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Old 07-28-17, 07:03 AM   #406
Kendras
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Unfortunately, scaled to its correct size the island only covers two pixels of the SHIII height map lol. If you want, we can increase its general height by one or two levels of grey, but I am afraid we lack the resolution needed to raise or lower spefic areas of it.
Oh my bad, I forgot that the height map has a much lower resolution than the land/sea mask.

By the way, this is strange : look at the Helgoland island, and you will see that the height map is relatively precise :

 


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I guess that Sein's outline may vary considerably from low to high tide due to the low profile of the island.
Yes, sure. On your satellite view, you took into account submerged parts to draw your island.

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After drawing the island, I scaled it down by matching openseamap's coordinate grids on the template picture, with their equivalent position on SHIII's land mask. Everything was calculated/drawn to the nearest tenth of minute, that's why the lighthouses are perfectly aligned with their real positions on the island. Sure, the island looks squeezed vertically, but that's because of the well known SH world's distorsion.
We can add/remove a pixel here and there but, as far as the game is concerned, my proposition is essentially correct and your ones distorted.
Mine can't be distord. If I'm correct, the vertical scale in SH3 is correct, whereas the horizontal one is not, depending of latitude (it's worse when you come close to the poles). So, I took the real map and resized it in order to fit the SH3 scale, keeping the right proportions. Now, we only have to adjust the horizontal side, and I did it by aligning the lighthouses of the map with the lighthouses on the SH3 map (which have exact coordinates, to the nearest tenth of second ).

Moreover, I think my last proposition is more looking natural as your last proposition.

Last edited by Kendras; 07-28-17 at 07:23 AM.
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Old 07-28-17, 09:49 AM   #407
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Oh my bad, I forgot that the height map has a much lower resolution than the land/sea mask.
Exactly five times smaller

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By the way, this is strange : look at the Helgoland island, and you will see that the height map is relatively precise :
Once we find an agreement on the land mask of Sein (hopefully ), we will see if we can improve its heightmap too

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Yes, sure. On your satellite view, you took into account submerged parts to draw your island.
You are right, I probably took into account the very shallow waters around the island, but if I were to follow only the emerged profile, due to the low resolution of the terrain mask and to the impossibility of using smooth edges, the island in game would be smaller than it is in reality.

A visual example of that follows.

 
The aerial view I used as template:



The same picture, with two island layouts overlayed on top of it: the drawing that my previos proposals were based on (in white), and a new layout I have just drawn by strictly taking into account only the coastline (in yellow):



As above, but in SHIII (equirectangular) proportions. Note that after the resizing, the coordinate grid is square:



The new (yellow) layout in SHIII proportions and scaled exactly to the size of the SHIII land/sea mask (by matching coordinate grids):



For comparison, here's the improved layout I had proposed in my last post:



Which one looks better?

I am not even sure that on the new version the Sein lighthouses would find their place. Not because of inaccuracies made by me, but because of the extremely low resolution and of the lack of eges smoothing, which 'erodes' the borders of the island.


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Mine can't be distord [...]
Not only it can... it is

You said you based the proportions of your island drawing drawing on the following picture below that you have (not enough) expanded horizontally, don't you?



Well, for the island to be in scale with the coordinate system used in game, the grid on the map you use as template should be square, not rectangular. If you follow the correct method (I invite you to give it a try!), the result wont be too dissimilar from what I already got

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Moreover, I think my last proposition is more looking natural as your last proposition.
That's another proof of what I am saying: if it looks 'natural', it can't be right... Not in this crazy game

Changing of topic... when you finish drawing that island in a proper way, what do you think about tweaking a bit the light flash effect, so that it resambles more the light of a carbide lamp?

Here's a video:


Imo, the outer border of the light should be red-violet towards its outer border, not blue as it is now. What do you think?

EDIT: found a decent picture



The flame looks bluer near the center of combustion, and it becomes red-violet as it moves away from the center. After all, the current effect color might be compatible with the blue seen in the picture above
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Last edited by gap; 07-28-17 at 10:27 AM.
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Old 07-28-17, 11:11 AM   #408
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The same picture, with two island layouts overlayed on top of it: the drawing that my previos proposals were based on (in white), and a new layout I have just drawn by strictly taking into account only the coastline (in yellow):



As above, but in SHIII (equirectangular) proportions. Note that after the resizing, the coordinate grid is square:



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Which one looks better?
This one (something between your two versions) :



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You said you based the proportions of your island drawing drawing on the following picture below that you have (not enough) expanded horizontally, don't you?

Well, for the island to be in scale with the coordinate system used in game, the grid on the map you use as template should be square, not rectangular. If you follow the correct method (I invite you to give it a try!), the result wont be too dissimilar from what I already got.
OK.

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Changing of topic... when you finish drawing that island in a proper way, what do you think about tweaking a bit the light flash effect, so that it resambles more the light of a carbide lamp?

Imo, the outer border of the light should be red-violet towards its outer border, not blue as it is now. What do you think?
Nice effect. But my halo is white, not blue. I guess this is the blue sky that you see, because the halo is a bit transparent.
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Old 07-28-17, 11:48 AM   #409
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This one (something between your two versions) :

I like it, but I had to change a bit the port area, otherwise the local lighthouse would have been in the water... unless we want to create a simple port model for the island, of course



In the meanwhile I had been working on something similar, but smaller:



I like more your version, but I thought I would share that layout too, in case you want to take inspiration from it for some last minute changes (before I create the new mask/elevation files)

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Nice effect. But my halo is white, not blue. I guess this is the blue sky that you see, because the halo is a bit transparent.
Could you give it reddish hue, but very faint, so to obtain some shades of violet where the flare colour melts with the sky colour? Just for trying how it looks

P.S: I have removed the RayTracedHalo controller from the light effect (seemingly without any loss of quality), and replaced it with the WaterReflection controller. Light reflections on the water look so cool
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Last edited by gap; 07-28-17 at 11:56 AM.
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Old 07-28-17, 01:49 PM   #410
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... unless we want to create a simple port model for the island, of course
Are you ready to create a simple 3D model of the Sein island, instead of adding squares to the terrain and having something which looks like nothing ?
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Old 07-28-17, 03:49 PM   #411
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Are you ready to create a simple 3D model of the Sein island, instead of adding squares to the terrain and having something which looks like nothing ?
Come on Kendras... If people can enjoy sinking ships with this level of detail...
 

