Updates on work in progress

AGS/CAT Afghanistan terrain

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Snake Man
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Updates on work in progress

Post by Snake Man » 2009-03-09 12:07:40

I was asked to post any updates we have on the CAT Afghanistan terrain, so here goes.

I haven't been working on this addon for quite some time, really after the 1.1 release I did only few edits and its been sitting idle in my ArmAWork dir ever since. I've had discussions with certain people who seem to be interested of Afghanistan stuff, we had discussion about Taleban but then Miles Teg released his LoBo taleban units which suite our terrain nicely.

Here is the changelog I did soon after the last release, which is now a long time ago.

Code: Select all

--- v1.2 fixes
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATAfghanCliffGreyVLarge2_11.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for RoboTr2.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATTovarna1.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for AGS_MarketStall1.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATAfghan3RockCpx1.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATAfghanBuildingo211.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for AGS_mosque02.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for Ruiny_Obvod_3.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATCornfield1.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for AGS_MarketStall3.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for AGS_MarketStall4.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for AGS_MarketStall2.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATTreeDwn.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATTrashPile2.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATTrashPile1.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATStoreComplex.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATRocksComplexSurround1.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATRocksComplexGreySurround1.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATRocksComplex2Huge.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATRocksComplex2GreyHuge.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATRocksComplex1.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATGreyRockRoad1.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATCave.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATAfghanCliffMedium.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATAfghanCliffGreyVLarge2_4_1.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATAfghanCliffGreyVLarge2_4.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATAfghanCliffGreyVLarge2.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATAfghanCliffGeyMedium.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATAfghanCaveo21.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATAfghanBuildingo220.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATAfghanBuildingo26.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATAfghanBuildingo21.
- catintro\o\hous\clear_empty.paa missing texture, fixed.
- resized catintro\o\capt01.pac from 1024 to 512 resolution (it was way too big).
- catintro\o\misc\most01.pac missing texture, fixed.
I have the texturing merging in early stages right now, only few objects have been done so far and actually I used the atlastool method which possibly fucked up few of them (will have to check). This texture merge process will take some time to complete as there is quite few models here.

I'm busy elsewhere right now, so don't expect any quick v1.2 update schedule here and I'm smart enough not to give any dates either.

Its quite hopeless, but I'm still going to say it anyways... if anyone is willing to help me develop Afghanistan further, please let me know as any help would be greatly appreciated not just by me, but the community using this addon.

Feel free to ask specific questions about whats been done, planned or anything.
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Snake Man
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Re: Updates on work in progress

Post by Snake Man » 2009-03-14 20:46:54

Edited few models again, now all the CATintro models are with proper <100 point lowest res LOD's, making sure high framerates (when textures are merged heh).

Here is the latest changelog update, the whole changelog can be found on the first post:

Code: Select all

- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATAfghanCliffGreyVLarge2_11.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for RoboTr2.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATTovarna1.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for AGS_MarketStall1.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATAfghan3RockCpx1.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATAfghanBuildingo211.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for AGS_mosque02.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for Ruiny_Obvod_3.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for CATCornfield1.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for AGS_MarketStall3.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for AGS_MarketStall4.
- created new <100 poly low res LOD for AGS_MarketStall2.
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Snake Man
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Re: Updates on work in progress

Post by Snake Man » 2009-06-19 20:10:20

Had a go for CAT afghan editing today. Found few binarize errors and fixed them, then I started to fix the big issue of walk through buildings (faulty geometrys) and created special object debug terrain. With this terrain I found out couple of unused objects, once which had no textures (I deleted that, hey unused and no textures). Fixed couple of faulty geometrys now which is nice.

Here is the changelog just from today only:

Code: Select all

--- v1.2 fixes
- tweaked config.
- catafghangrasso26.p3d, no textures, not used, so its deleted.
- missing textures in catbrg.p3d, fixed.
- missing textures in catakat02s.p3d, fixed.
- broken geometry catafghanbuildingo211, fixed.
- keep height wrong in catrockscomplexsurround1.
- keep height wrong in catrockscomplexgreysurround1.
- keep height wrong in catrockscomplex2huge.
- keep height wrong in catrockscomplex2greyhuge.
- keep height wrong in catrockscomplex1.p3d
- keep height wrong in catgreyrockroad1.
- keep height wrong in catafghancliffgreyvlarge2_4_1.
- keep height wrong in catafghancliffgreyvlarge2_4.
- keep height wrong in cattreedwn.
- keep height wrong in cattrashpile2.
- keep height wrong in cattrashpile1.
- keep height wrong in catafghancliffgreyvlarge2_4_1.
- keep height wrong in catafghancliffgreyvlarge2_4.
The full changelog can be done from the above posts and this combined together :)

I'm hoping to release v1.2 soonish, as I'm really feeling up the atmosphere with ArmA 2 that if I need to just wrap up quickly all projects for ArmA and move to it, we'll see in next couple of days when the EU 505 release comes out with 1.02 patch etc. ANYWAYS, what ever happens, CAT Afghanistan will be ported to ArmA 2 and continue to develop there, the point is... I don't think its suitable to develop both of them together... but this is one of the things which I'm unsure TODAY, who knows what information comes forward in the near future.

