cifordayzserver

Well, that was interesting, I had a heck of a time getting comfortable editing the buildings on the terrain, and as usual made a bunch of boneheaded mistakes along the way. All the buildings I did are placed on the terrain now, and adjusted for position, I just have to double check them all in game. However, I did come across some other issues in the models that need to be addressed before I release and update, so not sure on a timeline yet, but hoping for 2 weeks at most. The Apartment buildings in Corazol add 240 enterable rooms to the city, and that's not counting the dum_olez_istan_maly and maly2, which are really plentiful in Southern Sahrani. Rahmadi needs one of the buildings that was previous done swapped out, and then it's fully enterable. Here is a shot of Corazol with all the apartment buildings in view: and a shot of Paraiso, there are near 20 of the maly's in this picture:

Constant learning curve is slowing me down quite a bit. I am getting to know Visitor, I placed the buildings down, but am having problems actually getting them to publish. M1lkm8n gave me some tips that should hopefully sort it out. I've also started working on another building in order to decompress from the frustration. I went the opposite route this time, and the building is fully configured, but not textured. So I just need to build out the interior with walls, floors, and ceilings, and it will be done. *Edit Yay! got it, Thank GOD for Mikero's Dos Toolset!!!!

I actually had a post typed up explaining the few issues that were left with the 8 story version of the Panelak building... saw how small it was, and skipped playing with a buddy to finish it up. It is ALL done. I just need to move the closet doors I moved out of the way roughly, that will take 2 seconds. Next is swapping them out on the terrain, which may take some time, or may go very fast. M1lkm8n has been an ENORMOUS help, really holding my hand through the modelling and helping me through all the issues I bump into. MAKE SURE you check out HIS YOUTUBE CHANNEL he's always updating videos of his modelling work for A3 Jalalabad he's doing with SmokeDog! With no further delay, fully enterable, 8 story apartment buildings, there are 15 or so of them in Chernogorsk and I didn't notice any significant performance hit.

I say, the global community/UN declare all "holyland" off limits for residence or ownership. Anyone can go there during the day, visit, worship, etc... no one gets to claim it, unless they can live there in peace. Park 100 or so Ocean Cruise vessels in port, make EVERYONE live on those. They'll either kill each other or learn to get along REAL fast. Honestly I think it's time for global community "ownership" of all "high value" land. Anything to do with global resources or religion should be off limits for private, commercial, or governmental exploit. The individual communities should decide what happens with their local resources, and should share in the profits should they choose to allow external parties to exploit them. There is simply too much conflict... everywhere, and it's largely due to inequity of local laws, normally as a direct result of corruption. This is true across the globe... no matter who, what, when, or where.. conflict arises almost exclusively from corruption only possible by way of individual wealth overpowering majority sentiment. When you look at Israel by itself, you have a somewhat different case, obviously the residents of Israel are pretty unified in their desire to be there, but zoom out, and it's pretty clear, in the region, they are a wealthy minority opposing the will of the poor majority... There is only one outcome for this. The fact that the world has both forced this situation into existence by way of not providing jewish refugees asylum after WWII, and sustained/supported it's continued escalation for this long, is just astounding to me. The only more shocking reality, is the jewish government that so systematically resurrects the conditions and rhetoric they were subjected to in pre WWII Germany. It's such a horrific parallel I really can't comprehend how it's even mildly tolerable to them as a people. Having said all that, radical Islam is again, the same problem. The global community allows the wealthy minority in EVERY SINGLE middle eastern country to exploit the resources of the nation in return for capitulation in resource management. The middle eastern countries, have done a wonderful job of redirecting any anger directly at the evil west, the great satan, who they all work for. Obviously even with a utopian global "arab spring" where actual change is accomplished, there will still be conflict, but, so long as we are a world that embraces individual profit via exploitation of world resources, we will be a world at war.

