More Accessible Terrain Creator

[dmarkwick 261]

Thanks alot for those links! That first program seems extremely helpful.

It is VERY powerful. I only ever scratched its surface but I did make a few simple terrains (following ingame images are sometimes shaded oddly due to no terrain texture):

And one with a basic terrain colouring:

Link to image showing the sort of outputs:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v15/DMarkwick/Canyon1Overview.jpg

Edited April 4, 2013 by DMarkwick

[lightspeed_aust 681]

Well I believe you can export to Tiff or something like that which can be imported into visitor or in to L3DT for further changes. Heck I've considered picking up the crysis 2 software because they have a tools that lays down a road and smooths terrain underneath it automatically. save and export that to L3DT and continue making your HF =)

would this actually work because if so I would prefer to use the cry editor - very easy to use!

[Twin2Win 1]

would this actually work because if so I would prefer to use the cry editor - very easy to use!

I'm not sure actually. It's something I've been wanting to try just been really busy. I know people who use L3DT to make "maps" and import to CryEditor to lay down roads. I know if it does work the roads wont actually be there but the terrian underneath would be if you imported it back to L3DT afterwards. If you can that is. Give it a shot and let me know if you can!

[lightspeed_aust 681]

Ok will do.

[seamusgod 1]

It's not that I don't want more content but I'd rather have quality content. Just take for instance the project I'm working on now. I'm recreating grand manan. My best friend actually just moved to Canada. I have him out taking pictures of stop signs , mailboxes, houses anything to create the feeling of actually being there.

Instead of just pumping out mini-stratiss or Lemnos or whatever they changed the name to now. See what I'm saying. Yes a newer updated version of visitor is surly needed but if they give us anything like vbedit it wouldn't be the same as it is now. These guys (the mod makers) work months maybe years just to get close to a completed island that offers that new never been here before feeling.

the assumption being that talented but inexperienced people cannot make something amazing. i guess that guy who made panthera was a vistor pro since birth.

this argument is like shooting yourself in the foot. you don't want better tools and more access because you think it'll allow unskilled people to make bad maps. well, it'll also allow good mappers to make even better maps with more efficiency. shoot yourself in the foot some more, and do it on behalf of the modders, too.

modding elitism is going to murder this community.

edit:

@ dmarkwik, those are some good looking dynamic terrain. lots of crevices make open space fighting more interesting with natural cover and not just random rocks everywhere.

Edited April 9, 2013 by seamusgod

[m1lkm8n 410]

@seamusgod

First off, relax, nobody is shooting anyone in the foot :)

Second I'm far from elite at anything.

(I haven't even released a terrain yet. While I have finished one I'm not satisifed and am redoing it in arma3)

I'm pretty sure the guy who made panthera put his time in on that map but it has nothing to do with what I was talking about. I never said I didn't want better tools. we need new tools now anyway with the introduction of shape files. Plus hopefully they can work out some of the other bugs that plagued v3.

But there is a huge difference in having vbedit and v3.

In my opinion most of what I see is people trying to start off making a map and going right for the biggest terrain size not taking the time to learn properly and giving up saying that its the tools, we need new tools. When in reality the tools, for the most part, work just fine.

And as far as elitism killing this community, that's just ridiculous. Pretty much every single person on the cwr team has answered some of my forum posts at one time or another, and those are some of the top mod makers out there. They always seemed very nice to me in their replys.

(If that's elitism, then by all means, shoot me in the foot) :)

[xyberviri 1]

What you have to do is go here: http://products.bisimulations.com/contact-us

find the closest sales office to your location.

Call the sales department.

ask for a personal license to this: https://store.bisimulations.com/products/vbs2-academic-seat-license

pay 500.00 + S&H&F, comes out to about 580.00 USD.

BI has already stated they will not sell visitor by itself.

Also you dont need just visitor to make good maps, you need Visitor and another application like Global Mapper or L3DT, visitor supports the importing of the data from Global mappers layer data. then you need to either make the input file or you need to just use geo dem data.

The Cryengine only supports importing height maps and most of the time you can't get the exact import down right.

Edited April 10, 2013 by xyberviri

[Proctoron 1]

I am pretty new here and just recently from Mid January this year i started my first map project, and i almost gave up several times because i thought there is no chance that i could learn the tools, but i am a persistent bugger, and spent days upon days browsing these forums and going through tutorials, and eventually one day i managed to stand on my own terrain (or landing on the moon as i called it as it had no textures :-P)

Why i wanted to make a map was a long time dream, of playing on a map from my home town, i understand that i probably wont manage to make an outstanding or beautifull map like many of the guys here, but at least, i hope, i can make a map, that me and my friends and hopefully some of the guys that has been stationed in the millitary at this place, might enjoy to play on once in a while. And if i like, i have a lifetime on me to improve it as my skills increases.

