Google Earth maps?

[shadow_moses 50]

I would love to do my local area as a custom map. I have been trying to figure out how to do this but so far all I have come up with is the BI Tools 2. And let me tell you this is not going to be easy for me.

I don't see one server handling the whole world as a whole but what we could do is break it down by server. If you wanted to play in Augusta GA Then go to that server. If you wanted to play in Toronto, Canada then go to the server ect

Edited September 13, 2012 by ShadowMosesOG

[ScottyTheEngineer 47]

So your proposal is to make a map of the whole world for the standalone? I guess it would be the most expensive game ever created. And such a feature "MIGHT" jeopardize the release date for the alpha, which is supposed to ship before the end of the year.

Besides, Chernarus is based on a real region in the Czech Republic. The topography, locations of the towns and forests are almost the same, but the coastline is actually a river. Here is "real life Cherno": https://maps.google.com/?ll=50.670626,14.110415&spn=0.012035,0.026543&t=h&z=16

[deadlykenny 37]

If this happened:

Player 1: "Ok i'll meet you in paris"

Player 2: "Ok just wait 2 years while i walk from moscow"

[liquidcactus 719]

how do you expect to get to toronto dayz is not set in america it never will be too many games are set in america these days

exactly

[colekern 1364]

I literally take my pants off and run around naked if this happened in DayZ. But it's not possible.

[Lefroy Jenkins 32]

I would love to do my local area as a custom map. I have been trying to figure out how to do this but so far all I have come up with is the BI Tools 2. And let me tell you this is not going to be easy for me.

I don't see one server handling the whole world as a whole but what we could do is break it down by server. If you wanted to play in Augusta GA Then go to that server. If you wanted to play in Toronto, Canada then go to the server ect

That would actually be very interesting. I like te fact that most servers run the game on local time. Local mapping and weather would be awesome. (Yes, I know matching the weather local to the server is well nigh impossible.) One time I was playing my laptop out on the deck, it was raining off and on IRL - But I swear, every time the rain stopped IRL, it stopped in DayZ. Every time it started again, so went the game. It was my first week playing the game, I wasn't sure if it was a feature, or just a massive coincidence. The realism in this game just continually blows me away. Just for reference, I grew up on the Atari 2600.

I wish I had any knowledge of mapping at all, I'd give it a shot. I know there a great many custom map designers for other games, is there a mapping community for Arma?

[Lefroy Jenkins 32]

So your proposal is to make a map of the whole world for the standalone? I guess it would be the most expensive game ever created. And such a feature "MIGHT" jeopardize the release date for the alpha, which is supposed to ship before the end of the year.

Besides, Chernarus is based on a real region in the Czech Republic. The topography, locations of the towns and forests are almost the same, but the coastline is actually a river. Here is "real life Cherno": https://maps.google....026543&t=h&z=16

Perhaps I misstated the suggestion. My main point was really just supposed by about the possibility of ADDING maps after release(which I believe has been mentioned as a sales strategy) and whether those maps could be generated/rendered from real-world via google earth.

Honestly, the last thing I want is to push the release date back. I probably want this game to exist more than a lot of other players. I just saw the potential for another layer of immersion into the game. Come on, honestly - wouldn't you LOVE to be able to play in cities and countryside in your area?

[Lefroy Jenkins 32]

If this happened:

Player 1: "Ok i'll meet you in paris"

Player 2: "Ok just wait 2 years while i walk from moscow"

What's stopping players from using vehicles? Or what about the dynamic thrown in from meeting other players in your area? In such a scenario, wouldn't solitary survivors form groups as they traveled? From the impression I've gotten, the alpha is just about survival, whereas the standalone is supposed to have an ambition(totally dependent on the players) towards rebuilding societies of a sort.

I understand your point about distance between non-local friends, but I think there's a solution to that already. Different servers can host different maps/regions. So as long you play on the same server you can play together... just like right now.

[Exenima 45]

It would be amazing, but it would take years and years and years to produce. Not to mention the detailing and developing they'd have to do to create such a map. But i agree, expansion has a limit, and having earth as one big map would be far too big. The only way i could see to get around would be maybe finding planes and such, and maybe after getting past a certain border you go into a loading screen and into a new continent. But this would honestly take too long, and you'd need the worlds best developers along with google just to even start this, and i'm sure they're all busy with developy and googly things.

[marcjpb 5]

lol. Cute idea, just lack of any form of perspective.

Its like if you come up to your friend and say : lets go build a house on Mars.

And even if it was possible, who would want to play on map earth when they are like what ? 10'000 players across the whole world ?

[rooneye 135]

Wow, imagine the PC rig you'd need to play the FULL EARTH map xD

[DemonGroover 8836]

Google Earth is an amazing application and who knows what we may be able to do with it one day. 3D models of buildings are being created every day. Possibly in the future Google may allow us an avatar to walk through various cities and view everything as in street view.

Then the next logical step for Google is to just add zombies.

[OrLoK 16185]

Hello there

Quite possible to do now. (not necesarially with this engine :) )

Terrain and street data are there.

Could you walk into your house? No, not really, but you could walk into a building at your houses location.

I make (poor) 3d art and used to create Architectural Visualisations for a living. I regularly use real terrain and street data to create 3d procedural cities/towns etc. (not from GE but from similar open source ventures). The buildings can be as high/low res as you want.

The basic tools *are* there, they just hav'nt be cobbled together yet.

The issues of playability and PC power are another thing!

rgds

LoK

[Michaelvoodoo25 3120]

I once tried to make a town like my own in a map making program, It dawned on me there were no models similar to any of the ones in my town, so I then made a map similar. It wasn't the same, But Delta Force was a decent game at the time with huge maps.

I would like to see a map bigger than Chernarus Plus though, the fun you can have on a huge map is more immersive and could offer (For me) a better playing experience!

[starwarsfan@gmx.de 450]

I would like to see a map bigger than Chernarus Plus though, the fun you can have on a huge map is more immersive and could offer (For me) a better playing experience!

Well, Rocket did say in that development blog that the player number is only held back by the size of the map which in turn would only be limited by the server capabilites if I unterstand him correctly. So if we get a huge server cluster similar to what eve online does we could have maps that could hold hundreds if not thousands of players I guess. Edited November 9, 2012 by James Ashwood

[mzltv 2281]

I gotta say, what a beautiful pipedream this is.

I wish that I would be around the day someone actually managed to do this.