Several weeks ago I got an idea to grab many large real world data terrains, just to learn the tool pipeline and fine tune my terrain making skills aka get some experience. boy was I clueless of what I'm getting myself into...
![Surprised :o](./images/smilies/icon_surprised.gif)
This huge project was not planned to be as normal public release, the plan was to do this just for my own fun but since the project started to develop I've grown so fond with these real world terrains and feel like there has been much worse releases in the community over the years, so I'm open to suggestions.
Also Ice in discord arma #terrain_makers channel mentioned I should release some large terrain for people to try out on, that was sort of like the opening salvo for this project's possible public releases. but again, I never planned any public releases, that is not why I'm doing this.
I want to do really large terrains with low details kind of like VBS or TOH South Asia terrain style. I want freedom. don't get me wrong I dont specifically "want" low details, but its a compromise. Point was to get real world heightmap + satellite + OpenStreetMap roads, then manually (obviously) place few buildings and try to use terrain processor with OSM shapefiles to place vegetation objects.
The extremely limited number of building or other populated place objects and as-is maps.google satellites is the reason why these terrains are not considered "normal public release" worthy. maybe some of these grow and get developed more but that is only if I fall in love of some of these and want to spend such time placing objects, tweaking satellite mask etc.
Locations would be stuff that interests me (well doh obviously), mainly the worlds interesting war zones (post WW2, aka modern era).
So real world data terrains with 40km minimum sizes (absolute bare minimum), but mostly ended up using 143.3km sizes with 2m / pixel satellite resolution.
Base terrain size; grid 4096, cell 35, satellite 71,680 res (2 meter / pixel), comes to 143360 x 143360 meters (143.36 km), 20552.1 square km.
143km and 81km satellites are 2 meter / pixel, 40km is normal 1 meter / pixel. I'm thinking of redownloading 81km satellites as 1m/px as since starting this project I've discovered I can do those sizes without any problems.
Here is the complete terrain list which all are 143km unless stated otherwise:
Iraq
baghdad, basrah, erbil, hillah 40km, karbala 40km, kirkuk, al kut, mosul, najaf 81km (fits diwaniyah too), nasiriyah, ramadi (includes al fallujah heh), rutba, samawah, sulaymaniyah and tikrit.
Afghanistan
ghazni, jalalabad (m1lkm8n and smokedog 28km terrain heh), kabul (fits bagram airbase the same), kandahar, kunduz (user made terrain already), lashkar gah (famous from some ross kemp documentary, includes sangin) and mazari sharif (famous first battles 2001).
Syria:
al hasakhah, al mayadin, aleppo (famous battles), ar raqqah, damascus and homs (famous from somewhere?).
Somalia:
baidoa, kismaayo and mogadishu (doh! haha).
Vietnam:
hanoi, vinh, dong hoi, da nang, pleiku and saigon.
Libya:
initially didn't even plan for any libya terrains but got the tool pipeline so greatly tuned that decided to go for it after reading about 2011 civil war and seeing how nice desert environment terrain locations libya offers.
- ajdabiya, 143km (includes brega coastal town)
- bani walid, 81km, town with airport, dried up river running across it. (too small/close to other regions for 143km)
- benghazi, 143km, downloaded 160km chunk of satellite now with 1m/px, hum!
- bin jawad, 143km (includes Ra's Lanuf town)
- misrata, 81km, city with airport (includes Tawergha, ghost town since 2011 hehe)
- msallata, 81km, (includes Zliten)
- nafusa, 81km, (mountains), sparse villages, great looking mountains
- ras ajdir, 40km, very small town, border crossing with tunisia, too small for 143km
- sabha, 143km, town with airport
- sirte, 143km, coastal large town
- tripoli, 143km, capitol (includes Gharyan and Zawiya)
- wazzin, 81km, town near tunisia border, nice mountaineous region
Whats done? well all the source data has been downloaded except libya, I have fully working and in-game; baghdad, basrah, erbil, hillah, karbala, kirkuk and ghazni (plus the test 8192 02 terrain which is 81km snippet from benghazi). it takes forever to process these files so I'm still downloading libya satellite textures with terra incognita and cant do that + global mapper export + terrain builder / binarize work at the same time, my computer runs out of CPU cores and RAM
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
Note: the in-game terrains (except ghazni) needs to be redone because 1) they were done in mercantor projection 2) satellite export was indexed color BMP (bad color palette) instad of 24bit PNG.
On a sad note my hard disk drive is full so I cannot proceed until get more free space either by deleting old stuff (no no no) or purchasing new minimum of 4tb disk. how messed up is that only thing preventing me to fullfill my terrain dreams is hdd space? hehe
My global mapper dir was in first week of March 230gb (913 files, 44 dirs), terra incognita dir 46.6gb (3,510 files, 50 dirs) its cache dir 30.3gb (2,913,595 files, 330dirs) and SRTM heightmap dir 4.79gb (111 files, 49dirs). I cant say what terrain builder project dirs are as there are so many in two namespaces and mixed with my other older projects. all this is total of roughly 311gb (not including P: stuff)
![Surprised :o](./images/smilies/icon_surprised.gif)
This project has already helped me to discover so much from the terra incognita -> global mapper -> qgis -> imagemagick -> terrain builder -> pboproject tool pipeline it is incredible. it has already been well worth the effort and I feel like this project is just starting heh.
