[JAMF]

That is a very nice site. I found RAF aerial photos of the area I live in. Thanks.

Dutchie too, eh?

[asheshouse]

any new news on this map? Waiting patiently so I can begin mapping for early war maps!

The railways are complete -- apart from bridges.
Am about half way through doing the principal roads. Hope to complete that within a week.
There then needs to be some simplification of both road and rail done to make it fit in crowded areas and to remove some of the corners. Because it is not possible to model true curves I think the visual appearance is improved if too many short straights are avoided.

Then there will be major forested areas to add. I expect this to be a quick job.

I want to add more waterways, including those which were key features of BoF, such as R. Semois in the Ardennes and a number of the minor rivers on the route of the Panzer breakthrough.

The steep sided rivers such as the Meuse need a bit of height editing due to problems arising due to mismatch of the SRTM height data and the water courses, which need to be set to zero height. This might take a bit of time to get looking right.

Then there is texturing to refine, including adding extensive areas of fields, exposed rock on cliffs and some beach textures.

Before issue I would still like to include some of the bridges and a selection of airfields. I am still aiming to get something issued before the end of January.

[fabianfred]

sounds great mate.......you keep working to your own pace....and don't be hurried....I know we are all waiting patiently ...but only you will know when you are satisfied to release it...

I have only admiration for the guys working on complete new maps......your work will remain long after yet another plane is available to fly

...just tantalise us with the odd screenshot

[samba_liten]

Has anyone got any info on the airfields which the luftwaffe operated from during the battle?
There seems to be very little info on the web about this aspect.

Im a bit late here, but perhaps this might be useful?

http://www.lesbutler.ip3.co.uk/jg26/gradnetz.htm

[asheshouse]

Have completed plotting the network of principal roads.
Had to include a number of lesser routes to ensure that the Panzers have something to travel on through the Ardennes and from Sedan towards the coast.
I still need to do some adjustment to fit the rail network and the rivers. Being limited to a 200m grid creates a number of problems in making things fit.

The image below is a coloured up version of the map_T and just shows the water and roads layers.

What next? --- Rivers to add include Semois, Dyle, Yser, Ardenne Canal and various others. I've been reading the BoF accounts to identify the various "stop" lines, which the allies attempted to hold. I think getting some of these battle critical features incorporated is important. But maybe I will just get some forest added and sort out some nice field textures and chalk cliffs first?

--- Time for a beer!

[asheshouse]

Has anyone got any info on the airfields which the luftwaffe operated from during the battle?
There seems to be very little info on the web about this aspect.

Im a bit late here, but perhaps this might be useful?

http://www.lesbutler.ip3.co.uk/jg26/gradnetz.htm

Thanks for the link. I haven't started putting airfields on yet. Still doing the ground map.
The more sources I have the better.

[asheshouse]

This is a shot of Abbeville, on the Somme Canal. The German forces established a bridgehead here south of the river which was held against allied ground and air attacks until the mopping up operation in the north was completed.

I've been using this to familiarise myself with bridge building. Minimum bridge is 3 pixels, 600m, in a straight line, made up of 200m of bridge and 200m of road each side. This is a major constraint in densely built up areas and a lot of manual adjustment is required to fit within the game constraints.

The bridge can only be put on ground at zero level so some height adjustment is also required. I am keeping a common field texture at the moment because it makes it easy to select the road and rail elements form the map_T as amended by FMB and drop it into the roads layer of my master map_T file. I will substitute a more suitable field texture later.

Main effort this week is to plot all of the forest areas. I've made a good start on the Ardennes which is the main forest block but still have a lot to do.

On this image there are a couple of odd things appearing.
Texture tearing can be seen, discussed in another thread.
The far view seems to be washed out with light grey texture - not certain whats causing this, or what needs to be edited to control far views. Any ideas?

[asheshouse]

Reinhardt's Panzers crossing the R. Meuse at Montherme. -- Well you can just about see the dots on the bridge.

The area in the foreground has been manually adjusted to improve the fit of the river into the gorge. More work on the distant areas required. Because bridges are set to zero height the river gorge is too deep. I need to smooth the valley sides more to make the slope angles look more like reality. In the final version these should be wooded slopes.

A minimum length of straight of 600m is required to locate a bridge this also creates difficulties in a location like this. The steep valleys of the Ardennes will all require a lot of manual adjustment to get them to look right. Another example of texture "tearing" near the bridge.



Should be more like this

[JAMF]

Nice start! 8)

[asheshouse]

The last of the "map" elements --- Forests



and "in game" --- Starting to get the right feel

[Rus_Andrey]

asheshouse
Are you going to use these new textures and objects from Slovakian map? They would very approach to your France map!
IMHO

[JAMF]

Dunno if it's me, but I always had the idea that there was more forest in the southern part of Belgium. Could be your map is correct, but maybe someone has a map of the vegetation from back then.

Looks great how the gorge is shaping up. hock:

[asheshouse]

Good idea letchik. -- Maybe I should download 4.09
But I need to keep numbers of objects low to begin with to see how frame rates are affected.
I dont think this map would work with the level of detail used in the Slovakia map.

[Rus_Andrey]

Maybe you will try to load 4.09 and to take from it structures and objects? It in fact is not difficult absolutely, I think. With new fields and buildings your map would be looked very beautifully! 8)

Sorry for my english, i am russian

[asheshouse]

Maybe you will try to load 4.09 and to take from it structures and objects? It in fact is not difficult absolutely, I think. With new fields and buildings your map would be looked very beautifully! 8)

Sorry for my english, i am russian

Sorry for my english -- I am Scottish