Map Editing?

[ck-claw]

Hi guys,hope this is gonna make sense?

I really want to get into the other side of Arma,not just helping out with our clan/mission making etc.
There are so many ppl making addons/weapons that i dont see the point really-too many good ppl doing it already.

But Island making the possiblities are endless!

Question is:-

Should i wait for the tools to come out?
Or would it be useful to learn it through the tools that are already availble?

I'm sure there is more i meant to ask,i'll have a think!

Edit:-

Think this is the right place

[SeppSchrot]

I asked the very same question to myself maybe 2 weeks ago

I decided to go for it.
First I have to say that I am still into OperationFlashpoint very much. So I could get my toes wet by making my first HelloWorld-Island in OFP. Due to the excellent and mature tools with proper documentation this was plain fun without any hassles.

After having my island running well in Flashpoint (not that is was a very good looking one), I was curious how it looked in ArmA and began the conversion process. This was nowhere near that easy like it was for OFP. You have to know that all current island tools are tailored for OFP and not for ArmA.
So you have to make a very great part per hand by hex-editing.
Object placing is sheer horror compared to before.

My advice:
If you are still a OFP player like me start by making OFP islands and many things you learn there will be useful for ArmA as well.

If you plan to make only islands for ArmA, wait for the updated tools.

[snake07]

Alrighty CK me old chum!

TBH matey you might aswell wait, unless you want to learn cezch.

When i made that UK island for OFP, i used the WRPtool or WRPedit can't remember lol. I didn't use visitor because it aint English. Im not too sure if WRPtool is the same as Visitor but damned if i new, couldn't understand a word of it!

For the time being if you want, learn the config.file ect... for islands, atleast thats a start. Then hopefully BIS will release the new visitor

[RKSL-Rock]

Question is:-

Should i wait for the tools to come out?
Or would it be useful to learn it through the tools that are already availble?

To be honest i think you can prepare for making islands but i dont think you can actually expect it import your Visitor/WRPTool made islands. ***ArmA Terrain Streaming appears far more complex than anything in the OFP engine.

Take a look here on the Biki

The upshot of all this is that yo are going to need 5 things to make an island:

1 - Terrain data, judging from the Visitor2 its likely to be in ASE format. ***There are plenty BMP to Ascii to ASE convertors out there.

2 - "Satelite Map" - this appears to be used in the map view with textures and in the actual terain at long view distances (the later is purely speculation based and observation).

3 - "Layer Map" - This is the image that tells the engine where to place the appropriate textures; grass, sand rock etc.

4 - Layer Legend - The biki seems to imply you can use the one provided. ***This give the colours you need to paint the Layer map with and corresponds to the values in the 5th anf final item.

5 - The texture/layer config file. ***Which links the colour values with the actual textures and materials.

Soooo, you could make 1,2 and 3 but until we get Visitor 3 and {more importantly?} some decent tutorials you might as well just stay in Photoshop and leave Visitor2 and WrpTool alone for the moment.

[ck-claw]

Thanks for all the info guys!

Seems like best bet is to wait for the tools and go from there!

[Baddo]

Well I recommend starting with making an island for Operation Flashpoint: Resistance. It's not complicated and for example the Visitor for OFP came with a good tutorial by Kegetys, which already gives you a very good idea what you need to do in order to create islands.

Then, when the Visitor for ArmA is released, you are much better armed if you have done even a simple island for OFP and gone through the whole process of getting it in-game.

For OFP:R you can use the existing 3D-models and textures from the game in your own custom island, so you don't need to do anything else but create the terrain heightfield, cover it with textures and put the cream, the objects (3D-models) on top. Then write a configuration file (examples and tutorials easy to find), pack your island as a PBO file and that's about it. So it's quite a fast process to create a simple island for OFP:R and I recommend you start from that as there are the tools and the documentation for it.

[ck-claw]

Thats what i was thinking Baddo,but i do not have Ofp installed now!

Was just thinking about learning my way around visitor.

Btw whats the diff between visitor and WRP edit?

lol and visitor is in czech

EDIT:-

Just realised most of it's not in Czech lol

[Commando84]

dude visitor 3 has been released!

[ck-claw]

dude visitor 3 has been released!

So i see!

First thing that hit me in the face -when got home from work!