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Nothing has changed regarding underground structures in VBS3. They are kind of a pain to work with, but they work just fine, and there's nothing hacky about it. I seem to remember Ivan saying that they experimented with underground structures in Arma 3 using the VBS method (an underground LOD that "cuts" through the terrain), and it worked fine except that the AI didn't work underground (which is also true in VBS) so they decided against putting it in as a feature. However, it looks like the folks at BISim have just recently managed to fix the AI limitation according to the 3.5 changelog, so it's possible that this information has been passed on to BI so they could possibly implement it. I have my doubts though. As much as I would love it, all of this sounds way too good to be true to me. I mostly have my fingers crossed for support of rivers and lakes being implemented. :)

Yeah, so back to the whole water in *Arma 3* thing... @Dwarden, is the two heightmap solution something that could be implemented in Arma 3? From an outsider's perspective, it looks like it wouldn't be the hardest thing in the world, but nothing's ever easy. Maybe you guys have evaluated some other method? It must have come up at least once in the last decade.

I get that BI and BISIM are two separate companies, but the two products are based around a common base engine code. Yes, VBS diverged from ArmA quite some time ago. That doesn't mean that some of these things cannot be implemented in a similar manner in ArmA's engine. I think we can all appreciate that other issues take priority, but it'd be splendid to at least hear that the ponds/river issue is perhaps being looked into or maybe even why it cannot be done in ArmA 3's engine if that is the case.

I don't want ponds the way ArmA 2 had ponds. Sure, fix it for backwards compatibility's sake, but that's not the way to go. I want to see them implement a real solution, like the one they use in VBS which works wonderfully. It's an engine level change so it's more involved, sure, but it opens up many more possibilities instead of having to place a bunch of water objects on the map. I made a ticket about it a while back here. I feel it's the proper solution. I'm not asking them to give us the LandBuilder features that automatically change the base terrain heightmap and produce a second water heightmap for you. I'm sure we in the community can work that part out. Just give us the ability to add an optional 'water = /my/path/my_water_heightmap.asc' line to our terrain's config and have the water generated at those points. I know that it's not as simple as I'm making it sound. I'm a software engineer myself and can fully appreciate the time and resources that would go into making an engine level change like this for something that sounds easy, but it's very doable. It's been 13 years since OFP came out, and ever since then, we've been stuck with (virtually) no water above sea level. C'mon, guys. You do the work on the back end, and we'll give you all the splendid ponds, splendid rivers, and splendid lakes ArmA maps deserve. :D

I still have yet to hear back from anyone in the support forums about how to implement the new creek features when making a map. Someone said that it was likely a creek model, but I keep seeing the term micro-terrains when referring to creeks and am very curious as to what exactly that means and how it was achieved. Seems like no one from BISim answers questions in the PE forums anymore, and there's no documentation that I've been able to find.

I actually made a ticket about the water above sea level issue, but I doubt we'll see any progress on this soon. http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=18839 The solution in VBS2 was quite simple: use two heightmaps. One for water, one for land. Visitor 4 has a landbuilder module that will convert shapefiles into ponds/rivers, carving the water areas out of the terrain for you. Then you just include the water heightmap in your config file, and the water heightmap is overlayed on the land heightmap. I feel like while this would not be the most difficult engine change in the world to make, there just isn't a whole lot of interest in it on the dev's side. I can keep hoping though.

This tutorial and all the feedback here has been immensely helpful. Been remaking one of my little VBS2 terrains (Silverton, CO) in Terrain Builder for a little while now, but the lack of any way to create inland rivers and high altitude lakes is killing me. So I decided to make a feature request ticket. http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=18839 I searched for similar tickets first but didn't find one. I think it would be a very great feature to have. By the way, had anyone figured out how to get the outer terrain working properly yet, or is it just totally borked for now?

I was having this same issue. No objects on the map either. I fixed it by going to the Samplers tab in mapframe properties and changing the texture layer size. Mine was set to 2.5 x 2.5 (I'm assuming because my cell size is 2.5 meters) so I played with that setting a bit until it would load up. After you change it, regenerate your layers and pack it up. It took some trial and error, but it worked for me. If anyone could explain that area better, I'd appreciate it.

Question for the VBS2 folks: is it technically possible to create ArmA3 terrains using Visitor4? I recently began making my own maps for VBS2 and love what V4 has to offer with the Landbuilder modules. I've tried using Terrain Builder but it seems to have a lot of issues at the moment.

If Terrain Builder has the LandBuilder modules found in Visitor 4, then you will be able to use the SmoothAlongPath module to smooth the terrain according to the shapefile you use for your roads. Take a look at the devref manual for VBS2 for more detail, lots of stuff in there on the different features. I just started making terrains in VBS2, and the tools allow me to create roads and the like very, very quickly. Here's hoping these features have made it into the new Terrain Builder! We'll find out for sure tomorrow it seems.