With more user friendly tools, maybe more people, would be able to make a map of their favourite place in the world for him/her and his/her friends to play on, or a map out of an idea in their head, or one that suits a certain mission or whatever.

So imho getting more user friendly tools would be a win win situation for both the players/communtiy and for BI.

[FallujahMedic -FM- 866]

**EDITED**

It's not so much actual "elitism" that bothers me, but the "economic elitism" that is present in Arma terrain development. For example, the widely used tools used by many in the community consist of Global Mapper, L3DT, Photoshop, etc. Global Mapper is $399, L3DT (professional) is $34.95, Photoshop CS6 is $699.99. Yes, I am aware that there are cheaper alternatives to those I've named and priced, but bear in mind that what I've listed are the "go to tools" for mapmakers.

These days I'm running on a limited budget and I don't have the resources to buy all this crap. I'm sure some fancy lawyer could make the argument that i'm somehow being discriminated against. Economic discrimination, lol. I'm sure there's something in the ECHR about that...

I do agree though that a unified terrain editing / building placement system needs to be sorted out.

Maybe something along the lines of these:

GameMaker Terrain Editor

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Visual3D Game Engine

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Edited May 28, 2013 by Stang69
Added Links

[m1lkm8n 410]

**EDITED**

It's not so much actual "elitism" that bothers me, but the "economic elitism" that is present in Arma terrain development. For example, the widely used tools used by many in the community consist of Global Mapper, L3DT, Photoshop, etc. Global Mapper is $399, L3DT (professional) is $34.95, Photoshop CS6 is $699.99. Yes, I am aware that there are cheaper alternatives to those I've named and priced, but bear in mind that what I've listed are the "go to tools" for mapmakers.

These days I'm running on a limited budget and I don't have the resources to buy all this crap. I'm sure some fancy lawyer could make the argument that i'm somehow being discriminated against. Economic discrimination, lol. I'm sure there's something in the ECHR about that...

here's my thoughts on this if you really think about it...bistudios(and their subsequent branches) develop programs for the militaries to create terrains and as well as the war sim arma series. if you think about it why would they not use those programs when they are developing real life terrains for the militaries to practice on. it then carries over to arma and the mod tools they released to the public.

and like you said earlier there are plenty of alternatives out there you can use.

l3dt standard - free exports out to 1024x1024

quantumgis - free

gimp - free

bi tool set 2.5.1- free

and that's pretty much all you need to create an awesome terrain. it can be done without the use of "all that expensive crap" :)

why cant you use that GMTE program? as long as it exports in xyz format you can then import it into vis3.

anyway there's my counter argument :)

[giorgygr 61]

Because it takes ages to produce a quality work with BI tools.

I would like to create a quality map in 1 week / not 6 months.

I personally don't care about BI's "other" obligations that stop me from having powerful-user friendly-time saving tools.

[fragmachine 12]

If by more accessible you guys mean easier to work with rather than more basic then yes. In fact i would like to see more capabilities for the terrain editor and engine itself. Running rivers, easier road tools, more ground textures... im just dreaming right now :)

[xendance 3]

If by more accessible you guys mean easier to work with rather than more basic then yes. In fact i would like to see more capabilities for the terrain editor and engine itself. Running rivers, easier road tools, more ground textures... im just dreaming right now :)

For starters I'd like to have a GUI for the terrain layer editing. Right now it seems that there is just a text file that you're supposed to edit, right?

[bad benson 1733]

In my opinion most of what I see is people trying to start off making a map and going right for the biggest terrain size not taking the time to learn properly and giving up saying that its the tools, we need new tools. When in reality the tools, for the most part, work just fine.

they work, yea. that's it though.

there needs to be no pedagogical inaccessability in the tools. that's a nonsensical point of view. thinking that it is a good thing is just elitism, period. i've been working with visitor 3 a lot (months literally) and it's simply ancient and is missing the most basic stuff and makes terrain creation incredibly time consuming for no reason at all.

what it's missing the most is object placement tools with integrated spacing automation. it should be way easier to create a diverse forest without copy pasting huge patches of hand created forest.

another thing is placing stuff in rows, also with automated spacing and snapping.

also, the simplest terrain manipulation is not possible in a way that can be even called a feature in visitor 3.

the only thing that this program is really capable of is importing terrain that has been created outside of it and placing stuff by hand. that's it.

in short: we need everything that world tools does and much more. why the hell isn't there an sqm import function in visitor 3 yet? we could place stuff in the editor and import the placement into visitor at least...

if you think differently you either haven't created big detailed terrains yourself or are suffering from severe elitism. it's like saying you can do weighting and animation in oxygen 2. sure you can. but why would you do it if stuff you do in any other 3d app in a matter of minutes/hours takes days or weeks in o2.

