Nicholas Bell

I have no technical explanation for the problem. I have one test scenario in Speckheim where the mission starts as if I am looking directly into the sun and then the brightness fades to normal. Only that mission, though. Currently working on redoing the forest edges: No brush: With edge growth: This is slow work.

Thanks Fitzee. Still having trouble, but that's obviously a headspace & timing issue with dumbo here.

Yeah, easier to add trees than to thin out. I did the same on the Schmalfelden forest redoe, using trees set 100-150%. but more reasonable around the towns. Adding the objects around the built up areas is what brings life to a map, but unfortunately it does cause a hit on the system. It certainly does look terrific. Hang in there, it's a lot of work! That would be sweet!

Congratulations, [iC]Wedge on finishing your island. Very nice! It obvious you put a lot of time into it. Had some fun flying around.

The factory structures have ladders. Check the town Kleinbärenweiler. Doors? What doors are operable? Are you saying you just put the whole Schmalfelden folder in the CA and didn't change anything? No problems importing RVMATs or loading Buldozer? Maybe I'm been making this too difficult (?). Appreciate the help!

Outstanding work, DMarkwick! Got to ask how the FPS are holding up and what's your object count? Looks enourmous. (wonder if Durg will release those trees to the public...?)

Well, I'm counting you Bravo 6, 'cause I'm stumped

Good to note the improved frame rates. Probably won't be so good once the forest edge growth gets added, but that's why there will be 2 versions from here out. This is related to the 10 meter grid. To make the ponds approximate their real size requires deep cuts on a few vertices, resulting in steep slopes and ridges under the water level. You should have told me Well maybe next version. I've been putting them on fields where the color & texture were appropriate. I'm experimenting with it. I am not satisfied with the results. No fault of Kondor who made the autumn plants mod. Rather, it's the limited number tree types I used to create the forests, and the specific types I used. It doesn't look natural, and the only way to fix it would be to "replant" the forests - again. I don't think I'm up to redoing 120,000 trees again We'll see. Perhaps an intrepid soul would like to give it a try themselves? Download the Visitor Source Files for Schmalfelden at the bottom of the first post and modify the map to fit your need: http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....t=73113 Yes, but I can't get the darn ladders to work. Both related to proper binarization. Why one and not the other?

Thanks for the feedback. That idea is dropped! Version 0.9 is at the bottom of the lead post: http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....1240365 Hopefully you will see continued improvement in frame rates. Important additions include additional hay rolls and brush along side the roads. Enjoy! Next update will include the normal fixes, minor additions, and will be released in 2 versions. One with the forests as they are in this version, and the second with edge growth (some, probably not the entire map - it's going to take some time to complete all the forest edges).

I would not change the existing map by adding an airfield- I don't want to this to be too make-believe. Instead the airfields would be "off-map" by increasing the size of the map from 5120 meters square to 10,240 meters square. I would only roughly finish the airfield(s) and I would absolutely not finish the areas between the existing map and the airfields. That area would be devoid of any objects, no different really than the existing "off map" area. The orientation shown here is required because the only way to expand the map and be able to copy all the objects over correctly is to keep the reference point (lower left corner) the same in both the existing Schmalfelden map and the possible expanded version. Just wanted to clarify what I was proposing. As I said I don't really want to do this for myself. If there was a chorus saying "yes, this would really help" then I would see if I could make it happen. Even a 10 km square map really isn't large enough for decent air missions.

Thanks for sharing! Will give a try.

I tried the Recolored Plants addon and it appeared too bright for me - too much color. Also realized the satellite image is going to have to be toned down too. Anyway, I'll see how the other tree mod looks - it offers various hues. But I really need to stay focused on fixing & improving the base map. Focus...not always easy for me - already thinking about the next map! Question to everyone - how important is having an airfield available? I've got this idea to create an "off map" airfield by expanding the existing map - creating a new one really. The space between the current map and the airfields would be empty ground. I don't even know if I can pull off transferring all the objects to this new map - it's been frustrating even experimenting with the idea. But I'll give it a try if its that important to you. I'm mostly a ground pounder (I got flight sims if I want to fly ), so being able to take off and land is not important to me. But that's just me.

