blade2k5's Real World+Fantasy Maps

[Heblem]

This may help on how to change the config.bmp
http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=4767.0

Troy if you need a hand or help, remember i can take a request from you.. 

[cogeo]

Cogeo - Thessaloniki is already done [accurately scaled for elevation and not size], I just haven't rendered it yet

If elevation is accurately scaled, but the size not, doesn't this cause wrong slopes? If size is "shrunk" slopes would be steeper than in reality, I'm afraid. I noticed this in my map, and had to scale elevations by 16/90 (measured from sea level) to get realistic slopes.

As for the names I pulled from my atlas, what about the others?  Are those the proper English way of spelling them?  Also, which other areas of Greece would you like to be mapped?  I was thinking of adding Delphi to the list and some of the remaining Isles scattered about the Aegean Sea, but other than that, I do not know Greece that well.

Other names are OK I think, though Lambia could be Lambeia or Lampia as well as Labeia, but as there's no a "standard" correspondence to English it doesn't really matter. I would prefer Lampia, or even Lampea (this sounds closer to the archaic form).

Btw I think the region you call Lambia should rather be named Lamia, or even Delphi! I'm not aware of any town or village in the region named Lambia (any link to your sources pls?), there are two settlements named Lambia in the Pelopennese, afaik.

There are not really many places in Greece to be mapped, as the terrain is mostly mountainous. There are surely many "spectacular" or "dramatic" places to map, but the outcome will usually be a map that's not very much "playable", due to the slopes. Players rather prefer maps with a good portion of flat terrain, i think.

Such places (with a plain and some mountains just next) could be Xanthi, Drama, Edessa, Veria, Larissa, Lamia, Volos, Patra, Pyrgos, Kalamata, Sparta, Corinth but mostly at the north of the country. My favourites would be Edessa, the area around lake Vistonida, or river Evros (at the border wirh Bulgaria and Turkey); these would be easier for the players to build on. Don't expect them to be community favourites though. And please, don't take them as "requests", only as "suggestions" in the case you don't have anything else to do, sth I really doubt of, lol!  To me it would best to perfect Thessaloniki instead.

Keep up the good work!   

@Heblem, thanks for the link! 

EDIT: I don't think the islands would make any good map, as they are really "scattered", as you said. Maybe isolated/larger island like Naxos, Samos, Mytilene (Lesvos), Chios and the like.

[papab2000]

Rich - Thanks Bud thumbsup Also, you need to let me know which Islands you have done so we don't double up on them.  In fact, I need to know which areas around the world you've done. thumbsup

Look at my forum for a list of files used for the 45 islands. 

[blade2k5]

If elevation is accurately scaled, but the size not, doesn't this cause wrong slopes? If size is "shrunk" slopes would be steeper than in reality, I'm afraid. I noticed this in my map, and had to scale elevations by 16/90 (measured from sea level) to get realistic slopes.
Other names are OK I think, though Lambia could be Lambeia or Lampia as well as Labeia, but as there's no a "standard" correspondence to English it doesn't really matter. I would prefer Lampia, or even Lampea (this sounds closer to the archaic form).

As for the size issue, when you use 90M DEM, the slopes are off anyways because 90M DEM rounds everything off.  I know this because when I do a mountainous style map where I know the peaks are jagged and sharp-edged, they come out looking like over-sized mole hills.

Btw I think the region you call Lambia should rather be named Lamia, or even Delphi! I'm not aware of any town or village in the region named Lambia (any link to your sources pls?), there are two settlements named Lambia in the Pelopennese, afaik.

I misspelled Lambia, the print is so small on my atlas that I mis-read it.  It's actually Lamia and does indeed feature the Delphi Ruins site. 

There are not really many places in Greece to be mapped, as the terrain is mostly mountainous. There are surely many "spectacular" or "dramatic" places to map, but the outcome will usually be a map that's not very much "playable", due to the slopes. Players rather prefer maps with a good portion of flat terrain, i think.

Such places (with a plain and some mountains just next) could be Xanthi, Drama, Edessa, Veria, Larissa, Lamia, Volos, Patra, Pyrgos, Kalamata, Sparta, Corinth but mostly at the north of the country. My favourites would be Edessa, the area around lake Vistonida, or river Evros (at the border wirh Bulgaria and Turkey); these would be easier for the players to build on. Don't expect them to be community favourites though. And please, don't take them as "requests", only as "suggestions" in the case you don't have anything else to do, sth I really doubt of, lol!  To me it would best to perfect Thessaloniki instead.

I looked for the Evros river along the Turkish-Bulgarian border but on my atlas, but I'm not seeing it   Sparta and Corinth sounds like places that could be mapped

To be quite honest, I don't expect any of my maps to be 'community' favorites.  If they become favorites, well thats great, if not, that's great as well.

Keep up the good work!   

EDIT: I don't think the islands would make any good map, as they are really "scattered", as you said. Maybe isolated/larger island like Naxos, Samos, Mytilene (Lesvos), Chios and the like.

I'll keep that in mind.

[cogeo]

As for the size issue, when you use 90M DEM, the slopes are off anyways because 90M DEM rounds everything off.  I know this because when I do a mountainous style map where I know the peaks are jagged and sharp-edged, they come out looking like over-sized mole hills.