...why should you mind sailing around an island like this?
 

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Old 07-28-17, 04:43 PM   #412
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Come on Kendras... If people can enjoy sinking ships with this level of detail...
 

...why should you mind sailing around an island like this?
 

I guess that means 'no' ?



In this case, why building so nice lighthouses, with such an ugly island ?
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Old 07-28-17, 05:32 PM   #413
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I guess that means 'no' ?



In this case, why building so nice lighthouses, with such an ugly island ?
Come on Kendras, I like well done stuff too, but let's be realistic: who will notice if the shape of a small and totally flat island which we will hardly spot through the binoculars, is not so exciting? Put some houses around it, a couple of jetties, a dock, two or three fishing trawlers anchored along the dock, two well modelled lighthouses and little more, and Sein will look as good or as bad as the rest of SHIII.

If on the contrary we decide to model it as a 3D mesh, what will come next? The Orkneys? What about the Norwegian Fjords? And why not Helgoland, the Azores, or the Canary Islands? And I don't want to imagine what will happen when it will be the time of the Greek Islands

I don't want to sound too categoric: if need be, I am okay to quickly model some rocks which are not even the size of a single pixel on the SHIII terrain map, but anything bigger than that should be made of the same matter as the rest of SHIII's land IMHO
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Old 07-28-17, 06:10 PM   #414
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And why not Helgoland?
Yes, why not ?

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...79#post2490379

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but anything bigger than that should be made of the same matter as the rest of SHIII's land IMHO
These new small islands 3D models have the same role as the new lighthouses : improve the aspect of the world with more realistic objects. But ... as this thread is not dedicated to the reworking of islands, let's give up.

You will come again to this one day !
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Old 07-28-17, 06:14 PM   #415
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Now, as we are working on the terrain, we have to find a solution to extract height maps from google earth, in order to correct the sea depth ...

About new halo effect, don't you have a more explicit picture ? Is it the kind of halo when can see from lighthouses ?
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Old 07-28-17, 06:32 PM   #416
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You are a natural born poker player obviously: I make my bet and rather than calling it or folding, you make an higher bid

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These new small islands 3D models have the same role as the new lighthouses : improve the aspect of the world with more realistic objects. But ... as this thread is not dedicated to the reworking of islands, let's give up.

You will come again to this one day !
Let's do a deal: poor as it might look, we paint that island on the terrain map. You decide the layout you like the most, and we both make our best to make it look as nice as possible by placing already existing models or some purposedly made docks and jetties on top and around it. Something simple but nice. At the end, if you still are not satisfied, and when we are at good point with the mod, I will see what I can do in Wings, but believe me, making it to look good and natural according to your standars, is something that has the potential of driving me insane. I know that already
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Old 07-28-17, 07:33 PM   #417
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You decide the layout you like the most
I think the less ugly version is yours + one square :



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and we both make our best to make it look as nice as possible by placing already existing models or some purposedly made docks and jetties on top and around it. Something simple but nice.
I'm not interested to add a harbour. But why not a little village.

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but believe me, making it to look good and natural according to your standars, is something that has the potential of driving me insane. I know that already
You're talking about that ? : http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...98#post2463298
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Old 07-29-17, 05:55 AM   #418
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You know, I think the best way to add better looking halos (with different colors, etc.) is too create new halos for Materials.dat
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Old 07-29-17, 06:28 AM   #419
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I've found interesting maps :

 


 


 

Last edited by Kendras; 07-29-17 at 06:55 AM.
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Old 07-29-17, 09:43 AM   #420
gap
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I think the less ugly version is yours + one square :
I thought you were sponsoring the below version, but that's okay

 


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I'm not interested to add a harbour. But why not a little village.
Not really an harbor, but a sheltered natural inlet with a few structures. See the picture below:



Red: quays/seawalls
Blue: jetties
Yellow: Men-Brial lighthouse
Black: warehouses

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That's an example

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You know, I think the best way to add better looking halos (with different colors, etc.) is too create new halos for Materials.dat
Can you please look into it? Isn't there a 'Color' section among the properties of the ParticleGenerator controller?

As I said yesterday, I have managed making the light effect on our lighthouse to have water reflections (RayTracedHalo controller replaced with WaterReflection controller), but I have noticed a weird glitch: when seen from a distance, the smooth borders of the light particle become partly opaque, and I see a semi-transparent square with the light flash painted on it, where I should se a totally smooth transition from full light to the sky color. I will investigate if this error is caused by my changes but I doubt that. It might also be my NVidia gfx card, or some graphic setting, but I was also wondering if the FastParticleGenerator wouldn't be more appropriate for our quick flashing light

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I've found interesting maps :
Very nice (!) but we need to clean them up and to resize them to the same scale and lat/long proportions as SHIII

On a side note: you cannot imagine how much progress I made with our current model, and guess what? Don't ask me how, the specular mask doensn't cause any longer black textures, though it still seems to do nothing. More on that later
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