consumer/huge fan as well but we need to be realistic.

[myshaak 0]

Thats alot of "ifs" for something not even listed as a possible feature.

I'd love to see it and more come from the game, Im a consumer/huge fan as well but we need to be realistic.

I am well aware of that and I am definetely not saying that "we'll see it in the next patch for sure," I am just saying, that it is not entirely impossible... and modders could see that as a challange

[maddogx 13]

I am well aware of that and I am definetely not saying that "we'll see it in the next patch for sure," I am just saying, that it is not entirely impossible... and modders could see that as a challange

It's very unlikely that modders will have access to the terrain generating algorithms. Perhaps they can set some values, like land texture and bumpiness, but that's about it. Everything else will likely be hardcoded.

[myshaak 0]

It's very unlikely that modders will have access to the terrain generating algorithms. Perhaps they can set some values, like land texture and bumpiness, but that's about it. Everything else will likely be hardcoded.

True.. but I hope you can't deny that releasing some terrain generating tool after some time would be a clever move from BIS. Their games are praised for their high modification/scripting possibilities and built-in mission editor, this could help too. I played on a couple of fan-made islands and most of the time they don't feel real.. most of them feel like they were either created using terrain displacement map or smooth noise map.

[thaFunkster 0]

What about what Jason from Tactical Gamer said in this hands on:

Of the massive 225 square kilometres available to us in our missions, the surrounding areas are not sky domes as suggested in some forum discussions, but a never ending, randomly generated landscape. While randomly generated hills and towns appear before you, your team mates and opponents will see the same landscape detail as you in the same gaming session, so no continuity will be lost.

http://www.tacticalgamer.com/armed-assault-armed-assault-2-discussion/139436-tacticalgamer-review-arma2.html

He says "randomly generated hills and towns.

[Baldman 10]

What about what Jason from Tactical Gamer said in this hands on:

http://www.tacticalgamer.com/armed-assault-armed-assault-2-discussion/139436-tacticalgamer-review-arma2.html

He says "randomly generated hills and towns.

So basically they're really only good if a battle in a PvP happens to spill off the edge of the map. You can't really plan any missions on a randomly generated map. We have a huge beautiful map to do it on already, no need to get too excited about the random areas on the outskirts. If big is what you're after go try World war 2 online. Half scale map of most of Europe to mess around on with hundreds of other players. But staying on topic, I don't really see much use in a randomly generated area off of the primary map other than keeping immersion and doing away with invisible walls.

Even if we do end up with a random island generator, it isn't something we couldn't live without. Most, if not all, if BIS' hard work has gone into the playable area, thats where our focus should be.

Edited May 29, 2009 by Baldman

[xav 0]

is there a "non aerial" screenshot of the infinite terrain ?

I wanna see the terrain texture up close

[Steakslim 1]

not sure if it's implemented yet, even with the beta patch, so no one with the game current may be able to show you a proper example of it yet Xav.

[KKB 0]

not sure if it's implemented yet, even with the beta patch, so no one with the game current may be able to show you a proper example of it yet Xav.

At the edge you have a aproximately 20m grey stripe, and then the texture from the edge returns, as for hills, it keeps the height it had on the edge, so it is not flat, but the heightlines run parallel to eternity. Can't provide a screenshot at the moment, since I'm at work, sorry.

I'd say as of now (Version 1.00) land that borders the map bounds behaves like every "no surrounding ocean map" in Arma 1. There are enough of those out there, try one.