TerrainEditor + Tutorial by ref

Got it :up:

The package comes with a readme file, but instructions are not too clear, and apparently they only explain how to merge in game a ready-made terrain modification, but not how to create a new one. Probably once the SHIII terrain is excrated using yhe tool, a set of heigth masks is created. From a comment on the download page, I get that this information might be in RAW format. If that was the case, any photo editor capable of importing/exporting from/to the RAW format could be used to edit the heigth information.

Hopefully someone better informed on the topic we are discussing will pop up and he will shed some light :)

Well I would start from the most detailed SHIII terrain available (I don't know which one is the best between WAC and GWX). If I got it right, once the terrain data is extracted and modified, there are two ways it can be released:

- as a package containing only the modified areas, which can be re-merged to any version of the SHIII terrain data using the Extractor/Repacker;

- as a ready-to-use terrain data which can be enabled as normal mod using JSGME

The first method would contain the download size and it would allow more flexibility, because it would let any player free to choose which terrain data (mega mod) he wants to use as base for the merging of our modifications. The con, is that its installation would be a bit trickier. :hmm2:

ops... while writing my previois reply I had missed SquareSteelBar's link (thank you mate!) :doh:

This version of the download also contains detailed instructions on the SHIII terrain format and on its editing :yeah:

SH3 Terrain Editing.pdf : that was the file I needed ! Thank you mate ! :up:

Something interesting : http://www.kartengruppe.it/immagini/...0/0088G-SB.jpg (from : http://www.kartengruppe.it/index.php/nordsee-deutsche-admiralitatskarten)

But although the map was printed in 1943, it's based on a 1913 map.

In 1943, the island was bigger, as you can see on this picture :

http://www.303rdbg.com/pp-heligoland.jpg

Probably because of this : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Hummerschere

Good findings, thank you for sharing! :up:

I don't know how far the Nazis went with their expansion plan, anyway the sandy beaches of Helgoland and Düne are subject to a strong tidal erosion, and their size and shape might have changed over time. Add to that the fact that after war the Brits tried to sink the main island :o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6hKwjoKa-c

Comparing your 1943 picture with a 2008 aerial view (taken from Google Earth), it seems that Heligoland has not changed mutch over the last 70 years. Not the same can be said about Düne though :03:

http://i519.photobucket.com/albums/u...0Helgoland.jpg

I have outlined the two islands of Helgoland and Dune on an equirectangular map projection (as the one used in SH games to represent the globe)...

http://i519.photobucket.com/albums/u...lad%20Dune.png

and I have placed them on a 1deg lat/long quadrant of the size used for SHIII terrain masks. This is the result:

http://i519.photobucket.com/albums/u...20Dune%202.png

The resolution is poor indeed, but those are the limits imposed by the game. :hmm2:

I prefer to have real shape, even if the map is deformed. It's not a problem, as the islands are very small. I will see that point over the week-end. Keep focusing on the lighthouses, I do the map job. :salute:

What do you mean by "real" shape? This is the real shape in the (equirectangular) SHIII world. Do you think that real continents as seen from the space look the same as on a map? :D

Jokes apart, any other shape would cause a misalignment of the islands relative to the in-game coordinate system both in terms of latitude/longitude and KM quadrant and, due to the small size of the two island and the low resolution of SHIII terrain masks, the difference in terms of "good shape" would be hardly detectable anyway :yep:

HELGOLAND PLAN
 

This is the shape I mean (with the lighthouses' positions) :

http://i.imgur.com/kHLgKwA.png

Other pictures of Helgoland :

http://i.imgur.com/xlTj80H.png

http://i.imgur.com/4qgMzjQ.png

http://i.imgur.com/N8Xpl5Q.png

http://i.imgur.com/gAZiV6x.png

Nice work :up:

...but as I said before, your clean drawing will make little difference once it is scaled down to fit in the small space of SHIII's terrain masks.

In my opinion, having the islands in the right place and with the right size is more important, even though they will look a bit stretched in game. The equirectangular map projection used in game makes it easy to convert from lat/long coordinates to metric offsets relative to the equator/Greenwich meridian: 1° = 120,000 m; 1' = 2,000 m; 1" = 33.33 m; 1 pixel on a terrain mask = 6" = 200 m. As long as the terrain masks are edited correctly, calculating the correct in-game position of lighthouses and other objects relative to each other and to land, will be as easy as doing a simple math based on the lat/long of those objects in real world.

There is more. As you know, many lighthouses have "blind" spots and/or their lights have different colors depending on the angle that they are looked at. Most nautical charts have those angles displayed on map (see map.openseamap.org for example). Supposed that the above can be mimicked in game, we could calculate the correct light angles directly on charts rather than wasting our time with a trial and error approach, but for this method to work we need to place everything at its right place and to work on equirectangular charts. Most nautical charts use a Mercator projection but, for small areas, stretching them to fit an equirectangular projection is quite easy :)

Amazing! :yeah:

I had no realized how many coastal batteries where located on the island. Maybe we could add them in game :hmm2: :D

It's very easy to get the exact coordinates of a lighthouse with the mission editor.

I already though about that question, and I don't see how to do this (halo with different colors depending on the angle). And I don't understand the link between angles on charts, and equirectangular projection. :06:

I hope so too ! By the way, are you still working on the british coastal defenses ?

I need to open .raw files but I don't have photoshop .... :damn:

Yes, probably for the terrain. But it will be very useful to build the harbour ! :yep:

Here what it looks like with 200x200 meters for each pixel :

http://i.imgur.com/8s8lyfk.png

Don't GIMP or paint.NET have a raw file plugin?

Who will notice if the harbour is stretched out a bit? :03:

Sure, but what would happen if where it was supposed to be land, there is only water? :03:

I need to think a way to do it :hmmm:

Sure, the working files are still on my HD :salute:

The islands would be so better rendered with 50x50 meters squares ! ... :wah:

For now, the plugins I've tried don't work with Paint.net. :hmph:

This will never happen, because we will first check the altitude with a land unit, which also will give us the exact location. :03:

Ready to share ? :D

Who knows if we can replace the SHIII terrain with the one of SH5? Apparently the two games share the same terrain format, but even if it worked, probably all the harbors and terrain objects would be messed up :hmmm:

Try with GIMP then. I have PS, but apparently we have different ideas on how to edit those raw maps :O:

Yes sure, there are different ways to do it, but again this is the trial and error method I wanted to avoid...

Not yet. I didn't work on it in a long time, and I still have many pending projects, but if you want it I might move it toward the top of my todo list :03: