Creating a Custom Satellite Map, How is it done?

[OChristie 0]

Hello all,

I am looking at creating a custom Satellite Map,

Please, could someone with experience share there techniques,

This topic could also be used as a reference for others.

[mankyle 414]

I have done two islands taking pics from Google Earth

If you take them from 2350 feet ( more or less) you get aproximately 1 meter 1 pixel equivalence, if you are working with 20 meter cells.

I usually don't erase the sea because I can get nice shallow water sat pictures, looks better than putting a monochrome mask.

After I have finished the sat I copy it and add a layer for getting the mask_lco starting from the sat lco.

The two islands I have in my HD look reasonably good.

Edited August 29, 2009 by mankyle
Improving description

[memphisbelle 99]

If you take them from 2350 feet ( more or less) you get aproximately 1 meter 1 pixel equivalence.

Oh really?? Nice to know.

I have either the same advice or another totally different way of creating your own Sat map. First note that the Sat Map has nothings else to do than to represent the surface right below and in the distance of your position. So at the end it´s your decision what you want to see. The only border is your phantasie.

I have also an alternate way of creating a Sat map. It´s also a bit unorthodox (not usual, but working). Just grap the respecting Textures (texturename_detail_co.png (texview2)) and get them on each layer in your Graphic tool, what ever you use. I.e. first layer is the Textute for the whole map (Water and country). The 2nd layer represents the biggest part of Texture on your Island may be a mixture of sand and grass, so grap the respective Texture .png´s and cut all the material off which you dont need. Go on with all the Textures you want to use. Make sure to flatten all layers to one single one and save as png file and at the end you´ve a nice Satmap for your island which has the same color as the Textures, so you have not the mud in the distance.

Currently I am at work, but tomorrow morning (just working in Nightshift) I can uplaod an example.

There are thousands of other possibilities of course. That´s just one of mine.

Edited August 27, 2009 by MemphisBelle

[Thrash 0]

It is also possible to create all the elements directly in Photoshop (or other image editing software) using filters etc... There is no real need to copy/paste/clone from real images. This is the method i use to create the Australia Map. Everything is built in photoshop.

I cant be bothered opening up the sat now (takes 10 miuntes or so), but here is an example of the grass,sand and rocks i have made and use (on the sat). Once you've layered all the roads, buildings, trees etc, it looks pretty good.

Edit: changed image

Edited August 29, 2009 by Thrash

[memphisbelle 99]

As I said, there´re thousands of possibilities. What I´d like to know is how are you using the filters? Are you creating a basic pattern which is used as it in all surfaces or do you create a single pattern for each surface by it´s own. The filters can really be uswed pretty well to change colors and what not.

My method is actually a relict from ArmA1 where the Sat and the texturecolor were different to each other. This problem is no more present in A2, so basically my methos is working, although it´s no more really needed. To explain why I did though you need to knwo that I create a layer of each texture taken from texview and filled the layer with it. So I did for each texture. I did that to recieve the same color as the texture and in A1 it always worked pretty fine. But now I am going to get my Satfiles together with Google Earth, which is pretty more detailed...

[Alliexx 10]

I do have bought that satellite downloader from Allsoft, it does download all you want from google earth. They also sell a tool to download the terrain from google earth terrain, i havent tried that one but i'm really happy with the sat image downloader.

I do have 2 BIG sat pics for whoever wants it, 1 is 450 Mb and the second is 350 Mb.

http://www.allallsoft.com/gsmd/

Ill upload pictures, links will follow in short while.

first: ftp://ftp.fraghaus.com/arma/satpics/campnl.rar

First picture of location of Dutch forces in Afghanistan

second: ftp://ftp.fraghaus.com/arma/satpics/entebbe.rar

Entebbe Airport in Uganda ( Israeli raid to free hostage from Airfrance Hijack )

They are not The best quality, but thats because no higher resolution is available.

Later,

Alphons

Edited August 29, 2009 by Alliexx

[Whiskey Tango 10]

I do have bought that satellite downloader from Allsoft, it does download all you want from google earth. They also sell a tool to download the terrain from google earth terrain, i havent tried that one but i'm really happy with the sat image downloader.

I do have 2 BIG sat pics for whoever wants it, 1 is 450 Mb and the second is 350 Mb.

http://www.allallsoft.com/gsmd/

Ill upload pictures, links will follow in short while.

first: ftp://ftp.fraghaus.com/arma/satpics/campnl.rar

Later,

Alphons

Thanks for the links this is going to be a great help to all us noobie map makers.

[Alliexx 10]

Al Asad Airbase in Iraq Maybe ?

[memphisbelle 99]

Thanks AllieXX for these links, that looks pretty much awesome.

