[asheshouse]

Coastlines completed.
Getting lost tracing waterways around Rotterdam.
There's an awful lot of them.
I think Europoort at Rotterdam is all modern reclamation, so left it out.
Need to get some rough textures on to see what it looks like.

[I/JG54_Gringo]

I wonna volunteer for Alpha and Beta tester of this map !!!
Can i?

[asheshouse]

Thanks Gringo. It'll be a while before its ready though.
Heres the latest progress on map_c
I've started on the R. Meuse at Sedan.
I need to play around with the river widths. Trying to do them to approx scale doesnt work. They need to be made wider.
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This is an updated image --- rivers corrected now.

[Guest]

excelent !

[asheshouse]

Here is the Sedan Bridgehead. Site of Guderians crossing of the R. Meuse.
Apologies for the black landscape. Haven't got to textures yet.
The slight irregularity in the river edge is I think caused by map_h which has not had any attention yet.
River width is about right for scale. Drawn with 3px paintbrush tool
My previous problems were due to using airbrush which at 3px doesn't create enough RGB 0,0,0 pixels

I'm looking forward to a massed daylight raid on the bridges with TB-3's skinned to look like Amiot 143's

[asheshouse]

Still progressing the map_c.tga file which provides a template of coastlines and rivers.
The size of this file is increasing fast as more detail is put into it. I'm wondering if I will hit a wall with this at some stage, but so far it still load in FMB ok.

Thanks to the anonymous donor who has sent some superb historical information for Belgium and Holland. This will be invaluable in developing the map.

A quick diversion to make the map_F.tga file using the map_c as a template.
Here is map_F.tga, which paints in the distant views. I thought it also placed the forests since there are tree textures on the original, but perhaps it only controls "Far" views because I've still got a forest growing in the Scheldt Estuary. I expect that will sort itself out when I do map_T.
Am I right?

Skunkmeister has volunteered to knock up a map_h.tga so we should have that soon as well.
Many thanks Skunkmeister

[GerritJ9]

A small observation: the dams between the islands of Zeeland (SW of the Netherlands) did not exist pre-war, but were all built after the February 1953 flood!

[asheshouse]

Thanks Gerrit. I'll correct that.
I'm keen to make the maps as accurate as possible as far as the software will allow, so feel free to comment as much as you want.
I expect the first issue of the maps will result in a lot of comments so there will need to be amendments.
One thing is certain. I won't get it right first time.

[Skunkmeister]

I think you will find that even MG never get it right the first time either. A quick run through the maps sfs files and you will see constant updates to old maps, and they hardly mention it in readme's.

[GerritJ9]

I have an atlas from the early 1950s and while not as "up to date" as a prewar atlas, it'll probably be a LOT more accurate than a modern one. If you are interested I can scan the relevant pages of the south of Holland for you (main roads are also marked on it) i.e. everything south of Arnhem.

[GerritJ9]

1C never upated the Singapore map, though...... the second non-existent causeway was never removed, for instance. And LOTS of people commented on THAT!!!!

[asheshouse]

I have an atlas from the early 1950s and while not as "up to date" as a prewar atlas, it'll probably be a LOT more accurate than a modern one. If you are interested I can scan the relevant pages of the south of Holland for you (main roads are also marked on it) i.e. everything south of Arnhem.

Thanks Gerrit, but I think Holland is now covered by recent good quality info I've received.
The main areas where I don't yet have historical info is France and Southern Belgium.

[Edelmann]

Avesome work asheshouse! Glad to see , that someone build map of this part of Europe. What about aifrield? Is possible placed , implement with historic corrected aiffields i.e. Deelen, Leeuwarden, Gilze Rijen,Saint Trond , Eindhoven and much more airfields operated by Luftwaffe and allied Airforces?

Sorry for my terrible English :oops:

[asheshouse]

Avesome work asheshouse! Glad to see , that someone build map of this part of Europe. What about aifrield? Is possible placed , implement with historic corrected aiffields i.e. Deelen, Leeuwarden, Gilze Rijen,Saint Trond , Eindhoven and much more airfields operated by Luftwaffe and allied Airforces?

Sorry for my terrible English :oops:

Your English is very good -- Sorry I cannot answer all of your questions.
Not all of the secrets of map building have yet been discovered but we hope to have reasonably soon a map which can be used in the game. To begin with there will be enough detail for visual navigation but still a lot missing. We do not know yet how to place default IL-2 airfields but level areas can be made and objects placed so that some sort of airfield can be created. At the moment I have not collected much information on airfields. If anyone has this information it would be very useful. I have already been offered info on Belgian Airfields by JV69_BADA.

[asheshouse]

map_T.tga is now working --- after a fashion. So just map_h.tga to go and all the key elements will be in place. There are lots of rogue textures around but I think thats just a matter of tidying up.

This is a view looking looking east towards Dordrecht along Haringvliet -- you have to use a little imagination. I might do the first ever IL-2 cross channel flight now.