Looks terrific - I know you've been hard at work and it's nice to finally see what it is. Yeah, don't make the same mistake I did and over populate your forests (unless you like doing everything twice like dumbo here ) Neat idea for the stream bed - might you share that texture? My unasked for opinion is let the edges do what the engine does with them and don't bother with trying to make it an island - it will not be worth the time and effort you will need. It's a MAP, dammit <g> - there's no water around it. Just remember the engine uses the lower left corner terrain segment to repeat to infinity, so you may want adjust accordingly. Looking forward to this one for sure!

I've been unable to de-PBO them, so there's no way to use them in Visitor.

You know you're making it darn hard to work on the map rather than just have some fun like you describe Huh, I didn't know there was an in-game replacement PBO available. I have to ask the same question - is it worth the time? There are hay rolls on the map. I originally only placed them where they actually showed up in the aerial photo, but did add some more fields last update. I guess not enough - or not where you want/need them? I will add more, but I don't want to get too crazy with them. In lieu of ditches I am adding some brush along some of the roads and lanes, where it seems like there is some or could be some based on the aerial imagery. I am placing the object krovi_long approximately 1.5 meters below the surface so that it is not a hedge. It only provides concealment when you are prone in it or behind it. I've tested it (using Durg's vegetation fix of course) and it's enough to hide in. Just don't stand up or fire and expect not to get noticed! The forest thinning is complete. Man, I'm glad that's done. Total object count was 134,000 (from 280,000) last time I checked, but it will go up with this road side brush I'm adding (judiciously - not everywhere). Also working on searching for an correcting errors. Proofreading has never been my strong suit.

I recall that when I started had the problem with just seeing the dotted lines for roads. Check out this thread - maybe it will help: http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....ll;st=0

Glad to see it coming together for you, Icfhoop. Very nice! Have you tested it to check the frame rate with units?

Canukausiuka - Thanks for posting! Looking forward to the I44 mod. Schmalfelden works for eastern France & Belgium, but a bocage map would really be neat. Of course there's the issue of how to make the hedgerows using a small cell map and still have it large enough to be useable and maintain a decent frame rate. FABfm - You've given me the idea of making a screen saver slide show with Mr Cash's beautiful shots. Somehow they look better than in game. He has a good eye for composition. Uziyahu--IDF - I need a better naming convention Let me clarify: The original super dense forests of v0.8 are gone. No more. All maps will have thinned forests. One set of maps (summer and autumn) will not have the edge growth. Another set of maps (summer and autumn) will have edge growth. Hope this makes it clear. Legislator - The signs are composed of separate p3d models which take the arrows, names, and distance numbers off a single paa image. That is all the names and numbers are on one image. I can do a paint job and change the names, but getting the arrows and numbers correct requires modifying the p3d file to use the correct area on the paa image. I'm sure I could figure it out in a week or so, but that would be at the expense of working on the map. I'm sure making the modifications is child's play for a modeler experienced in Oxygen.

Very nice images, Mr. Cash. Thanks you for posting these! Must admit I get a great sense of satisfaction that I have been able to contribute something folks are really enjoying. Small payback for all the mods others have done which I use. Oh, yes. Will do. My little test only included about 100 meters of treeline shrubs. It took a little time but eventually the bad guys found the holes or went around the ends. Within the limited number of bushes, scrubs and small trees that are available I will do my best. There are some bush types which block movement - I may leave those types out to assist the AI.Work continues on thinning out the forests, and adding some stuff to spice up the towns. The object count is down from the original 280,000 to 145,000 and I seem to have crossed some threshold in doing so, because even in the old un-thinned forests which are super dense, I'm still getting around 50-55 FPS. Everywhere else I'm maxed out at 60 FPS. (course adding any units seems to cut this almost in half no matter where - demonstrating the effect of units on the CPU load). Given family obligations and what is left to complete on forest thinning, I am going to forgo issuing another version this weekend. Instead I will shoot for releasing the next version which will be close to v1.0 with all the forests thinned out and all the objects I can easily place, completed. I don't think I am going to be able to do signs with town names because it doesn't appear to be a simple paint job - it will require use of Oxygen to modify the sign. Out of my league. The next step will be to either work on the autumn version of the "thin-forest" map, or work on adding the treeline shrubs. From that point there will be 2 versions of the map - the "thin-forest" version, and the "treeline shrub" version for those who are willing to accept the FPS hit to gain some concealment. I will release the "thin-forest" map source files before starting work on the autumn version or the "treeline shrub" version. My goal is by next weekend (May 18) but it may take a few days more.

