Real-World Maps

[tws71669]

Okay, here is a few screenshots (BETA...totally BETA) of the sat. imagery I have been digitizing.
(Now the files are correctly uploaded sorry bout that)

The first is a section just southwest of Downtown Bagdhad. Rather suburban... and greatly reduced in resolution for the sake of posting a web-file in this forum. The original data file with its elevations rastered was 26,000x36,000 pixels but I still wanted to submit this for everyone's criticsim, advice, directions....


The second is Grozny... I think someone asked for just such a thing.

[Ivan Rapkinov]

what scale are you going too?

I have tactical pilotage maps of Groznyy and Ulus-Kert/Argun Gorge, but to my mind they're a bit too large a scale.

I was thinking of converting my SP:MBT Groznyy map to POA-2, given both are in hexes.

[Dr Zaius]

Okay, here is a few screenshots (BETA...totally BETA) of the sat. imagery I have been digitizing.
(Now the files are correctly uploaded sorry bout that)

The first is a section just southwest of Downtown Bagdhad. Rather suburban... and greatly reduced in resolution for the sake of posting a web-file in this forum. The original data file with its elevations rastered was 26,000x36,000 pixels but I still wanted to submit this for everyone's criticsim, advice, directions....


The second is Grozny... I think someone asked for just such a thing.
I'm not sure how we are going to be able to use these as they have no contour lines. I can't, of course, bacause I can't actually see the full image, but I guessing that it may be difficult to tell what's what when looking at these type of maps. Shaded topograpic maps with contour lines are one thing, but these almost look like satellite photos.

Perhaps I'm just being anrrow minded. How exactly did you plan to use these?

[tws71669]

I'm not sure how we are going to be able to use these as they have no contour lines. I can't, of course, bacause I can't actually see the full image, but I guessing that it may be difficult to tell what's what when looking at these type of maps. Shaded topograpic maps with contour lines are one thing, but these almost look like satellite photos.

Perhaps I'm just being anrrow minded. How exactly did you plan to use these?


It sounds like what I will have to do is convert these to topographic format with contour lines... then create .bmp's for these which can be manually entered for elevations in ADC2. Taking recent sat photos and contouring them into topographic format would be the goal. Maybe the final product should resemble the maps you might have seen in operation flashpoint. I'm still understanding what the final product should look like myself and this is still experimentation.

Thanks,
-T

[Dr Zaius]

I have some juicey 1:25,000 and 1:50,000 maps that I will be posting on our website soon. I have been doing a little research online and it is going to be even more difficult to get these than I originally thought. I do have some good ones, but the really useful ones (like Iraq) are terribly exspensive and difficult to get.

There are a large number of Soviet topographic maps available, however, many of these are only sold as packages. Afghanistan, for example, is available from omnimap.com, but the entire set goes for $81,000 dollars. Ouch! That's abit more than I planned to spent just now...

It's a lot easier to get USGS topographic maps for the USA. You can get anything you need for $6-8 per map sheet. That's not bad if you know what you want. USGS also does topographic maps for the whole world, such as the military uses, but I yet to find a source that will sell these.

Topo maps are available for most of Europe as well at around $10-20 per map sheet. See an trend here? The areas where conflict are likely to occur (Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Pakistan) are quite difficult to get anything as small as 1:25,000. Omnimap does sell topo maps for Iran at good scales, so if anyone is interested in doing an Iranian scenario we can get good maps for this. These are also available for instant download over the internet (they're a little pricey). I have not found maps of this scale for Iraq though.

I could kick myself. I had most of the map for Iraq in 1:50,000 when I was there for the war, but I only brought the 1:500,000s home with me. I knew I should have kept them all!

[Ivan Rapkinov]

might be easier to get DEMs (read: cheaper) and convert them back to rasters. I can't justify spending $x00 on a game when I already have the info in a different format :/

[Double Deuce]

Not sure I can really help here but back in 1985 while stationed in Europe as a tank commander I came into possession of an entire REFORGER US Military map set. The stack is about 1" think and if I recall they cover the entire area of central West Germany from France to East Germany. They are standard US military 1:50,000 maps. I am not sure what maps are there since it has been years since I have even looked at them but I will dig them out and see.

I may need some tips on scanning if they could be of use should the time come so you guys can use them.

[Dr Zaius]

Let us know what you have avaiable. 1:50,000 should work fine, although 1:25,000 is probably best.

Thanks! :thumup:

[tws71669]

Not sure I can really help here but back in 1985 while stationed in Europe as a tank commander I came into possession of an entire REFORGER US Military map set. The stack is about 1" think and if I recall they cover the entire area of central West Germany from France to East Germany. They are standard US military 1:50,000 maps. I am not sure what maps are there since it has been years since I have even looked at them but I will dig them out and see.

I may need some tips on scanning if they could be of use should the time come so you guys can use them.

Tips on scanning heh? well, you could mail them to meeee and I will gladly take on the burdonsome, tiring task of reproducing them 8)
Seriously, anyting 1200dpi has worked well for me. I take contoured maps and rasterize them a lot, then use them for navigation in my pocket-pc. Very good resolution with color 1200 dpi. Anything less and it's hard for some software to correctly translate the map into a good image.

[Combatengineer]

I have sources for Korean 1:50000 and maybe 1:25000 for limited areas. lots of 1:100000 great for DA but not for POA-2.

John