Bushlurker´s Tutorial - Source Files & Beginners Guide

This guide is primarily designed to accompany the Bush's Geotypical Microterrains series of source files packages. As such, it's not really a complete, from-scratch, teach-you-everything-you'll-ever-need-to-know-about-terrainmaking tutorial. However, there is a pretty comprehensive "beginners" section which, after some initial install and setup instructions, directs you to Sgt Ace's Tutorial - thereafter, the rest of this guide is more like a mechanics manual - the simple mechanics of getting basic terrain structures working and in-game are discussed in some detail... the files you need, what they are, what they do and where to put them.

After an introductory setup section for beginners, the main part of this guide takes the form of a walkthrough of the Afghan Valley - Ghor Province example terrain source files. As we consider each folder and file, there's instructions on repathing and renaming each of the example files into your own "Namespace" or "Tag Folder", including renaming the terrain itself. By the end of the guide, the reader should have a complete and working renamed version of Afghan Valley... your terrain now, and your working structure! You can use that as a basis for your own project - adding your own enhancements to that basic framework, or use the whole folder structure as a project template.

Some of those enhancements will be illustrated by subsequent terrains in the series - with "advanced-level" appendices added to the end of the guide. Etah Plateau, for example, will include custom "terrainHit" sounds (footsteps to you and me), and appropriate discussion of the extra files and steps involved will be added to the guide. The Faffindale source files pack will contain its associated WorldTools project file, so there'll be some brief matching discussion of basic forest masks and importing vegetation, etc.

What's not discussed much, if at all, is any of the truly creative stuff, like sculpting heightmaps, or painting Satellite or Mask files. Nor will I be covering roads, or placing buildings and objects, etc. When you get to that creative stage there's a wide variety of options - real or artificial heightmaps? satellite or hand-painted satmaps? Regardless of how you choose to actually make these parts of your terrain project, the final result will depend on one common factor - getting them into Visitor in a coherent structure it expects, then getting that terrain through binarization and into the game. This guide will focus on that basic, practical procedure at a very simple "entry" level.

Download

Bush's Geotypical Microterrains - A Beginners Guide. 1st Edition.

Armaholic Mirror - Guide & Source Files Link

Additional Downloads Bush's GM Heightmap Bonus Pack #1

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