M.Andersson(SWE) 4 Posted May 7, 2010 (edited) How hard is it really to put several islands together on ONE map? Lets say OFP World or the new in making Ofp Islands Evolution.. They are many islands on the same map.. Could it be done like putting Saharani, outside of Chernarus and then add ALOT of custom islands around?? In the same MAP... Edited May 7, 2010 by Andersson[SWEC] Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Darkhorse 1-6 16 Posted May 7, 2010 Ohhh.... I see what you mean... Damn. If it's possible to create something on the scale of the 31stNormandy map or larger, with Sahrani on one side and Chernarus on the other, imagine the possibilities. A large portion of it would have to be water, and Chernarus would still be limited to the top left corner of the "map", but it could be very useful. If this is possible it would fit perfectly into all the PRACS newspapers as well. lol. If simple copy paste jobs are possible, then all you would need is Chernarus, maybe some small/medium islands you made yourself, and then Sahrani. You biggest issue would be making the map without CAA1 though... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
M.Andersson(SWE) 4 Posted May 7, 2010 Mmm...I have no idea myself...Im just asking cause im curious.. Would love to see a HUGEHUGE map with 50+ Islands on... Then we could talk about a Conquer The Island(s) Mission... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cctoide 0 Posted May 7, 2010 I'm no expert map-maker, but here's the first issue that comes to mind... The problem with very large islands in the game (apart from the colossal amount of time it takes to make them from scratch) seems to be that it's limited (maybe just by Visitor?) to importing heightfields no larger than 4096x4096. This means the larger your island is the blobbier the terrain will get, since you have to up the cell size. You might also run out of shades of gray to represent small altitude differences and end up with stair-stepped mountains... I don't know if these issues would apply when merging pre-existing maps, but I'm working on my first island and I've noticed that even for a 10x10km island a 1024x1024px heightmap makes for very blobby terrain and any attempt at proper terrain features at that resolution makes terrain vertices pop up in the air, making for ugly sawtooth crests. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bushlurker 45 Posted May 7, 2010 (edited) This means the larger your island is the blobbier the terrain will get, since you have to up the cell size. Absolutely! - Primo drawback right there! You might also run out of shades of gray to represent small altitude differences and end up with stair-stepped mountains Not so much of a problem with a 16bit greyscale... it's primarily the X/Y limitation, not the Z... Though you DO have to be careful to stay 16bit all the time... I've noticed that even for a 10x10km island a 1024x1024px heightmap makes for very blobby terrain and any attempt at proper terrain features at that resolution makes terrain vertices pop up in the air, making for ugly sawtooth crests This is one of the reasons BIS, and other islandmakers, make heavy use of those "R2 Boulders" - the big mountainsized ones - in an attempt to give a bit of detailed character to mountains, etc via models - which obviously can have better fine detail than actual terrain... (Tho personally I sometimes find them quite false-looking... when you see a smooth hill with an arrangement of big rocks almost sprouting out of it like mushrooms... plus the collision-detection problems and "trapped units" that often happens when you try to climb them)... Another problem the big multi-island proposal would probably hit would be Objects Limit... I'm fairly sure there is one, even if it's up there in the millions... Also - I've seen people reporting that placing objects in certain areas of a 4096x4096 map can be problematic... BIS themselves, with a team of paid professionals at their disposal, have stuck with 2048x2048/20x20km map size for their last two major terrains... because (of) the colossal amount of time it takes to make them from scratch Easy to tell you have been working on an island, Cctoide! ;)... It ain't no overnight affair! The reason why projects like OFP world or "OFP Evolved" are practical is mainly because those individual islands were pretty small to start with... Nogova was the biggest, at 512x512 (and we were all gobsmacked at how HUGE it was when it came out, remember? :D)... you could fit all of those onto an Arma2-sized 2048x2048 and merely be faced with a enormous task... but to combine multiple 2048x2048-sized islands runs you into all sorts of boundaries... B Edited May 8, 2010 by Bushlurker Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
