I was inspired by the IL-2 Manchuria map and decided to have a go at creating LOMAC map using NASA's newly released 30m resolution elevation map of the world using the newly released Eagle Dynamics terrain tools. This will hopefully become like the Nevada map.

Here are some shots:

Dude, that is really exciting -- I used to live in that part of the Russian Far East. Have travelled almost all those roads, spent a lot of time in Spassk. Saw those Su-25 a lot, based there in Chernigovka, the base is visible from the highway.

So these are ingame shots? You are flying these jets over this theater? If you can, please take a screen shot flying over Vladivostok, want to see Russian island and Golden Horn Bay.

Ripcord

What were you?
A sleeper?
But yes that terrain looks awesome!

Ripcord, Chernigovka is in there next to Lake Khanka

Cities aren't modeled yet. These screens are actually of just a 40km x 40km section over the Russian/China border near the Heilongjiang valley.

What program did you use to build the terrain? Does LOMAC use tiles like F4 and other sims? Is it that Global Mapper v11?

Ripcord

LOMAC uses tiles, but they work differently than in Falcon, and there is a noise file as well. You need global mapper 11, 3ds Max 2008, and photoshop to do the stuff. The terrain is a lot easier to work with than Falcon's.

Very cool TBone!

This part I guess I did not pick up on right away. So it isn't straight port-over of the IL-2 map to LOMAC, rather somebody over at ED build and released terrain tools? Interesting.

Ripcord

Ripcord,

Eagle Dynamics is giving the community tools to create addon maps. I asked Matt Wagner if this terrain could be included in the new A-10C game and he said once the maps have all the airports and objects they would consider including them in an official release. Several other maps are being worked on. Right now you can download the Nevada beta map with Nellis AFB at lockonfiles.

Right now the other maps which I know of being worked on are Afghanistan, Ibiza, and El Centro.

I know you're part of the Falcon 4.0 PMC TFW terrain group, so if you have any interest in LOMAC FC terrain take a look here:

http://en.wiki.eagle.ru/wiki/All_about_land

T-Bone

Oh, I am merely a forum-lurker at PMC.... listening and watching and learning. But very interested in how new terrains are built in various sims. I appreciate your response, I'll check out that link.

I am really interested in that particular terrain since I lived there for so long. Will the terrain be compatible with Black Shark at some point? You know, that is where they are built, right there at the Progress factory at Arseniev. Would be really cool flying that Black Shark along the Chinese border defending against the invading masses.

I guess one of the main reasons why I never bought LOMAC or Black Shark was the terrain -- the Black Sea theatre just isn't compelling. Sure I get it from the Russians point of view, they probably see a lot of compelling interest in pounding positions in Chechnya and Georgia and Abkhazia, since those are hotspots that they see on the new every night, and pretty much everybody knows people that have served there at some point. But there is no real NATO presence there, so its' not much of an adversary. China, on the other hand, is a whole different discussion. The Chinese view Primorskiy Krai as their territory (temporarily administered) by Russia and the Russians know it. The border is heavily fortified still to this day, but each Russian soldier knows that his border position has a life expectancy of about 30-60 minutes should the Chinese ever launch a full-scale invasion. The Russians on the other hand will commit huge resources to defending its rail links to its ice free Pacific ports at Vladivostok and Nakhodka, and they won't go quietly. I could see the US getting involved, depending on circumstances. That, along with a potential Taiwan conflict, is the most compelling potential conflict storyline out there -- ground war, naval war, air war, the whole enchilada is there.

Ripcord

The Ryukyu islands would be a good US and Japan vs China scenario, with China setting up a naval blockade around the Senkakus and then invading the southern Ryukyus (convenient airfields). Kadena Air Base and Okinawa would be on the map. The goal would be to secure the disputed oil and gas rich fields in the area.

That would be another very good one -- I'd like to play that campaign.

Ripcord

It would be a good naval scenario with F/A-18s or air to air with F-15s but probably not good with A-10s lol

Check out this video with portions highlighting the ultra-high-resolution Nevada terrain, available at lockonfiles...

http://www.vimeo.com/9621346

Yep, seen that video -- pretty cool. So you are adding new flyable aircraft through mods? Impressive. Wait, they did that also with carrier aircraft, didn't they?

