Giant spike of land near Truk

Barkerov · 09-15-17, 04:38 AM

Has anyone else ever seen a tiny speck of land at approx 1520E 8000N which towers above the sea?

propbeanie · 09-15-17, 09:35 AM

Not in my game... Here's a screen grab of a Google Maps page:

that's Truk at the bottom, and Nomwin Atoll at the top, with a red dot just above (North) of your location. I don't know what the scale of the image would be, but I've zoomed all the way in, and find nothing but ocean in Real Life. Then there is the ME map:

of which I somehow cut-off the bottom border that shows that the cursor position was 152.000392 and 8.000064 (the "grab" does not capture the mouse cursor), closely marked with a black dot. The ME map is actually rather accurate for a "game". It is missing some detail, but has a good bit of it. That is "full zoom", btw

In both cases, no landform at all near there... Do you have mods mixed-up maybe? aka: Mod Soup?? If you were off the coast of Japan, south of Tokyo a bit, we might say that you've found Sofu Gan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lot's_Wife_(crag)

Rockin Robbins · 09-15-17, 01:11 PM

A transported Sofu Gan was my first inclination.

Barkerov · 09-16-17, 06:51 AM

I will grab a screenie of it on my way back.
I am using RFB with the improved ship physics mod and TMOplot if that helps.

it seemed to me to be less of an island and more of a ladder to heaven, such was the height

aanker · 09-16-17, 06:57 PM

Yes, a good distance North of Truk at 8° 0' N, 152° 0' E, I have seen a huge spike approx 240y N-S, x 470y E-W, and higher than cameras.dat will let me go. As mentioned above it towers into the heavens forever.

If I zoom my in-game map way in there is a land mass shown at very high resolution.

I suspect it has something to do with the Truk mod that is used in another mod I use (Spyron) although I haven't checked the northern border of Carotio's Truk mod. I do have Ref's Terrain Editor but haven't thought that this one spike is that big a deal to fire that Editor up - I guess it would be a big deal if I sailed into it because this thing is solid (I've checked).

Edit:
Carotio's Truk mod has a Northern border at: E152N008 or 8° 0' N, 152° 0' E. and is used in Spyron, TMO, RSRD, RFB, and more, so that may explain why Barkerov and I have 'the (cool) Spike' using different mods... but I am not saying Carotio's Truk mod has anything to do with it because Truk is south of that. There is a thin sliver of this Tower landmass South of 8° 0' N but that wouldn't explain the un-modded part of the landmass that is North of 8° 0' N.....

[REL] Carotio Truk Corals Harbours Cities Locations
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=138007
(I may have most of the missing graphics someplace)

Actually this tower is pretty cool : )

Happy Hunting!

Armistead · 09-16-17, 09:53 PM

I call it the beanstalk..... I came under mass attack by planes near it and so damaged I couldn't dive so I used it to run circles around until night.

propbeanie · 09-17-17, 07:11 AM

Very interesting... So Barkerov, which mods are you using?

I've seen anomalies in FotRSU when using the Truk Harbor mod, and it's from a bad edit within the 6 pixel border of the edited grid. If something in the one grid is edited within 6 pixels of the edge of a grid, you have to match that in the neighboring grid. I wonder if that's an aberration of that. It'll be after 4pm Eastern before I even think of getting a chance to look at that, but look with GWX Terrain Extractor, and zoom in on the edited file grid in the Data / Terrain / Data / WxxxExxx / grid folder and file... look in the areas along the edge of the picture...

aanker · 09-17-17, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Armistead

I call it the beanstalk.....

Great name, that's what I'll call it too, and I'll probably keep it now rather than edit it out. Nice story about using it to avoid the aircraft buzzing you. lol

After all, there is only one of these 'beanstalk's' that I've ever seen, it doesn't really bother anything except Jap aircraft, and it looks pretty cool too.

Happy Hunting!

