arma:terrain:making_satellite_texture_mask
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| arma:terrain:making_satellite_texture_mask [2021/08/11 12:47] – added link. snakeman | arma:terrain:making_satellite_texture_mask [2024/08/01 11:33] (current) – links added. snakeman | ||
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| - | ====== Making Satellite Texture and Mask ====== | + | ====== |
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| + | [[https:// | ||
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| + | **ArmA 1** aka Armed Assault (ArmA) | ||
| A little background information about Sahrani | A little background information about Sahrani | ||
| - | **Fictional | + | **Fictional |
| Sahrani is a fictional terrain, there is no place with Sahrani' | Sahrani is a fictional terrain, there is no place with Sahrani' | ||
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| **On the fly** | **On the fly** | ||
| - | There was some limits while building Sahrani; the map was under constant development and many changes occurring frequently. It happened in both objects layout (road network, cities, vegetation) and terrain (peaks, coastline etc.). It was important to keep many project elements in editable form, and to have the possibility to easily update basic layers of source PSD for both satellite texture and surface mask. It sometimes lead to work with massive PSB file of 8 GB... | + | There was some limits while building Sahrani; the terrain |
| ====== References ====== | ====== References ====== | ||
| - | Map design | + | Terrain Design |
| - | The first and initial information for satellite texture design is the intent of map designer. It is always good to know what style of landscape you're after, what locations you want to create, what do you plan to use as reference and how good your references are going to be. These decisions influence not just how the map will look like, but also how many surfaces you will need. This is the simplified version of plan for Sahrani: | + | The first and initial information for satellite texture design is the intent of terrain |
| Northern Sahrani: | Northern Sahrani: | ||
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| Terrain Size | Terrain Size | ||
| - | This is the setting for number of terrain cells. In case of Sahrani, it is 2048x2048 cells. In old style OFP maps, they have a size 256x256 elevations cells. | + | This is the setting for number of terrain cells. In case of Sahrani, it is 2048x2048 cells. In old style OFP terrains, they have a size 256x256 elevations cells. |
| Terrain cell size | Terrain cell size | ||
| - | This is the distance between elevation vertices. For Sahrani, it is 10x10 meters, for OFP maps, it is 50x50 meters. | + | This is the distance between elevation vertices. For Sahrani, it is 10x10 meters, for OFP terrains, it is 50x50 meters. |
| - | Map size | + | Terrain Size |
| - | Sahrani has cell size 10m and grid size 2048x2048 cells, the resulting | + | Sahrani has cell size 10m and grid size 2048x2048 cells, the resulting |
| Satellite texture grid | Satellite texture grid | ||
| * During import to Visitor, satellite texture and mask are cut into smaller squares. | * During import to Visitor, satellite texture and mask are cut into smaller squares. | ||
| - | * Size and number of squares is determined by so-called Satellite grid value, which is function of map size, texture size and desired square size. Calculation is described in Landscape Surface Editing. | + | * Size and number of squares is determined by so-called Satellite grid value, which is function of terrain |
| * Squares overlap a little, so that no artifacts would appear on their borders due to texture filtering. | * Squares overlap a little, so that no artifacts would appear on their borders due to texture filtering. | ||
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| * Dialogue Project > Export Map As Image... | * Dialogue Project > Export Map As Image... | ||
| - | * Choose EMF as file type! It is impossible to export image in big resolution as BMP. Resolution should be the same as target satellite image PLUS the size of "blue edge" (TM)', visible on left and bottom side of the map in Visitor. On Sara, it was 20480x20480, | + | * Choose EMF as file type! It is impossible to export image in big resolution as BMP. Resolution should be the same as target satellite image PLUS the size of "blue edge" (TM)', visible on left and bottom side of the terrain |
| Size of "blue edge" (TM) is the size of one elevation cell in pixels of satellite texture: | Size of "blue edge" (TM) is the size of one elevation cell in pixels of satellite texture: | ||
| Line 115: | Line 119: | ||
| Pre-processing of printout for satellite texture | Pre-processing of printout for satellite texture | ||
| - | Exported PNG won't have the correct size and would not match when pasted to into your satellite | + | Exported PNG won't have the correct size and would not match when pasted to into your satellite |
