FROM: Tools Commissar

TO: Arma 3 Modders

MATERIEL CATEGORY: Tools

CIRCUMSTANCES: Update 0.982 (Terrain Builder, Work Drive, Game Updater)

SIZE: ~23.2 MB / ~0.1 MB

STATUS

First, we would like to clarify a little the purpose of the development branch of the tools. Recently, some of you have asked us to maintain the compatibility between the main branch of the game and the development branch of the tools. The latter is meant for experimentation and in some cases, it uses the technologies only available in the development branch of game, regardless what the status of its main branch is.

In short, when a new technology is introduced to the development branch of the game and this implies a change at the tools level (Recent cases: FontToTGA and Binarize), the tools are updated accordingly. This allows the content creators to test their work in-game with the upcoming features.

Moving on to the heart of this update, terrain creators will be happy to know that we did a bit of work about the object manipulation with Terrain Builder. The most noticeable is the new diagnostic tool which is able to detect duplicated (over-layered) objects and offer some action for those. Some more issues have been addressed, such as the inaccuracy of the angle when rotating an object on the world axis or the tiny freezes of Buldozer while manipulating multiple objects.

Another important point is a change in the serialization of the layers. The impact of this change is that it makes previous versions of Terrain Builder unable to open the new layer format. Consider making a backup of your layers and tell us if you encounter any issue with the layers, especially if it's loaded but no objects are placed. Note that a backup of the old layer file (if it is prior this update) is made on opening of a project.

This update was also an occasion to consolidate and polish Work Drive, which was introduced in the previous update. It is now able to manage any work drive, meaning it can handle any drive letter from any source directory and setup Buldozer in this directory. As mentioned on various community channels, it will eventually replace all scripts used to manage the "drive P" and its content. During the upcoming weeks, it will become a substitute to mapfolders and FuturaToP, which will remain until the following update.

Speaking of the drive P, despite the fact it is possible to use the install directory of the tools as source for this drive, we would like to remind you that it is recommended to define a custom directory to avoid potential conflicts with the updates (in other words: an update of the tools might alter your project(s)). Also, bear in mind that we might remove the possibility of such 'risky' setup.

The most curious of you will find more details in the changelog. In the event you would like to share feedback, we invite you to do so on our official channels: Feedback Tracker* & the forums.

CHANGELOG

TOOLS:

SAMPLES:

Scenario Design Changed: SQM files are now using version 51 (Eden) Fixed: The example of headgear randomization wouldn't load because of a missing addon



NOTES