Map reading improvements

[Veitikka]

In this thread I'll mention a few new features that have been discussed elsewhere.

First, there will be a 'stylized' icon set that can be toggled in the game options. Some will find them more accessible than the NATO icons.

[Veitikka]

Hill shading has been tweaked so the hills are easier to see, without them getting overly dark or bright (could happen before if the .xml attributes were adjusted).

[Veitikka]

In the LOS tool, an instant LOS preview is shown and updated in real-time when you move the mouse cursor around, until you click the mouse button.

[Veitikka]

When the high-resolution LOS is active, an elevation histogram is shown between the LOS location and the mouse cursor.

[Emx77]

Well done. Great improvements.

[lancer]

Hi,

These are excellent. The visual representation of the lay of the land (hills and valleys) looks to be a great tool for highlighting dead ground.

The hill shading is an improvement but making the contour lines more visible would be a big help as well.

Perhaps they could be shown in a colour that 'pops' like graduated yellow for European maps and something else for desert ones?

Cheers,
Lancer

[grab]

I also like the new hill shading.

I agree that the contour lines need to "pop" more. I wonder if there is a way to manually change the colour of the contour lines.

Gary

[exsonic01]

All looks awesome, thanks for the great works. Is the elevation histogram means based on target tile or target unit's height value as 0?

Also, I agree it would be great to have an option for color and thickness (or line type) for contour in the future but those are already great!

Regarding icon, when would it be possible to see realistic and authentic NATO symbol dedicated to BLUFOR and OPFOR? (It would be great to see authentic NATO symbol icon or stylized icon from replay in the future, but I guess this already should be in the AAR / replay upgrade plan for future)

[zacklaws]

I raised the issue of contour lines in beta testing and their should be some pictures of the issues in that forum and no answer could be found if I recall at the time. All colours clash with other colours used in the game, browns, whites, greys, yellows, black clash mainly with roads, tracks, dirt roads, railways, blues clash with rivers, black and greens clash with forest and woods and not very visible and when they are can be mistaken for roads. Reds and yellows clash with roads in the map, Thickness did not matter. In very hilly country, all the contours and other map features formed a confusing pattern and made it difficult to identify what was what. To get what contour lines should look like on a real paper map, does not seem to work in AB very well.

Basically I do not bother with contour lines and just tweak the hill shading or go by the ISO map or the HGT option or use LOS to build up a mental picture.

[lancer]

Hi,

Good point about the confusion that contour lines would bring but I was thinking of having them visible only on demand so a bright colour that 'pops' and let you take in the contours would do the job.

At present the contour lines are neither one thing or another. They aren't visible enough to be useful if left on permanetly and they are too faint to be useful for on demand use.

Yes you could always use the HGT option which is good but that has the disadvantage of blanking out the terrain whereas clearly visible contour lines would give you both.

Cheers,
Lancer

[Jace11]

Agree on contour lines, I find it beneficial to turn them off as they are rendered so similar to other map features they are confusing. The new hill shading looks great. Things that help "at a glance" like that are going to be helpful I think. The new tools look good too, but I don't know how much I'll use them till they arrive.

[22sec]

Excellent ideas on the LOS tool additions.

[Perturabo]

Sounds great! Any chances for an .xml for custom icons for mods?

[Veitikka]

Here's another elevation histogram candidate, with the LOS, buildings (red) and other terrain objects (blue) added.

[22sec]

Nice [&o]

[exsonic01]

Great work, looks much better. It seems that it shows the information of elevation for tiles outside of LoS, right?

But I'm curious about the elevation amount in histogram: Are these elevation expressed in relative terms according to the LoS target tile? Or are these showing the absolute elevation value from map?

[Veitikka]

ORIGINAL: lancer

The hill shading is an improvement but making the contour lines more visible would be a big help as well.

Perhaps they could be shown in a colour that 'pops' like graduated yellow for European maps and something else for desert ones?

We did try many different ways to make the contour lines look better and stand out more, but with the current system it's very hard to achieve both. We ended up making them gray and dull to minimize their ugliness. Some kind of a vector graphics system is needed to make them look good.

[Veitikka]

ORIGINAL: grab

I agree that the contour lines need to "pop" more. I wonder if there is a way to manually change the colour of the contour lines.

Currently there is not.

[Veitikka]

ORIGINAL: exsonic01

All looks awesome, thanks for the great works. Is the elevation histogram means based on target tile or target unit's height value as 0?

The lowest elevation between the observer and the target is adjusted to the level of the horizontal white line.

Regarding icon, when would it be possible to see realistic and authentic NATO symbol dedicated to BLUFOR and OPFOR? (It would be great to see authentic NATO symbol icon or stylized icon from replay in the future, but I guess this already should be in the AAR / replay upgrade plan for future)

What are the authentic NATO symbols?

The AAR icons have been updated and the same set is used for NATO and stylized icons.

[Veitikka]

ORIGINAL: Perturabo

Sounds great! Any chances for an .xml for custom icons for mods?

One issue with the icons is that they need to have five different variants. One for each UI size.