[WIP] Sh4Gen Tracking Room 2.0

[GlobalExplorer]

I am currently working on a program that automatically generates intelligence maps for you, similar to what I did with Sh3Gen Tracking Room.

In order to get some tips about the usefulness of the maps I have prepared data that you can download and put under review. All you need to do before you can open the map is install the free TatukGIS viewer (included in the download).

These maps were all generated with the PTO vanilla campaign. There are 5 maps which give full intelligence information for every year from 1940-1945. No randomization was applied, so unlike Sh3Gen the information is very reliable!

If you still play with vanilla, the maps should already be very useful in their present form, but my aim is to release the map generator application which is supposed to work with any mod.

It would be very helpful if some people try the maps and give suggestions about their usefulness, from my point of view I am already pretty happy and out of ideas how they could be improved. I will try to collect ideas and see if they can be incorporated in the next release.

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 (no spysat information)

merchants
asw
navy

geographic locations
major locations
minor locations

gshhs_h shorelines
bathymetry

Download here: http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/SH4TR20080823.7z [ 13.9mb ]

INSTRUCTIONS

INSTALLATION

install TatukGIS Viewer (included in the download)

OPEN MAPS

the maps are in folder \\MAPS
there you find one folder for every year
in every folder you find a file Sh3Gen Tracking Room.TTKGP
double click this file and it will open in the viewer
you can also start the Viewer first and then open the file (Sh3Gen Tracking Room.TTKGP)

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 zoom

SCREENSHOTS

Red zones showing japanese asw activity (July 1942 I think):

http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/screens/full/Clipboard01.jpg

The same map overlayed with other traffic zones (jap merchants, us navy, etc):

http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/screens/full/Clipboard02.jpg

Coastal traffic and defenses around mainland japan:

http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/screens/full/Clipboard03.jpg

Minefields and defenses around Taiwan:

http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/screens/full/Clipboard04.jpg

Map at a high zoom level. ASW patrols and defenses at surabaya straight:

http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/screens/full/Clipboard05.jpg

Close up view of Saipan with approximate position of docked ships.

http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4//sh4gen_19.jpg

Wake island with exact position of docked ships:

http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4//sh4gen_22.jpg

Information overload:

http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/screens/full/Clipboard06.jpg

Saipan at medium zoom level:

http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/screens/full/Clipboard09.jpg

Australia:

http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/screens/full/Clipboard10.jpg

(http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/screens/full/Clipboard01.jpg)

[Digital_Trucker]

Very cool:up:Nice work:yep:

[virtualpender]

Wow. I've always wanted to be able to customize charts like this. Thank you so much for putting this together. Outstanding work.

[Frederf]

Incredible!

[Observer]

Soundings.

I know water depth is shown by the color shading, but I'd like to see this converted to a contour type chart with actual soundings (based on the color shading is fine), in fathoms please.

[AVGWarhawk]

Soundings.

I know water depth is shown by the color shading, but I'd like to see this converted to a contour type chart with actual soundings (based on the color shading is fine), in fathoms please.


I thought and read that most maps were very old charts and or gotten from library books. Basically, whatever they could get their hands on as far as maps.

[GlobalExplorer]

Soundings.

I know water depth is shown by the color shading, but I'd like to see this converted to a contour type chart with actual soundings (based on the color shading is fine), in fathoms please.
I don't have the numbers at hand, but this can be done. The image I use is NASA BMNG bathymetry, and they have not published these information with the file. I have included depth more as a gimmick as the game lets you measure depths just fine and the focus is on things that don't become clear as long as the SHIV map station is used, as well as high res shorelines.

There are also more highres-versions but they make everything very slow, so I have stuck with a more blocky one.

[Rockin Robbins]

Whoa! This is big! I'm speechless.:rock:

[Observer]

[quote=Observer]I don't have the numbers at hand, but this can be done. The image I use is NASA BMNG bathymetry, and they have not published these information with the file. I have included depth more as a gimmick as the game lets you measure depths just fine and the focus is on things that don't become clear as long as the SHIV map station is used, as well as high res shorelines.