I love how people throw around the "port a2 stuff" like that's a matter of repacking it or something. SMD_Sahrani_A2 is a "port" of A1 content... does that mean it didn't take 100's-1000's of man hours? Does it not add 20+ newly opened buildings meticulously placed down? Hell forget us... I guess CWR2 is just a "port" job huh?? lol. WTF. You and others talk about judging harshly when money comes into it??? What are you doing RIGHT NOW, and on top of it, we get to sit here having spent 100's if not 1000's of dollars AND hours on these projects, and get crapped on by indignant fossils that are stuck in the 90's. You talk about it being like kickstarter, which is totally insane, it's not like people are going to post pictures of their ideas and get funded.... this is paying for content that already exists in the store. If you sell crap, or TRY to sell crap, ALL veteran Arma players will see it a mile away (and if it goes like I think it will they'll be able to try it or even use/dl it for free from the forums/AH/PWS)... and new people will learn fast that they have to be careful about what they buy in the store... It's called a free market economy, and the consumers determine what will succeed or not. You act as if these ideas are insane, or come out of thin air.... THIS is the global gaming economy/scene... and it's a GOOD and HEALTHY thing, the parent game company gets gained exposure through the work of passionate individuals, who in turn are now allowed to thrive doing what they love. My friend has 2 10yo kids who run a Minecraft server and they get more donations than kju mentioned... ON A MONTHLY BASIS.... I've been offered donations 2-3 times, and been offered money kickback advertising twice. And of course this entire thread has entirely ignored the elephant in the room.... Server hosts, who have not developed or worked on ANY of these addons, missions or mods make 100's to 1000's of dollars in "donations" hosting the content of others, never having donated so much as a dime to the authors. Or that you can make plenty of money if you cater to the lowest common denominator... why make content when I can get paid by eager server hosts who have no clue what they're doing? As far as information sharing, again I think this is an overly pessimistic view... 1. The tutorials that are already out there show you pretty much how to do everything... it's not easy to find or exactly user friendly, but it's there. Anyone who REALLY wants to do something in Arma can. 2. I certainly wouldn't change our attitude towards sharing info OR assets just because I now had an income stream based on them. IMO most of this negativity towards profit generally comes from author's who have been traditionally told they are NOT allowed to profit by BI.... and they are bitter that others have profited.... Well, things have changed DRASTICALLY whether you like it or not, people who just play these games are making TONS of money on Youtube or Twitch, so why the hell shouldn't the content producers??? Hell, I mod for Arma, I'd sooner pay someone 3.99 to port Sahrani to A3 than to have to do it myself lol. And as far as the "it will get done" attitude.... We've been actively working on Sahrani and the MLOD library opening up BI buildings for 2 years... we've had at most 3-4 offers for help.... ALL of which needed to be taught how to use O2.... totally competent modellers who could have modded in Unity or Source, or Cryengine with almost NO learning curve, had to get personal guidance through and endless quagmire of O2 LODs, configs, etc. It's also hilarious when people talk about introducing "demanding customers" with paid 3rd party content... that seems to be the attitude being conveyed here.... as mentioned by France, people are ALREADY over demanding and unforgiving about engine limits or time constraints... I say make them pay for the right to bitch lol... because it's happening anyway... As far as IP theft, I don't even get if that's a joke... yeah BI and Steam would have NO CLUE AT ALL if people were using stolen content, and I'm sure it would just get ignored. Honestly I think the MOST DAMAGING thing for the Arma franchise is THIS super insulated "uber alles" community.... the TINY TINY percentage of their audience who is endlessly critical, demanding, and indignant.... If it was up to the people who are freaking out about paid content... BI would have never picked up DayZ lol. It's so weird to see so many of Arma's Core audience so against BI or anyone else passionate about it succeeding. The level of bullying by the Arma audience has always been something I was amazed by... so many level headed, nice, open, drama free modders.... and then this insane frothy mouthed contingent of angry dogs who attack anything not in their pack...

I think that BI's intentions are laid out pretty clearly in their own DLC release.... Seasoned Arma modders/players can somewhat easily skirt the need to purchase... "normal" consumers click buy if they want it. Honestly I think that is a perfect strategy, it makes the purchase a 'donation' for Arma vets, and it's an income stream for modders to motivate them to keep working. Steam sells tons of totally crap alpha games, some that get entirely abandoned, people are aware of that, so for people on these forums to expect higher standards at less compensation from what is a HUGE talent pool of passionate Arma modders, pushes beyond entitled, and enters the realm of insanity. ROCK SIMULATOR is a game... likely going to make someone rich... so when people here act like there needs to be improvement or standards for Arma mods, I say maybe it's time to join the real world.... because if you aren't willing to pay for the amazing content you've enjoyed from the community for so long, what makes you think it will be there to play with in the future? *edit, this also allows the continued support of Armaholic and Play with Six etc. I know that I'd promote DL'ing via Armaholic or PWS, and donating something to them (or not) i/o purchasing it via Steam were I to release content for A3.

