jr_walker

Hi Cezary, I believe the suggestion is to use the "invisible" road object underneath your runway objects. Old Bear posted that in some cases he used two layers of invisible road under his runways.

Hi all, Started following these boards when PR:ARMA was announced. I’m completely amazed by the quality and variety of the mods/addons you folks make. I didn’t see too many 40km maps though, and a the same time, was pondering a thread on the realitymod boards suggesting someone make an ARMA island that incorporated many of the PR:BF2 maps. When I looked around for someone to get it done, the only person in the room was me :-( I’ve been interested in Iran because of all the posturing and missile testing going on there recently, so I decided to make a fictitious island roughly modeling the geography of eastern Iran to incorporate the Afghanistan border and gulf of Oman. I figured that would also be a suitable background for many of the PR:BF2 maps (no worries, not going to replicate/copy any PR efforts, just hoping to create areas that have similar emersion) I used Google Earth to find a representative location in the US so that I could have access to 1/3arc second DEMs and higher-resolution orthorimagery. I found a surprisingly good match in southern Nevada. Considering how complicated it looks, I was able to get it up and in-game pretty quickly using Opteryx’s tutorial. I have had no performance issues whatsoever. I tried it first with a 4097 sat_lco and mask_lco and then kicked it up to 20480. I noticed no difference in performance. I ran absolutely smoothly at 10000m visibility (prolly easy to do with no objects). I’m posting not-so-much as a work-in-progress (although it is), but because I’ve had a really difficult time finding answers to questions – (I search using Google, these boards and armaholic). So I thought I’d post up some questions… I’ve seen some discussion, but can find no concrete information: 1) Has anyone successfully created/imported a 40960 sat_lco? 2)If so, did it cause a performance issue (don’t think it would based on the discussions I seen on how the VR engine works, although I’m sure the pbo would be enormous)? 3) If so, was it worth the effort (even with some pretty good software and a decent computer, it took me hours to get the 20480 map put together)? 4) If so, can you point me to any detailed documentation available on how it was accomplished? I’d appreciate any recommended sites, etc. you find helpful with your island development efforts in general. I’ve seen some suggestions, but those have usually been to older, stale threads – I realize often the information is still good, but I don’t suppose it hurts to ask for more. I’d also appreciate any suggestions and advice you might have on this project. Sorry for the long post. Thanks again for all your efforts…good stuff. Some screenies (updated 2012-10-14): http://s387.photobucket.com/user/jus2sayhey/library/Haadur

A few more steps forward, not quite as far as I expected. > Took some time to make a simple, but long bridge (and trying to get AI to like it…they don’t like it yet) > Spent a few days putting together a gas stop > Spent a few days getting an airport in-place, presently very sparse (AI friendly though) > Spent a few days updating the sat_lco > Spent a few days trying to find a tool to expedite making roads; two methods helped make the road smooth length-wise, but none would etch the road (i.e. make it flat from side-to-side), so back to 25m at a time by hand > Many days placing road Next steps: continue with roads and complete low elevation vegetation masks. A couple of pics of the additions…absolutely WIP. http://s387.photobucket.com/user/jus2sayhey/library/Haadur Walker

All these puppies...rehtus777 could've been my much younger brother...Pong was my first too. Couldn't run flight simulators on my TRS-80 rig ... but spent a lot of time with "Temple of Apshi". Talk about awesome graphics! Signed. :D

Thanks for your awesome efforts!

Congrats on your progress. Enjoyed your site as well. Continued success!

