'Vanilla' Okinawa/Kyushu-Combined Map

[JollySam]

Hello everyone,

JollySam here (or Harris online), nice to meet you all.

I have a map request to put forward. I would like a map that combines the 'vanilla' versions of Okinawa and Kyushu into one, larger map. It should be a relatively simple affair for someone who knows what they are doing; it requires no graphical updates, no additional landscaping, and is more of a 'copy and paste' job rather than actual mapping.

I am in the middle of making a B-24 'Tiger Force' campaign, involving the player carrying out raids against the island of Kyushu from the bomber bases at Okinawa, and this map would make it possible for me to do so, along with anyone else who wants to recreate the Okinawa-based bombing of Japan. I know of the 'B-29 Alley' maps, but they are far too big for my purpose; Okinawa and Kyushu take up less than one-fifth of those maps. More details below.

Technical details:

Here is exactly what I need:

http://www.use.com/8c877483291b2140b51e

As you can see, this project simply involves the combination of two 'vanilla' maps; Okinawa and Kyushu. Okinawa is located in the south-west corner of the map, and Kyushu in the north-east corner. In real life, there are several islands inbetween Okinawa and Kyushu. I would not like these islands represented. They are not necessary, and there are no 'vanilla' maps of those islands anyway. However, I would like a realistic amount of empty water between the two islands (Okinawa and Kyushu). According to the internet, Okinawa and Kyushu are 568.98 miles (or 915.68 kilometres) apart.

As I said, no graphical upgrades are needed, and no research or extra creation is required. This is simply a 'copy and paste' job of two existing maps, divided by an empty ocean.

Why it should be made

Besides my campaign, I think that this map would be a useful addition for anyone who would like to recreate the USAAF bombing and escort missions operated from Okinawa against Kyushu, as well as the IJA/IJN efforts against the USAAF, and who don't need the vast amount of space provided by the 'B-29 Alley' map (Okinawa, Kyushu, Honshu, Guam, Korea, etc). The map provides an alternative option, especially to those players who don't own a supercomputer (which, lets be honest, is most of us).

Obviously, the creator would be fully acknowledged and credited in the campaign description and readme. So if you can make this map, or know of someone else who can make it, I am keen to hear from you and see what you come up with!

Regards,
JollySam

[MANYSH]

Hello JollySam
Nice to meet you

 Welcome 
I'll be absolutely honest with you. It is very unlikely you will find person who will do this map for you, not because it is difficult but it is time consuming. Most of the map makers have own unfinished project, and it may be long time before your request will be considered positively by someone.

So I suggest to you try to do it yourself, is not difficult! Create whole map will take you about few hours, but texturing and populating process may take few months or even year

If you interested just download and read this tutorial

http://www.gamefront.com/files/20333194/Map_Building_Tutorial_v4_rar

I am more then sure, If you have any problems with your map, you will find people here ready to help you

Regards

 

[Boomer]

I would have to agree with MANYSH

It would not be a simply copy paste,there is nothing to copy from or paste too

I have merged maps together,so I know what is involved
there is a Germany map thread somewhere here where I made a map,then merged two other maps onto it

You would need to merge all the map files together in GIMP or Photoshop
every .tga from each map would need to get merged together
map_t.tga
map_h.tga
map_C.tga
and all the other .tga's

Then,
because the maps coordinates have now changed from being a different size
the population will no longer work from either map because the object coordinates no longer are what they use to be on the map

So the whole map would need to be populated again,which is a extremely time consuming process

It can be done,but it is not simply a cop/ paste job

It is a huge amount of work for someone to do

As MANYSH mentions ...
it takes anywhere from two months to a year or two to develop a map

 

[JollySam]

OK, thanks alot for the information. I will check that link, and wait to see if anyone else is interested in this map.

Thanks,
JollySam

[Boomer]

Actually,looking at the B-29 Alley map
it is pretty much exactly what your asking for
other than.... it may have a bit too much Ocean in-between for you personally
That is about the only difference in what your asking for though

If memory serves me right,it was made to be as real as it can get for distance and flight times
making it any smaller would defeat any historical aspect of the map

Would be easy to cut the map down to make it smaller
but that does not get past having to redo all the population on it though
each object has a longitude and latitude
and when a map changes size,it changes the longitude and latitude of all the objects

There is a tool called Cut/Shift tool
it is for cutting actors up and suppose to be able to shift objects on a map
but I have never been able to get the shift function to work with this tool
and AFAIK nobody else has ever been able to make the shift function on the Cut/Shift tool