Eventually yes, I plan on converting all the buildings, and terrain objects so they have physx lods and do a full dedicated build for Arma 3, this will take quite a while though.

Sorry for the lack of updates here. M1lkm8n is working on a different project/terrain currently. So work on the terrain has effectively stopped for now. I am getting more comfortable in picking up the modelling of the buildings, and once I've finished the 4 or so buildings I've started, I will place them on the terrain, and put out an update to the SMD_Sahrani_A2 terrain. From there, I will start converting all the buildings M1lkm8n did, as well as my own to A3. I just need to add physx LOD to all of them. It will be time consuming, and I will still need to do all the signs, trees, bushes, and non-enterable buildings as well. I can't gauge a timeline realistically at this point, I have a lot of other focuses that are taking priority, and all of it involves getting a good workflow setup and spending LOTS of tedious hours editing models... Even if I get aggressive with it, I don't see it happening in under 3-6 months.

I have to apologize for the drop off in updates and progress, I've had my attention elsewhere. I spent some time tonight figuring out what's left on the 4 buildings I've done. I should be able to get those squared away in my spare time over the next few weeks, then I'll place them on the terrain. Once that's done, I will move on to getting all the buildings set for A3, THEN work on the rest of the objects, it's a ton of work, so I should only be able to gauge a timeline after doing the buildings for A3.

I for one, document all my permissions, I save the emails, take screenshots, and make a note on our github with links, that way it can be quickly and easily referenced. I also at times reconfirm with the author after my modifications or integration has been completed to ensure I am not creating any conflicts or issues that I may not have foreseen, OR more importantly that I did not mis-understand the permission. With such a global community I feel it's important to ensure you've clearly communicated your intentions.

I think I'm going to NEED that elevator lol:

I have been playing a bit with a system that allows for so far, ANY number of floors... Here's a 100+ story building on the NWAF. All floors are enterable, I haven't gotten the roadway or geolods in yet so I haven't gone inside or to the top. Obviously this was just for fun, but I'm going to play with the concept in order to make the map more varied though.

Sure, that sounds great! The only thing that might be of concern for you (or not) is that we share EVERYTHING totally openly. So if you're fine with the end result building being open source, I'd love to integrate the elevator. Here's a quick test I did after getting the 8 story building MOSTLY done. There are quite a few missing textures, and the Geo, fire, view, and shadow lod all need adjustments: BUT, I dropped 100 of them on the NWAF runway, and flew/ran around a bit. I got as good/better FPS as I do in any city in Chernarus, so I THINK they should be fine in terms of lag, even in high number. We'll see once I get my feet wet in Visitor and do some experiments with them ALL OVER the map.... just for testing. It's certainly no work or art, or anywhere near the added features of M1lkm8n's buildings but I figured breaking glass in these might be a bit excessive, although I will likely at some point play with it and see if it's do-able. The doors will also eventually all open/close. I think I've figured out how to create a small lobby/hallway for the elevator shaft to let out onto every floor, but I'm not 100 percent sure yet. Plans for the future now that M1lkm8n is onto Jalalabad (CHECK IT OUT): I will do one more "standard" update to the A2 version of the map; adding these 4 new buildings, and MAYBE the other 6 I'm working on.... Then I will work on adding the LODs for A3 to ALL the buildings we've done, and then porting the map to A3 fully. Once that's done, I plan on starting to heavily edit the map. I would like to do "United Sahrani" versions for both A2 and A3, with a bit more detail than BI did in the DLC (remove all the propaganda poster and statues in the North, remove/replace all the bombed/burned out buildings, Corazol DMZ, tank traps, and wrecks, and add all the feature buildings (Sawmill, & TV Station) and de-militarize the Cabo Santa Lucia outpost into a quarry.... however that might get back burnered/not done... Although I THINK, I should be able to do it in stages, as I want my "dream" Sahrani to look like a natural evolution of United Sahrani. What I'd REALLY like to do; is a completely original Sahrani of the Future. Picture 7-20 years of rapid expansion and growth enabled by the oil rich South peace with the North and prolonged American presence/involvement. All the Cities and towns expanded, oil/gas refinery and major tanker port in the south, expanded logging, and mining and a major dry cargo port in the north. First things first though, gotta button up these buildings, lay them down, and get moving on an A3 port of this version of the terrain.