Ripcord

Really Nice~ ~

Will South Korea & Parts of Japan also be included in this map ?

Yes some folks add new aircraft. But more to the point you were making, entirely new terrains are available to fly over. Some can be found at lockonfiles.

The new terrains are compatible with just LOMAC FC or will they also work with BS, FC2 and DCS: A-10? Sorry, not yet up to speed with this, just have been observing from afar. Eventually will have to make the leap, though -- if NOTHING else I have to try bombing my old house in Vladivostok. : )

Ripcord

They will work for both, but since DCS requires a new ARBIS map we'll be starting off with FC 2.0 compatability.

Well, OK. I was kinda starting to get serious about buying DCS: BS to try this terrain out, but might have to break and 'go LOMAC'.

Ripcord

How are the campaigns in DCS? Are they at all like falcon4?

They are not as active and are semidynamic like Janes sims.

Too bad, to me falcons campaign engine is still a masterpiece in the genre. I would gladly pay 50 euros if a similar campaign engine would be released for DCS as a seperate module. I tried FreeFalcon5 for a while but it never worked really well. If DCS would add a F-16, which i believe they are doing, and a F4 style campaign engine I might be set for life sim-wise.

The dynamic campaign in F4 is pretty awesome I got to admit, but it is not perfect. Tasking is a little out of whack but that is where the beauty lies -- you create your own ATO if you feel you need it. What you lack here is the potential for narrative and building/telling a storyline. Not all care about that, but some like it.

The semidynamic campaign can be pretty damn good, however, if done right -- you need (1) a LOT of missions, (2) you need a lot of triggers, outcomes and flags that can be tracked by the campaign engine (3) and you need a really robust level of random activity, events and opposition inside each mission. By that I mean you need to be able to fly the same mission several times and not really recognize it, having flown it maybe 8-10 missions before. Nobody ever really mastered this to the full potential in Janes FA-18. Well, one guy K2 came close, and I am trying to build on what he did, still testing what outcomes really get tracked and which do not. But this is wrong thread for that, I realize.

IIRC the DCS crew promises a campaign engine with a lot of triggers in it, and I am extremely interested to learn exactly what that means. If that is truly the case, I think a very strong semi-dynamic campaign can be built such that you might not miss a true dynamic campaign. Since the common thread between the two sims in Matt Wagner, I tend to believe that this mission builder and the campaign builder will be well integrated with a lot of tools.

Ripcord

Hi Ripcord,

ArmA 2 was a game I really enjoyed in COOP, I liked the idea you could play the SP campaign in COOP too. I think you could call its campaign semi dynamic. I must say even though I liked the campaign it doesnt offer enough replay value where I could see myself play through it again. I don't like PvP much because I tend to suck too badly to have any form of succes against human players so for me COOP campaigns are a big plus. I don't care much for storytelling campaigns though because more often then not their cheesy with the inevitable plot twist (one of our guys being a double agent or something stupid), I'd much rather fly my missions, move mud and not accidentally be the guy that drops the JDAM that kills the enemy dictator. I liked IL-2's dgen campaigns but not as much as I liked Falcon 4's. In the end I raked up 1000+ kills as a russian pilot in IL-2, that must have made me some kind of superhero!

Here are some updated shots:

T-Bone,

Bumpety-bump. How goes develoment on this theatre!

Now that I hear this Platunum version is out on shelves at Best Buy, I'll be keeping an eye our for it this week.

I posted a question for POP on antoher forum, but I was wondering if his naval/carrier ops mod would work in this theatre, and with LOMAC Platinum. This Sea of Japan map is just begging for some carrier-based Superhornets coming over the beach.

Ripcord

That looks good.

T-bone, yooo-hoooooo?

Ripcord

Did you say El Centro!!!! " El Centro. "

Great balls of fire I live here. Get to do some bombing runs in the superstitious mountains, or chocolotto mountian pass?

T-Bone

I see that some of the text in this wiki are still in Russian (I assume it was originally written in Russian). If you think it useful, I can help by offering to translate those sections into English.

Mastiff, I remember getting to visit the airbase out there at El Centro when I was in USN boot camp back in 1987. Man, that was cool.

Ripcord