Nancy Map Progress

[sweeteye]

This is the first time I have tried to use the programs for making a contour map. I did use them for a 3D game map. Making a grayscale height map. There are probably some features I am not using or aware of. One that comes to mind is projection. I am not sure how to answer that.Could very well be my problem.Corner coordinates are as follows: Degree Minutes/seconds

NW Corner 49 : 00 : 13 / 005 : 18 : 21
SW Corner 48 : 18 : 26 / 005 : 18 : 21
NE Corner 49 : 00 : 8 / 006 : 17 : 52
SE Corner 48 : 18 : 22 / 006 : 18 : 00

I decided upon a 25 meter contour interval

[sweeteye]

I did some studying on projections and did figure it out. I tried using a UTM projection of the same area and then ran one of my programs to draw the contours. It seems to be better when zoomed in but the way the contour intervals are set up is very confusing for me. I cannot figure out if they are in meters or feet and there is nothing in the help file or documentation that states what they are in.The contour intervals are stated in 8 digit numbers.

[sweeteye]

Here is a view of a contour map underlay I made using the Surfer program demo. It has a 50 meter interval. A little rough looking when zoomed in but with a 50 meter interval I am able to trace the contours. It is going to take a while...no quick finishing like the Jeandelaincourt map.

[Lieste]

Ignore, or smear the very small islands/depressions - most are not of significant prominence, IRL.
If in doubt look at your DEM and see the actual landform - particularly on the high plateaux and valley floors.

You can always add some of them back in later as well if it needs it, removing/simplifying will take longer. The same goes for not exactly following the zig-zigs of the contour - some will merely be artifacts of the DEM grid, and you'll save time and make a better looking map if you intelligently simplify as you go.

Look at the Height Map you are generating as you go too - some narrow (and minor) valleys, where the floor is barely below the contour are better truncated (IMO), to avoid ravines in areas where they aren't present in the terrain.

[sweeteye]

Here is a view of the map I have made so far.Just contours.Ready to put in the woods,rivers,roads,towns,etc.This is the underlay after being drawn on.

[sweeteye]

How it actually looks looks in game.

[sweeteye]

Wondering if an 80 kilometer by 48 kilometer map is too large? This converts to roughly 73000 by 48000 meters. I want the map to be to scale but when I try to put this into the map data for width and height it will not let me load the map.

[Arjuna]

There is a current max size of 250 square kilometres - ie 50 x 50 kms. The maximum height or width can be 80kms ( eg 80 x 30 ).

[sweeteye]

Guess I am just a little over the maximum. Will try cropping the map down some. The part of the DEM I used is just a little larger than what is needed anyways. Will try to get it down to perhaps 60 km by 40 km.

[Lieste]

Looks good, what is the landcover like? Not an area I'm familiar with...

[sweeteye]

Really only know the area is fairly heavily wooded. Took another look at google earth and there seems to be a lot of cropland in between forest areas. I have to extend the map to the east about 10 kilometers. Was off just a little when I cropped the DEM projection.Lots of little things slowing me down.Have spent a lot of time trying to crop and resize the map so it is at an accurate scale

[Arjuna]

Be careful with using Googgle Earth for terrain. This may have changed a lot since WW2. Google Earth is good for contours, streams/rivers etc but I would recommend you source a US Army or Britisg Survey map from WW2.

[sweeteye]

Yes...I would not not use google earth for the land cover.Right now the only source I have is for the woods from the map in the very first post of this thread. The Perry Costaneda map collection has some very good maps from the U.S. army but does not include the Nancy area for some reason. I looked through some very good Russian maps but likewise they did not cover the Nancy area.I will try the British survey that you mentioned and see what I can find.

[Lieste]

Don't know if you have this site - has maps, with some photographs/aerial photos, that give some context to the maps & text.

Haven't looked at it in detail yet, but it looks interesting.

If you can't find anything else suitable I do also have a copy of the 1870 french staff map, which includes a sheet for Nancy area. It is not particularly 'easy to read' being a single tint and hatchures for shading/linear detail in black, but it shows what was present in earlier periods *(the maps were printed and issued in 1914 for the BEF) (5 miles to 1").

[sweeteye]

Yes... the site you mention is where I found the map for Jeandelain court map I made. Also the map I am currently working on.Very good reading. I would certainly be interested in the French staff map.

[Lieste]

I'll start scanning once I've got the time. I don't have sheet 1 (Ardennes) but this is off the main coverage anyway - only France is detailed.

[sweeteye]

Making some progress on the map.Here is a couple of finished areas.OOpps...missed a bridge...

[sweeteye]

Zoomed out ... Still have a lot of ground to cover...





Have to go over the entire map....rounding the contours...going to take several weeks to finish probably...





......Plus fill in all the details...

[ulisin]

Hi!
 
some progress?
I'm interested in your work.
 
((I think that Stabilizing XII scen isn't suitable for on line games: 8 days, too long!!
But I will play it as soon as possible against AI!))
 
bye

[sweeteye]

Hello ulisin! I am still in the trenches of the map making process.I am almost done rounding off the contour lines,it may take a few more days.It has turned out to be a very tedious process because of the very large size of the map.Have to literally make thousands of mouse clicks to make the contour line look nice.Putting in the extra details should not take too long and will be much more enjoyable.One major hold up is the fact that my eyes cannot take the strain of looking at the computer screen for very long any more.I used to be able to sit for long hours at the screen but I started getting blurry vision from it recently.Now I have to limit my work time on the PC.I will be glad when this map is finished so I can concentrate on making scenarios.I was doing a little reading on the battle for Nancy and it is a ten day battle,also not good for multiplayer. I am planning on resizing the map for for the XII Corps MLR scenario and re setting the units for the scenario,as well as redoing the Omaha beach map and scenario. I may crop the Nancy map into smaller pieces and make some short scenarios.I would also like to try some multiplayer which I think would be challenging and very fun.I have to wonder if anyone uses Skype or TeamSpeak while playing Multiplayer games?I have some extra free time tonight(lady friend is not with me)so I am going to try and get some extra work done on the map.[;)]