Learning terrain building

ArmA 3 editing; configs, modeling, missions, textures, terrain etc.

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Sorgoroth
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Learning terrain building

Post by Sorgoroth » 2023-02-03 17:42:54

Hello, I created a terrain using the tutorial provided by PMC.

I have done it up until pboProject Crunch button(basically creating an empty map).

When I loaded it into Arma all of the terrain seems to be white ~20m away from the character. Could you advise, what caused it and how to fix it? The original idea was to create a winter map.
https://ibb.co/Ybyhp9V

Snake Man
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Re: Learning terrain building

Post by Snake Man » 2023-02-04 09:36:01

Terrain seems to be white... OK, and what is there to fix, what the terrain should be?

White is what texture-less objects or satellite texture-less heightmap mesh are colored with, yours is not pure white, it has some texture on it. Yeah it does look a bit off, even for winter terrain with the clutter on top of almost-white texture.

Please provide more examples of what needs fixing.
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Sorgoroth
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Re: Learning terrain building

Post by Sorgoroth » 2023-02-04 14:49:07

The end result I am looking for is something like Chernarus Winter or Napf winter.
https://ibb.co/R9Sb7bM

I am currently confused about what did I do wrong or rather how to add white grass because I did not find any in vanilla. I don't know how to use CUP things either. The idea is that some maps have variations of different seasons like Chernarus or Napf. I am trying to figure out how people are doing that.

Snake Man
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Re: Learning terrain building

Post by Snake Man » 2023-02-04 15:29:51

Hmm so if I understand you correctly the terrain itself technically works, but you are just not happy with the textures?

The textures right under your feet, around your character, are called Ground Detail Textures (GDT), I think you mean those SHOULD be white but now they are normal brown dirt color?
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Sorgoroth
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Re: Learning terrain building

Post by Sorgoroth » 2023-02-04 20:23:29

That is correct. I am trying to make them "snow", but I end up with dirt with some grass.

I don't know if the terrain itself is used like that is set in Chernarus Winter, but I guess it technically works.

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Re: Learning terrain building

Post by Snake Man » 2023-02-05 09:43:56

Try to find some winter snow GDT's, maybe CUP terrains core has them. Then reference those in your layers.cfg config file. That would make the ground near your character / camera properly winter white.
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Sorgoroth
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Re: Learning terrain building

Post by Sorgoroth » 2023-10-28 16:37:57

Hello,

So after testing and applying a multitude of GDTs from sensible(grass,dirt,snow) to the face of Johnny Sins as GDT, the issue seems that the terrain is not fully rendering or being cut all around the camera whether in eden, zeus or player perspective because it is a transition between the satellite map and texture map. Do you know the setting or code which adjusts it?
This simply means the GDTs will not be rendered beyond an approximate distance of ~20m.
Examples:
My project:
https://ibb.co/Gs4W1w3

Chernarus winter:
https://ibb.co/LCmbKm2

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Re: Learning terrain building

Post by Snake Man » 2023-10-28 21:48:26

See PMC Editing Wiki: ArmA 3 Terrain Config.cpp clutterGrid, let us know if those fix draw distance issue.
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Sorgoroth
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Re: Learning terrain building

Post by Sorgoroth » 2023-10-31 17:06:26

Hello,

fullDetailDist =
That line fixed the issue. The following problem will be to add more GDTs or just add a ton of objects so that the current GDTs would blend in more with everything else.
I did not remake the satellite or texture map. But i assume that would be another creative way to work around it. Still it seems i need to fix GDTs.

an example if fullDetailDist =300
https://ibb.co/s5G6ywV

Snake Man
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Re: Learning terrain building

Post by Snake Man » 2023-10-31 20:07:25

Glad to hear you got it fixed :)
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