Thanks All. @ChrisB Yes, I hope the map performs well; it’s largely desert so it lends itself to sparse coverage. Note that I’m not making arbitrary decisions about the coverage (I don’t have that kind of imagination). The terrain is modeled on the Mojave Desert. I'm sure I don’t know the proper names, but the basic vegetation is sparse dry grass, moderate amounts of creosote bushes, and significant amounts of something we call “rabbit brushâ€. Near water sources there are things like scrub oak, cotton wood trees and tule reeds. In the higher elevations there actually forests of trees called pinion pines. Rocks are prevalent in the area and are three basic types that I reference as lava, granite and sedimentary (no offense to the geologists). I use basic clutter for dry grass and rabbit brush; that is what you see most in the screenies. For everything else I am using a technique I think GIS folks call “remote sensingâ€, that is I look at the sat map and determine if the splotch I’m looking at is a rock or some type of vegetation, then I determine what model to use and how to size it. For creosotes and pinion pines I am creating a mask in Photoshop by selecting color ranges on the sat map, I process that though Shezan74’s world tools 1.8, I further process those results through some code I wrote, and finally process that using Mikero’s tools to get the objects into the terrain – I will only run that process at the end of the terrain development due to the large number of resulting objects. For everything else, I am placing the objects by hand (I match to the shape and size of the satellite splotch the best I can) which is very time consuming but nicely punctuates the satellite imagery. Turns out that while there are no BIS vegetation models specific to the area, by reducing the size and height of some existing models, I’ve gotten some very acceptable results (at some point I may post RL reference photos vs. in-game). Per the request of some, I haven’t spent much time detailing the terrain but am trying to get a significant portion of the main roads completed (maybe not all), and some auxiliary roads completed (unfortunately, I was not having good success with RoadPainter/2, so I am doing the roads by hand as well). Then I will get a flushed out airport in-place, at which point I’ll likely provide the version to anyone who wants to provide feedback. With ARMA III, apparently terrain size is no longer an issue, nonetheless I am knee deep into this project and intend to continue with it. I don’t know why I can’t seem to write a short post… Cheers, Walker

@islesfan186 At least one airbase; I'll probably solicit suggestions for what permanent structures/areas folks would like see. Quick update: have about 30km of about 300km of main roads put down... looks like there could be maybe 500km of non-main roads. Got a little bored with roads so I put in a few more rocks; I'll be very happy when this thing is completely rocked and roaded (:p). Updated WIP Pics: http://s387.photobucket.com/user/jus2sayhey/library/Haadur

Hello IPARA, Visitor likes the sat and mask to both be RGB-8 format. Also the size of the sat + the size of the mask must total less than 2GB.

