Razani, N. Waziristan Map

[TankCommander 3]

Here's what I mean about the blue. Taken at noon just north of the village. If you're seeing it differently, then maybe it could be the monitor you're using.

Was also just checking GE, and was wondering if you could maybe add the same sort of surface variation to your satmap? The part where you can see the water has sculpted the river bed. This way, I think would make it more convincing. It also shows how the river bed isn't smooth, so adjusting the surface value would make sense after all.

[ShadowY 0]

Looking at your second picture I would say that it was caused by HEAVY RAIN and FLOOD and not by a slow river flow like the first pic

I am no expert but I doubt if that is a ordinary river bed ...I think I can see a ruined house and a flooded road

[TankCommander 3]

I'm no expert too heh. At a guess, it could have been formed by a very low level river/stream. Or most likely when the river began to dry up, the water would have been flowing in multiple lanes making it all look like that.

Otherwise I have seen that sort of thing on a smaller scale in the creeks here in Australia.

[miles teg 1]

Personally to me its not a big deal. Doesn't look too blue to me. But its up to Nicholas. If it's an easy thing to fix, I guess it would be a little better to make them slightly greyer. But if its a complicated fix, I don't think that would be worth the hassle.

Chris G.

aka-Miles Teg<GD>

[mr.g-c 6]

I have a "perfect" calibrated monitor here, its a 24bit S-PVA Panel adjusted with a photographers "Spider3 Pro" adjusting device (my Gf is a photographer).

I absolutely agree that the overall sat-image is way way to bright.

Given the fact that the other/previous great map by "Nicholas Bell" was partially also a bit to bright, this might indicate that the creators Monitor calibration might be really off.

Especially problematic i see the big difference between the IMHO correct colored close-textures/clutter and the sat-map. You can see this clearly in the first Picture of "TankCommanders" last post, some posts above this one.

I'm not saying it should be tan or sand color, but just remove a bit of white/blue and add a little bit "tan/sand" color overall - or simply darked it down with PS.

Other than that a really awesome map!!!

I'm really looking forward to a "final" version and playing this only in serious ACE-Mod games....    

[Nicholas Bell 0]

Thanks for posting the images TankCommander.  I will see if I can adjust the streambed color, maybe just a little desaturation will help.  I'm just not seeing blue.   Your image looks totally washed out - and I have  checked it on 2 monitors.  Maybe you should have Mr G-C examine your monitor to see if it is up to his standards

There is nothing wrong with my roads and the AI, unless you think this is too many waypoints:

I created a tank platoon group, changed the vehicles to HMVEEs and let them go.  The only place they had a problem was on the last leg.  When they got close to the switchback they wanted to shortcut and go up the hill.  But otherwise the 4 vehicles stayed on the trail just fine.

Mr. G-C, you don't need to put my name in quotes. It's my real name, not a handle.

I'm sorry that I am unable to please everyone with how I create my satellite maps and textures.  Mr G-C reminds me that some were (or are still) not happy with my Schmalfelden colors.  Given my apparent lack of skill/talent/knowledge of Photoshop, etc, I propose a challenge to anyone who is willing to step up to the plate - publicly of course, like me - and redo/adjust my work to what *they* think is best.  We can post all the versions and have a poll or some such thing.  I will provide the PSD files to those who are interested.  Please don't PM me, let me know here in this thread so everyone knows who is on board.

The PSD file is over 1.2 GB - lots of layers.  I will have to upload groups of layers and you will have to reassemble them.  When complete you can flatten the image and provide a link to me, and I will integrate into the map.

[icebreakr 3157]

Nicholas: we've tested out the map and you're really toast when you're out of air support/transport hopefully there will be a base like FOB Bastion as in Helmand province, Afghan?

[mr.g-c 6]

Hey Nicholas, no need to get feeling "attacked" or "bad criticized" or something similar to that... i'm a big fan of your maps, i really am!

The Quotation marks were used to highlight your name, in no way at all i would question your name or something like that  

I have done that because i already used bold text at a other part in this sentence, so maybe that were wrong characters/style used.

To the "lack of PS skills", "High standards" thing:

Your maps are already above all "map standards" if there are any, so again this was not meant as a questioning of your skills or whatever you might thought it was.

I just thought i'd step-in there because i'm obviously not the only one who thinks the satmaps are to bright - especially the already mentioned high contrast between satmap and detail textures.

Then luckily i am in the fortunate situation to have a proper calibrated monitor with a very good 24" S-PVA panel (i need that for my Job), so the before brought-up response of a possible "non proper configured" monitor on the "complainers/remarkers" side, should be actually non-existent on my side...

To the Schmalfelden question, yes i think it is partially to bright (only the satmap though! ) ... it was a bit "worse" (i hope this sounds not negative) in the very first version/screens, but it got a bit better later.

To the proposed Sat-Map challenge:

I would for instance try to add a tan-colored layer on the very top above all other layers with a very low opacity and/or darken the whole satmap just a little bit down.

If you would tell me how large the final picture/satmap will be that PS/Texview creates of all that layers, then i would give it a try on my end here.

Problem is the very limited upload speed we have here in germany with ADSL...

That said, if it won't be a 1+ Gig file, which would take uploading some day+night for me, the i'd give it a go and try if it can be improve the way i imagine.  

[luki 53]

I could take a look and help out if you upload the raw google sat and object layer emf.

[TankCommander 3]

Hi NC, I don't understand how that image could looked washed out to you. It was taken directly from ingame and then uploaded and posted here.

