We would like to stress that we're not releasing a new map editor or a cure to all map-designers' ailments, we're giving some of the map-makers a tool which, if used correctly, can speed up the process of populating the map and save them time on terrain polishing. The tool uses geographic data in the well-known Shapefile format as reference for placing objects (in form of output texts which can be imported into Terrain Builder), and it can also read and produce Terrain-Builder-compatible ASC terrain meshes.
It comes with a manual and a small example terrain project ( Arma 3 Samples\Tools\Terrain_Processor), which will help potential users get acquainted with the purpose and application of the tool, the basic controls, and solutions. The new tool, called Terrain Processor (it 'just' processes geographic data) is part of the Arma 3 Tools suite available on Steam.
In summary, our world editor, Terrain Builder, has been created with geo-data usage in mind, and the Terrain Processor is a supplement created to fill the gap between geographic data and our proprietary terrain editing pipelines.
You can also see the results of this tool on good old Chernarus, including its DayZ upgrade, plus the core jungles and mangroves of the upcoming Tanoa terrain were also produced using Terrain Processor. During the development of Sahrani, we achieved a prototype capable of filling objects into areas, and there's one terribly dense forest on Sahrani as a concealed monument of our initial experiments.
We took this idea further and thought of how to use the available geographic data (which you can see for example in a topographic map) to swiftly build huge terrains from several kilobytes of vectors. Our passion for authentic terrains in Arma games naturally led us to the usage of aerial photos and satellite imagery as a basis for creating past Arma environments. The tool we are presenting to you has been around in Bohemia Interactive for some time, as well as the main ideas behind it. In the past months, our programmers have been working hard to get it into shape for public release, and now the gap has finally been filled with the recently released: Terrain Processor. However, one puzzle piece was missing in our Arma 3 Tools suite. Creating believable and authentic environments for an immersive experience has been one of our top priorities since the days of Cold War Crisis, and our Environment designers have been using a variety of tools to do so. Terrains have always been the centerpiece of Arma games. OPSUM: Community terrain makers are getting the opportunity to speed up their work with Terrain Processor, our little proprietary tool allowing the use of geographic data to quickly populate large terrains with basic content EVALUATION UNIT: Marek Novosad, Ivan Buchta, Environment Research & Development