ToH South Asia

[winter island]

Working on a map project, for me one of the best for Airplay of all time.
In this new Reforger project, I'll try to make it more functional than the ArmA 3 version for infantry and vehicles, in addition to improving the roads I already included and, of course, finally having a river with water!

Km x Km : 122.8 x 122.8
Square Km : 15079.84
Real world location : https://goo.gl/maps/NNp45JTmBDuBUh1cA

[rocky walrus]

I really hope you can do this and make it look better than in arma 3 , its my favourite map just because of the size

[haughty bane]

I already know my Xbox wants me dead just from looking at this 🤣

#enf_showroom message but the real question is:
is the port big enough for the ship?

[vale pulsar]

How are you working around the bug where the world disappears in camera when you cross the 32k or so position and turn the camera around?

[winter island]

Thanks @rocky walrus, I'll try it... It will be fun! 😘
@haughty bane I estimate that the entire map could be around 10GB in size, I suppose, in 3 mod packs.
@vale pulsar For now, I'm solving it by modifying the LAYER:
boundMins -100 0 -100
boundMaxs 122880 2500 122880
blockSize 480 720 480

[vale pulsar]

Last time I tested 64x64 it was not playable beyond position 32k, did they fix it without telling anyone?

[winter island]

In case anyone is interested... the position of South Asia is approximately this area compared to other maps.

[haughty bane]

What do you mean by 3 mod packs
You can do that?

Yah I’m gonna give myself a major headache if I try and understand this lmao

[winter island]

I guess it's also a question of the grid size... South Asia always had some sharp cells.

[vale pulsar]

I used default 2m per pixel grid size or whatever

[winter island]

If RHS does it, why can't I?

[rocky walrus]

As far as i know cell size on the map in arma 3 is 50m

When you look into 2 triangles it makes a box 50x50m

[haughty bane]

I mean if it’s possible go ahead

[vale pulsar]

I think what you mean is called tiles or something in reforger, but it was impossible to play beyond 32k position in the map regardless of the settings. We had ideas to center the terrain entity such that you could go to negative -16k and that worked better but GM camera didn't work 😄

[rocky walrus]

Yes tiles

[haughty bane]

I gotta try modding for arma at some point maybe when I can get a pc lol

[winter island]

I'm not sure if this is up to date... I've been testing since October 2024.

[vale pulsar]

Yeah that's fair but back then it was unplayable anyway once you crossed 32k, I guess it's fixed now

[rocky walrus]

Do you plan to do it as it is in arma 3 or make it more detailed

[winter island]

You have to force it by hand to avoid the invisible false wall.

[vale pulsar]

That's not what I'm talking about, anyway I hope you succeed 😄

[winter island]

I don't think it's a good idea to improve the satellite textures...
Really sculpt the ground, give it the best detail... not so flat.
But more objects on the map and more assets for mountains, etc., to make them more rounded.
And of course, the water!

[winter island]

I'm sure there will be a lot of problems... but I'm used to it.
Look, Bacon, we finally managed to get the Seattle buildings done for A3, and everyone said it was impossible.

||ArmA 3 Seattle screenshot||

[tranquil axle]

this map is designed for armor and heli type play right?

[winter island]

Originally yes... but it can also be adapted for large ground missions with air support.

[tranquil axle]

Hell yeah, love armor on armor gameplay

[haughty bane]

Is there an air strip for planes and such

Sorry for all the questions I’ve never played the previous games 😅

[tranquil axle]

Let’s put on our thinking caps here😆

[woeful socket]

Seattle baby

[woeful socket]

i thinks theres 3 of them

[haughty bane]

Sweet now we just needs planes

[woeful socket]

A-10 and soon the phantom

but its called take on helicopters for a reason

[haughty bane]

Now I just need to bend the definition of a helicopter so I can fly something resembling a plane

[restive remnant]

Wait is Seattle released or wip

[woeful socket]

i dont think any of them are released

[winter island]

No way, it says above that it's a photo of my ArmA3 mod.

[restive remnant]

Ohhhh mb

Thought It was like your working in porting it

[winter island]

Little by little... First one, then we'll see.
I also have work to do with the ReCharacters faces.

[winter badger]

[dark lily]

Looks very sick pls lmk when it finish or ready, I will definitely make a showcase video out of this!

