[WIP] The SH5 EcoMod

[gap]

Originally Posted by bstanko6

testing completed with your numbers and it is exactly the same, or at least no change.

Tested all Gap testing missions with all seasons - successful.

Changed weather, for more ship movement, and sighted no black lines - successful.

Looks great, and I will just keep your new numbers for the Eco patch. Good Job friend.

Originally Posted by bstanko6

Thank Gap! He has nice work. I was privileged to help test. It’s a fantastic mod. I have never been one about harbors or the way they looked before, but leaving the harbor and seeing these real trees looks really incredible! And the proper seasonal colors makes it even better!

Good job bstanko6, the privilege is mine

Originally Posted by Sjizzle

gap my good old m8 u are still doing really amazing jobs with graphics and many more... keep up the good works cheers m8

Sjizzle matey, thank you for the encouragement, I am glad to see you around. Let's keep in touch

Originally Posted by Jeff-Groves

Nice work Guys!

Thank you Jeff. This afternoon I played a bit with the height maps available (as data previews) on the 30-Meter SRTM Tile Downloader website. As I said in one of my previous post, each preview has a size of 3601 x 3601 pixels, thus offering the full data resolution of one arcsecond stored in the hgt files.

The image below, is the (scaled down) combination of two tiles relative to the western coast of Jutland:



Each tile preview used its own grey/height scale, so I had to match them by modifying their tone curves, making their lowest point (= the sea level) black, and reducing the contrast of the tile having the narrower height range. Performing the latter task based on numbers was easy, as OldCoder's exe reports for us the highest point of each tile. Note that the same can be done directly with just one command, using OldCoder excutable, though, due to its high "stepping factor" data exported from it has a too low planar resolution (exactly one third of the original resolution).

The next step, was creating an overlay which will help me locating the small SH5 tiles on each big STRM tile:



With the help of that overlay, selecting only the portion of map we desire, copying it into a new file and scaling it to the desired size of 101 x 101 pixels is quite easy. Then we can save it to the PGM format pointed out by OldCoder (for that task, I have found a good Portable PixMap Importer Exporter).

From there, converting 0-255 values in actual heights (using the conversion factor we had calculated before) and importing them into the obj file like the one exported/imported by you OBJ-RAW converter, it's a short road. There is a problem though.

At first, I had underestimated the effects of poor vertical resolution. You will understand better from the following pictures, where I have marked the zeroes (= black = sea level) in blue:



If you compare it with a satellite view of the same area, you will easily spot the problem:



The height approximation caused by having only 256 height levels, would cause beaches and lowlands to literally disappear below the sea. Useful for previewing the future disasters of the greenhouse effect, but not for our game.

Of course I could adjust those areas manually, but still, having a proper hgt exporter would greatly ease / speed-up our work on the game map

[Seaowl]

Altought there are troubles

the project looks great so far !



Due to lack of insight, I can´t be much of a help.

But I found this blog: https://www.sigterritoires.fr/index....hic-with-qgis/

There SRTM-data are used together with QGIS:
https://www.qgis.org/en/site/

Perhaps there is some useful information....

[gap]

Originally Posted by Seaowl

Altought there are troubles

the project looks great so far !



Due to lack of insight, I can´t be much of a help.

But I found this blog: https://www.sigterritoires.fr/index....hic-with-qgis/

There SRTM-data are used together with QGIS:
https://www.qgis.org/en/site/

Perhaps there is some useful information....

Good point! I will install QGIS and see if it can export height data in a format that can be easily imported in an obj file

[gap]

Interesting web page:

https://gisgeography.com/free-global-dem-data-sources/

According to it, the most accurate world height data is offered by the Japanese Space Agency with the denomination of ALOS Global Digital Surface Model "ALOS World 3D - 30m (AW3D30)"

This is the main website of the project:

https://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/ALOS/en/aw3d30/index.htm

According to it, the data they provide is in GeoTIFF format, but a link to a script based on GDAL technology is also provided for conversion from GeoTIFF to the SRTM HGT format that by now we are more accustomed to.

Last note: for downloading their data registration is required. I applied for it, but I still haven't received any activation e-mail...

EDIT: I have just found another website that offers 1", 3" and 15" word height data, with a coverage that includes zones not covered by other data sets:

http://viewfinderpanoramas.org/dem3.html#images

Download from it doesn't require any registration, and data offere is in the usual HGT format

[Jeff-Groves]

Grey Scale is never going to work in SH5 for detail such as Helgoland.
We already know that so why waste time with it?
The 256 shades stuff is for SH3/4 not SH5.
Only the main terrain files use that old system and we know the detailmasks use a different system.
Now why do the old files still use the old system? Because they didn't want to waste time creating a whole new system for a Game
built on something from 2004 or so! They just improved some areas and left the old stuff in place because it works.
You don't replace something that works. You just improve it in areas that make sense and saves development time and money.
I find the 'fix' brilliant!

[gap]

Originally Posted by Jeff-Groves

Grey Scale is never going to work in SH5 for detail such as Helgoland.
We already know that so why waste time with it?

The answer it simple: because we haven't found a way to export 1" resolution height data contained in those hgt files into a numerical format, and I am impatient to feed real world data into your RAW to OBJ and OBJ to RAR importer/exporter

Originally Posted by Jeff-Groves

The 256 shades stuff is for SH3/4 not SH5.
Only the main terrain files use that old system and we know the detailmasks use a different system.
Now why do the old files still use the old system? Because they didn't want to waste time creating a whole new system for a Game
built on something from 2004 or so! They just improved some areas and left the old stuff in place because it works.