While working on the Sahrani apartment buildings I got a little overwhelmed, so I decided to go for some seriously low hanging fruit. The Panalek buildings are the brick apartment buildings, there is a 2 story (with 2 enterable rooms (1 per side, per floor)), a 4 story with 4 enterable rooms, and then the 8 story one that only has an elevator shaft. So what I did was "finish" the 2 story building so that all the rooms are enterable: I believe I need to adjust the fire lod a bit but that's it. I made named selections for the rooms, and then later the hallways, and have gotten the 8 story version 90 percent done: http://puu.sh/8LEGu.png (126 kB) The 4 story one should be even easier, once the 8 is done. I've moved the elevator shaft to the back of the building, I'm going to have a little hallway that leads to it, and MAYBE have outlets out to each floor from there as well, but it came together pretty quickly, I just need to tighten up the seams and then do the GEO lod.

Well, now that I'm more comfortable in O2, I started having a go at opening up that Large 7 story building there are so many variants of, it's coming along really quickly, I've got the whole stairwell done with doors leading out to every floor, the roof, and the back exit. The textures will need to get cleaned up, but it's coming along nicely, and it's a matter of doing one floor well, then copy/pasting that down each floor. Only the ground floor will be arranged differently. Here's a peek at it in O2 with the stairs:

The Lite Version should run in AiA and A3MP better than the full package, since the full package includes units and vehicles that will not function properly in Arma 3. For A2OA though the full package is much better, it has quite a few units and vehicles.

Spent some more time on the building, actually re-did it from scratch again with the lessons I picked up doing it the 1st time. It's MUCH cleaner now. Pretty much done, just has a few issues with the ShadowLOD I can't seem to iron out, and I'm doing some experiments with the resolution lods, I think if I make the first and second ones 0.100 and 0.200 instead of 1.000 and 2.000 it will allow the client to draw a much less complex model within cities which should hopefully be a big boost to performance in cities and approaching them I think... we'll see. I'm recording all the work on my twitch stream and will do a tutorial on it so others can see that working with existing models isn't as nightmarish as starting from scratch. Here's an updated video with intro/credits/music:

Well, it's WIP, but I created a new building from one of M1lkm8n's finished ones. Once I finish it, M1lkm8n will walk me through putting it down on the terrain in Visitor. That building should make Rahmadi 100 percent enterable, and most of the Southern cities as well. I'm getting SORT OF comfortable in O2, so after I'm done with this I'm going to try to do this building: http://i.imgur.com/1SBLo26.jpg (168 kB) There are 4 versions of that building and 2 more that have another 2 floors on top. It will be easy to mirror/cut/copy/paste all 6 versions once one of the tall ones is done. I'm also fairly sure I'll be able to use that fire escape stairwell to fix the previously done Apartment building's floorplan/layout.

You might want to look at these two links. They might give you some guidance, I believe it's a known issue. The Turrets depend on a seated player, and the shot comes from their view point. IE you need 2 gunners to fire 2 guns. But I think people have both scripted, and model edited their way around it. Issue on the issuetracker that was assigned but never completed: https://dev.withsix.com/issues/27764 an older thread that inspired the scripted solution below: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?157834-double-barrel-turret scripted fix: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?159574-Double-Barrel-Guns-via-attached-gun-pod

Your best bet is to use this: https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_3_Cars_Config_Guidelines You could also be more specific in your request for info. What exactly are you trying to accomplish.

Figured I'd poke around YouTube a bit and see if anyone's playing the terrain.... and WOW, these guys are making some GREAT vids! Love to see folks stretching their legs on the terrain! Big Thanks to Apollo and Arkaman Great Work! Check out their vids! ---------- Post added at 14:34 ---------- Previous post was at 14:25 ---------- These are the exact sort of missions we had in mind when opening up the buildings! The southern cities and Rahmadi would be ideal, since those have the highest percentages of our opened buildings, but we've ensured every city has a MUCH higher percentage of enterable buildings than in A1 Sahrani. Looks like an awesome job ALiVE crew too, I gotta check it out!!!

Thanks! If you can give us specifics we'd be happy to try and address the shadow lod issues moving forward. The majority of the one's I've noticed have been buildings we have not yet worked on. The issues can be submitted on our github: https://github.com/SMDDevs/smd_sahrani_a2/issues?state=open

Yeah, not sure. I just checked it out too, and even if you put the squad leader on the bridge and "trick" him into following the waypoints on the bridge the rest of his team won't follow. I know bridges are a bitch for AI in general, and I noticed that bridge is not 100pct lined up, so it may be one of those two factors? I'll talk to M1lkm8n about it.