As promised my ressources. The current work is not based on Google Earth Sattelite maps but on a selfcreated one. So I linked my both images for my current project. The Sat file were totaly selfmade, exept the base which just represnts the pisekplaz texture. I think I will change it yet...I´ll see, basically I am still in the "try out" Phase.

Currently I am in progress to create the mask file which takes a bunch of time.

Here are both images:

Sat_lco

Mask_lco (current Status)

I think it´s more fun to create the sat file on it´s own, one has more possibilities and your phantasies is not borderd...

Edited August 30, 2009 by MemphisBelle

[Thrash 0]

For example to make the grass texture, i'll create a layer, render some clouds, add some noise, duplicate the layer and rotate it 180, blend the 2 layers, flatten the image, soften the image, add some more noise etc.... I just keep layering it up until i have the desired effect. Then add colour to it and use it as the grass. If i want sand i'll duplicate the grass layer and flatten the colour right out to sand colour.

If i get time (maybe in november...) i'll make photoshop textures for all the sat elements and upload them. Then you can just create a layer and add the texture to it and it's done.

I find that building the sat up yourself gives you more control over object placement. I'll generally start with a basic island and make a simple sat/mask with just grass, sand and rocks (so i can see what it looks like when placing objects). Then in visitor i'll add all the objects and then go back to the sat/mask and remake them with more detail once all the objects are placed.

Below is an island without any objects, just sand, grass and rock on the sat/mask. note: the rock is crappy looking because it was just a test. You can see the grass and sand look pretty good.

Edit: it took maybe 1 hour of work to get to this stage, starting from completely nothing.

Edited August 31, 2009 by Thrash

[Alliexx 10]

Good morning all,

I posted it once before, it is not all the same but it is usable for starters.

Check this out :

ftp://ftp.fraghaus.com/arma/satpics/VisitorRC3Tutorialprt1.pdf

ftp://ftp.fraghaus.com/arma/satpics/VisitorRC3Tutorialprt2.pdf

ftp://ftp.fraghaus.com/arma/satpics/VisitorRC3Tutorialprt3.pdf

ftp://ftp.fraghaus.com/arma/satpics/VisitorRC3Tutorialprt4.pdf

ftp://ftp.fraghaus.com/arma/satpics/VisitorRC3Tutorialprt5.pdf

ftp://ftp.fraghaus.com/arma/satpics/VisitorRC3Tutorialprt6.pdf

Some parts are not needed anymore (converting PNG to Paa....)

But it still gives u an idea how things are setup and work in Visitor.

Good luck,

Let the islands role in...........

Alphons

The google terrain downloader is actually OK to use, even as unregistered the resolution for terrain is acceptable.

http://www.allallsoft.com/gmtd/index.html

Later,

Edited August 31, 2009 by Alliexx

[Alliexx 10]

It sure does look good there Thrash, thats indeed an idea of making a satellite map.

Which lets me think of something else, you can make a big map just in photoshop or alike and then glue a real sat pic in, or even a couple of real sat pics.

So only some specific places have satellite textures while the vast majority of your island is just a photoshop picture.

Thats what im doing now, making a 50 squar Km map with just the middle part(25X25 KM) as a real satellite picture.

Ill post sample tonight to show you what i mean.

Later,

Alphons

here the pic as promised : http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/1903/mixedpic.jpg

Edited August 31, 2009 by Alliexx

[Alliexx 10]

No higher res to get of this base, still 350 Mb BMP

Here it is, for the one who wants it:

It is about 25 X 25 Km.

ftp://ftp.fraghaus.com/arma/satpics/alasad.rar

Later,

Alphons

Edited August 31, 2009 by Alliexx

[icebreakr 3157]

Thrash: how do you paint it then, as a style and a brush?

[Thrash 0]

Thrash: how do you paint it then, as a style and a brush?

No, i've just got a separate grass file (grass.psd) which is just all grass, i copy it over to any new maps i make. To create it i just open a blank canvas and start playing with the effects and filters. It's basically a big block of grass which i can use on any island.

[Alliexx 10]

Im busy downloading 31000 pictures of google earth, it will be the Okavango Delta, or at least a part of it, in very high def.

Its gonne take me about 4 days to get the complete picture in.

As soon as i have it ill put it up here.

It will be a very very bigone (25 X 25 Km) probably a couple of Gigs.

Any suggestions for a satellite picture ???

Later,

Alphons

ffcckk, the picture will be over 40000 X 40000 pixels ????? WHAT PROGRAM CAN HANDLE THAT ( photoshop max is 30000X30000) hmmm, problem

[Thrash 0]

The Australia map is 40km x 40km, but we've had to use a 2048x2048px height map with a 20m cell size (making the map 40km x 40km, or 1600sqkm).