Rockin Robbins · 09-17-17, 02:56 PM

We should find a way to incorporate it into FOTRSU.

propbeanie · 09-17-17, 02:59 PM

I'm sorry, I deleted that...

propbeanie · 09-17-17, 04:18 PM

OK, discovery channel time... The Land of the Spike (aka: "SH4 and the Beanstalk":

It took me a while, but I did find my old RFB v1.5, and opening the file for Truk, which there are only two changes in RFB, and they are both for that area. Look closely at the left edge, and you can see about 6 pixels wide of anomalies, up and down that left edge:

Look even closer, in the upper left corner, and if I zoom in on it, you will see this:

This is from the E151N008 sector, and the E152N008 sector has a similar "bump" in the upper left of the file. This is all the further though, that you have to look. I had similar issues doing the Pearl Harbor, and again when doing Osaka Bay, where the RAW format can only "translate" once, and once only. It can also not be temporarily saved to a different format and re-opened the next day or week or ever - no future editing. All of the edits have to be performed in one fell swoop, saved to RAW, and never opened again for editing, but then translated to ZHF (Zero Height Format). The ZHF file system does not like us mere mortals messing with its files in PhotoShop at all... If I get time after FotRSU and CMN mods, I might take that on in a few of the other mods, but in the meantime, will a volunteer please step forward? aanker, you appear to be standing all alone all of a sudden...

aanker · 09-17-17, 05:39 PM

All the major mods use Carotio's Truk mod and most use the Panama Canal mod (did Ref make that?). So, if you fix one you've fixed them all. It wouldn't be a bad idea to post the repaired E152N008 folder in the downloads section.

Please be sure to give Carotio credit for the Truk mod, he said in his Readme to do whatever you want with it but to give him credit for the initial editing of the "Truk Corals Harbours Cities Locations" mod.

I'm surprised that only a few of us have come across the 'beanstalk'. I think I started a Topic here with screenshots asking, and I also recall emailing a couple people asking them to sail to 8° 0' N, 152° 0' E to look for it.

One guy replied but played the Stock game without the Truk mod. Of course now I know why he didn't see it, it wasn't there! At that time most had deleted SH4 and moved on to SH5, and I thought I was the only one with the 'beanstalk' anomaly.... lol

Did you say you had beanstalks at Pearl after you edited it?

Barkerov · 09-17-17, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Very interesting... So Barkerov, which mods are you using?

I am using RFB, RSRDC (For RFB), TMOplot and the Improved Ship Physics mod for RFB.

Now we just need to find out which one of you is responsible for dropping the magic beans overboard?

propbeanie · 09-17-17, 08:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aanker

All the major mods use Carotio's Truk mod and most use the Panama Canal mod (did Ref make that?). So, if you fix one you've fixed them all. It wouldn't be a bad idea to post the repaired E152N008 folder in the downloads section.

Please be sure to give Carotio credit for the Truk mod, he said in his Readme to do whatever you want with it but to give him credit for the initial editing of the "Truk Corals Harbours Cities Locations" mod.

I'm surprised that only a few of us have come across the 'beanstalk'. I think I started a Topic here with screenshots asking, and I also recall emailing a couple people asking them to sail to 8° 0' N, 152° 0' E to look for it.

One guy replied but played the Stock game without the Truk mod. Of course now I know why he didn't see it, it wasn't there! At that time most had deleted SH4 and moved on to SH5, and I thought I was the only one with the 'beanstalk' anomaly.... lol

Did you say you had beanstalks at Pearl after you edited it?

No, no beanstalks, but other "land masses" that were not in the Real World. To do my initial attempts at "dredging" the Pearl (we had LOTS of issues with ships bottoming-out), I would open the already existing folder with Pearl in it, W158N022, convert the ZHF to RAW, edit the RAW file in PhotoShop LE, maybe save it in PSD as an interim format, since I didn't want to take the time to do it all at once (you have to zoom in all the way, and work on one pixel at a time - boring). When I finished the edits that first time, I of course did not take it for a test drive, and posted it for our FotRSU team... ~Then~ I "tested" it... and had to pull the upload immediately, because I ran into a "reef" West of Pearl while I was enroute to Midway. Not cool. Where'd it come from?