Sounds reasonable

P.S: I have seen you had tried to send me a PM, but my inbox was full. I have made some space, just in case

[Jeff-Groves]

Our Friend did a fantastic job re-coding the game to give us detailmasks in the way he did.
We are finding that many things are highly mod able. Even more so then with the tools they gave us.
We are finding ways to do better and faster work and never use the crazy tools built into the software.
Which I find right next to useless for sane people and would bet money the Devs never really used them to build SH5!
I'm not slamming the Devs. They only did what they were told they were allowed to do!
Much like my job? I can not do just any thing I want. I have to follow rules and budgets also.

[gap]

Originally Posted by Jeff-Groves

Our Friend did a fantastic job re-coding the game to give us detailmasks in the way he did.
We are finding that many things are highly mod able. Even more so then with the tools they gave us.
We are finding ways to do better and faster work...

I agree, the idea of patching the old SH terrain with higher resolution detail mask only where it was actually needed, was a great idea, and so far we have done an outstanding job. We only miss a little puzzle piece before we can start showing our subsim buddies the fruits of our struggles.

Originally Posted by Jeff-Groves

...and never use the crazy tools built into the software.
Which I find right next to useless for sane people...

Well, not totally useless. I think it is a great tool for smoothing out things, adding some embellishments and making the last touch-ups, but you can't rely on it for exploiting the full potential of the game.

Originally Posted by Jeff-Groves

...and would bet money the Devs never really used them to build SH5!

That I can tell for sure: near all the stock ports and wherever there are detail masks added, there are slight mismatches between a tile and the next one. This is something that could never happen if devs had used only the Terrain Editor

Originally Posted by Jeff-Groves

I'm not slamming the Devs. They only did what they were told they were allowed to do!
Much like my job? I can not do just any thing I want. I have to follow rules and budgets also.

Neither do I. If there is someone to be complained, that is Ubisoft.

[Ashikaga]

You guys are doing an awesome job! Say, how does the landscape buildup/world building of Sh5 compare with for instance IL2 Cliffs of Dover?


.

[Sjizzle]

gap m8 if u need a tester for your work just let me know...
btw i just installed this mod in my mod list damn look awesome ....

[Jeff-Groves]

Originally Posted by gap

Thank you very much!

I have received your files. The recompiled exe works now, though, whatever stepping value is used as its argument, the resulting .txt output contains 1,442.401 (i.e. 1,201 x 1,201) height points, which is equal to one third of the original resolution (stepping factor = 3).

For our purposes we need to apply a stepping factor of 1.5. Using that value I would expect an output containing 5,764,801 (i.e. 2,401 x 2,401) height points.

Any idea on why the stepping factor doesn't work and how to fix it? I have the source code that you sent me, but I know nothing about C++, and even if I started learning it today, I am afraid it would take long before I could figure out the problem by myself

Not following you here.
Height points in a RAW file is 10201
It's 101 floats x 101 floats

From looking at the source code I see this.......

const int secondsPerPx = 3; //arc seconds per pixel (3 equals cca 90m)

So changing = 3 to = 1 would give us 30m (Also saw that commented out so maybe we can't do that?)

Resolution for SH5 is 25m per height value is it not?

[gap]

Originally Posted by Ashikaga

You guys are doing an awesome job! Say, how does the landscape buildup/world building of Sh5 compare with for instance IL2 Cliffs of Dover?

I have never messed with any of the games of the IL-2 Sturmovik franchise, so I can't say for sure, but I am afraid that comparing a submarine simulator with a flight simulator wouldn't lead to any conclusion: in one case we have a world made for being observed from the sea level, while in the latter case the privileged view is obviously from top...

Originally Posted by Sjizzle

gap m8 if u need a tester for your work just let me know...
btw i just installed this mod in my mod list damn look awesome ....

ROGER that. Thank you mate, the next release shouldn't take too long.
I will let you know if I need you to do some testing

Originally Posted by Jeff-Groves

Not following you here.
Height points in a RAW file is 10201
It's 101 floats x 101 floats

true

Originally Posted by Jeff-Groves

From looking at the source code I see this.......

const int secondsPerPx = 3; //arc seconds per pixel (3 equals cca 90m)

So changing = 3 to = 1 would give us 30m (Also saw that commented out so maybe we can't do that)

Resolution for SH5 is 25m per height value is it not?

Forget about meters. Due to distance stretching caused by cylindrical map projections, and to the arbitrary scale used in SH5, we better use angles than meters as unit of measure.

The 30-Meter SRTM dataset that we want to use in game, has a resolution of 1" (= 1 deg / 3600) whereas SH5 RAW files have a resolution of 1.5" (= [1 deg / 24] / 100).

Theoretically, using github/OldCoder's exe for downsampling SRTM data to the SH5 resolution, we should apply a stepping factor of 1.5.
If a similar factor was applied correctly, for a tile of 1 deg x 1 deg, I would expect an output containing 5,764,801 height points (= 2401 x 2401) rather than the full resolution 12,967,201 (= 3601 x 3601) height values.

Yet, no matter what stepping factor I apply (tried with 1, 1.5, 2 and 3), I always obtain an output with 1,442,401 height values (= 1,201 x 1,201)

I hope I made myself clearer now

[Jeff-Groves]

Could be this line in the source.............
const int totalPx = 1201;

I'm reading the code as I do back ground checks on new applicants for jobs.

[gap]

Originally Posted by Jeff-Groves

Could be this line in the source.............
const int totalPx = 1201;

I'm reading the code as I do back ground checks on new applicants for jobs.

Maybe try using the data extractor yourself first... maybe I am doing something wrong though I doubt that

[Jeff-Groves]

Send the files your working with to my e-mail and I'll work with them.