Large SAT image (40960 x 40960) in Visitor 3 I started my first ARMA project in October 2010. I wanted to make a very large, very detailed terrain (not the best idea, by-the-way). I was frustrated for a long time because I was determined to have a 1 pixel per meter SAT map ( http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?108939-Visitor-crash-importing-40960-sat_lco&highlight=LARGE+SAT). After months (years?) of struggling, I actually had a dream about how to do it, woke myself up, tried it … and it worked! Of course it is fairly simple, although extremely time consuming. I do not recommend this to anyone who is not fluent with Visitor 3. The technique can be used to increase the detail of the SAT map for smaller terrains as well (2 pixel/meter for a 20K terrain, 4 pixel/meter for a 10K terrain, 8 pixel/meter for a 5K terrain, etc). The technique can be equally applied to the MASK also, if you have the desire to have a higher resolution terrain mask. (While my project resulted in a 40960x40960 SAT map and a 40960x40960 MASK, my experiments indicated that the SAT and MASK files do not have to be the same size [as long as they are squared]). [i apologize for the long post following, but I can't figure out how to insert a "spoiler" button] Tools:  Patience (You need LOTS of this)  An image processing program (my early attempts used Imagemagick-which worked, but I later used Adobe Photoshop CS5 (64bit) – and loaded the very critical 64bit SuperPNG plugin (free)  A minimum of 20GB of available disk space (more is better), for storage of your SAT image, Photoshop paging space, etc.  Visitor 3 Step 1: Create SAT image I won’t go into too much detail on how to create a 40960 x 40960 image which is a challenge in itself. Briefly, the resulting SAT image must be less than 2GB in RAM or Visitor will not be able to “Import Satellite + Mask …†(more accurately the size of the SAT image + the size of the MASK image must be less than 2GB in memory). When a 40K x 40K image (use RGB-8bit) is loaded into Photoshop, you can see that it consumes almost 5GB of RAM. [General note: every step in processing an image as large as 40960x40960 pixels takes a VERY long time] I can offer one very general requirement (based on using Photoshop) to get the size down: reduce the number of colors in the image by whatever method you prefer, such as modifying the contrast, posterizing, or using other filters – no hard rule here, just try to achieve a balance – the intent is to have as much detail in the image as possible while minimizing the number of different colors in the image. I can offer one very specific requirement (based on using Photoshop) to get the size down: When you think the image is at a good balance of detail vs. number of colors, change the mode of the image from RGB 8-bit to Index (this will make the image look terrible on screen, but will be fine when processed). After the image has been changed to Index mode (this will take a long while), make no changes to the image but simply change the mode back to RGB 8-bit. When the image has been changed back to RGB 8-bit, make no changes to the image, but simply save the image as a SuperPNG file (options: smaller file, no alpha, no interlacing, no metadata). With any luck, you’ll have a 40Kx40K SAT image that is less than 2GB on disk (mine is actually 2,007, 263 bytes on disk and it processes). Step 2: Create a mini-SAT image A) After the 40Kx40K SAT image is saved, reduce the image size to 2560x2560. B) Save this file using SuperPNG as above and name the file so that you know it is the small version (mine are named sat_lco_40.png [the large version] and sat_lco_25.png [the small version]) Step 3: Create MASK image The MASK image is much easier to work with. Once you have your mask colors mapped out, make sure the mode is RGB 8-Bit and save the image as a SuperPNG file (options: smaller file, no alpha, no interlacing, no metadata). Follow the naming convention used for the SAT image. Step 4: Create a mini-MASK image A) After the 40Kx40K MASK image is saved, reduce the image size to 2560x2560. B) Save this file using SuperPNG as above and name the file so that you know it is the small version (mine are named mask_lco_40.png [the large version] and mask_lco_25.png [the small version]) Step 5: Import the sat_lco (40) and mask_lco (25) into Visitor A) In your project folder\source directory, rename the 40K sat_lco file to sat_lco.png B) Rename the 2.56K mask_lco file to mask_lco. C) Open your project in Visitor 3 and run Import process, being sure to select these two files. D) Go see a movie or something ;) Step 6: Copy the S files out A) When the Import has completed DO NOT start buldozer. Instead, exit Visitor. B) Make a directory somewhere with an appropriate name (mine is called Layers_S_40). Open your project folder\data\layers directory. Select all the files with a name that begins S_ (in my case it is 1849 files). Copy these files to the directory you created as the first part of this step. Step 7: Import the sat_lco (25) and mask_lco (40) into Visitor A) Rename the sat_lco file in your project folder\source directory back to what they were before the import (i.e. sat_lco_40.png and mask_lco_25.png). B) Rename the 2.56K sat_lco file (i.e. sat_lco_25.png) to sat_lco.png. Rename the40K mask_lco file (i.e. mask_lco_40.png) to mask_lco.png. C) Open your project in Visitor 3 and run the Import process, being sure to select these two files. D) Go get a bite or something ;) Step 8: Copy the S files back A) When the Import has completed DO NOT start buldozer. Instead, exit Visitor. B) Copy the S_ files from the directory you created in Step 6 into your project folder\data\layers directory; overwrite the existing files. Step 9: See the results A) Open your project in Visitor 3. B) Launch buldozer. C) Go see a movie or something ;), D) When buldozer completes processing your imports, your terrain will be nicely covered with your high resolution SAT map.