The tools available for download in the map tools thread in Maps and Textures section of the forum

I could slice the B-29 Alley map down in size easy enough in a couple hours work
but I have no time for editing maps or populating them these days

If you yourself want to actually do the work
I could help,but again I personally don't have the time to invest in editing maps these days

IMHO
The B-29 Alley map is perfect for this
it is basically exactly what your asking for,other than it has more ocean than you want to fly over
which BTW would not be very historical shortening the flight times
but to each there own I suppose

Could make an Online B-29 Alley map
with shorter flight times I suppose   

[JollySam]

Actually,looking at the B-29 Alley map
it is pretty much exactly what your asking for
other than.... it may have a bit too much Ocean in-between for you personally
That is about the only difference in what your asking for though

If memory serves me right,it was made to be as real as it can get for distance and flight times
making it any smaller would defeat any historical aspect of the map

Would be easy to cut the map down to make it smaller
but that does not get past having to redo all the population on it though
each object has a longitude and latitude
and when a map changes size,it changes the longitude and latitude of all the objects

There is a tool called Cut/Shift tool
it is for cutting actors up and suppose to be able to shift objects on a map
but I have never been able to get the shift function to work with this tool
and AFAIK nobody else has ever been able to make the shift function on the Cut/Shift tool

The tools available for download in the map tools thread in Maps and Textures section of the forum

I could slice the B-29 Alley map down in size easy enough in a couple hours work
but I have no time for editing maps or populating them these days

If you yourself want to actually do the work
I could help,but again I personally don't have the time to invest in editing maps these days

IMHO
The B-29 Alley map is perfect for this
it is basically exactly what your asking for,other than it has more ocean than you want to fly over
which BTW would not be very historical shortening the flight times
but to each there own I suppose

Could make an Online B-29 Alley map
with shorter flight times I suppose   

Hi Boomer,

Yes, I'm not saying the B-29 map is bad or unrealistic (apart from the strange map texture and the name of the map plastered across the bottom of it), I'm just saying that I only need about a quarter of it; Okinawa, Kyushu, and the realistic amount of ocean between it. I don't want the flight times shortened, just the map boundries reduced.

I see what you mean about the map population though. Maybe I will try it sometime, but I don't really have any time either until the summer holidays (I'm a middle school teacher).

Thanks for the information,
JollySam

[Boomer]

Yes, I'm not saying the B-29 map is bad or unrealistic (apart from the strange map texture and the name of the map plastered across the bottom of it),

Ok,the names and images plastered across the bottom and top of the map are whatever
put the ed_map.tga's into gimp and color over them with blue....
that would remove the images etc. from being plastered across the image in the FMB

The strange map textures,it would need to have the map re-textured
Something that can be done by anyone,there are tutorials available that explain how to do this in detail

  I only need about a quarter of it; Okinawa, Kyushu, and the realistic amount of ocean between it. I don't want the flight times shortened, just the map boundries reduced.

This would still need the map to be re-populated though,
do to the fact of the bottom of the map getting trimmed,along with the right side

Trimming the right side of the map ,does not effect population
but cutting off the bottom does

If a map can be made smaller
with leaving the bottom left corner alone
and left side upward on a map...
Then the coordinates do not change on the objects
As there based off of the starting point of the bottom left corner of a map

But,as soon as you cut the bottom of the map off
that creates a new starting point at the bottom left corner and would change the coordinates on all objects

In the end,it is a lot of work
Just to get a smaller map to play on ?

A larger map just takes a few seconds more to load,and that is it
the size of a map, does not effect Fps
it only effects load times

So IMHO
It is a lot of work to cut a map down,
just to save waiting time .... waiting for it to load

I know that map takes forever to load,do to it's size
So I can see the advantage to having a smaller map
although I do think it is an awful lot of work,just to get out of having to wait for a large map to load

If just slicing off of the right of the map would suffice
Then,the population would not be disturbed and the map would not have to be re-populated
Slicing the map down is fairly straight forward and easy
Can be done all in Gimp,using a calculator to cut the .tga's down to size

The link MANYSH left would be all thats needed to understand how to cut a map down>
http://www.gamefront.com/files/20333194/Map_Building_Tutorial_v4_rar

You could slice the map in half,right down the middle
and that would reduce it's size
and not effect the population on the map

If just this is done,
it is a very easy thing to accomplish actually 

Looks like you have something to do throughout summer Holidays anyway
must be great ending the year and getting a break from the Kids 

Cheers

[JollySam]

Thanks again Boomer.

