[REL] Sh4 Tracking Room GIS maps for OM

[GlobalExplorer]

This is a revised edition of a project I began almost two years ago but never finished, at the time due to my lack of interest in Silent Hunter.

Thanks to lurker_hbls excellent work on OM back I got again interested in Silent Hunter and could finally put the finishing touches to this.

Basically, I use a modified version of the Sh3Gen campaign interpreter to automatically generate intelligence maps, very similar to what I did with Sh3Gen Tracking Room. But here I release only the finished maps, not the program to create them. So in contrast to Sh3Gen, it's totally easy to use. All you need before you can open the map installation of the free TatukGIS viewer (included in the Tracking Room Download or separately here). This represents all the progress I have made after the Sh3 Tracking Room was finished and before I abandoned Silent Hunter for a long time.

The maps were all generated automatically for the OM campaign. There are 7 maps which give information for every year from 1939-1945. No randomization was applied, so unlike Sh3Gen the information is reliable! However, if there is interest, randomization and other things could be done at a later date.

While this release is for OM, I will also make a version for other campaigns, especially a Pacific version. I also think future releases may come with a map for every quarter or even every month of every year of the war.

It would be very helpful if some of you try the maps and give suggestions about their usefulness, from my point of view they are already in a state to release them.

There are some oddities, for instance all British bases are in fact American, but this has more to do with the campaign data. I did see no reason to change it.

If there is interest, I will try to collect ideas and see if they can be incorporated.

Instructions follow. Screenshots in a minute.

[MAP LAYERS]

artillery (coastal batteries)
anti_aircraft
docked ships (approximate or detailed)

minefields
subnets

patrols (coastal asw)
coastal traffic

Traffic layers, show only areas of activity (so this is no spysat information!)

merchants
asw
navy

geographic locations
major locations
minor locations

gshhs_h shorelines
bathymetry

[DOWNLOAD]

Tracking Room Maps [15.8 mb]
GIS Viewer [4.6 mb]

[INSTALLATION]

1.) Install the TatukGIS Viewer
TatukGIS_VWR_1_13_1_370_NOHELP.exe (included in the download)
you could also get a more recent version from http://www.tatukgis.com

2.) Open maps
the maps are in folder \\SH4 Tracking Room
there you find one folder for every year, for example OM_1940_.. is for 1940
in each folder you find a file "Sh3Gen Tracking Room.TTKGP"
either: double click this file and it will open in the viewer (file association required)
or
you can also start the Viewer first and then open the file (Sh3Gen Tracking Room.TTKGP)

[TATUKGIS VIEWER]

The TatukGIS viewer is a free GIS viewer.

On the right side you see a layer panel.
Use it to check/uncheck layers. names should be mostly self explaining.

Click on the "hand" symbol to drag the map

Use the mouse wheel to scroll

[SCREENSHOTS]

All information enabled:



Global view with most layers enabled



Minefields



Zoomed view on Coastal Traffic and Patrol zones



Detailed view of harbor defenses (Scapa Flow)



Allied and Axis ASW concentrations:



Concentrations of Allied Merchant traffic:



Concentration of Allied naval units (warships):