[WIP] Molokini Map

[NigMax 10]

[WIP] Molokini Map

This is a work in progress terrain of Molokini Crater, Hawaii, in a 1:1 scale.

Working from a good quality sat, some heightmap data and tourist imagery, I'm attempting to replicate the terrain with great detail.

Google Maps: http://goo.gl/BrnIKa

Sat Map (2048x2048 render): http://i.imgur.com/HaQx9Pe.jpg

all content subject to change

Information:

Molokini is located in the Alalakeiki Channel between the islands of Maui and Kahoʻolawe, Hawaii.

It is a small terrain, the diameter of the crater is roughly 600m, surrounded by waters with a deep outer wall, with an abundance of reef in the centre.

Molokini is a popular scuba/snorkelling tourist destination, and was used by the United States Navy during WW2 for target practice.

This terrain should give plenty new opportunities to make use of the scuba and nautical features of A3 which are generally left untouched.

I also thought about giving the terrain the 2035 militarized A3 makeover, perhaps including some towers, discovered WW2 era unexploded munitions, etc. Would appreciate your opinions on whether to do this.

This is my first time creating a map, so I'm learning as I go. If anyone has any suggestions, do let me know.

I will post progress of the work as I reach milestones, and intend on releasing early versions of the map for testing and feedback when I feel it is ready.

Some things I need help with:

1. Map Config - Any resources on creating the config would be great, the only stuff I can find at the moment if for A2. I have a ghetto rigged config that works from the Stratis config for the moment, but have no idea where to go from here.

2. How large should I make the terrain, and by what scale?

To elaborate.. the crater itself is roughly 600m in diameter. I understand creating missions can be problematic when you need to place items outside the boundaries of the map, so I was thinking of making this a 4096m x 4096m terrain, with Molokini in the centre.

Info:

• I'm using the free version of L3DT for my heightmap, with a 2048x2048 resolution.
  
• The sat image I have is 8192x8192 with a 10 pixel per metre scale. (Molokini takes up majority of the satellite image)
  
• Due to L3DT limits, my heightmap is 2048x2048 with a 2.5 pixel per meter scale respectively.
  
• I am editing the heightmap to match the satellite image.
  
• My normal map will be generated from with L3DT, I will work a mask map based on the satellite image.
  

My intentions:

I would like to retain full quality of the sat image and heightmap if possible. So to achieve a larger map size with detail; once all maps are complete and exported, I can resize the heightmap and normal map from 2048 to 8192 to match the sat/mask maps in size and scale.

Then enlarge the sat/heightmap/mask canvas sizes to 40960x40960 in all directions (so Molokini is in the centre), then fill in the blank borders on each map (to attain 4092m x 4092m terrain size).

Finally, I can then import these maps into Terrain Builder (with a 10 pixel per metre resolution) and apply the relevant mapframe settings.

Conclusion:

Is this a good idea? I believe this scales correctly with the mapframe settings and should work fine.. but will the map be perhaps 'too detailed' and be sluggish?

My computer takes a long time to get a map thrown into a PBO and ready to test, and I've already spent many hours fiddling with the system, any advice on mapframe settings and scaling is much appreciated!

Thanks for all your help and support. I hope to be able to deliver with this map and share the result with the A3 community. :cool:

[NigMax 10]

Early heightmap work in progress:

So far I have worked the low quality heightmap data from this source, to roughly match the terrain above water level.

This should give you an idea of what it will look like:

http://i.imgur.com/4dgAxBn.png (935 kB) http://i.imgur.com/huYtUJ4.jpg (113 kB)

[EO 11277]

Hi NigMax, Looks like an interesting project, wishing you all the best for release.

[A.Cyprus 16]

Hey hey

I'm afraid I can't help much with your questions on the tech aspect of this project but wanted to chime in with some encouragement and say I'm looking forward to the results. Wow, would love to dive on that irl!

Do you have any plans for the topography below sea level? Is there any data available for that?

Your idea on WW2 remnants is spot on.

[NigMax 10]

Hi guys, glad to see there is some interest for this type of terrain!

I first intend on working the above water terrain until its mostly complete - trying to stay true to life, then will work on the underwater surroundings.

I don't think there is any topography data for the seabed, but there are plenty of

videos on youtube from divers and tourists, so I should be able to match this fairly well.

I've already began a nicely detailed mask map of the seabed, and really want to see this detailed enough to provide a fun scuba experience in-game.

[badluckburt 78]

Nice idea. You're right about the diving stuff being ignored, I was planning on doing maybe a few shipwrecks that you could explore on my own map.

Your math's confusing me a bit though so if you don't mind me asking:

You say you want to scale the heightmap up 4 times to 8192x8192 pixels but as I understand it, the 2048 one you're working on right now is true to scale at 2.5 meters which means the area atm is 5120x5120 meters. If you scale that up four times, the 8192x8192 version would be 20480x20480 meters which I think is slightly smaller or as big as the Altis map.

It might not make sense to me because I missed something in your post but I thought I'd ask anyway before you get in too deep and it turns out to be an error in your calculations.

[NigMax 10]

No problem BadLuckBurt, I'll include an extremely crude diagram HERE to explain what I plan on doing.

The idea is to work around the L3DT limits (not able to sink any cash into a license atm), and retain high sat/mask/normal map quality - as the terrain is only small, so would like the terrain to be well detailed.

[badluckburt 78]

Thank you. I think I got it now but now I have a new question: You plan to have the heightfield you import to Terrain Builder at 0.1m per pixel scale? I don't know if the engine would run that much detail.

[NigMax 10]

That was the initial plan, to import in TB at 0.1m per pixel scale. And really that was my main concern - as far as I know, your supposed to be using a 1m per pixel scale minimum, but I was curious if this would actually work.

In either case, I still have high quality source, which I can resize easily to fit different metres per pixel scales.

If you know a better way of sizing up the map, or whether this is even worth doing (the full map size would be the same as the sat map I've linked), let me know. But AFAIK, it would be a good idea to leave plenty of map space surrounding Molokini in order for people to set up missions, etc.

Thanks for everyones responses thus far :)

Edited November 22, 2014 by NigMax
Grammar

[badluckburt 78]

You can give it a try I suppose but I suspect the engine will either crash on load or performance will be very bad.

I believe there's a thread in the Terrain Builder section of the forums where JakeRod mentions you can import several heightmaps as long as they are lined up properly. That would be a way for you to work around the free version's limit. If you stick to 1m per pixel scale, you could fit the island itself on a 1024x1024 and then work on several tiles to place around it. It doesn't look like you'll have many trees on there :D so you might be able to pull off a very large detailed terrain.

My advice would be to run a few tests to see what the balance between performance and detail should be.

[NigMax 10]

Excellent idea - I'll take a look at that. Down-sampling and tiling up everything would definitely be a better way around RAM limits when editing as well as much better performance, so will have to give it a try.

If I can figure out a way to get it to work at 0.1m per pixel, I'll let you know haha

[Tyl3r99 41]

have you asked another map maker? i.e. Icebreakr?

i know he is busy with his own projects but he maybe able to give you a few hints and tips

[NigMax 10]

I'll definitely seek out further help directly if I'm having troubles, I've been lurking and its nice to see so many creators sparing time to help out.

I've yet to pack this map up into a PBO yet, so I've got a few things to try out.

Mostly just looking for guidance in case I'm making any massive noob errors while I work on the source maps. So far it seems I'm all good. I hope