Sd.Kfz. 9

[oragus]

Agreed

[DRG]

Sometimes these dimensions just don't "add up" even though other sources agree on what they are. The scale being worked at one pixel more or less for width (especially) or length one way or the other can change how it looks, sometimes dramatically. It can be very frustrating at times building something that is correct by the dimensions but the WxL ratio of the Icon doesn't agree with the line drawings even though they do with the WxL source data. I have found many times to get something looking right a pixel of more or less width can make all the difference even though doing that puts the Icon outside the given WxL

[RightDeve]

I don't know anything about SP icon creation, but just a food for thought: pixel doesn't always come in perfect square ratio (1:1). There's what we call "Pixel Aspect Ratio".

In Photoshop you can define this using the new file dialogue:

[DRG]

Yes but the ones I use are ( albeit 10x normal for this example )

[DRG]

Ah ! so you did.

Mine is looking a bit more "used"



I've only got as far as placing the location of the villages

Did you build that one by hand or use Venhola?......if totally by hand/eye the contours are impressive. That must have taken a lot of time

As daunting an achievement as taking that ridge was after getting a good look at the terrain I'm glad we didn't have to take it from the eastern side. While doing my initial research on it I found a lovely large copy of the barrage plan but it'sd too large to upload even when zipped and reducing it's size makes it unreadable

[Weasel]

Originally Posted by DRG

Ah ! so you did.

Mine is looking a bit more "used"



I've only got as far as placing the location of the villages

Did you build that one by hand or use Venhola?......if totally by hand/eye the contours are impressive. That must have taken a lot of time

As daunting an achievement as taking that ridge was after getting a good look at the terrain I'm glad we didn't have to take it from the eastern side. While doing my initial research on it I found a lovely large copy of the barrage plan but it'sd too large to upload even when zipped and reducing it's size makes it unreadable

All my maps are built by hand. I get a topographical map with ridge heights and import it into paint.net, then lay a hex pattern over top that fits into the 160x200 Sp editor, and then lay down the heights hex by hex. That is why Chosin (Chinese attack at Yudam-ni) took me over 3 weeks to build, going hex by hex, but all the hills and terrain are correct to within 50m.

I have never heard of Venhola before, I did a search last night when you mentioned it but it came up with other stuff.

I saw that barrage plan before, the numerous coloured lines and such are very confusing to me. No wonder each unit practiced for a month before the battle learning the system.

[DRG]

It's a sticky thread at the top of both games maps subforms

http://www.venhola.com/maps/

Enter the coordinates then generate a map.......it will be generated as map 999 and when you load it, it will look flat but it's not.....flood fill the entire map with bare earth and the contours will pop

For Vimy enter
50.375
2.767

[Weasel]

HOLY F***ING COOL! Man I have been wasting so much time. I just did one for where I live and there you go...SWEET. I do have to admit though it does make Courtenay look awful hilly, but I think each terrain level is 10m.

Kind of feels like cheating after all the work I did going hex by hex but I will use it for the next scenarios I was planning on, Op Epsom.

[DRG]

The contour elevation can be adjusted if you think the standard 10 m is too much....or adjust by hand. I tried one once for Villers Bocage that made the L'Oden look like the grand canyon .EDIT**For that 5 was a better setting**, is wrong... to reduce the number of elevations to "flatten" out the map a bit go higher than the normal 10... try 20....5 will exaggerate the contours more.

Yes, for map making The Venhola is Wunder Waffe. A number of changes made last couple of releases were made to use it better.....goto for one was "inspired" by the 999 maps but also because the number of maps and scenarios now has grown to the point we needed a way to get from one place to another quickly.. The spatter feature of the flood fill tool is another.

There are so many ways to find GPS coordinates you can pick an exact center for your map and Google maps lets you find your battle ground then click on "What's Here" and you get the exact coordinated you need to enter into Venhola

It saves HOURS of time. You still need to fill in the details but it's getting the contours right that was always the biggest chore and you can rotate the map if you need to and if you don't need a full 200x160 map it can be trimmed using the extended map editor. We are going to look into ( NO promises ) a way to allow streams to not cut to level -2 next year..it may.... or not be possible to do without causing undesirable knock off effects but the BIG problem is the game expects streams to be -2 for a lot of code

EDIT...... another far simpler way to "reveal" the contours on a freshly generated Vehola is to use the new "Strip map" feature of the extended map editor.....it reveals the contours with one control

[Imp]

Respect its surprising whatyou can produce given how few pixels you actualy have to play with