There are also more highres-versions but they make everything very slow, so I have stuck with a more blocky one.
Unless I missed something, this is a planning tool. While it is possible to measure depth in game, it can only be done in the players current location. The color scheme used on the map station makes it very difficult (in my opinion) to easily distinguish depth, especially in shallow water where it is most critical. This is important for operations in the East China Sea, or the Yellow Sea where the water depth tends to be very shallow.

Honestly, I'm not sure where the data is stored in SH3/4, but water depth is one of the critical factors used in tactical planning. It can (obviously) have a huge impact on mission outcome. I think any type of bathymetry data would be fine, even some current day data as it would be expected to take soundings as necessary during the mission to avoid grounding. This is standard operating procedure today, and it was clearly identified as a procedure successful Commanding Officers such as Fluckey used on the Barb during his Namkwan harbor raid. The track chart on page 270 of Thunder Below! clearly shows the 10 and 20 fathom curves. This was a critical success factor in the Namkwan harbor raid.

[GlobalExplorer]

I would find it useful too, I just don't have the figures and I don't know how to get them quickly. Besides, there are other sources for this type of data on the web, so feel free to send me a file with the exact color index, and I'll see to it to include it. No larger than 8192x4096 please.

Making a color index is even more difficult because I use transparency on the map, that distorts colors. It's not easy to produce an automatically generated map that is still readable, so my focus is on making the various information types distinguisheable, not as exact as possible.

And before this gets discussed all geospatial layers will use current day data, there is no such thing as WWII GIS files.

But thanks the point of this thread is to collect suggestions so I will put "exact color index" down under nice to have.

[GlobalExplorer]

I have a question. Atm I am working to incorporate moored ships in a useful way. My general aim is to present valuable intelligence information without giving the player a complete gods eye. Right now I cannot decide what is the best way to show docked ships.

Screenshot 1 shows a new polygon buffer method which reveals only an outline around the moorings, together the class of ships (merchnants, warships). So far this is my favorite, but it differs in many from the Sh3Gen approach.

Screenshot 2 shows as ships as markers with a label, like in Sh3Gen. This is very informative, problem is this a bit too revealing - which does not fit well with the intelligence theme. An advantage is that the user can review the unit in a property window like the one in the screenshot.

screenshot 3 shows both at the same time, thats also possible.

Which one do you think is better?



screen1: Saipan, outlines & ship class:

http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/sh4gen_16.jpg




screen2: Saipan, labeled markers (also shows property window):

http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/sh4gen_17.jpg




screen3 : Saipan, outline & labeled markers combined:

http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/sh4gen_18.jpg

[GlobalExplorer]

Finally a comparison shot of the Saipan with a high resolution shoreline.

The problem is this is a large file (~157mb) and I am not sure if it's really worth it considering download size. Fortunately the TatukGIS viewer can display it without any noticeable performance hit, I must say this program keeps amazing me!



http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/sh4gen_19.jpg

This is tiny Wake Island in high res. That will be the maximum resolution that I can provide.

http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/sh4gen_20.jpg

For comparison, Wake in standard resolution:

http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/sh4gen_21.jpg

[Observer]

I would find it useful too, I just don't have the figures and I don't know how to get them quickly. Besides, there are other sources for this type of data on the web, so feel free to send me a file with the exact color index, and I'll see to it to include it. No larger than 8192x4096 please.

Making a color index is even more difficult because I use transparency on the map, that distorts colors. It's not easy to produce an automatically generated map that is still readable, so my focus is on making the various information types distinguisheable, not as exact as possible.

And before this gets discussed all geospatial layers will use current day data, there is no such thing as WWII GIS files.

But thanks the point of this thread is to collect suggestions so I will put "exact color index" down under nice to have.
I've played around with something called Virtual Ocean. It's pretty nifty and allows the user to create contour lines as well as define the color scheme for the depth.