So, I did a re-do, and another and another, getting weird "artwork" on the West edge of any sector I edited, unless it was a "fresh" pull and converion... I re-read the GWX team's instructions with their extractor / converter, and kept trying and kept trying, and I would get all sorts of weirdness, with land masses where they shouldn't be, some rather large, but I did not find a brown "beanstalk" - but then again, that particular sector would be in the upper left of the image, so you would have to travel more toward the North side of the remainder of the island chain from Pearl to get to there. Going by the looks of things, there should be one of those where I was showing on the maps in my first reply to Barkerov, but there is probably a 2nd one in there, West and North of Truk, as in the actual 601x601 RAW file in the post above. What I finally did at Pearl was to just "chart" the existing edits, using a grid, and just make the same edits, but with one color darker. I still managed to mess it up, and now I'm wanting to add-in the sub base where it belongs, so same sitch... We also did edits around Truk, eventually just making an all-new file with a slightly different layout, and eliminating the reefs Carotio had, and keeping all of the Anti-Sub nets from FotRS (TMO v1.7)...

It comes down to that ZHF format and the RAW format, and these editing programs not quite getting everything correct. If you export a clean, stock sector, convert it to RAW, do the editing (which for Truk is significant), convert back to ZHF, and leave that alone, no problem. But, if you need to take a break, or say you convert it back and it's not quite right, and you then re-convert that file you'd just made, something goes awry, and even though the file shows as being 601 pixels by 601 pixels in any info fields or "File Open" dialogs, when you click on the open button, the computer will warn you "The file is smaller than stated. Are you sure you wish to continue?". Nervously, you do, checking and double-checking the file, and all looks OK. You do your edits, Save again, convert back to ZHF, "test" what you did, and lo and behold, those weird pixels show up on the borders - every time...

I have not figured out how to "fix" an existing ZHF. What I've had to do to fix the boo-boos that happen, or any desired further edits, is to re-extract the "Stock" sector, and start all over again, never saving until ~ALL~ the edits are finished, then convert back to what SH4 understands (ZHF). I at first thought it was my software, but I've seen, like you have, several other mods with similar issues... Once edited, it's done...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barkerov

I am using RFB, RSRDC (For RFB), TMOplot and the Improved Ship Physics mod for RFB.

Now we just need to find out which one of you is responsible for dropping the magic beans overboard?

I'll double-check and see if RSRDC added any more edits to the Terrain folders Edit: - there aren't - Truk is also in the TMO version of RSRDC with the same "pillar of dirt"...

We'll have to blame Lieutenant William Bligh and Mister Fletcher Christian, and their disagreement with each other, as a contributing factor... No one knows if the bean seeds went on the Bounty, or the ship's launch... but such a tragedy. Jack had traded the beans for a portion of rum... There's also the theory that the beans ended up mixed up with the breadfruits, and fell over accidentally when someone was consuming the breadfruits after the mutiny...

aanker · 09-18-17, 12:29 PM

Thanks for the detailed explanation propbeanie.

My beanstalk is a nice bright off white-cream color. (you know about guys & colors; I think this is because young girls got the 500 color box of crayons while young boys got the box of eight... lol ). I plan to keep the Truk beanstalk. I haven't spotted any near the Panama Canal yet but now I know where to look. It could be way inland and out of sight.

Once I find a decent imaging hosting site I'll re-post my screenshot in my post. I relied on Photobucket too much. I've deleted my images, folders, and accounts from that.

Happy Hunting!

09-15-17, 04:38 AM	#1
Barkerov Soundman Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Australia Posts: 147 Downloads: 42 Uploads: 0	Giant spike of land near Truk Has anyone else ever seen a tiny speck of land at approx 1520E 8000N which towers above the sea?

