maps under construction:

[ZeroG]

Nice thread idea, Shezan!

WESERBERGLAND

A 20kmx20km map in north-western Germany, actually the first mountain-ridge southwards the north sea (heights up to 400m) with the Weser river flowing through the PORTA WESTFALICA

Status: Heightmap done. Consecutively, I develop a kind of blog-tutorial on how to make islands from scratch, as this was my initial idea at the beginning of this year.


I don't want to stop people's engagement, but there are some things that concern me when I read all these posts:

1. I think Chernarus has nice detail and this level I also want to achieve. Its 15x15km...has more than a million objects...and is very hungry on hardware. I wonder on what kind of machines people want to run 40x40km, 80x80km or even 120x120km maps?! I think even my planned 20x20km will be a lot of work until they have Cherna quality?!
Nothing is more unsatisfactory when you spend like one year on a map and people do not play on it because their machines and servers are not capable of displaying it.

2. Secondly, why so many big maps at one time? I say: better finish off one first Otherwise, there is the danger that in the end none of the map gets finished, because finishing only one already takes ages. That's also my experience as I worked on my heightmap for more than 2 months, on the riverbed alone more than 2 weeks.

So far from my corner of view

[prowler.wolf]

I don't want to stop people's engagement, but there are some things that concern me when I read all these posts:

1. I think Chernarus has nice detail and this level I also want to achieve. Its 15x15km...has more than a million objects...and is very hungry on hardware. I wonder on what kind of machines people want to run 40x40km, 80x80km or even 120x120km maps?! I think even my planned 20x20km will be a lot of work until they have Cherna quality?!
Nothing is more unsatisfactory when you spend like one year on a map and people do not play on it because their machines and servers are not capable of displaying it.

2. Secondly, why so many big maps at one time? I say: better finish off one first Otherwise, there is the danger that in the end none of the map gets finished, because finishing only one already takes ages. That's also my experience as I worked on my heightmap for more than 2 months, on the riverbed alone more than 2 weeks.

So far from my corner of view

I couldn't agree more. My largest island is 15km x 15km with about %25 the amount of objects as Chernarus. I know from past works that anything larger is just a pain in the ass unless you sacrifice a lot to get it finished and able to run on most peoples computers.

But the future is looking good so far and this might change as tools become available and the entire process of setting up, working on, and releasing islands becomes more user friendly. Especially for the newer folk. The sheer number of islands being released and the quality of work is testament to that.

[geloxo]

After my tests, my conclussions: no matter how large the map is but how many objects the PC has to deal with within the viewdistance. This is the real factor that really impacts on performance, at least from my experience. For instance, with 2 km viewdistance a 10 km lenght forest may be worse for performance than a 1km lenght one which is higly dense. Reason: the first may have more objetcs in the viewdistance range (2km viewdistance of its 10km length is inside the forest) than the second (only 1km lenght is rendered and still 1km viewdistance is free). This range obviously depends from player to player... What I see on the maps is that people generally create very large areas with dense concentration of objects (cities or forests) and then, when you are in the middle of them an look around, your PC has to deal with lots of items during long distances (as the case of chernarus with its never ending forests).

In my map for instance I get better performance than in Chernarus and it is more dense (could be also due to the objects themselves). If you do not use dense areas very next to the other (let´s say no more than 17.000 objects within 1 km viewdistance) you may have a good balance between quality and performance with standard PCs, including the performance loss when AI is on the scene.

Cheers

[soldier2390]

looking good fella's, really looking forward to all the afghanistan maps! i wish i had something to post, but im still trying to re-learn all of what i did awhile ago(so far no good)!

but i plan of finding a nice place in afghanistan with large mountains and deep valleys, with very small and scattered villages. i had in mind something like the Arma1 map by Nicholes Bell(Razani N. Waziristan), cause i love that layout, but im looking for an area thats more desert...without as much plants\bushes\trees(cause im not too skilled at object placement so this is my learning)!

i have already one alsome map maker helping my on this(in between all his beautiful afghan maps) but if anyone else has ideas\suggestions please let me know, cause we are still looking for good place to use.

[Bushlurker]

if anyone else has ideas\suggestions please let me know, cause we are still looking for good place to use.
__________________

Does it have to be Afghanistan, soldier2390? - try googling for "Sa'ada"... big mountains, desert, just the sort of thing you're looking for... don't think anyones done a Yemeni map yet.....

B

[shezan74]

don't think anyones done a Yemeni map yet.....

How do you plan to fill a yemen map? placing sand grains one by one with world tools?

[Darkhorse 1-6]

Although I am having internet issues at the moment (stuck using my phone currently) I am planning on starting my first island project once I'm back online, or once I get the required files/software/remaining tutorials from the local library.

I'm planning on an island chain, a semi large mainland off to one side or a corner, and possibly a semi large island base somewhere. All on a map the size of the 31st Normandy's map. If all goes well and I manage to get started, ill probably be back in 3 years.

Until I get the rest of what I need I will probably just experiment with L3DT.

[Bushlurker]

How do you plan to fill a yemen map? placing sand grains one by one with world tools?

... with world tools you can place them all at once...

B

[Matrix2k20]

another Afghan Map....

Feyzabad in northern Afghanistan with the surrounding Mountains.

Wintermap

-Terrain done with 90m SRTM Maps from USGS
- Sat Image done..i have different maps from 20m zoom to 1km (see whats best in look & performence)

now i am in Visitor and load all the stuff....my first Map with Visitor (Arma)

[soldier2390]

cool cool..looking forward to the Feyzabad map! and yeah i think the yemen map would be cool! but one thing i forgot to say was for which ever area i make i was hoping to have active us military forces present in the area and activily hunting taliban!

but yeah ill look into the Yemem area you mentioned Bushlurker thx!

EDIT: or even and Iraq map as long as it fits what im looking for and has active us military present!

Dave,