When flying AH-6 Littlebird above the iraq kirkuk (I think) mountains I was just blown away of the awesome sights and scale. I knew right away that there is no turning back for me, arma3 large real world data terrains are must have.
So there you have it, another insane terrain story from PMC sekret codelabs! if you have any questions or suggestions (other than "don't do it" haha) I'm very happy to hear
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
03-16-17 Update: first terrains have now been released.
All terrains are 143km x 143km size with SRTM heightmap and 71,680 x 71,680 resolution satellite texture unless stated otherwise.
PMC Iraq, Al Kut v0.1
PMC Iraq, Baghdad v0.1
PMC Iraq, Basrah v0.1
03-18-17 Update: four new terrains released.
PMC Iraq, Erbil v0.1 (erbil currently conflicts with afghanistan ghazni and iraq baghdad, so you need to run them separately. this has been fixed for next update).
PMC Iraq, Hillah v0.1
PMC Iraq, Karbala v0.1
PMC Iraq, Kirkuk v0.1
03-21-17 Update: seven new terrains released.
PMC Iraq, Mosul v0.1
PMC Iraq, Najaf v0.1
PMC Iraq, Nasiriyah v0.1
PMC Iraq, Ramadi v0.1
PMC Iraq, Rutba v0.1
PMC Iraq, Samawah v0.1
PMC Iraq, Sulaymaniyah v0.1
03-24-17 Update: seven new terrains released.
PMC Iraq, Tikrit v0.1
PMC Afghanistan, Ghazni v0.1 (ghazni requires CUP Terrains Core because it uses takistani village buildings and vegetation).
PMC Afghanistan, Jalalabad v0.1
PMC Afghanistan, Kabul v0.1
PMC Afghanistan, Kandahar v0.1
PMC Afghanistan, Kunduz v0.1
PMC Afghanistan, Lashkar Gah v0.1
03-26-17 Update: three new terrains released.
PMC Afghanistan, Mazari Sharif v0.1
PMC Syria, Al Hasakhah v0.1
PMC Syria, Al Mayadin v0.1
03-27-17 Update: three new terrains released.
PMC Syria, Aleppo v0.1
PMC Syria, Ar Raqqah v0.1
PMC Syria, Damascus v0.1
03-29-17 Update: three new terrains released.
PMC Syria, Homs v0.1
PMC Somalia, Baidoa v0.1
PMC Somalia, Kismaayo v0.1
03-30-17 Update: Vietnam terrains released.
PMC Vietnam, Da Nang v0.1
PMC Vietnam, Dong Hoi v0.1
PMC Vietnam, Hanoi v0.1
PMC Vietnam, Pleiku v0.1
04-02-17 Update: four new terrains released.
PMC Vietnam, Saigon v0.1
PMC Libya, Ajdabiya v0.1
PMC Libya, Bani Walid v0.1
PMC Libya, Bin Jawad v0.1
04-04-17 Update: four new terrains released.
PMC Libya, Misrata v0.1
PMC Libya, Msallata v0.1
PMC Libya, Nafusa v0.1
PMC Libya, Ras Ajdir v0.1
04-05-17 Update: Libya Sabha terrain released.
PMC Libya, Sabha v0.1
04-10-17 Update: four new terrains released.
PMC Vietnam, Vinh v0.1
PMC Libya, Sirte v0.1
PMC Libya, Tripoli v0.1
PMC Libya, Wazzin v0.1
04-11-17 Update: Afghanistan Asadabad and Libya Benghazi terrains released.
PMC Afghanistan, Asadabad v0.1
PMC Libya, Benghazi v0.1
04-14-17 Update: three new terrains released.
PMC Ukraine, Donetsk v0.1
PMC Ukraine, Luhansk v0.1
PMC Ukraine, Mariupol v0.1
04-18-17 Update: six new terrains released. phase 1 is complete!
PMC Afghanistan, Jalalabad v0.2
PMC Pakistan, Abbottabad v0.1
PMC Balkans, Belgrade v0.1
PMC Balkans, Kosovo v0.1
PMC Balkans, Montenegro v0.1
PMC Balkans, Vojvodina v0.1
08-12-17 Update: v0.1.1 released. phase 2 through 4 is complete!
All 58 terrains released (heh yeah)! Still few problems with ocean water but will be fixed later.
08-19-17 Update: Balkans Montenegro v0.1.2 released.
08-20-17 Update: Iraq Basrah v0.1.2 released.
08-23-17 Update: Libya Ajdabiya v0.1.2 released.
08-25-17 Update: Libya Benghazi v0.1.2 released.
08-26-17 Update: Libya Misrata v0.1.2 released.
08-28-17 Update: Libya Msallata v0.1.2 released. (note: these updates end here because first post gets way too long, check new posts)
Screenshots see PMC Tactical ArmA 3 Terrain page and download from PMC Tactical ArmA 3 Downloads.