BI have to seriously step it up when it comes to what they call "mod support". if you can't provide software you have to give people plugins so they can use proper software to create content and get it in the game. alone the fact that now in the 4th installment we finally get a weighting plugin :386: and it's still unclear if we will ever get animation plugins is baffling to me. the fact that people still create stuff for this game shows their degree of dedication and it makes me sad that they (we) don't get what we need.

plugins BI, PLUGINS!!!

sorry about the rant. i've been doing a lot of stuff with this engine already and the SDK is simply incomplete. just because most modders adapt to the situation and/or have given up on getting better support doesn't mean they are happy with the situation.

[xyberviri 1]

**EDITED**

It's not so much actual "elitism" that bothers me, but the "economic elitism" that is present in Arma terrain development. For example, the widely used tools used by many in the community consist of Global Mapper, L3DT, Photoshop, etc. Global Mapper is $399, L3DT (professional) is $34.95, Photoshop CS6 is $699.99. Yes, I am aware that there are cheaper alternatives to those I've named and priced, but bear in mind that what I've listed are the "go to tools" for mapmakers.

I forgot to mention at the current time of this typing that academic version includes a full version of Global mapper, at least the last copy that was ordered included it. CS6? you can get CS2 for free so long as you dont expect any support, Adobe gives it out.

As far as cheaper alternatives to anything you named dont bother, because all of those alternatives are crap, those are all the exact set of tools you need if you want to make "pro" maps.

Edited June 6, 2013 by xyberviri

[m1lkm8n 410]

And what's wrong with quantum gis exactly?

I fail to see how that program is crap.

What exactly details a 'pro' map. Remember it's not all about size :)

Edited June 6, 2013 by M1lkm8n

[adanteh 58]

they work, yea. that's it though.

there needs to be no pedagogical inaccessability in the tools. that's a nonsensical point of view. thinking that it is a good thing is just elitism, period. i've been working with visitor 3 a lot (months literally) and it's simply ancient and is missing the most basic stuff and makes terrain creation incredibly time consuming for no reason at all. If you think differently you either haven't created big detailed terrains yourself or are suffering from severe elitism. it's like saying you can do weighting and animation in oxygen 2. sure you can. but why would you do it if stuff you do in any other 3d app in a matter of minutes/hours takes days or weeks in o2.

That is it really. BI is great at making things incredibly weird, impractical and illogical. Things that aren't all that hard to do in whatever tool, are a pain in the ass to use in Arma 3. Lots of functions doesn't mean it has to be a pain in the ass to work with. Look at good professional software that is also getting used by amateurs and you see that they often have clear menus, a good UI and even though they have a lot of features under the hood: Making something simple is often simple. With the tools we have now making something relatively simple is only incredibly complex, because of the tools there are. Making a map in certain other games? Sure, i'll go and do that. Making a full map for Arma 2 or Arma 3? No way. Even though I do have some decent ideas for maps, I'm steering clear as much as I can.

Also about the whole "Itll get flooded with bad maps then". Are you serious? The people that actually can design a decent map could be able to make good maps with far less hassle, which means more quality maps too. Sure, a penis shaped map will get released, but so what? That's what ratings are for. The same goes for the other mod tools. If my little brother wants to create a sex toy 'weapon' pack, let him go ahead. Meanwhile I have a far easier time creating a full paintball weapon pack or so.

[a421 0]

Hello forum members !   I wanted to make a tunnel through the mountain and underground construction for their location! But TERRAIN - (BUILDER) does not have this capability. Need to add TERRAIN - (BUILDER) the ability to make holes in terrain Here is a link to the video editor Cryengine 3, there is just shown how to make holes in terrain . Here is an example how it's done in CryEngine 3
Lessons on CryEngine 3 Clouds, puddles, holes 

 

Edited February 18, 2017 by a421