dinoboy123

I originally posted this is in the multiplayer/server forums, but no one has helped me there, so hopefully the visitor 3 forum can save me again! I have very limited experience when it comes to adapting my content for server use, so any advice is greatly appreciated. I'm currently trying to work with a server owner who is willing to test my map. However, one issue we are both a little lost on is how to use the bikeys/bisign files. I was under the impression that the bisign files are just the individual key pbo's accompanying each signed pbo addon, as seen in each mod folder. The public bikey, i thought, was just a key used only by the server owner for ensuring no content without being properly signed could enter the server. According to this server owner, i'm mistaken. Here are his quotes about the issue: "i get wrong signature errors, and there is no bisign [a key that encompasses the whole mod]" "no no you have all the bikeys in the pbo, which is correct. but then you need a bisign for the entire mod." I also was told that each addon, including the dayz/wasteland mod files, need to be signed by me. Unfortunately, whenever i unpack and repack with my signature run into issues with the pbo files ingame, but that may be a separate issue. Sorry if these questions are noob-ish, but its my first time publicly releasing this map thanks for any help! -Andrew

I orignially had a similar post in the servers section, but no one has responded yet and its been a few days and I really need to make progress adapting my map. I have very limited experience when it comes to adapting my content for server use, so any advice is greatly appreciated. I'm currently trying to work with a server owner who is willing to test my map. However, one issue we are both a little lost on is how to use the bikeys/bisign files. I was under the impression that the bisign files are just the individual key pbo's accompanying each signed pbo addon, as seen in each mod folder. The public bikey, i thought, was just a key used only by the server owner for ensuring no content without being properly signed could enter the server. According to this server owner, i'm mistaken. Here are his quotes about the issue: "i get wrong signature errors, and there is no bisign [a key that encompasses the whole mod]" "no no you have all the bikeys in the pbo, which is correct. but then you need a bisign for the entire mod." Sorry if these questions are noob-ish, but its my first time publicly releasing this map thanks for any help! -Andrew

I have very limited experience when it comes to adapting my content for server use, so any advice is greatly appreciated. I'm currently trying to work with a server owner who is willing to test my map. However, one issue we are both a little lost on is how to use the bikeys/bisign files. I was under the impression that the bisign files are just the individual key pbo's accompanying each signed pbo addon, as seen in each mod folder. The public bikey, i thought, was just a key used only by the server owner for ensuring no content without being properly signed could enter the server. According to this server owner, i'm mistaken. Here are his quotes about the issue: "i get wrong signature errors, and there is no bisign [a key that encompasses the whole mod]" "no no you have all the bikeys in the pbo, which is correct. but then you need a bisign for the entire mod." Sorry if these questions are noob-ish, but its my first time publicly releasing this map thanks for any help! -Andrew

I'm sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place on this one. I currently have the base texture size set to double the cell meter size, but larger trees/buildings have shadows disappear, or even large interior buildings will become transparent when looking from within. This is the result from having the base texture too low, but increasing it by another factor of 2 makes the sattelite segment invalid. Ideally I dont want to have to rescale my satt/mask, but I'm not sure what the consequences of leaving this value at invalid. If anyone has some advice for best handling this situation, please post any suggestions. Thanks for any input! -andrew

thanks for the outline! i'm currently having issues with binarization/packing since it seems to retaining certain files which i actually deleted (i'm assuming its because i made a copy of my map folder as the actual release version, while the original still exists with all the other content that continues to pop up in the .pbo) One concern I still have is: Is the wrp secure enough that no other person can access the map in visitor 3?

I'm ready to release an unfinished prototype for my map to get some player feedback during the object placement project. Like any mapmaker who has put months and months of work into their project, I would like to retain as much control over my work as possible. Thus i'm a little nervous releasing my content without first discussing it with previous map makers. I looked through other maps such as namalsk, zargabad, but it was still somewhat confusing what is needed to release. I'm currently deleting and repacking the main pbo file to see what is and what isn't needed for the map to function in game, but guidance from veteran map makers is greatly appreciated! -Thanks for all the help getting me this far guys! -andrew

the more i'm looking at chukotka on google earth/images the more i'm realizing its a big stretch, but I originally based this off my home of new england, especially maine new hampshire region. hopefully i can find time to make americanized buildings/signs, but until then i have to go with something in russia. I'm looking at Sakhalin Island, which surprisingly is somewhat similar to my island. i think i may release the alpha under this name instead or find another substitute

the total playing dimensions are 13312 m x 13312 m. The main island is fairly blockish so the vast majority of the playable area is land, although there are some open stretches of deep water.