09-15-17, 09:35 AM	#2
propbeanie CTD - it's not just a job Join Date: May 2016 Location: One hour from Music City USA! Posts: 9,743 Downloads: 439 Uploads: 2	Not in my game... Here's a screen grab of a Google Maps page: that's Truk at the bottom, and Nomwin Atoll at the top, with a red dot just above (North) of your location. I don't know what the scale of the image would be, but I've zoomed all the way in, and find nothing but ocean in Real Life. Then there is the ME map: of which I somehow cut-off the bottom border that shows that the cursor position was 152.000392 and 8.000064 (the "grab" does not capture the mouse cursor), closely marked with a black dot. The ME map is actually rather accurate for a "game". It is missing some detail, but has a good bit of it. That is "full zoom", btw In both cases, no landform at all near there... Do you have mods mixed-up maybe? aka: Mod Soup?? If you were off the coast of Japan, south of Tokyo a bit, we might say that you've found Sofu Gan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lot's_Wife_(crag) __________________ "...and bollocks to the naysayer/s" - Jimbuna

09-15-17, 01:11 PM	#3
Rockin Robbins Navy Seal Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: DeLand, FL Posts: 8,899 Downloads: 135 Uploads: 52	A transported Sofu Gan was my first inclination. __________________ Sub Skipper's Bag of Tricks, Slightly Subnuclear Mk 14 & Cutie, Slightly Subnuclear Deck Gun, EZPlot 2.0, TMOPlot, TMOKeys, SH4CMS

09-16-17, 06:57 PM	#5
aanker Pacific Thunder Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Yellow Sea Posts: 1,896 Downloads: 236 Uploads: 14	Yes, a good distance North of Truk at 8° 0' N, 152° 0' E, I have seen a huge spike approx 240y N-S, x 470y E-W, and higher than cameras.dat will let me go. As mentioned above it towers into the heavens forever. If I zoom my in-game map way in there is a land mass shown at very high resolution. I suspect it has something to do with the Truk mod that is used in another mod I use (Spyron) although I haven't checked the northern border of Carotio's Truk mod. I do have Ref's Terrain Editor but haven't thought that this one spike is that big a deal to fire that Editor up - I guess it would be a big deal if I sailed into it because this thing is solid (I've checked). Edit: Carotio's Truk mod has a Northern border at: E152N008 or 8° 0' N, 152° 0' E. and is used in Spyron, TMO, RSRD, RFB, and more, so that may explain why Barkerov and I have 'the (cool) Spike' using different mods... but I am not saying Carotio's Truk mod has anything to do with it because Truk is south of that. There is a thin sliver of this Tower landmass South of 8° 0' N but that wouldn't explain the un-modded part of the landmass that is North of 8° 0' N..... [REL] Carotio Truk Corals Harbours Cities Locations http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=138007 (I may have most of the missing graphics someplace) Actually this tower is pretty cool : ) Happy Hunting! __________________ " Bless those who serve beneath the deep, Through lonely hours their vigil keep. May peace their mission ever be, Protect each one we ask of thee. Bless those at home who wait and pray, For their return by night and day." Last edited by aanker; 09-16-17 at 08:17 PM. Reason: Trying to spell Carotio correctly : )

09-16-17, 09:53 PM	#6
Armistead Rear Admiral Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: on the Dan Posts: 10,864 Downloads: 364 Uploads: 0	I call it the beanstalk..... I came under mass attack by planes near it and so damaged I couldn't dive so I used it to run circles around until night. __________________ You see my dog don't like people laughing. He gets the crazy idea you're laughing at him. Now if you apologize like I know you're going to, I might convince him that you really didn't mean it.

09-16-17, 06:51 AM	#4
Barkerov Soundman Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Australia Posts: 147 Downloads: 42 Uploads: 0	I will grab a screenie of it on my way back. I am using RFB with the improved ship physics mod and TMOplot if that helps. it seemed to me to be less of an island and more of a ladder to heaven, such was the height

09-17-17, 07:11 AM	#7
propbeanie CTD - it's not just a job Join Date: May 2016 Location: One hour from Music City USA! Posts: 9,743 Downloads: 439 Uploads: 2	Very interesting... So Barkerov, which mods are you using? I've seen anomalies in FotRSU when using the Truk Harbor mod, and it's from a bad edit within the 6 pixel border of the edited grid. If something in the one grid is edited within 6 pixels of the edge of a grid, you have to match that in the neighboring grid. I wonder if that's an aberration of that. It'll be after 4pm Eastern before I even think of getting a chance to look at that, but look with GWX Terrain Extractor, and zoom in on the edited file grid in the Data / Terrain / Data / WxxxExxx / grid folder and file... look in the areas along the edge of the picture... __________________ "...and bollocks to the naysayer/s" - Jimbuna

