Mappers: I'm looking for a pilot project
EDIT: Thanks for the response. I'll leave this up for now but it looks like I've got a project to work on. In the mean time, I recommend you have a look at bdh's tutorial on terrain modeling.
Lots of mapping activity going on here lately. Nice. A while back I had a thread here about incorporating Digital elevation models into RTW. I've gone just about as far as I want to with that and I'm quite content with the results. Point is, I've no intention of doing all aspects of mapping. Just the one:terrain modelling. So, I'm looking for a pilot project. If there's anyone out there who likes to do the historical part of mapping for instance (essentially the descr_strat and regions TGA) but isn't comfortable with the geology (notably the hgt and features and part of the ground-types in mountainous areas) plz contact me. I've just joined the NTO and in that capacity anyone with interest might "sub-contract" me. Apart from that I won't be claiming a share of the credits, if that's a concern. In any case, perhaps you just think "why bother" anyway.
Features:
- real world DTM, AFAIK no distortion (direct to height.HGT, not via tga) on the battle map. The lack of vertical exaggeration on the is compensated on the campaign map by the use of "High Mountain" ground type)
- many more rivers included and some mountain ranges (the original left quite a few out)
- passes at altitude, no artificial canyons. Roads are "paths of least resistance" in the game world, but can be forced to respect historical realities such as fords and bridges.
- DTM adjusted to allow rivers to run true even on low resolution maps. Again, no artificial canyons.
In all nothing that can't be done by anybody else given enough time and patience. Which I don't really have. Most of this is done by global transformations, which means that the amount of work and time is as good as independent of the map size and resolution.
Some Images of changed geology in RWT/BI below. Remember, this is built around the original descr_strat file mostly by global transformations. A finished product would require some editing by hand. Not too much though. If I find the time to play-test it I'll update the screens in this post.
Pass at Vindelicorum: the original "canyon" in Vanilla
Based on the DTM:
This is what the Alps now look like on the Campaign map:
The Caucasus in Vanilla:
Same after including a DTM:
Looks better up close I think +view of a pass:
Orignal battlemap near Artaxarta (actually the nicest view I managed)
The same place after including the DTM:The mountain range on the right (North of artaxarta) didn't exist in the original
So, what do you think? Worth the trouble? Feel free to comment criticise and/or laugh out loud.
MZR
And a special thanks to Alpaca and BDH for constructive criticism and comments on earlier versions.
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