32x32km Real Life Map Project: call for inspiration and aid

[ZeroG 23]

Just use an area that has LIDAR Data avalaible in Google Earth. You can get very high resolution ground textures + the 3D LIDAR Data and some detailed 3D Buildings

@Jake_Krieger: Hm...one can download LIDAR elevation data from GE? I have only seen UK elevation data for free so far.. :o How is it done?

@Scarecrow398: Some good pictures you got there. Have you checked the elevation data availability?

@irishpride: The Medford area looks nice because it is surrounded by hills plus features some interesting rock formations (table rocks). It also comes with the rogue river, which one could expand a little and by that give access to larger ships. Tillamook is nice because you have plains, mountains, hills, river, bay and coast.

Edited December 14, 2013 by ZeroG

[irishpride 11]

@irishpride: The Medford area looks nice because it is surrounded by hills plus features some interesting rock formations (table rocks). It also comes with the rogue river, which one could expand a little and by that give access to larger ships. Tillamook is nice because you have plains, mountains, hills, river, bay and coast.

Me and my family used to go camping along rogue river all the time, it would be awesome to go swim in the river on ArmA 3 haha

[marksinnerdemon 11]

You know due to it being a conflict Iran getting it's neighbor such as Kuwait (not a huge area) with it's not so famus Failaka Island. Which I thought about making due it's size and my visits there (got some friends who can take photos etc). The problem I have is I haven't found a really good non disjointed, up to date teaching system that really helped me start building.

Several of the captives held in extrajudicial detention in Guantanamo faced the allegation that their name had been found on a list recovered from a hard drive of a computer of an al Qaeda terrorist suspected of involvement with an October 2002 attack on US Marines stationed on Faylaka Island.[21][22][23][24][25] The Marines were training with blank ammunition when two terrorists drove by and fired AK47 rifles, killing one Marine and wounding another. Several Marines responded by killing the two attackers with pistols that were on hand for security.[26]

Also there is Turkey which is neighbors of Greece, constantly in dispute with each other over Island ownership, and a logical conduit for Iran for logistical transportation. Any of the islands off the Coast of Turkey would suit the story line, assist in people making a wider more detailed campaign, and further allow the Arma 3 fan to expand the story from the campaign.

[ZeroG 23]

You know due to it being a conflict Iran getting it's neighbor such as Kuwait (not a huge area) with it's not so famus Failaka Island. Which I thought about making due it's size and my visits there (got some friends who can take photos etc). The problem I have is I haven't found a really good non disjointed, up to date teaching system that really helped me start building.

Hm...by looking at the island in Google Maps Terrain, the island looks quite "boring" ie. not that many interesting terrain features seem to be there. Immersion on an such an island would just come up through object placement...

[Fogu 10]

what about central african republic :D

[ZeroG 23]

what about central african republic :D

What about highres elevation data :rolleyes:

[biggibs 0]

10m dem not good enough then? :)

[bushlurker 46]

10m C.A.R. data???? where??? :confused: :):bounce3:

B

[irishpride 11]

10m C.A.R. data???? where??? :confused: :):bounce3:

B

EXACTLY my thoughts haha (maybe he works for the C.I.A. or something :eek::cool: lol)

[scarecrow398 43]

@Scarecrow398: Some good pictures you got there. Have you checked the elevation data availability?

I'm pretty sure 99% of Australia is covered by most programs/google earth plugins, if you want higher res stuff you'll probably have to contact the respective local governments, In this case Geoscience Australia

[marksinnerdemon 11]

I have some videos of the island. Yes it isn't very reliefed like Altis, but there are substantial dune scapes, and terrain variation enough to block large vehicles and tanks. I have some photos and stuff, but yes buildings would be more key.

[ZeroG 23]

As we see you guys have a lot of different good ideas located around the world, while we obvisouly lack highres elevation data in most cases :)

What do think of a world package with several real life locations in it that don't have that much detail and thus are more suited for helicopter & plane missions/campaigns?

I think of recreating popular games like Gunship or Strike Commander with this set. Furthermore, these raw islands could be open source so that anyone with the will to enhance them for infantry combat could do it...

Edited December 15, 2013 by ZeroG

[scarecrow398 43]

As we see you guys have a lot of different good ideas located around the world, while we obvisouly lack highres elevation data in most cases :)

What do think of a world package with several real life locations in it that don't have that much detail and thus are more suited for helicopter & plane missions/campaigns?