Hello Frank, I am not sure I understand your question. Are you saying you are working with a 1024 height map and your island is 12288 meters x 12288 meters? Please tell me what is the size of your island in meters and also tell me the size of your sat_lco in pixels. Thanks, Walker

@james2462 From http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/optimize-performance-photoshop-cs4-cs5.html "Photoshop supports a maximum file size of 300,000 x 300,000 pixels, except for PDF files, which are limited to 30,000 x 30,000 pixels and 200 x 200 inches." So 90K by 90K should not be a problem ... but I hope you have monster machine! :) Are you going to apply the technique to F.A.T.A (awesome and inspirational island, BTW)? I'd really like to see someone else give this a shot. @Bushlurker, thanks for the Kudos and detailed discussion regarding the "4096 bug". I had never experienced the bug until I tried automating placement of vegetation (not long after I read the information your provided - it felt a bit of the Jynx :P ) ... still need to smooth that process, just a matter of time. Walker

Hello, Thanks for the comments. @Fabio_Chaves, yes, I do intend to release a WIP version and then update; it would seem a waste to have put so much time into the project and not release it because it was not “finished†to my expectations, (which by a rough calculation could take decades, lol). For the initial WIP release, my intent is to get the base vegetation (a mix of “clutter†and millions of bushes, etc.) in place and a few roads (thanks to suggestions from tpw and ChrisB). To that end, I’ve completed the terrain/clutter mask. Using World Tools - by shezan74, Mikero’s Tools and some tools I’ve written myself, I have a semi-automated process for the placement of the non-clutter vegetation. Unfortunately, during my early efforts with the process, I didn’t realize that I needed more object position precision than was produced by one of the tools; as a result many of my non-vegetation models need to be manually re-positioned (I do keep two archives of the pew file but those were overwritten before I noticed the displacement issue). I believe I have a solution that will prevent the issue in the future. Combining the displacement issue with the 4096 object bug (described here [thanks Bushlurker]: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?151405-40K-sat_lco-SOLVED&p=2361820&viewfull=1#post2361820) that I also encountered for the first time as a result, I decided to take a bit of a break from the project. The initial WIP release will have base ground textures based on simplified land-class, base vegetation based on simplified (and optimized) “remote-sensingâ€, a few rocks (note that rocks would generally be considered pivotal to the geography in this terrain), a few roads, a few structures and maybe an airport. The sat_map/terrain elevations will not be rectified (so there will be the occasional creek bed running along the side of a hill, for example). All-in-all, nothing I’m proud to release. On the other hand, I do have fun flying around the place and have had fun with skirmishes in the editor, so maybe others will too. I expect to resume work on the project in early July and suspect a WIP release could be ready by early September.

Hi El_MUERkO, The engine only supports one mid-range texture, so the texture is applied to everything: mountains, beaches, underwater, etc. You must decide if the improvement to the areas the mid-range is designed to improve off-sets the impact to the other areas (like beaches).

Thanks for the feedback all! ... and thanks for the tip gabravo2005, I can do that. @Leaulux, I'm thinking that maybe only 25% of the terrain needs to be highly detailed, the rest is really just desert. I'll keep plugging away... Walker

Oops thanks Harzach...fixed.

Not so much two versions of the project, but two versions of the SAT and MASK lco but then essentially did merge them.

Hello Birdistheword, My post here might be informative: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?108075-Haadur-40km&p=2352125#post2352125 And this one too, perhaps: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?151405-40K-sat_lco-SOLVED I have not had any problems placing objects in any quadrant of the terrain. However, the project is time intensive (25 minutes to load the project into buldozer via Vistor 3 and 45 minutes to bianerize). If you have not made ARMA terrains before, I can not encourage you strongly enough to start with a smaller terrain first (even 5km) to experiment with and learn from. Best of luck and wishes nonetheless, Walker

