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arma2:sgtace_terrain_tutorial [2011-08-18 10:11] (current)
snakeman created sgtace_terrain_tutorial initial page.
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 +====== ArmA 2 Terrain Tutorial ======
  
 +ArmA 2 Terrain Tutorial, made by Sgt.Ace and corrected by Snake Man, PMC.
 +
 +
 +====== Installation of the BIS Tools 2 ======
 +
 +It is very important to choose a proper place to install the BIS Tools 2 before starting with anything else.
 +
 +  - Download the BIS Tools 2 first.
 +  - Open or extract the downloaded zip file and start the BI_Editing_Tools_2_Setup.exe.
 +  - The installer is basically self explanatory.
 +  - All tools should be installed now in respective directory. Every Tool is stored in its own dir.
 +
 +Make sure to change the directory for each tool from the default location to your desired dir.
 +
 +Make sure to define the respective path for each tool. E.g.:
 +<​code>​
 +d:​\armatools\Oxygen2
 +d:​\armatools\Visitor3
 +</​code>​
 +
 +You can watch the installation process in this [[http://​www.youtube.com/​watch?​v=m9rpAbC0pPM|youtube Video Tutorial : Setup BIS Tools 2]].
 +
 +
 +====== P: drive ======
 +
 +A new partition called P: will be automatically created during the setup. An ArmAWork dir will be created in your install dir as well.
 +
 +Understand that the P: drive the ArmAWork dir are the same. They are just different views on the same dir.
 +
 +You can read more about the [[arma2:​tools:​tools_drive|BIS tools drive]].
 +
 +Note that the name tools drive is very misleading. It is your editing workspace (virtual) drive.
 +
 +The P: drive has two main tasks:
 +
 +  * Your personal workspace. So the place where you files will reside.
 +  * Extracted source files from BI or other sources you want to use in your terrain.
 +
 +Note that P: Drive already contains the ca dir. ca is the project space from BIS.
 +
 +Never ever put your files into p:\ca\
 +
 +In this dir we will extract the source of the BI files currently still in the PBO as part of the game dir. Right now the ca dir contains a couple of unpacked pbo files already and another dir called Roads2.
 +
 +
 +====== Extract BIS addons to P: ======
 +
 +Read more about this in [[arma:​build_environment|Synide'​s Build Environment]].
 +
 +
 +====== Create Your Project dir ======
 +
 +The project dir is your workspace - the place you can go crazy inside and have all your files in.
 +
 +Choose your own tag for addons which you use as namespace and as prefix of all your addon pbo's.
 +
 +With our tag, we create a namespace in the P:\ drive. In other words a subdir. So go create it now.
 +
 +For this tutorial it is: P:\TUT\.
 +
 +Let us make the meaning of the project dir clear - The project dir is for all your various future projects. So for the individual projects we will soon create subdirs inside our project dir.
 +
 +
 +====== Visitor 3 ======
 +
 +Configure Visitor 3
 +
 +  - Download the [[http://​www.armaholic.com/​brazil/​addons/​islands/​TUT_SampleMap.zip|Tutorial Sample Map]].
 +  - Extract it to our P:\TUT\ dir - so it will look like P:​\TUT\TUT_SampleMap.
 +  - Start Visitor3.exe.
 +  - Open Tools -> System Preferences and check if all paths are correct.
 +
 +
 +====== New Project ======
 +
 +Start with your new Visitor 3 project
 +
 +  - Open Project -> New (or press Ctrl+N).
 +  - In the next Project parameters window select the values for: Terrain grid size 512x512, Terrain cell size 10
 +  - Go to Tools -> Project parameters.
 +  - Open the Calculator.
 +  - Set Image Size (Pixels): 5120.
 +  - Hit apply and close only the calculator.
 +  - Open Tools -> Project Preferences.
 +  - Enter the path to your data dir (textures), like: P:​\TUT\TUT_SampleMap\Data\.
 +  - Click ok and close.
 +  - In the Project parameters window click on Base (active) and press the Edit button.