So in summary; fixes are being done and v1.2 will be releases soon.
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Re: Updates on work in progress

Post by Snake Man » 2009-07-09 13:43:59

Development continues, I have posted the latest changelog into the bugs topic so I wont do it again here.

Texture merging is under way at good pace, many models have now merged textures and at the same time I overall check the model for geometry, fire geometry and view geometrys also, so there should be no more walk through buildings.

I am very excited about getting the textures merged and geometrys fixed, then we can really enjoy CAT Afghanistan in ArmA/ArmA2 as it was supposed to be.

Also I'm working on the terrain with satellite texture and mask, its pretty artistic work to add there the nice satellite imagery and I cannot guarantee how cool it will be. However when its initially done, you should have ground clutter properly set, for example in mountains you get many small rocks, in some valley you get some dry grass and in cities you wont get anything as population has cleaned it all out. Again I make absolutely no promises so don't come cry for me if next version don't include this satellite mask featured terrain, but... I'm working on it.

As usual, if anyone wants to help, no matter how minor work... they are very welcome to do so.

How long this development cycle takes? Uh dunno really, I haven't checked how many objects do I have to texture merge and then its the terrain satellite tweak. But I'll keep you guys posted here and personally I'm always looking to get this done as quick as possible, meaning... well shit, you almost got me, haha I wont say any dates, Muahaha! :twisted:
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Re: Updates on work in progress

Post by Snake Man » 2009-07-10 18:52:24

About 23 models got textures merged today, pfewf what a job. I mean yeah I did something else too I wasn't working all day for this, but if anyone knows what it takes to merge textures for one model, they understand that this amount of models is quite decent task for a day.

I'm very eager to run binarize on the models for the first time after the texture merging is complete, I have high hopes that they will are with few errors and run super fast ingame.

Anyways, just a small update post for today :)
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Re: Updates on work in progress

Post by Snake Man » 2009-09-03 12:10:01

Okay guys, bad news. Well bad news and good news, in a way.

Bad news is that I ran registry cleaner to my win xp, it apparently cleared out some temp dir settings for BinPBO which controls binarize. Now when I ran binarize the next time for CAT Afghanistan, it did not find any specified temp dir path so it placed the temp dir into... the CAT Afghanistan dir, therefore deleting everything before commencing binarizing.

My CAT Afghanistan development directory was wiped clean. Nothing was left. Nada. Zip.

Then I kept my calm, I went for google to search for undelete programs which I never felt comfortable with. Found one, used it, got the PEW file back as well as the basic terrain texture source files. But the main PSB file for photoshop which hold all my fucking work for the past week and more... is gone.

With one press of a button week(s) worth of work was gone.

Good news is that I dont give up, good news is that I will just use my knowledge of satellite texture/mask making and MOCK UP a shitty low resolution texture and just release the v1.3 of this terrain. I am sorry but I'm not going to fucking start from scratch with the huge 12800 res image again. I'll just put it together with duct tape and move on to a next project on my list.

So in these words, you can expect the satellite texture version of this terrain in ... humm dunno next couple of days, don't have really time to do it tonight.
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Re: Updates on work in progress

Post by Snake Man » 2009-09-08 10:59:32

Now I re-edited the satellite texture + mask, I made them in 1600 x 1600 resolution as that was the only good quality source left from the original texture. I did the mask to suit this image, then I had to resize them back up to 3200 x 3200 because I get some weird texture error on the bottom of the map otherwise.

So the satellite is pretty much done now, yeah tweaking left to do, but its very minor, nothing major is going to change from this point on.

I made also ground clutter (grass, rocks, flowers) for the terrain types. Now the terrain looks completely different, I tried to keep the desert barren rough Afghanistan terrain look on them using the BIS clutter models, I'm not completely satisfied with them but they are pretty good.

Right now I'm going to release v1.3 BETA which is... very beta indeed. Hopefully I can pull everything neatly together for final v1.3 release and final ArmA release of this terrain.

Stay tuned, I'm starting to prepare the release now.
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