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| ====== Basic surfaces ====== | ====== Basic surfaces ====== | ||
| - | Deciding of number and types of surfaces used in mask is not easy process, especially if you handle diverse environments and/or want to have greater number of surfaces. There are several factors limiting the use of detailed surfaces; they originate in map size, terrain grid size and satellite texture grid (how the big mask is cut to squares). | + | Deciding of number and types of surfaces used in mask is not easy process, especially if you handle diverse environments and/or want to have greater number of surfaces. There are several factors limiting the use of detailed surfaces; they originate in terrain |
| Surfaces-per-square limit | Surfaces-per-square limit | ||
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| It is possible to have maximum of 4 surface types on single square of satellite mask, including the area which overlaps with neighbor squares. Square size for Sahrani is 512x512 px, which means that on quarter of 1 square kilometer, you are allowed to have maximum of four detailed surface types (e.g. grass, rock, sand, mud). Therefore it is of utmost importance to decide what basic surfaces to use to be able to sufficiently represent all the landscape features. It is wise to limit the design decision to as little surfaces as possible, it's always good to have reserve space for an additional surface on a square if such need arises. | It is possible to have maximum of 4 surface types on single square of satellite mask, including the area which overlaps with neighbor squares. Square size for Sahrani is 512x512 px, which means that on quarter of 1 square kilometer, you are allowed to have maximum of four detailed surface types (e.g. grass, rock, sand, mud). Therefore it is of utmost importance to decide what basic surfaces to use to be able to sufficiently represent all the landscape features. It is wise to limit the design decision to as little surfaces as possible, it's always good to have reserve space for an additional surface on a square if such need arises. | ||
| - | Sahrani | + | Sahrani |
| Northern Sahrani | Northern Sahrani | ||
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| * Black RGB 0,0,0 | * Black RGB 0,0,0 | ||
| - | This clearly show why there is surface number limit. However, composition of the surfaces on particular squares may differ. If mask should be edited as a whole, and not just as hundreds of small squares, there must be more than these 4 basic RGB shades present on the map as representation of all the surfaces. Therefore to be continued... | + | This clearly show why there is surface number limit. However, composition of the surfaces on particular squares may differ. If mask should be edited as a whole, and not just as hundreds of small squares, there must be more than these 4 basic RGB shades present on the terrain |
| Each material has its own RGB values, which are used in big mask. These RGB values must be set for every surface type in Layers.cfg, which is required for importing satellite texture and mask in Visitor. | Each material has its own RGB values, which are used in big mask. These RGB values must be set for every surface type in Layers.cfg, which is required for importing satellite texture and mask in Visitor. | ||
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| Import of source data to Visitor | Import of source data to Visitor | ||
| - | As was mentioned above, Visitor cuts big input raster to small squares according to project settings. In case of Sahrani, squares are 512x512 px, same value is suggested for remake of OFP maps. The squares must overlap on the edges to avoid artifacts caused by texture filtering. This leads to sharing 16-pixel border on the edges. It is important to watch the extent and number of surfaces in squares, especially where there are more surfaces combined on area of few squares. You will need to keep the extent of surfaces, which are not present on both adjacent squares, outside the shared borders in order to avoid strange interpretation of mask during square generation and subsequent visual issues in the game. | + | As was mentioned above, Visitor cuts big input raster to small squares according to project settings. In case of Sahrani, squares are 512x512 px, same value is suggested for remake of OFP terrains. The squares must overlap on the edges to avoid artifacts caused by texture filtering. This leads to sharing 16-pixel border on the edges. It is important to watch the extent and number of surfaces in squares, especially where there are more surfaces combined on area of few squares. You will need to keep the extent of surfaces, which are not present on both adjacent squares, outside the shared borders in order to avoid strange interpretation of mask during square generation and subsequent visual issues in the game. |
arma/terrain/making_satellite_texture_mask.1628686034.txt.gz · Last modified: 2021/08/11 12:47 by snakeman