Re: Height Maps
 

hehe... :ham:

I'm using two computers to speed up the map making process further, game on one, map page on the other.


http://www.venhola.com/maps/geo.php?...28967285&rot=0

Re: Height Maps
 

This is exactly why I have two monitors!

Re: Height Maps
 

FYI I will be happy to add any maps made that used this program to create the basic terrain to the next patch

Re: Height Maps
 

Tuomas

I've had more time to use the program of late testing work that we are doing to help make "skinning" these maps ( and ours ) a bit less time consuming and after generating a map of the area around Villers-Bocage where the battle was fought it was clear that the contours are being overly exaggerated. They may be perfectly spot on but when translated to a game map things seem a "bit" out.

I really like this program, I really like what it can bring to map making for this game but I'm thinking it's putting at least twice as may contours in than it should to make a game usable map.

Thanks to Google you can "drive" Wittmann's route and it's not quite the grand canyon(ish) experience the map the program delivers now would suggest
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/attac...1&d=1485722491

what I propose, if possible. is a control for the number of individual height contours that are produced or at least halving the number produced now. I do appreciate the effort you put into this but I think it needs a wee tweak.
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/attac...1&d=1485724936

I realise some of the exaggeration can be manually corrected but does anyone else ( maybe it's just me......) think these tend be a bit exaggerated for game purposes? The circled area is the big problem as it drops into a steam and that's the main area of exaggeration for me

Edit......I will say though.... I generated a map of the area around where I live and it looks just about perfect so maybe its just a case of watching what's generated and if it seems wrong--- fix it manually?

Has anyone else noticed anything like this ??

Don

Re: Height Maps
 

Don,

I've noticed the same issue. In some instances, the terrain does seem to include too many elevation contours. Streams are problematic, but I also seem that to be a reflection of the SP's software's programming.

I keep most of these maps "as is". However, I often have to rework the contours manually to blend the intrinsic terrain into a playable terrain for a scenario.

A minor issue for the most part. However, It would be great if the program could be adjusted to adapt to these issues.

Tom

Re: Height Maps
 

I'll check on that. In some cases the data we get from Google may be a bit off or there's some missing values that somewhere on the line get interpreted as "0.0" meters and a huge crater appears on map.

I'm thinking about creating a business account and speeding up the api we get in exchange for a couple of bucks. Then I'll have some time to invest for finding missing value errors and such and returning some information back to the user with the downloaded map. Now all the logs are out of sight for the end user.

Re: Height Maps
 

As I said. I generated a map of the area around where I live and it was near perfect AND that includes a river but I know contours can be misread by map making software. Before I could build a house on my property I had to have it surveyed because the county had most of it shown as floodplain...but it's not......not even close but one section of the river nearby had steep banks that the original map makers interpreted incorrectly which affected all the contours around it and indicated my property was about 40 ft lower than it actually is.

So...... looking at the Villers map the problem is much the same plus as was pointed out the way SP creates elevations can be deceiving ....couple the two together in just the wrong way and you get a steep-sided canyon where there isn't one so thinking more now that this is something that has to be evaluated by a map maker on an individual basis and adjusted as necessary and not taken as holy writ. Once I filled in the questionable section it seemed much more "normal" looking

Re: Height Maps
 

Thinking that you want to hear input about this program...
I have used it to make 4 maps. Two are complete to the point that I am running battles on them to test. the other two are still incomplete.
3 are of of an island. 1 is an inland area of California.
The island maps generated in Winspmbt with no detection of the coastline from the water. I zoomed in to the venhola program till the hexgrid was readable and took screenshots to cover the entire area. I then took the screenshots into photoshop to crop and print them out. I then used them to place water and outline the coast.
Since water is -1 or -3 in game elevations this established the immediate inland area at about a 0 level. The first generated elevations (10) corresponded to real life elevations of 100 feet and were very accurately placed.
Apparently the program (venhola) does not translate water at a negative but at the lowest land elevation (height 0). So it could be that if you have a river in terrain at level 1 elevation (height 10) venhola will drop the water to height 0, not a big difference in Winsp. But if the river is in 3 level elevation (height 30) the real river should be level 2 but venhola will drop it to level 0, making a canyon effect.

Re: Height Maps
 

You could have found the problem, the game always generates water at the same level, always uses level 0 tile.

Re: Height Maps
 

I would very much encourage and welcome wholeheartedly a map group, guys specialize in making maps and sharing their findings in a way that even I may one day understand.

More even, a map group as a resource where a map challenged maker as myself could submit requests for a map to the map group, with map credits included in the final scenario product.

Map making is such an illusive endeavor for me.

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