The sat is 20480x20480 because my pc wouldnt run a 40960x40960 image. It's still a 5-8Gb working file which compresses into a 500mb png once flattened.

The problem is that having a sat which is half the size of the terrain means V3 stretch it out to make it fit, making it less detailed and causing parts to look crappy (ie, the rocks)

If you use 4096x4096px height map with a 10m cell size you'll have issues in V3 where you cant place objects on certain parts of the map...

Anyway, with a map that size, you'll spend the next 10 years of your life making it and you'll have about 2-3 million objects and just to make it not look empty.

If you want to make a 'big' map, use maybe 1024x1024 at 10m (10km x10km map) or 2048x2048 at 10m (20km x 20km). If you havnt made a map before, make it 128x128 x 10m and see how many hours that takes.

Edited September 1, 2009 by Thrash

[icebreakr 3157]

Thrash: ahh so you have a PSD with the grass ... damn that sounds like we're talking about drugs hehehe ;)

I usually use custom brushes to crate proper satimage or at least fix the crappy lowres :) but if anyone has any other tips please share it with us :)

[LJF 0]

Thrash, epic work there mate. I create all my islands the same way, but ... damn is yours awesome looking :D How do you create the heightmap so well? Mine are always pretty much rolling hills. Your rock looks pretty good from afar.

[Chill xl 10]

As i just gone trough the whole process of terrain making, though i'm still learning and have yet to finnish and release my first map, i found the following working method very comfortable.

I use L3DT terrain generator to create my attributes and sat maps. Altough you can use it to create/generate a heightmap aswell, i just use it to edit an imported (existing 1:1 has my preferences) height map. The software creates attributes map based on the heightmap and a climate profile. The climate profile is a set of materials which are applied to the map based on certain parameters. You can specify when a certain material needs to be applied, rocks when the slope of the terrain exceeds a certain ammount for example.

What i basicly do is:

* Import the heightmap and edit if needed (Smooth, add features etc).

* Modify the climate profile untill the right attributes are at the right place (Mountinas, grass, steep grass etc etc).

* Generate the attributes map and edit if necesary (Adding road surfaces, sand, mud etc).

* Generate the textures map, you can edit colors to fit.

* Import in visitor and i use the atributes map as a background and template to place stuff.

* Repeat the above process to match the objects and features placed and designed in visitor. For example, add mud attributes and textures where crop fields are build.

One thing i found very helping was to use the attributes map as a "blue print" for the map. Using this map as a background placing objects accordingly, helped me to avoid just dropping objects randomly on a big map. Hoping to create a believable enviroment.

Edited October 29, 2009 by Chill xl

[spirit6 51]

Hey chill billy,

Incase ya missed it, this might have your interest:

L3DT now includes a GeoTIFF plugin that can be used to import real-world terrain from, for example, the Shuttle Radar Tomography Mission (SRTM). For more information, please refer to this tutorial.

Its on the website of L3DT. As i see you use something else for the heightland, this gives ya the possibilty to use real life terrain and then continue exactly like you say. Hey your method comes close to mine :)

[Chill xl 10]

Tnx m8, that could have saved a little research. I have found my way how to use geotiff's in L3DT, i was using GRASS to convert the geotiff to a png that could be imported. I have found so much heightmaps, DEM (digital elevation models) etc and as many different formats, my latest found was the BT (Binary Terrain) format which i'm using now as my def. terrain model for my map project. This project will cover a 1:1 5km piece of Kauia, one of the Hawaiian Islands, the "tropical" climate will be converted to a taiga / boreal forest "Alaska" like climate.

Edited October 29, 2009 by Chill xl

[eenter 0]

* Import in visitor and i use the atributes map as a background and template to place stuff.

* Repeat the above process to match the objects and features placed and designed in visitor. For example, add mud attributes and textures where crop fields are build.

Can you explain more how to use that atribute map as a background or template?

[binkster 0]

I just tried google satellite maps downloader and I didnt change any settings on how fast to download the sat info. I was banned from google within 5min. Has anyone else expierence this? I wonder how long it will take for them to unban me from the sat images from google maps?

Awesome program though... Once i get unbanned ill change the sleeper to 3sec so hopefully that will work....

[Pvt.Phillip 0]

On 8/28/2009 at 5:47 PM, Thrash said:

It is also possible to create all the elements directly in Photoshop (or other image editing software) using filters etc... There is no real need to copy/paste/clone from real images. This is the method i use to create the Australia Map. Everything is built in photoshop.

I cant be bothered opening up the sat now (takes 10 miuntes or so), but here is an example of the grass,sand and rocks i have made and use (on the sat). Once you've layered all the roads, buildings, trees etc, it looks pretty good.

Edit: changed image

.

Edited December 27, 2018 by Pvt.Phillip
Issues resolved.