There always is a degree of mistrust in colours as generally most monitors will show them differently. Especially the old CRT's but I've got (what I believe to be) a decent LCD showing correct colouration. And as mr. g-c said, I'm also a big fan of your map and have already begun creating a very large multi session operation on it. What I was saying before was just a suggestion on changing something that I saw slightly off on my side. And only if it wasn't too much trouble or as long as you may have agreed on it. So no harm no foul

The waypoints you showed are fine. There are still some parts of the asphalt road near the south end that require 4 times as many waypoints. But it might change depending on the vehicle type. I won't comment more till I test it out later.

[Nicholas Bell 0]

I've sent links for the files to Sgt Ace and Mr G-C for their use, and am looking forward to their take on the color issue.

It's a bit frustrating for me, given I cannot fix what I cannot see.  Especially something as subjective as color.  I was reminded by my wife that I am "color blind".  Well, not truly color blind - deficient is perhaps a better term.  Actually "Anomalous Trichromat".  This affects me in daily life in problems distinguishing between similar colors.  Honestly can't see how it is affecting this work, but it must.  Whether regarding this map or Schmalfelden, no one has ever come out and said the colors are "spot on."  So the issue is there - whether I see it or not.

So I appreciate Sgt Ace and Mr G-C willingness to take a stab at something I can't get right.

Quote[/b] ] There are still some parts of the asphalt road near the south end that require 4 times as many waypoints. But it might change depending on the vehicle type. I won't comment more till I test it out later.

Those switchbacks are always going to be a problem.  The vehicles will negotiate them with enough waypoints, but everything goes to hell once the shooting starts.   And wondering out loud about how vehicles handle pathfinding - is there a difference between a group of vehicles where the crew is integral as opposed to an empty vehicle which is driven by a separate unit.  As silly as it sounds, perhaps making the vehicle drivers high ranking officers with super skill levels might make a difference(?).

[opteryx 1562]

Personally when working with low saturation textures I often confuse colors with their neighbours in the color spectrum, I don't know if it's my eye sight or monitor, but it often helps to super-saturate and/or read off the RGB values.

As for AI pathfinding, that's an egine related issue. The AI in ArmA has severe handicaps under certain conditions...

[mr.g-c 6]

Heya Nicholas, i have not yet received a PM from you....

Please hurry as the Forums will be down in approx. 5 hours for the next week....

In this week i have time and can try to play around with it....

Thanks!

[Nicholas Bell 0]

SoLo (member of the Test de Cazzo Clan) has created three very nice planning maps for the current version of Razani.   These jpeg images are created from the ingame map, and are 2268 x 2259 pixels. Useful for mission building, mission map graphics or in-game land nav if you don't hitting the 'm' key  They are of course much sharper than the tiny images below.  Thanks SoLo!

Download the pack here:  Planning Map Pack (15 mb)

[Binkowski 26]

Great work as always Bell! Thank you for the planning maps!

[comarsky 0]

I forgot to say Nicholas Bell my aka, so I would appreciate if Arma community sites would refer to me as SoLo, if they post this news.

Thanks.

[Stewy 1]

Sorry, Nicholas - are the planning maps your Razani maps with no detail?

I love the 'desert wasteland' style maps too. And they're great on frame-rates

[comarsky 0]

Sorry, Nicholas - are the planning maps your Razani maps with no detail?

This are 2D maps created from composed images of the Razani island viewed through the Arma editor (zoomed enough to have some information on the morfology and vegetation).

It's some kind of cartography for mission makers, or anyone interested in the terrain.

[Nicholas Bell 0]

There is no map update at this time - just information where I am in response to inquiries.

I am stuck.

In final testing with squad on squad action the lag around both the old and the new compounds is horrific. It is not noticeable with just a friendly squad following me around. It's as if when the program has to start processing actions required in a firefight, it no longer can handle the load. The hard drive runs constantly at this time, although there are no visible slow loading LODs or textures.

It is apparently not a graphics problem - turned everything down and decreasing the view distance does not help at all. Retesting the squad on squad action with all the buildings and walls removed results in very smooth action. So it appears that there is something in Opteryx's and/or my objects which is gumming up the program - at least with the map in it's current condition. (Note I also tested some demanding missions on my Schmaldfelden XHV just to make sure it wasn't just my computer crapping out on me and there was no problem).

So I need to do some serious fault isolation procedures to determine what object(s) are the culprit. This will unfortunately take even more time.

On the positive side, in the last 2 months I've logged over 100 hours of work on creating new objects and textures, improved the configuration file, improved the ability of the AI to navigate in and out of the qalats (wider openings and AI pathways), improved the sat map and of course added the offending buildings and walls.

Here are images of the blighters.

[Daniel 0]

Amazing work, looks just like photos i've seen of Afghani compounds, especially the angular walls. Good luck sorting the slowdown issue.

[Guest RKSL-Rock]

RE the slow down.

- Are all the objects properly mapped?

- Do you get any errors in the ArmA.RPT

- Are you using RVMAT files on the objects?

I had something similar with our BV Project objects some time ago. it turned out to be a dodgy RVMAT define in a fence object. It seems that the engine just keep trying to load the file no matter what. It went from 50+ fps to about 15 when the objects came into view.

[Nicholas Bell 0]

Thanks for the pointers, Gents. I since I purchased Crazybump, I ah, went crazy with the normal maps and no doubt screwed the pooch on some of the rvmats. And sections, man have I got sections...how'd they get there???..hah! Back to work.....

[Binkowski 26]

Man, I love this map so much. Makes for realistic SF missions. Thanks again NB!

[SD_BOB 10]

Looking fantastic Nicholas, those last two screenies look great.....

The only problem is thats exactly he area i have built my main FOB on :)

Damn you... lol

Guess i'll have to rebuild again. Top marks tho bud.

[mikebart 1]

Wow Nicholas, looks great, im glad you corrected the colours on the buildings, hope you sort out the problems.