I get you... so, leave the bottom left-hand corner alone, and move the right-hand border further left, right? I might try doing that, over the summer holidays. Thanks for the information, I didn't know that the FPS isn't affected by the map size. Makes it alot clearer for me.

That link seems to be having some problems at the moment, I'll check it later. Does it include a map re-texturing tutorial too? From what you say about the FPS, It seems that all I really need is a new texture for the B-29 map on the FMB/Briefing screen.

Haha, most of the students are quite nice (most of them), and I only arrived here recently. I work in a Korean middle school, you see.

[Boomer]

Ok,a pic says a thousand words as they say...
so an actual map must be like a million words or something close 

There is no population,it did not work out as I had hoped for
so the map needs to be fully populated as I first expected
I tried to make the old actors.static work but the map get CTD

So.... there is no population at all
and it all needs to be redone from scratch

Textures,
there are a lot of texture glitches now
another glitch from Mish Mashing the map files around
When cutting the .tga's up
they all have to match absolutely pixel perfect otherwise there are glitches

So there is a lot of a black water texture all over the place that need to be fixed

Height map - (map_h.tga)
Again,all the cut down .tga's need to match each other absolutely pixel perfect with each other
or.... you get abnormalities

So.... there are graphical glitches on the terrain for height
and where ever land meets the ocean

There is a tool for this,but it only does so much
usually a lot needs to be fixed ,by hand in the Map Editor (Unlocked) FMB

Even though the population was lost,and the maps needs to be re-populated
by just cutting the B29 map in half,it was a lot less work than merging two maps together
for example Okinawa and Kyushu merged together

Note*
Seeing as the population was not able to be saved and used on this map
and the fact it now needs to be re-populated

The bottom of the map could be cut down,
for less wasted space at the bottom of the map

This is a start anyway,you (and/or anyone else)can do with it as you like
use it to experiment and explore map editing

Map Editing Tools>
http://ultrapack.il2war.com/index.php/topic,2630.0.html

A few How Too aritcles, with Tips and tricks in Map Editor  FMB (Unlocked FMB)>
http://ultrapack.il2war.com/index.php/topic,1977.0.html

Map Building Tutorial v4 - Updated,thanks to KevinP
http://www.gamefront.com/files/20333194/Map_Building_Tutorial_v4_rar

There is a link at this webpage,left by Kirby (Farang65)
It's 100 mb,but there are three how to texture pdf's among a lot of other stuff
Pretty much the Kit and the Kaboodle>
http://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,6273.0.html

This map needs:
re-textured
re-populated
and height abnormality's corrected

No missions can be saved on this map!
It needs at least One Airfield made 

Until at least one airbase has been made
(or an airbase copied from another map and pasted onto this map)
then saved ,to create an actors.static

No missions can be saved on this map to fly on it

Anyway,there you have it
Half of the B29 map 

 

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?abhc9pulozcbwfr

[JollySam]

Hey Boomer,

Wow, that map looks very good! Exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks alot for all your efforts.

I'm sorry to hear about the population problems even when keeping the western and southern borders the same, but at least I know alot more about mapping now. I might work on this map over the summer, as I said.

Otherwise, bearing in mind that large maps apparently only increase the loading time and not the frame rate, I suppose all I really need is to retexture the B-29 Alley 'briefing screen' texture to a 'vanilla' one. I checked that link, but the file had been deleted. Does anyone know where I can find another copy? Or of someone who could do it instead?

Thanks again for your mapping, I'll load it up and see what it looks like from the air.
JollySam

[Boomer]

Hi Sam

search out the SFS File extractor
with that utility you can look into the SFS Files
and extract content out of them

Find the map,extract the map files you need
color the ed_map.tga's anyway you like for aan FMB map to look exactly anyway you want

have fun with map editor FMB 

Cheers

[JollySam]

Hi Sam

search out the SFS File extractor
with that utility you can look into the SFS Files
and extract content out of them

Find the map,extract the map files you need
color the ed_map.tga's anyway you like for aan FMB map to look exactly anyway you want

have fun with map editor FMB 

Cheers

OK, thanks alot for your help,
JollySam

[Boomer]

no problem,your welcome

That basic cut map I posted
could be cut down even more by removing all the unneeded water below Okinawa 

It just need to be cut out of all the maps .tga files, pixel perfect