I didn't mean problems with "quality" (so whether using 90m or 10m data should be irrelevant) but instead "scale", in order to maintain consistent slopes: if the map "size" (to me this translates as X- and Y-dimensions) is scaled-down by say 16/90, shouldn't the same be done for the height (Z) too (ie scaled-down by the same factor)? Wouldn't otherwise mountains look like sharp tall cones? Does SC4TF do this automatically?

As for quality, indeed sometimes using 90m data causes a "rounded" look. But I'm not sure that this a SC4TF's fault. Take a look at the two pics below (peak of Mt Olympus).



The left is from my map, which is unscaled (elevation values used in a 1:1 mapping, ie no conversion/interpolation, so it's 16/90 in scale); also erosion was set to 0 for the render. The right image is the same area, made by beskhu3epnm, accurately scaled. As you can see, there are 5-6 tiles large uniformly-sloped "blocks" (90/16=5.625). This rather indicates the algorithm used for the conversion is indeed a simple bilinear interpolation, and to my opinion it's pretty accurate. The "problem" here appears to be the quality of the original 90m data, as the first image (which is 1:1) has a "rounded" look too. So I think there's not much that can be done to improve quality, other than get data of better quality (these were taken from cgiar.org).

Maybe it's possible to improve that "blocks" look (of 90m data interpolated to generate 16m values, for "accurately scaled" maps). Adding some little random "noise" (of a limited and carefully set amplitude) could ease or completely eliminate the "blocks" look, and cause a somewhat "jagged" effect, as you mentioned, without distorting the overall image. If someone (who? wou!) would like to discuss this I could come up with some ideas or proposals.

I misspelled Lambia, the print is so small on my atlas that I mis-read it.  It's actually Lamia and does indeed feature the Delphi Ruins site.

Hmmm, I'm not sure how to name this map. Lamia is actually at the top-right corner, and only partially included. Maybe Central Greece (part of) or something.

I looked for the Evros river along the Turkish-Bulgarian border but on my atlas, but I'm not seeing it

The region I was talking about is at the border of Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey, incl the turkish city of Edirne (Adrianopolis) and river Evros (or Marica or Meric) and its tributaries, Ardas and Tundzha. The region is mostly flat and with a lot of rivers, so i think players would really like it. I don't know what "atlas" you are talking about. Aren't you using GeoTIFFs? So why should this be a problem?

[kelis]

will be available when the map of China, Ningdai ? I love

[Heblem]

will be available when the map of China, Ningdai ? I love

Si quieres te puedo hacer el mapa que pides, por ahora Troy (Blade2k5) no puede tomar esta petición, supongo que por problemas técnicos 

[gartenriese]

Hey,

I downloaded the Cape Cod 3Pak and imported CapeCodNorth with SC4Mapper. But when I start a city there are no beaches at all, just really sharp edges, why is that?

[Pat]

I did talk with Blade and he said he will check into it.... Unfortantley Troy is out of contact with the internet thanks to Charter and not paying or something along those lines lol.... No honestly its trouble with his modem and he is working on it!!!

[papab2000]

I just installed the map using the sC4Mapper and it all worked fine, water was fine. There are jagged edges were the land meets the water but that is normal when using 3 arc DEM data. You can smooth the edges by importing the map into the TF or by using the smooth tool in God mode. I personally prefer using the TF.

[Simpson]

These new maps are really good my friend
Fantastic work 

[blade2k5]

Not to be outdone by papab2000    I requested a banner for my mapping forum from CraigKingOfIreland.  Thanks a bunch Craig   It looks absolutely fabulous.

[papab2000]

Oh banner war! Looks great 

[blade2k5]

Well, since we're part of the same group, we might as well have uniform look, at least in the mapping department

Here's my list of International maps...those in red text are not yet complete.....

CHINA
1. Fuzhou
2. Ningdai
3. Shantou
4. Shaoguan
5. Wuzhi-Shan
6. Zhao'an
7. Zhao'an North

GREECE
1. Athens
2. Kimolos/Milos
3. Delphi Ruins region
4. Mt. Olympus

IRELAND
1. Belfast
2. Donegan
3. Dublin
4. Ireland NW Coast
5. Limerick
6. Londonderry
7. Malin Head

SCOTLAND
1. Edinburgh
2. Glasgow
3. Inverness

[CraigKingOfIreland]

Oh banner war!

Yeah, with me vs. me 

[papab2000]

  Craig, that is to funny. Blade's banner looks great to, good job. 

[blade2k5]

Yeah, with me vs. me 

  By the way, Rich pointed out that my new banner doesn't have NHP on it.  Is there a chance you could throw that in?

[CraigKingOfIreland]

There's a chance...editing...uploading...replacing...done

I edited the original but you may have to restart your browser so you can see the changes

[blade2k5]

Thanks Craig.

[blade2k5]

Ok, I thought it would be interesting to allow you, the user choose the 4 maps of China for the next series of releases papab2000 and I will be unleashing on the public in the near future.  This particular poll will close Wednesday midnight on November 11 U.S. Central Standard Time.  The top three will be packaged together as a China 3-Pak [depending if it's under the 10mb limit.  If it's over that limit, then the third will be released as a LEX exclusive as a single ]. 

Here are the rendered views of the 4 candidates:

Fuzhou:  7x9 Large Tiles


Ningdai: 8x9 Large Tiles


Shantou: 9x7 Large Tiles


Zhao'an North: 9x8 Large Tiles


Remember, this poll closes Wednesday midnight on November 11 U.S. Central Standard Time.