I originally posted this on reddit dayz , but i think it does a good job giving an overview of the map. This map is completely fantasy, i made it with the default and custom textures in l3dt. The heightfield was more or less the basis for the rest of the map, i added a lot of islands, a large mountain (1000 m), rolling hills, river (technically a fjord i think), flat coastline etc. There are currently 5 terrains: sand for beaches, rock for mountains/cliffs, dirt for towns, airstrip etc, grass, and forest. I designed the entire map around a survivalist mentality, with players having to work together with limited technologies/ resources to navigate through mountain passes, rivers, oceans, forests etc. THe map is very rural, with dirt roads, small towns etc. I'm losing motivation to continue object placement and modeling in oxygen fir arma 2/oa since i'm not sure what will be useable in arma 3/standalone, so I may release the project within a month as a playable, but technically unfinished concept map, and work on perfecting it for a3. I called my map Chukotka, an extremely rural area in eastern coast of russia, because I feel that it reflects the isolation of that part of the world and has many similarities. The map still lacks in detail both in terms of objects and sat map, but hopefully you will appreciate its overall structure/environment. Comments and questions are appreciated! -Andrew

I hope to start this trhead as a little hub for myself and other mapmakers to keep our projects alive for future arma engines. I've been looking through the A3 standalone terrain editing forums and will post links to some threads which should be helpful. Questions which i'm trying to understand (hopefully you guys already know the answers) are: Can A2/OA building models be copy and pasted into A3/Standalone? Will there be a new visitor in the near future? If so, will Visitor 3 still be functional? Can the satellite and mask images be used directly in A3/Standalone ( i assume yes, but i'll check) Does DayZ Standalone use the same game engine? *Can road nets be exported directly into a new map ( as opposed to individually placing a terminator and then importing a net)? Hopefully I can gather all these answers and assemble them into this one thread for other users. If anyone wants to add any q's feel free to post them as well! Thanks -Andrew

Never heard of World Tools Forest Generator til now, i'll give it a shot asap! **Just finished using world tools, perhaps the handiest/most straightfoward tool i've tried yet! Should save me hours of time

from what i've seen you post it looks like you're almost done or at least have a great foundation, i still have at least a month to put out an alpha release and I know it will be far from perfect, but i just want to focus on porting my map to arma 3/ dayz standalone

Unfortunately rockets tutorial listed on the BI site is no longer around, so I unfortunately I'm stuck with quite a few questions on this subject. I downloaded the tool and tried importing my att map as grey scale image, but I first realized that the sample image on the BI site had only the white zones as vegetation, and black zones as blank, so I may need to use the magic wand tool to cut out my vegetation areas and past them onto a black bacground, but I'm not sure at the moment. I also wondered what resolution I should be using, since 16384 seems to be too large for the program and it crashes, but that may be due to another issue. I'm also confused for the parameters and information settings, is one just for using one objects and the other used for mixing multiple (r g b channels?) Sorry for all the questions, but any guidelines for using this program woould save me hours of frustration Thanks for any help! Andrew

somethings, like roadpainting, annoy the hell out of me because we are dealing with issues unique to arma, not mod design in general. However, I enjoy the fact there is stilll some complexity to map making/modding in arma as it forces me to think outside the box and use programs like autocad and c++ which are good skills to have in the real world. Its also nice to keep out an onslaught of 12 year olds releasing poorly thought out/developed content ( take a look at the dayz reddit to see what i mean). I recently tried map making with the Unreal Development Kit, and surprisingly many of the things I learned from modding arma translated reasonably well for UDK, so in that sense its nice to not have some simple gui map making tools that teaches almost nothing to the user. Thats just my 2 cents at least, I'm probably trying too hard to justify 6 months of work lol

Great call Jakerod, turns out that was the issue was all along. Never knew that nightvision/thermal was still available in bulldozer