[RealDarko]

Ok, thank's to the help of Fly_Zo and ClockWatcer, I started the map creation, I decided to take a look to the Falklands/Malvinas map, for a fictional campaign in 1946. I decided this cause, the map is relatively empty, no trees, almost no cities and few houses. I got this with the data. But now? What more??



I don't know If the map is correct or not is a BMP with a size of 4804*5593 pixels, and I will really love to kill some water. Well hope to get ideas and help
Thank's

[Skunkmeister]

If you can use photoshop you could select the islands and bring them closer to the mainland.

I think that your map is going to be HUGE if you decide to work with that size, the elevation and tile maps for the Slot is 4128x3008 pixels. That translates to 500 000 square kilometers of map area.

[RealDarko]

I have Paint Shop Pro, will work the same? Will like to know how to reduce the scale, a 1:2 or even 1:4 will be cool
Once that is made, what more I need to do??

P.S. Guys I know that most of you are not interested in the Malvinas/Falklands, but please help me so I can finish it soon and start ONE of this four projects.

Spain
Poland
Philipinnes
Japan

[RealDarko]

I believe that this will be the definitive map. Now I only need to resize it. What to do next?

[asheshouse]

RealDarko

You need to fish around in the early parts of the threads to find the tips but try this.

Extract one of the existing maps - like Online 9a into your maps folder and then change the foldername to something unique "RD_Test"

go to all.ini

add a line --

RD_Test RD_Test/load.ini

Now if you go into FMB you should see your new map RD_Test in the Load Map options.

Now you can change the files in your RD_Test folder

Your SRTM data will become map_h

You can use the same image to make map_c -- edit so that all land is white and all sea is black with graded shades at the coastline.

You need to get the map_c compiler tool from Fly_zo -- it comes with instructions

map_c scale is 1 pixel = 50m for 1:1 scale

Decide your scale and use map_c tools disect.bat to create your map_c

I have left out a step but that can come later.

Now whatever size your original map_c image was the other need to be 1/4 of that

So change your map_h image to be 1/4 map_c

Edit other image files to be same size as map_h

That's enough for now -- try and get so that you can load that in FMB
The textures will be odd but that can be sorted later.

Oh -- and a comment on your map. I think it will look better if you move the Falkland Islands up a bit to make it equidistant from the coast on all sides -- Nice idea for a fictional campaign. Shame we haven't got any Meteors

[RealDarko]

At work now, will try this method this night, If I can load the map in FMB I will be able to fly over it right? Will bee needed to check the hills of the islands
I asked the tools from Fly_Zo, hope to get to my mail soon.
BTW How can I extract the map Online 9A??

Thank's for the help

[asheshouse]

You want the SFS Extractor from Mod Tools and Utilities on the main part of the AAA site.
-- and yes you will be able to fly over it. Won't look very pretty at that stage.

[RealDarko]

You're right I will move the islands a bit. Yes a real shame we don't have the Meteor but we can try other planes!

[Baco1170]

HI RealDarko, Im here for whatever you need. You were granted right to acces teh spanish forum I left you at ECV 56 condor.

The idea to bring the islands closer instead of scaling everithing is much better I belive.

I would really like to help, but so far this stuff is really complicated, I can

[Baco1170]

UH I rechecked that and Yes Manchuria uis not hat big....

But Falklands/Malvinas is mostlly water. The onlly thing thjat remains is to see if teh Il-2 engine can support a 25.000 Sq Kilometers map. Or 500 K per side I think that if you go 1/2 scale you cna pull it off.

[RealDarko]

Looks like I'm missiong something. I have my SRTM map, but now I need to conver it to map_c and can't understand how!!

[RealDarko]

Can't get the damn thing to work! Tried all the tips, tutorials and advices but simply can't continue. I have my map saved as a BMP, follow the black and white edition to get the map_c and save it as a TGA, but nothing the tool says that can't found the map. Why is all this so complicated??
Maybe someone can please convert my BMP file into a map_c please??

http://rapidshare.com/files/88254377/map_h.rar.html

Here's the map. I will not ask for this help normally but I'm really desperated, don't know why but seems that I can't get the thing done. And the frustating thing, is that I don't know why. So If someone can help I will really apreciatte the help.Thank's
P.S. Possible to scale to 1:3 please??

[asheshouse]

RealDarko -- I had a look at your file. It seems to be straight from 3DEM without any further work being done on it yet.

I have used Photoshop Elements for image editing. Others are using Gimp http://www.gimp.org/

Both have been used successfully.

To do the map work you need to be a competent user of an image editing programme such as one of these (not necessary to be an expert) 'cause I'm not.

You need to crop your map_h.tga to the size you want. At the moment the image seems to extend too far south.

Have you been able to set up your map folder and open it in FMB as I described in the earlier PM?
It is useful to set up a Test Map Folder like this so that you can look at the various files and understand how they work together.

If so, then proceed with preparing your map_*.tga files

map_h is first. You have nearly got this done but it needs to be cropped to the right size.

Now prepare map_c. Select all the sea area on map_h (RGB 0). Inverse select to get the land area and paint the land area RGB 255 (white).

Now resize the image to be 4x the map_h size. Save this as MWmap_c.tga

Only when you have done both of these are you ready to use the map_c tools, so we can talk about those later.

[RealDarko]

Yes I have the map ready to load on FMB
Now the doubts:

1- I can erase the sea of the south part no problem with this. But is now the moment to change the scale? As mostly of the map is water and the textures are mainly monotematic, I believe I can use the 1:1 scale. If you think is better to resize to 1:2 I need to divide the current pixels in height and wide to a half of the current size right? I will het map_h

2- To create map_c I need to work over the recently saved map_h? Then In Paint Shop Pro or Gimp, I can paint the land white and resize the map to be x4 the size of map_h Roger? And then save this as MWmap_c.tga

Is that ok?

Really apreciatte the help with this!

[asheshouse]

Now is the time to get the map_h exactly how you want it.
Remember that in map_h the game scale will be 1 pixel = 200m

Whether you want to make the game at 1/2 scale or at 1:1 is up to you.
1/2 scale may be good for playability because it cuts down game distances from base to target. 1:1 is good for game immersion. It is a personal choice.

Once you are entirely happy with the look of map_h then use it to make MWmap_c

When you have done map_h and MWmap_c post the images in the thread so we can see how they look.

Then you will use map_c tools to disect MWmap_c.tga to create map_c.tga
The map_c tools need to be in the same folder as the files you are working on.
This is all explained in the readme file.

Have you already extracted some sample map files, like Online9a, into your own maps folder and changed the map names and loaded the name into FMB? This will help you to understand how it works. You can mess with the map_h in this Test Map to see how the grey shades create mountains. Its a good idea to do this to get a better understanding.