[tranquil axle]

i think youve got a good year or 2 to get ready xD

[dark lily]

https://tenor.com/view/grandma's-fake-teeth-flew-out-when-blowing-a-candle-viralhog-grandma-blew-out-a-candle-and-her-dental-implants-flew-out-gif-2177443156331695156

Me when it comes out lmao

[winter island]

The funny thing is that we'll probably still be playing Reforger, because ArmA 4 will need another five years of development.
🤣😂🥲😥😩😭🫂

[tranquil axle]

what, they said 2027

[carmine needle]

And even if it's later than that, Refroger prob will continue to be played for quiet sometime. Who knows maybe A4 ain't gonna be crossplay or something who knows (if they said that it's gonna be cross-platform, i just haven't heard of it yet(

[restive remnant]

They said it won’t be

[carmine needle]

There ya go

[restive remnant]

I doubt arma reforger will die for a while console players are to stubborn

[zenith zenith]

Jesus Christ that huge

[tranquil axle]

Can you link where they said that?

[autumn elk]

Where have they said that?

[tranquil axle]

Yeah I’m curious too, as I thought reforger was a test bed for console and pc alike

[restive remnant]

I’ll find it was part of the arma 4 announcement officially

[oblique thunder]

Dont remember them saying that

[autumn elk]

Probably best to move this to reforger discussion

[restive remnant]

Turns out I was just wrong thought I remembered a video called the future of arma by arma YouTube covering this.

[dark lily]

https://tenor.com/view/rubber-movie-audience-binoculars-searching-gif-24931089

Don't mind me just want to watch u in the distance lmao 🤣

[winter island]

https://tenor.com/view/combing-the-desert-space-balls-found-anything-nothing-yet-s-ir-literal-jokes-gif-10465625

[normal wigeon]

wait when does this release?

[cyan locust]

I’d presume atleast months if not years

[winter island]

I have restarted the Terrain for Reforger v1.5 exp, with the new 12km view and new options, the map is closer to being usable.
Of course, there are still problems with not allowing the rendering of models beyond 32 km.
For now, it looks spectacular... 😵‍💫

South Asia 122x122km + 12km view:

[dark lily]

https://tenor.com/view/map-i-am-lost-finding-searching-looking-at-map-gif-16565431

Me when I play this map

[floral dragon]

https://tenor.com/view/touching-grass-touch-gif-21219969

[spring lily]

Will this even run on a normal pc? 😭

[haughty bane]

My Xbox looks like it’s gonna disown me for even looking at this thing

[winter island]

I don't know what will happen...
My experience converting it from TkoH to ArmA 3, was that the map worked much better than expected even with the 12km view.
Maybe if we save the problem of size in kilometers in Reforger, it will also surprise us all.... For the better!

[spring lily]

Whats this?

[haughty bane]

Before and after:
(I can’t see the difference)

Except one is like 2 pixels or something

[winter island]

If you look at the horizon, you will see that the quality of the mountain textures changes at a long distance... those mountains are between 8km and 12km away.

[spring lily]

Oh wow..

Amazing job

[winter island]

To give you an idea of the scale...
The map measures 122 km x 122 km, and the green dot is where the soldier was located.
The yellow lines indicate an approximate viewing angle of 12 km.

[normal prairie]

The problem with this game is that it was created for infantry play and has a truly "ridiculous" distance rendering system... a "pop-up view" 700/1000 meters of people, about 1500 meters of vehicles and structures... a modification to the rendering system is really needed if Arma 4 still wants to be a large-scale battle simulator.

[spring lily]

This is actually not intended to be the case

Its a bug in 1.3 where network render distance doesn't work, in 1.2 you can render players up to 5/4 kms if you increase it

In official server this value is lowered for performance cause and in private hosted servers it can be increased

[normal prairie]

We play on a private server, current server view setting 2500 and net view 1500 but those who play on console always see enemy bot pop-ups at 700m with optics and 1000m from PC. You can render a humvee from a PC at about 1200 meters by looking with binoculars, without binoculars you still can't see it and you have to get closer

I haven't seen any private servers where I see people at 2000m or vehicles at 3000m and this is a big limitation especially on a map intended to play a lot with helicopters

[spring lily]

Yes its because network render distance is bugged

Pre 1.3 you would've been able to see that humvee up to 3k if you set network render distance to 3K

But console they already have a hardware limited render distance

[spring lily]

As i said After 1.3 it was bugged

Refer to this feedback thread https://feedback.bistudio.com/T190578

[spring lily]

Imagine a 128vs128 players PVP server in this map

[winter island]

Some changes we can hope for when in the experimental version they first increased the view distance to 25km and currently lowered it to 12km.
I'm sure BI is aware of these problems and wants to improve their Enfusion engine, but it has limits, although I think they should not limit players, just give the tools for self-limiting.
Having a big map doesn't mean playing or seeing the whole map, but being able to see a horizon of events and planes within game.
Let's confess we all love a display from a C130 jumping in halo and watching you approach the ground as you break through the clouds. After that the action is limited to a 8x8km grid... ♥️

On the other hand there is optimization, but it's a much lighter ground than people think....
When I converted it to ArmA3 people also speculated about the performance problems it would have... And it turned out to be a super light terrain.
The ground definition, well in this case Enfusion is better, more cubes per grid.
Still it is a 32 grid and 16 tile map.