Link: http://www.virtualocean.org/

I'm not sure if this helps, or even how to integrate the data. It has a function to save the data as jpg and several other formats. Maybe this is useful?

[GlobalExplorer]

I'd actually need something like this (http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=8392), but with information about the color index.

These images use grey values, so depth is probably a value between 0-255, which must still be multiplied with a constant factor.

[Observer]

Doesn't the BIN file referenced at the link you provided and quoted below provide the necessary color information (I've bolded the relevant part) when combined with the image?

There is a BIN file included, which is the raw format, and not an image. Reto Stockli has provided the following explanation of the format: .bin files in the BMNG file repository are made of 8bit unsigned binary files, structured as 3 Channels X 86400 columns X 43200 lines. No header data, no ASCII text data in these files. You read the files as a byte array with 3 dimensions: 3x86400x43200 where the first dimension are the RGB (Red Green Blue) color triplets of the image, the second dimension are the number of columns (X dimension) and the third dimension are the number of lines (Y dimension). The image starts with 3 bytes of the RGB values of the northernmost and westernmost pixel. The next 3 values are the RGB values of the one pixel to the east of the first pixel. And so on. Geographic projection with a regular grid spacing of 0.004166667 degrees per pixel.

[GlobalExplorer]

No, the BIN file is the same image in raw format:
Open it in Photoshop but you need A LOT of memory and Version 8 or higher (e.g. I myself cannot do that): Open as -> RAW -> width 86400, height 43200 pixels, count 3, depth 8 Bits, interleaved, Header 0 Bytes.
These are greyscale images, so R=G=B.
8bit = values from 0-255. So there will be big jumps in depth.

What's still missing is the factor that the R/G/B value has to be multiplied with to get the exact depth. One could calculate it by locating a known point like Challenger Deep but I don't like that approach.

I know there are other datasets for height information, but I am too busy to look for them. The one provided is ideal in that it covers only oceans, many other concentrate on land.

[GlobalExplorer]

Here is a new screen how I currently handle harbors and docked ships. I am using two types of colored zones for either merchants or warships.

The advantage is that this gives away that either merchants or warships are docked in the harbor, and approximate mooring position, but does not reveal more.

http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4//sh4gen_24.jpg

[GlobalExplorer]

Here is a repost of my reply to bert8for3 in another forum, concerning randomization in Tracking Room 2.0:

Sh3Gen was internally too complex and using a huge amount of variables (specific for time, theatre, faction, unit, ..). In the end I was never quite sure how it worked (when it comes to randomization). The good thing was that this made it unpredictable for the user.

Right now the TR 2.0 application works without randomization. I found that it's much easier to develop from that. It' a possibility that I add randomization, but later, and of a much much simpler principle. Not that this should matter to the user. The result should be at least the same, and scale better with changes to the variables. Right I rather try to design the output in a way that it can be used without heavy randomization.

Look at my screen to see what I mean.

Screen1 shows just the following: an unknown number of merchants ships, as well as some unidentified naval unit is docked in the port. Patrols cover both entrances. There is also information about the position of coastal batteries as well as some coastal traffic. http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4//sh4gen_25.jpg

Screen 2: other scale, same principle. Colored zone shows where japanese merchant traffic is concentrating but it's a large area and you don't see any individual units. There are also a multitude of other zones for coastal traffic, aircoverage etc, but they never reveal any information that's dead on.

http://www.christian-wendt.org/SH4/sh4gen26.jpg

If you have used Sh3Gen you know how I do things, and that I do not like the spysat approach. But there have been a lot of complaints by people about never being able to find things plotted by Sh3Gen. I hope it makes sense if I therefore try to raise accuracy, first before anything else.

[GlobalExplorer]

I see no one has bothered to try the sample maps. Some people asked for completely new things but no one commented on how the available features could be improved.

Are my mods too complicated to understands?

[Mav87th]

Brilliant GlobalExplorer - Brillient :)

[Venatore]

I still consider this utility to be a must have for any U-boat commander.