09-17-17, 02:56 PM	#9
Rockin Robbins Navy Seal Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: DeLand, FL Posts: 8,899 Downloads: 135 Uploads: 52	We should find a way to incorporate it into FOTRSU. __________________ Sub Skipper's Bag of Tricks, Slightly Subnuclear Mk 14 & Cutie, Slightly Subnuclear Deck Gun, EZPlot 2.0, TMOPlot, TMOKeys, SH4CMS

09-17-17, 02:59 PM	#10
propbeanie CTD - it's not just a job Join Date: May 2016 Location: One hour from Music City USA! Posts: 9,743 Downloads: 439 Uploads: 2	I'm sorry, I deleted that... __________________ "...and bollocks to the naysayer/s" - Jimbuna

09-17-17, 04:18 PM	#11
propbeanie CTD - it's not just a job Join Date: May 2016 Location: One hour from Music City USA! Posts: 9,743 Downloads: 439 Uploads: 2	OK, discovery channel time... The Land of the Spike (aka: "SH4 and the Beanstalk": It took me a while, but I did find my old RFB v1.5, and opening the file for Truk, which there are only two changes in RFB, and they are both for that area. Look closely at the left edge, and you can see about 6 pixels wide of anomalies, up and down that left edge: Look even closer, in the upper left corner, and if I zoom in on it, you will see this: This is from the E151N008 sector, and the E152N008 sector has a similar "bump" in the upper left of the file. This is all the further though, that you have to look. I had similar issues doing the Pearl Harbor, and again when doing Osaka Bay, where the RAW format can only "translate" once, and once only. It can also not be temporarily saved to a different format and re-opened the next day or week or ever - no future editing. All of the edits have to be performed in one fell swoop, saved to RAW, and never opened again for editing, but then translated to ZHF (Zero Height Format). The ZHF file system does not like us mere mortals messing with its files in PhotoShop at all... If I get time after FotRSU and CMN mods, I might take that on in a few of the other mods, but in the meantime, will a volunteer please step forward? aanker, you appear to be standing all alone all of a sudden... __________________ "...and bollocks to the naysayer/s" - Jimbuna

09-17-17, 05:39 PM	#12
aanker Pacific Thunder Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Yellow Sea Posts: 1,896 Downloads: 236 Uploads: 14	All the major mods use Carotio's Truk mod and most use the Panama Canal mod (did Ref make that?). So, if you fix one you've fixed them all. It wouldn't be a bad idea to post the repaired E152N008 folder in the downloads section. Please be sure to give Carotio credit for the Truk mod, he said in his Readme to do whatever you want with it but to give him credit for the initial editing of the "Truk Corals Harbours Cities Locations" mod. I'm surprised that only a few of us have come across the 'beanstalk'. I think I started a Topic here with screenshots asking, and I also recall emailing a couple people asking them to sail to 8° 0' N, 152° 0' E to look for it. One guy replied but played the Stock game without the Truk mod. Of course now I know why he didn't see it, it wasn't there! At that time most had deleted SH4 and moved on to SH5, and I thought I was the only one with the 'beanstalk' anomaly.... lol Did you say you had beanstalks at Pearl after you edited it? Last edited by aanker; 09-17-17 at 05:49 PM.

09-18-17, 12:29 PM	#15
aanker Pacific Thunder Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Yellow Sea Posts: 1,896 Downloads: 236 Uploads: 14	Thanks for the detailed explanation propbeanie. My beanstalk is a nice bright off white-cream color. (you know about guys & colors; I think this is because young girls got the 500 color box of crayons while young boys got the box of eight... lol ). I plan to keep the Truk beanstalk. I haven't spotted any near the Panama Canal yet but now I know where to look. It could be way inland and out of sight. Once I find a decent imaging hosting site I'll re-post my screenshot in my post. I relied on Photobucket too much. I've deleted my images, folders, and accounts from that. Happy Hunting!