Map: Height Maps

[MarkSheppard]

I found a bug in the coastline logic when I was trying to make a Gibraltar map; it's fixed now; I'll upload tomorrow.

[wulfir]

High five, Mark! Looks very good!

[MarkSheppard]

Here's the latest:

https://generalstaff.org/maps/Webhola_V1.html

CHANGES:

1.) You can now specify map rotation in degrees manually (in addition to using slider).

2.) You can change hex information mouseover timing (⏱ button) to your liking.

3.) 30m Copernicus is now the default digital elevation source.

4.) Both 90m Copernicus and 90m SRTM now have the 7 point hex sampler (implemented previously for 30m Copernicus) to figure out elevation (older versions sampled a single point @ the center).

5.) Major re-working of the way the Hexgrid (and thus map sampling) drawing + scaling was done; to bring generated maps in the game much closer to what you see in Webhola.

BIG NOTE: A geometrically correct "pointy side up" hex according to the map scale chosen (50m, leading to 50m × 66.67m hex dimensions) should have been drawn with 71x53 pixel dimensions back in 1994-95 by SSI Artists. Instead, they drew their hexes at 58x53 pixels; a 18% vertical "smush".

On a 640x480 pixel screen, that smush bought SSI some 1.5~ extra rows of hexes (or 22% more vertical screen coverage), enabling an extra row of hexes, plus some leftover room for the game UI.

6.) Right Click Menu now has a hex to hex ruler to measure the distance.

7.) JSON download + game .DAT + .TXT files; enabling you to keep the complete Webhola data state saved in between sessions. This enables using Webhola on one monitor and SPCAMO Map Editor on the other monitor; allowing switching between the two as you fill out a map.

8.) Previously mentioned "Coastline Mode" is now in. The way it works is:

A.) You download your elevation data on a coastal area.

B.) You click on the ⚙ button above the elevation preview and set the Level 0 color to something bold, like RED.

C.) You click on the 🎨 button above the elevation preview to see terrain shading on the map. Because you picked RED for Level 0, this lets you see what the SPCAMO Extended Map Editor's (SHIFT + ") will turn to deep water.

D.) You click on the 🌊 button above the elevation preview to toggle the coastline adjustment mode; where all terrain elevations between 1 and 10 meters are adjusted "up" to 10 meters; along with having their color changed to YELLOW/ORANGE so that you can see what was "promoted"; so that you can manually lower it back to Level 0 in the in-game editor.

[RecruitMonty]

Mark,

Thank you! You have done something truly brilliant. This was such an incredibly useful tool, it was a shame to lose it and it is fantastic that you have not only brought it back, but made it better!

Thank you very much!

Best Regards,

Monty

[DRG]

Trying this out and "re-tuning" my brain to remember things that used to be second nature but now seem to be someone elses memories

So far I have generated three maps

QUESTIONS

1 / It might be my computer and internet connection but does anyone else think it is slow to load ?

2 / ( for Mark) First off WELL DONE!! VERY nice work......... Is it possible to generate different sized ( smaller ) maps? It is possible I have missed something

[MarkSheppard]

Originally Posted by DRG

1 / It might be my computer and internet connection but does anyone else think it is slow to load ?

Define slow to load?

Slow to load when you enter the URL

https://generalstaff.org/maps/Webhola_V1.html

or slow to download the terrain elevation when you push (D/L ELEV)?

2 / ( for Mark) First off WELL DONE!! VERY nice work.........

Don't thank me, thank two events:

A.) You found Tuomas' github repo at [https://github.com/tvenhola/SPMBT-maps]. I was able to download the complete source and use that later on.

B.) Advancement in LLMs -- I was able to upload that github repo to Claude 4.6 Sonnet (best $20/mo I spent) and say:

"I would like to reverse engineer this program on github into something that can run locally in HTML5/JS using Leaflet to grab local height/elevation data and generate downloadable maps."

[I knew about Leaflet.js from a previous map based program I created]

This got back "something", which I was able to iteratively refine over several hours and several prompts, plus prior knowledge.

For example, I was able to "embed" the blank file "spmap999.src" needed by the Venhola Code as a Base64 text string within the HTML file (it's why it's so huge at 400+ KB), due to knowing about CORS, etc issues from previous work on browser-based programming.

Is it possible to generate different sized ( smaller ) maps? It is possible I have missed something

I'll look into it for a future attempt; but here's a current work around using the Extended Map Editor:

1.) Generate full size 200x160 hex map using Webhola; download, load up in extended map editor and strip the contours (and apply water [SHIFT + "] if you need to).

2.) Push the SNAPSHOT button to save a copy of the map into memory in case you mess it up.

3.) Push the Z button to bring up the Cut and Paste menu.

4.) Select the UPPER LEFT area of the map area you want to copy and push MARK.

5.) Set the LOWER RIGHT area of the map area you want to copy and push SET.

6.) The area you copy should be shaded now.

7.) Push the COPY button.

8.) [Q] or RED UP ARROW to quit the map editor.

9.) Go into Preferences and adjust map size to what you want.

10. Go back into the map editor.

11. Push PASTE button; and paste the area you've got in memory into the new, smaller map's upper left corner.

12. Adjust map size as necessary to fit your pasted area.

Yes; it's ugly, it's crude, but it's what works [for now].

[MarkSheppard]

Originally Posted by DRG

1 / It might be my computer and internet connection but does anyone else think it is slow to load ?

I think I see what you mean; SOMETHING apparently broke making downloading elevation(s) extremely slow.

[MarkSheppard]

Is it possible to generate different sized ( smaller ) maps? It is possible I have missed something

I just realized the most obvious way to make small(er) maps.

Put the area you want to turn into a smaller map the upper left corner of the map area on Webhola.

Make and download the huge 200x100 hex map and strip the contours inside the map editor.

QUIT to the map editor main menu, go into PREFERENCES and adjust the map height + width until you get to the size you want for your smaller map (the count of map height + width in hexes starts from the upper left corner).

[MarkSheppard]

I think maybe Amazon S3 AWS "blacklisted" my site. Not sure.

[MarkSheppard]

This may be what happened:

What likely happened in sequence:

You posted your tool publicly with the PHP proxy URLs [to download DEMs] visible in the HTML source

A bot (not even a human — these are fully automated) scanned your domain within hours or days of it appearing publicly

It found live PHP files, probed for vulnerabilities, and attempted to drop a malicious .htaccess file to either redirect traffic, enable further PHP execution, or establish a foothold

That file may have been what was causing your slowness — malicious .htaccess files often add processing overhead to every single request on the server

Funnily enough, my OCD on insisting on handwritten HTML and no content management system for my website; may have caused this attack to splatter because there was nothing for it to hyjack.

I'm currently rethinking how to approach this to avoid server vulns.