I think of recreating popular games like Gunship or Strike Commander with this set. Furthermore, these raw islands could be open source so that anyone with the will to enhance them for infantry combat could do it...

To be honest, I would rather a moderate sized fictional island that uses a combination of the locations or at least elements of the above mentioned locations with a decent amount of detail on the ground allowing some nice combined arms use than a large low detail island without any objects/details.

Particularly when currently if you include 3rd party addons we only have 2-3 fighter aircraft in Arma...

[zodd 14]

I would like to add another vote for Australia...

pastor399 mentioned outback Australia and Scarecrow398's post touched on the north too...

I think northern Queensland would be a good option - There are areas where the 'rainforest meets the reef' and around the cane farms it can go from jungle in the mountains, to cane fields and farmland on the flat to good old Aussie bush.

Overviews

http://www.qhatlas.com.au/sites/default/files/images/Cane%20fields%20and%20Pyramid%201954.preview.JPG

http://www.starfieldobservatory.com/MapletonTramway/aerials/12a.jpg

Mountains (Not quite jungle but you get the picture)

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4034/4391856140_bdc416ee6a_b.jpg

Which lead into flatter terrain

http://blog.queensland.com/files/2012/05/Central-Queensland-lakes.jpg

Some scrub down low, mainly along the water lines

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CXukRTVLdPQ/T-MADIuYGwI/AAAAAAAABW4/SLwME9qetFE/s1600/australia+etc+2012-+Cape+York+2+048.jpg

Cane farms are big - Built up areas without being full MOUT

http://www.rawfish.com.au/images/queensland-sugar-cane-farmers-australian-made1.JPG

http://econews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/sugar-cane-farms-queensland.jpg

Extremely restricted visibility and movement, even to dismounts when fully grown -

http://resources0.news.com.au/images/2013/06/17/1226664/809880-44e36914-d6cc-11e2-ab0c-29cd98e6adfc.jpg

Much more open early in the season

http://static2.bigstockphoto.com/thumbs/2/2/9/large2/922940.jpg

(Unsure how difficult it would be to create two versions of the map - wet season and dry season one? But would REALLY mean weather/season affects gameplay)

A quick duck into 'town'

http://www.gdaypubs.com.au/images/photos/large/towns_44907.jpg

Sparser vegetation out further

http://metroworld.com.au/images/property/487/7030.jpg

Leading into the desert

http://blog.toyotires.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Image-3.jpg

https://www.hemamaps.com.au/en/Explore/4WD-and-Touring-Information/Location-Profiles/~/media/979B9DBEE17547129B2E9656DADA367B.ashx

And on the coast - the reef!

http://reefcatchments.com.au/files/2012/12/DSC01164-1024x684.jpg

Now those pictures are taken from all over but gives a bit of an idea the terrain that can be within reasonably close proximity. Allows you to incorporate all aspects too; naval/diving off the coast, a dirt strip runway and you are good to go.

[biggibs 0]

hardly lol

and no cant get every area at that res!

friend in satnav/gps,tracking company

that's all im saying

[eduzumaki 12]

Hi I'm thinking about Caribbean islands it's a nice place so beautiful and you can have combined arms imagine flying with the chopper over a hill and that amazing blue ocean data i think won't be a trouble many people travel there and you can use their pictures and Google earth helps too well that's my idea .

[p1nga 23]

I would like to add another vote for Australia...

pastor399 mentioned outback Australia and Scarecrow398's post touched on the north too...

I think northern Queensland would be a good option - There are areas where the 'rainforest meets the reef' and around the cane farms it can go from jungle in the mountains, to cane fields and farmland on the flat to good old Aussie bush.

Overviews

I was looking around the east coast of QLD for some good area's i got some 10m DEM files for the 'Cook Shire' as an example http://goo.gl/maps/5ULjN

Converted the Shapefile to a .xyz and put in in L3DT, had some good detail in the terrain.

[AlexWIWA 10]

St George, Utah. It is extremely unique and I can get you photos of whatever you need. It also has two airports.

Edit: Just checked earthexplorer.usgs.gov

High res for this area DOES exist. Look up some photos of snow canyon state park. I promise you will want to do it here.