So I continue to make visible progress and I am happy with the results. After a few years of learning Visitor, Max3Ds, height maps, texturing, etc. I started putting objects on my terrain. I've availed myself of the community tools such as World Tools, Road Painter2, ZGM Visitor Objects and advice from community members (particularly Bushlurker) and I have just completed adding objects (beta pass) for an entire 1 square km of my terrain. However, the math scares me : I've spent four weeks, 20+ hours per week to complete that 1km beta pass. 40km x 40km = 1600 sq km subtract the water (Glad this is not ARMA III :butbut:) and I have 1360 sq km of land that need objects. 1 month per km x 1360km = 113.3 years to finish! :cry2: Oh well ... not giving up yet ... must at least get these areas finished: Bushlurker Peek (peak) in the Bushlurker Range The quaint village of Bush The grand city of Lurker The oil lands of the northeast (AKA Petroleum Fields Forever) The Holy city of Kaow (AKA Holy Kaow!) The famous port city of Garcia and its port Nada (aka Garcia's Port Nada) Just an update. Thanks, Walker http://i387.photobucket.com/albums/oo316/jus2sayhey/Haadur/arma2oa2013-03-2022-33-56-94_zpsce432b48.jpg (121 kB)

Thanks for the link Robster. I had no idea how much time would be involved; based on the pace of progress so far, completion is still several months off. At any rate WIP screenshots have been updated: http://s387.beta.photobucket.com/user/jus2sayhey/library/Haadur

Hello sentryuk, Have you looked at the Filters button on the MP screen? There maybe a ping or game more or some other parameter inadvertently set.

Hello all, I’ve searched the forums and Googled with no luck. I’m trying to import a 40960x40960 sat_lco for a 40960x40960 island. I have good imagery and would really like to have a 1 pixel per meter resolution. The sat_lco is 3.7GB. As soon as I begin the import procedure in Visitor3, Visitor crashes. I am able to import my 20480 version of the sat_lco with no problems (of course, I adjust the project properties for the appropriate sat size). I am running Win 7x64 w 8GB RAM. Is Visitor able to import a 40960x40960 sat_lco? If so, I would appreciate any tips on how I might be able to accomplish that. Thanks very much,

Hello all, I was finally able to get the 1 pixel per meter sat map processed. I'm resuming work on textures and objects now. This project is taking a very long time, but I still intend to "finish it" :p Here are some screenies: http://s387.beta.photobucket.com/user/jus2sayhey/library/Haadur

Hello, After updating buldozer to 1.62, buldozer no longer opens in “window†mode (only fullscreen) and my custom keybinds no longer work (pressing F1 and selectng the "Controls" option while in buldozer throws an error: no entry 'bin\config.bin\RscDisplayControl/config/ControlsPage.arrowEmpty'. Along with updating buldozer, I extracted/replaced: bin, core, languagecore and dta\product.bin in my from ...Expansions\... to my p:\ drive My Visitor 3 real time viewer settings: "p:\buldozer.exe" -window -buldozer -exThreads=0 -addons=p:\V3addons.txt Any suggestions? Thanks, Walker Edit: I was able to get the window size working by modifying the Buldozer config file found here: C:\Users\<youruser>\Documents\ArmA 2\Buldozer.cfg I was able to fix the keybindings by copying the content of the Arma2OAProfile file from C:\Users\<youruser>\Documents\ArmA 2 Other Profiles\yourplayername\yourplayername.ArmA2OAProfile to C:\Users\<youruser>\Documents\ArmA 2\<youruser>.ArmA2OAProfile

Hey BlackMamba, Sorry that you are also struggling with the large SAT map image. In my case the 40960 png weighed in at only 1.38GB, but I was still unsuccessful importing into Visitor. On another note, which may not be applicable in your case since your terrain is 20480 rather than 40960 (what I’m working with), I found that while the higher resolution image looks terrific from the sky, at ground level the color contrast is too strong and I ended up blurring out my (20480) SAT image to make the ground level view more natural. Good luck with your efforts. Walker