Yes, it works great. I set myself behind the bushes and ran a squad toward me with a waypoint order seek and destroy on the other side. In numerous tests they only spotted me when they went through or around the shrubs. Here's a very blurry video (I know squat about making movies) of a squad running by on the other side while I'm standing watching (not kneeling or prone). http://mihd.net/5wa0hid In another test the enemy stopped and stood there for 5 minutes looking right at me (and around looking). Here's a still shot:

That may fix one problem, but cause others. Peruse this forum and you will see the solution to many other problems is keeping your island folder outside the CA folder.

The terrain elevation vertices are based on a 10 meter grid, so it is not possible to create roadside ditches. Making the grid smaller would make ditches possible, but has a negative impact on FPS. In any case it's not possible to change this map as the grid is established when the map is first created. Dmitri is working on a small map (jungle them) with a small grid: http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....=dmitri I wish, but it's not going to happen. The original map was 10 km x 10 km, but I realized I was never going to be able to get it done in a reasonable amount of time. Schmalfelden is a quarter of the original area and it's going to be 6 months until it's done. So it's not hard to imagine that it would take 2 years for me to do a 10 x 10 km map at this level of detail, even given some economy of scale and improvement in my skill. Much time would be spent waiting for the computer to load and process the huge files necessary for this size map. Creating the towns is the real consumer of time. If I could find a new area, larger area with little habitation I would consider that. Problem there is the terrain meeting that criteria is going to be mountainous and heavily forested, which creates it's own set of issues with frame rates. Plus why do another North Sahrani? I've looked at some areas in Ukraine and Russia, but they are heavily populated with large towns/village spaced every few kilometers, so not much help reducing the work load. In any case I've thought a lot about this and Schmalfelden is my compromise between what I wanted and what I can manage to actually finish. There's a lot of good reasons why BIS created Sahrani the way they did - they understood all the resource limitations. Mr Cash2009 - Looks like you had quite an interesting and realistic engagement. Good to know the frame rates were better. They should continue to improve as I revise the all the forests. Thanks for the report! Of course the final goal of thinning out the forests is to able to introduce a second version with edge growth and undergrowth in the forests. I took a breather from the main job last night and did some experimenting to see what that would look like: There are 5 squads and 5 M1A1s in my FOV - added to provide a more realistic frame rate with more load on the CPU than just me and the terrain. Without the scrubbery I was getting 38 FPS. With it, the FPS dropped to 35. Of course this was without anyone moving much, and it was only a small area of the map (remembering that all objects in the FOV whether actually visible or not have an impact on FPS).

Panther77 - Thanks for the tips. I will make the corrections. I went a bit overboard I guess. I think I will keep the posts on the main roads between the towns, however. These roads are secondary roads, not farm tracks - even though I used the plain asphalt roads. What I need is an intermediate asphalt road, one which is wider. But I am stuck using what is available. In hindsight I should have used the highway road type with stripes for these secondary roads. But I didn't because they don't have highway stripes which are clearly visible in the Google Earth imagery on the main highways. I spent several hours last weekend unsuccessfully attempting to retro-fit the striped highways into the map to replace these secondary roads. It just created too many problems. There are a lot of things I would have done differently in January if I had the knowledge I do now. I am unclear about what you mean about the problem with the field boundaries. There is the "edge of map" problem right through the middle of Windisch-Bkfld going south. Or do you mean the work I did in the forests on the east side of the map? I am going to forgo the use of Alex Sworn's objects. He's done some very nice work, but I don't see anything which matches the needs of the area in terms of what is actually there. What we really need is a complete set of well-kept German type structures rather than the run-down N. Sahrani buildings and other buildings I have "shoehorned" into use. That would be a major undertaking. As I have mentioned before, I will release all the source files for this map when I finish correcting all "my" problems. I don't think it appropriate to make others fix my mistakes. Adding and deleting objects from the map in Visitor is not a complicated process (easier than in the editor since you can do it in 3D real-time in Buldozer) which will allow you to add those wind turbines or whatever else you might want. Uziyahu--IDF: Thank you for posting that video. It gave me encouragement to keep working last night. I appreciate all your kind words! It is good to know the map is being put to use and being enjoyed.

Mr Burns, you have a good eye for nice pictures The following areas marked in red show forests which have been thinned out as of v0.82. If you want to check FPS or create a mission in woods use these.

Download links are at the bottom of the first entry on the first page: http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard311/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=70;t=73113