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meshcarver

Adapting real life island size..?

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Hi guys,

Very noob question here.

I'm starting to think about what terrain I'll be using for my Stalker based map, and as I'm going down the realism and island route, I sort of settled on the Welsh isle of Anglesey as a starting point.

It has an amazing "lay of the land" with mountains, hills, plains, shrub lands, marshes and forests etc. With a few adaptations, it seems an ideal candidate for an Eastern European Stalkerish environment to start from.

But, at 714km squared, it's way too big I think, as I am planning to do a Chernarus sized map which is about 225km squared I believe.

What I wanted to ask is, is there an "easy" method for cropping the island so it'll fit into a block of say 15*15kms, like Chernarus?

Bear in mind I'll be using the method of getting the topographical real life data too.

It seems a shame to change the size, but I think as it is, it'd just be too large? What are your (experienced) thoughts on this too please?

Is an alternative being able to edit actual real life data? Say if I got the topographical data for a completely landlocked area, could I edit the outer edges so it turns it into an island?

Thanks guys...

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I would get the DEM and then literally scale it down to fit into your map size, and then readjust the heights once in L3DT or whatever program you use, to bring them back to the original heights, or as close as you can within reason. I understand your reasoning on this, it's a cool little island, I think you'd do well with it as a good starting point.

Also, you can change the edges, you can bring all that data into L3DT and then with the tools, you can drop off the edges and create some nice coastline... it#s totally do-able... I don't even mind giving you a bit of practical help on that.

D

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Wow, that's a great answer and well explained mate thanks..!

It's excellent to know it's doable, as that's a big relief as I thought I'd be searching for months for an ideal sized island.

All this won't be for quite some time daringd, as I'm methodically going through object/building creation right now, and once they're done then I'll start on the terrain properly.

Until then I'll carry on checking your thread for updates as it's a great source of information! ;)

Thanks for the offer of help too, it's good to know there's some teachers out there..!

Also, if I did scale it down what would happen in regards road placement? I mean like are the roads already taken into account in the DEM, or do I place them completely separately later so it isn't a problem?

Would the towns be sort of closer together too? I assume so, but it's not a problem as I'll just be using them as a rough placement guidevfor my buildings?

Ahhh, is quite hard to explain what I mean lol...

I'm utterly inexperienced at this part, so am coming in blind mate...

Edited by meanmachine1

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welsh isle of anglesey? Sounds like a real nice area for a map having been there personaly myself! Cant wait too see what it looks like ingame, providing resizing doesnt just squish the entire landscape. Good Luck and look forward to seeing it.

I do believe there is a way of resizing a DEM without distortion, but i also believe this will make the terrains "towns" closer toegther, but over the size of terrain this shouldnt make too much of a difference. I hope anyways!

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Aye, good points Kroni, does anyone else have any input about possible repercusions of scaling down a DEM/island please?

Edited by meanmachine1

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The roads need to be placed after and without any regard for DEM data, they are a separate entity! Got to run to work, but I'll edit up this post later and fill it out with more info!

D

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Thanks very much for the elaboration daringd..!

I very much look forward to the other info aswell, it's such a help knowing some of these things in advance mate...

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Hi again,

Does anyone think scaling down a DEM data terrain before adding roads/buildings etc will cause any obvious problems?

For instance, I don't know how it works, but would it mean (if I scale down say 50%) that each field or farmland area would be 50% smaller, or do I "draw in" fields etc myself futher into development?

Basically, is DEM data simply height data and not individual fields/built up areas and landmarks, I add all those later where I see fit?

I hope I explained this question well..!

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The DEM or the hieght map is literally just that, it just has the data to give your terrain the same shape (hills and vallezs and what not) it contains no other information at all. The major changes would come when you add you sat map, because you are going to have to basically edit all of the sat images, sew them together, take out all of the shadows,b uildings roads etc... and at that point you can probably start to bring things into order, for instance, clone brushing four fields into one field, maybe altering lake and hill sizes a little, things like that, to try and get things feeling right within the terrain...

Hope that answers your question a little!

D

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Hi daringd,

That's another spot on concise answer mate cheers!

It goes futher and clears up a few other things in my head too, like the fact that it seems you can place ANY combination of sat images onto the DEM... Good to know, thank you once again!

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