ArmA II's infinite land

[Litos 10]

Why would anyone wanna go there? Its just the ocean, thats it.

[okdante 0]

I wonder, if Arma2 will back up the chaos theory and after nonstop 24/7/4.3/12 walking in one direction we will see the landscape repeated in series :D :D :D

And what if BiS implemented the need of "fuel" also for living beings? Damn!

For the first time, the demand wont be for the +99 ammo/money/.... trainer, but for +1 warp-me-on-the-other-end trainer

Man's imagination just finds the infinite unimaginable...

I propose that some should buy one extra computer, install Arma2 on it and start it, put a stone on the W, fixate the mouse so it won't move and let it run for a year and at the same time do a low FPS footage (50 frames a day?) and then just take the footage, make a standard 25fps movie and put it on youtube....in the name of science the almighty :D :D

Edited May 23, 2009 by Okdante

[Misfit Leader 1]

There is already fuel jauge in ArmA (we don't see it for wheeled vehicle, not active ?), just they are depleted slowly because we aren't covering so much kilometers with the vehicles.

[Pyronick 21]

Procedural does not imply random.

Exactly.

If a specific algorithm is used for this without random number input you'll always get the same terrain on every computer.

[Alex72 1]

Why would anyone wanna go there? Its just the ocean, thats it.

Land... Not ocean. And if you dogfight with other jets you might get over that area. Then you get shot down - parachute - and have to make your way back. Or at least call on the radio to get your mates to send out a copter or some search party. :) I think some interesting things will happen out there. Interesting if it does produce trees and objects that is. if its a textured flatland you prolly kill yourself by hitting the ESC button and respawn clicky shortly followed.

Alex

[Baff1 0]

I don't think you can fly over it mate. I think you will bounce off the skybox.

Here is a player trying it.

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[Alex72 1]

Doesnt he just turn at the edge? Well tbh i have no clue. Maybe we can just look into it but not venture out there. Then it really makes the map "small" as with water you can go out and tactically fly inwards to attack. That would leave out many angles for attack.

We'll see soon. :)

Alex

[opteryx 1562]

I don't think you can fly over it mate. I think you will bounce off the skybox.

Here is a player trying it.

Ehhh, looks like they've have taken a step backwards in this regard.

[maddogx 13]

I don't think you can fly over it mate. I think you will bounce off the skybox.

That would be the most logical assumption. On the other hand it would suck if the north and west boundaries of the map were an invisible wall. It would make those two borders totally unworkable for several scenarios. In the video the infinite terrain was not yet implemented, there was just a placeholder. It's possible that you'll be able to fly over it once it's fully implemented.

As for what happens when you walk into it or jump out of a plane over it... I'm assuming it will be similar to the way water works outside of the map. You can move around, you can die etc. It just wouldn't be dynamic like the rest, so no destructible houses.

[sk3pt 0]

Of course you can fly over it. Anything else would be ludicrous.

[Guest]

I flew with a chopper a few hundred meters into the "neverending land" :) without problem, got out and walked around.

[Alex72 1]

I flew with a chopper a few hundred meters into the "neverending land" :) without problem, got out and walked around.

Hehe told ya :)

Now i feel better. Thanks Fox for saving my day many times a ...day. :D

[maddogx 13]

I flew with a chopper a few hundred meters into the "neverending land" :) without problem, got out and walked around.

Ah, so the plane in the video turned away voluntarily. I was gonna suggest that at first, but thought it would sound desperate. :D

Good to know the terrain will be walkable. Yayz!

[EricM 0]

An solution could be just to just "mirror" and repeat the Chernarus landscape over and over, but without the "landmark" buildings.

I believe an old Delta Force game used to do that in voxels... I think it did the trick.

[An-225 0]

I don't see any need to worry about getting lost while outside the real map - turn to a bearing of 1-8-0 and head to the sea and then turn to 0-9-0 and ingress when you hit the coast. I hated getting lost out at sea in ArmA, because there was no way you could return to the island.

[walker 0]

I don't see any need to worry about getting lost while outside the real map - turn to a bearing of 1-8-0 and head to the sea and then turn to 0-9-0 and ingress when you hit the coast. I hated getting lost out at sea in ArmA, because there was no way you could return to the island.

Hi An-225

That is a sensible navigation method.

However if the map and sat nav both use numbers rather than letters in grids it is not an issue since the numbers would go negative at the zero points.

Any way more and more it looks as though the expeditions to the infinite land are on!

Kind Regards walker

Edited May 23, 2009 by walker

[sk3pt 0]

The first one to the infinite land can claim it, right ?

[walker 0]

The first one to the infinite land can claim it, right ?

Hi sk3pt

You might lay claim but you cannot own.

Also which infinite land would you be claiming? As each seed produces a different land.

As I pointed the expeditions would be about finding interesting infinite land seeds. Discovering a good number would be available to claim for the purpose of naming.

What will be more interesting will be discovering underlying number patterns. My money is on prime numbers and perfect numbers and the like for producing interesting patterns.

Kind regards walker

[sk3pt 0]

Also which infinite land would you be claiming? As each seed produces a different land.

I don't see the problem. It would be like claiming Sahara ; every time you return the dunes are different, but it's still yours. Fear not, you can have Utes... it's infinitely smaller though.

Anyway, I hope this automatic terrain generation system is capable of creating an interesting terrain with large open fields, mountain ranges etc. We could even end up having an "auto create island" option. :D

[thaFunkster 0]

People are getting close, but no one is asking the important questions here:

If a tree falls down in the infinite land, but no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?

And importantly: what is the sound of one hand clapping in the infinite land?

These are the kinds of practical questions that we need to be asking in a military simulator such as this.

[Yoma 0]

On the "objects" side of things:

Ok lets say that you get some kind of "objects on infinate land" db.

What happens if you start a 12 player game, everyone sets off in a different direction in infinate land, all race out for 10 KM, destroy a tree and so on and so on.

Is this problem solvable technically? Or would it mean you can crash clients/servers by doing "A LOT" of stuff in infinate land. After all the server would need SOME way to sync the "destroyed trees" and if you get an infinate land you can after all infinately destroy trees, opening up for possibities to crash both clients and servers.

I may be completely wrong about this as i have no idea whatsoever on how they implement procedural land with objects.

[Yoma 0]

Another thing that would be totally cool is that if you run out of space for coordinates (int32?), you would return on the normal map, but on the opposite side of the direction you started out in.

(So you can kind of "go round the world" :D)

[walker 0]

Another thing that would be totally cool is that if you run out of space for coordinates (int32?), you would return on the normal map, but on the opposite side of the direction you started out in.

(So you can kind of "go round the world" :D)

Hi Yoma

That infers there is a distant shore in infinite land.

Kind regards walker

[eem 1]

Another thing that would be totally cool is that if you run out of space for coordinates (int32?), you would return on the normal map, but on the opposite side of the direction you started out in.

(So you can kind of "go round the world" :D)

Now that's the best idea I've heard all day... :) ... along with the random "generate island" option of course!... I used to play A LOT of Age of Empires and one of the things I really liked about that game was the way you could generate random maps. This kept the game fresh for a long time increasing replayabilty. You could change seed options to produce all sorts of terrain/object ratios. I think FSX has this option as well (at least for terrain objects anyway through a density setting).

A Warfare random map option would be awesome!!! One could script some of generation to ensure some level of balance between teams.

L8r,

eem

[Scrub 0]

Seed #1002938456273412, is MINE!!!! Calling it the "Scrubtastic Hegemony In The Tropics!"... Oh, wait. Uh, that acronym won't be cool.

A most awesome idea Yoma.