 +  - Choose 40x40m texture size.
 +  - Apply and close the Project parameters window.
 +
 +
 +====== Import the terrain data ======
 +
 +  - Go to Open -> Import Terrain from Picture.
 +  - Browse to P:​\TUT\TUT_SampleMap\Source\terrain\terrain.pbl.
 +
 +Be sure you set the view to elevation color style (hit the 5th button from the left) to see the contours.
 +
 +
 +====== Save after each step ======
 +
 +Select Project -> SaveAs and save your map as TUT_SampleMap.pew.
 +
 +Add .pew to your filename. Otherwise Visitor 3 will not recognize the file in the future.
 +
 +
 +====== Import Satellite & Mask ======
 +
 +  - Go to Tools -> Import Satellite + Mask.. and browse to P:​\TUT\TUT_SampleMap\Source\layer.cfg.
 +  - Select text mode for saving the rvmats in the next window.
 +  - Visitor 3 asks now for the SAT file, so browse to P:​\TUT\TUT_SampleMap\Source\sat_lco.png.
 +  - Same with the Mask - point it to P:​\TUT\TUT_SampleMap\Source\mask_lco.png.
 +  - The import process begins right after you hit OK.
 +  - That may take several minutes depending on your PNG sizes and Visitor might not respond until process has finally completed.
 +  - Point the mouse somewhere in the middle of the map and hit the center mousebutton (wheel).
 +  - A white square appears right at this position (point of view).
 +  - Start Buldozer via Project -> Connect to Buldozer (or hit the ! icon in the top bar).
 +  - Buldozer will now automatically convert the textures from png to paa (shown in the command line window).
 +  - After the conversion process has finished you should be able to see the landscape in buldozer.
 +  - The textures will appear so more you zoom onto the surface.
 +  - Switch back to Visitor by hit ALT-TAB (don't close buldozer).
 +  - Go to Project -> Export World.
 +  - Save your world as P:​\TUT\TUT_SampleMap\TUT_SampleMap.wrp.
 +
 +
 +====== Binarizing your world ======
 +
 +  - Start BinPbo
 +  - Choose the P:​\TUT\TUT_SampleMap in the addon/​source directory field.
 +  - Now go to your ArmA2 Main dir and create a new dir called TUT. Open this one and create another one which is called Addons (d:​\arma2\tut\addons).
 +  - Back in BinPbo we set d:​\arma2\tut\addons as destination directory.
 +  - In the path of temporary dir we set P:\BIN_TEMP
 +  - Now remove the hook from use source path and enter p:\tut\
 +  - We are ready to binarize our terrain. Close the options tab and click on Pack. That may take a while, wait until Ready appears at the bottom of BinPBO.
 +  - After BinPbo has finished you should see in your d:​\arma2\tut\addons\ dir the tut_samplemap.pbo and the logfile.
 +
 +
 +====== Objects and various Tips ======
 +
 +====== Terrain editing ======
 +
 +U will raise the height of a vertex slightly. I will raise the height of the vertex greatly. J will lower the height of a vertex slightly. K will lower the height of a vertex greatly.
 +
 +
 +====== About vertices ======
 +
 +You may have to hit F or G to show the arrow that goes to each center point of a vertex. While moving the mouse around the map, you'll notice that the arrow cursor '​sticks'​ to the closest center point of a vertex.
 +
 +Think of a vertex as a hexagonal shape where you simply raise or lower the center point of that shape. So, when you raise a vertex, it'll make a point upwards. Doing it repeatedly will make the point higher and '​sharper'​. Therefore to make sure your terrain isn't too sharp, you'll have to raise the vertices around it as well.
 +
 +Keep in mind also that editing vertices is pretty tedious, and it should really only be used for tweaking height.
 +
 +Road networks do not act as objects, therefore you can only select, move, or budge them in Visitor 3.
arma2/sgtace_terrain_tutorial.txt ยท Last modified: 2011-08-18 10:11 by snakeman