Edited December 17, 2013 by AlexWIWA

[OChristie 0]

A good shout will be an island because developing terrains with multi-purpose rolls is what it is all about. I would recommend the Pacific because of the data available for them. The closer to the US the better as they have Ultra High Resolution Datasets for the entirety of the continental US and its outlying islands. For example, a pacific Island is a good choice because the US NOAA has hydrographic 5m elevation data for most of the US territories in the pacific. That also means there will be some 0.25cm Imagery available most probably. Obviously from that you can trace your shapefiles etc! :)

Edit: Hydrographic DEM means that there is elevation data for the sea bed, which comes in handy when you are making an Island with a pesky coast.

Edited December 19, 2013 by OChristie

[irishpride 11]

A good shout will be an island because developing terrains with multi-purpose rolls is what it is all about. I would recommend the Pacific because of the data available for them. The closer to the US the better as they have Ultra High Resolution Datasets for the entirety of the continental US and its outlying islands. For example, a pacific Island is a good choice because the US NOAA has hydrographic 5m elevation data for most of the US territories in the pacific. That also means there will be some 0.25cm Imagery available most probably. Obviously from that you can trace your shapefiles etc! :)

I'm actually working on that now :) i wanted to do wake isalnd, but i can't find any High RES Data for it, maybe the island is tooo small or something? lol

And also, a quick question, what would be the BEST data to get? i know there are different kinds like USGS, ERSDAC, CGIAR, Spot Image, SRTM, ASTER?

[OChristie 0]

The best data would be a DTM (Digital Terrain Model) they are usually around 5 meter post spacing which means that every data point gathered is 5m apart, giving a very accurate representation of the land mass in question. With all data the newer the better depending on what the purpose of the project is.

USGS is the United States Geographical Service or something similar they manage data for organisations and 3rd parties they also manage the National Map, which is really one of the best sources out there. Find it here: http://nationalmap.gov/

When it comes to the 'best data' you would be looking for the better quality.

Example:

Elevation of 5mps and Imagery of 0.25cm per pixel. From this source data, albeit massive and very resource heavy, would be ideal for any base project that requires a non-ai infantry presence.

The reason I suggested a US territory is because 99.98% of the US is Digitally available and the usage restrictions are very sparse.

[irishpride 11]

The best data would be a DTM (Digital Terrain Model) they are usually around 5 meter post spacing which means that every data point gathered is 5m apart, giving a very accurate representation of the land mass in question. With all data the newer the better depending on what the purpose of the project is.

USGS is the United States Geographical Service or something similar they manage data for organisations and 3rd parties they also manage the National Map, which is really one of the best sources out there. Find it here: http://nationalmap.gov/

When it comes to the 'best data' you would be looking for the better quality.

Example:

Elevation of 5mps and Imagery of 0.25cm per pixel. From this source data, albeit massive and very resource heavy, would be ideal for any base project that requires a non-ai infantry presence.

The reason I suggested a US territory is because 99.98% of the US is Digitally available and the usage restrictions are very sparse.

United States Geological Survey, my dad has actually done some work for them haha

[ZeroG 23]

Indeed, these so called bathymetry datasets give a beautiful coastline. I also used this for Tillamook. Unluckily, for the rest of world, it comes in low resoultion (GEBCO GRID)

http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/dem/squareCellGrid/download/634 <== this is where you wanna look for WAKE. There's also Midway, Hawaii and Guam. As I know they are working on several islands, I advise you to contact the Hell in the Pacific mod team to avoid double work.

[OChristie 0]

United States Geological Survey, my dad has actually done some work for them haha

Thats the one! :) I must confess I have created Wake Island before for VBS2 but im going to redo it now because its lovely!

Edit: I miss making terrains for the ArmA community! I used to love the feedback. Not until the new tools come out! :D

Edited December 20, 2013 by OChristie

[RSF TheCapulet 59]

What about Haiti? It has both dense urban areas (with lots of similar building types making it easier for modellers), and lots of rough wilderness and mountains. Plenty of beautiful coastline, and one bit that a cruise ship company owns. It even has some old french castles still in a dormant yet perpetually armed state (the one I'm thinking of specifically still has the cannons pointed to sea and piles of iron balls beside them all) Most major rivers are dry outside of a single week in spring (due to the massive scale of deforestation that's taken place over the years) making it suitable for the RV engine's limitations. And it's been kind of a hotspot for private military companies and humanitarian aid, paving the way for a very plausible flashpoint setting.