[winter island]

Target tests in meters:
500>1000>2000>3000>4000>5000>6000>7000
Normal>Applied>Third Person>3D Zoom>2D Zoom>Binoculars
Arma Reforger v1.5.0.28 experimental, camera with 12 km vision.

[spring lily]

Hmmmm, is this in game master or in arma tools?

[winter island]

tools Experimental

[spring lily]

Yeah totally different scenario

In MP for now its bugged and we cant see beyond 1500 and sometimes 2000

[winter island]

From what it seems, in v1.5 you can see between 3km and 6km depending on what you use.

[spring lily]

Sorry for being ignorant but will the map have foliage and more life to it?

I think such maps could run ground infantry PVP if the teams are organised enough if you know what i mean

[winter island]

Or, of course... we will try to make it similar to ToH's South Asia, with even more life than in the ArmA 3 version.

[spring lily]

Yeah up to 9km if you mess up with LOD stuff

But on multiplayer it wont render because of the network render distance which determines it

[winter island]

Think about the desert in Iraq, it's not CQB, that's in cities... this map is real terrain and is exceptionally flat and mountainous.

[spring lily]

No need since im in iraq

[winter island]

Real world location : https://goo.gl/maps/NNp45JTmBDuBUh1cA

[winter island]

This photo is really here... in this actual position at present.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/avGbG7eTRVVsPq9y7

@spring lily If you compare the two photos, it's quite incredible.

[spring lily]

Mannn this map just thinking about the fights in it gets me hyped up

Tank 3kms away on a mountain hunting convoys through the flat desert is just ARMMAAAAAAAAAA

[winter island]

In ArmA 3, it didn't have much impact...
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1849403283

[spring lily]

I want big maps in arma 4 more than anything else

[spring lily]

This is beautiful man

[winter island]

Me too... this isn't BF or CoD.

[spring lily]

Why water was impossible? Engine limit?

[spring lily]

Side note

The font looks funny to read as an arabic reader

It looks like Ai trying to type

[winter island]

Everything has its limits... In principle, it is currently not possible to make a map larger than 32 km.
The water may also cause some problems, especially in the northern part of the lake.

[winter island]

It's Latin but with Arabic rubrics.

[spring lily]

Such map would be lovely in Arma 4
Specially since im pretty sure that arma 4 will have only low speed CAS aircrafts like Su25 and A10

So it will be both big for Air vehicles, ground vehicles and Infantry

The thing i hate about current maps and generally arma maps in general that officially they are all small in principle

Its just my dream to see such a map in use with a large amount of players

[winter island]

||Want to place a bet? I'd bet a Mig15 in Reforger officially vanilla.||

[spring lily]

Mig15 just like arma 2? Hmmmmm

[winter island]

Also, keep in mind that these maps were for helicopters... So... they're fine for rotorcraft.

[spring lily]

Didn't really play arma 3

Was there any attempts at PVP servers playing big maps with infantry and ground vehicles (not helicopters and Fixed wing only)

Or servers couldn't run such stuff/weren't advanced or powerful enough

[winter island]

Arma 3 is not like Reforger; it does not have this culture of public servers... In A3, people played on private clan or multi-clan servers.

[spring lily]

Aha thats interesting to know

Happy that it changed tho

[glossy inlet]

is this map still being worked on?

[cyan locust]

I hope so, I’ve been flying missions in A3 out of anticipation 😁

[winter badger]

Yep

[winter island]

Yes, but there are hurdles to overcome.... Let's see in the next version 1.5 of Reforger.

[cyan locust]

Are you saying it’s possible you’ll release it in 1.5?!

[winter island]

No, I'm saying that perhaps in v1.5 some of Enfusion's problems or limitations will be solved.

[cyan locust]

Ah okay

[winter island]

From ToH in the different projects, I wish you all Happy Holidays.
This past month I have been very busy, but in January I will once again devote my free time to all of you.
Thank you for your support and positive feedback, and especially for reporting problems.
Cheers to all of you and your families. 🥂🍾