World bmp map in final stages...

[OmniGod]

Well, after many a weeks work and finally deciding on how to tackle the problem and collecting the data I have come close to nearing the end of the project. To show how things are progressing and in the Omni way here is the latest preview. Note that it only contains the land cover data and the topographical data with the ocean data and possibly later the minor river data to be added. The size of the project is 21600x10800 and is a 70Meg bmp file.



And all of this is care of an IBM Aptiva (yes Aptiva) with a PII 333Mhz processor with 256Mgs of 66Mhz SDram and 38Gigs of harddrive space... thank goodness for the harddrive... I had to delete 11Gigs of music just to compile the map sofar not to mention 10 Gigs of datasets and portions of maps.
<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by OmniGod (edited February 28, 2001).]</font>

[Dale]

So, the question on everyone's lips...................

WHEN CAN WE PLAY IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Rommell to a sub-commander outside Tobruk: "Those Australians are in there somewhere. But where? Let's advance and wait till they shoot, then shoot back."

[OmniGod]

T-minus 24 hours? Then I need an area people want to play.... any suggestions. The map will be a 210x210 as per Omni normal

[Dale]

How 'bout the whole lot? At full size?

What is the maximum size map you can play on???

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Rommell to a sub-commander outside Tobruk: "Those Australians are in there somewhere. But where? Let's advance and wait till they shoot, then shoot back."

[OmniGod]

Ehhhhhhmmmmmmm..... did I say 24 hours... I meant much less... how about


IT'S DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The map is complete to the point of my satisfaction. Rivers on small scale (entire world) may be a problem and I have a small set of river tiles that I could add if people want it, but as for placing on the map I choose not to since the maps I used included rivers which I coloured the shallow water blue. The map is finished and measures 21600x10800 @ 8bit bmp with total size of 233,291,776 bytes... so don't be thinking that you're going to find it on apolyton anytime soon at the full resolution... though I may post it later on my new website which has yet to be constructed but will hold 1Gig+ of data. Anyway back to the map, here is the listing of the sites and maps that I used, more information on the maps can be found at the sites and I have the data sets if anyone is interested.

Platte-Carre Landcover Map

Website: http://gaia.umiacs.umd.edu:8811/landcover/index.html
Map format: Long-Lat Projection BSQ @ 1km resolution
Download Size: 32.3Mb compressed in GZip - decompressed = 550Mb+

Information about the map: The maps came as continents and were reassembled according to small areas of simliarity and with the help of the topographical map for alignment. The dataset was 32.3Mb large in Gzip format expanding to over 550Mb. The dataset covered 13 ground cover types which I had to decide which would represent what in the final map using the limited tile types provided by CTP2. I still have the original and am up to creating a resource/tile rich map if there is a way to create new tile types. Only major problem was the lack of Hawaii on the map but this was remedied later in the project. All urban types were replaced with grassland to facilitate the growth of major cities in real major city locations.

Ground Cover types:
0 WATER (and Goode's interrupted space)
1 EVERGREEN NEEDLELEAF FOREST
2 EVERGREEN BROADLEAF FOREST
3 DECIDUOUS NEEDLELEAF FOREST
4 DECIDUOUS BROADLEAF FOREST
5 MIXED FOREST
6 WOODLAND
7 WOODED GRASSLAND
8 CLOSED SHRUBLAND
9 OPEN SHRUBLAND
10 GRASSLAND
11 CROPLAND
12 BARE GROUND
13 URBAN AND BUILT-UP

Topographical Ocean Dataset

Website: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/2minrelief.html
Map Format: Surface of the Earth, 2 minute color relief images
Download Size: 95Mb in jpg formats

Information about the map: This map while having the data for land I decided to use it primarily for the ocean information. The colour conversion was more difficult than I first thought since all the colours were from a very similar set(blue ) I really wanted to use three levels of ocean and ended up using the shallow, deep and the ridge tiles. The ridge tile were used to represent the techtonic plate ridges in the ocean which I cross referenced in my atlas. They were a good approx and so they were used. It may appear as if there are too many ridges on the map but I stuck with the choice.

Topographical Land Dataset

Website: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/seg/topo/gltiles.shtml
Project: The Global Land One-km Base Elevation (GLOBE) Project
Download Size: 287Mb compressed in GZip - decompressed = 1.6Gig+

Information about the map: This map was the greatest find for topographical data since it matched the land cover data for resolution. While there was no ocean data the land data was great. The set was tried in the program Wilbur but I could never get it to work properly so I gave up on a slope format for Mountain/Hill levels also there is the lack of Plateau and mountainous terrain types since I know the Rockies are hilly even after the initial elevation change. If plateaus and such are available further down the road then I may have another shot at Wilbur.

Satellite Photos

Website: http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Earth
Download Size: 14.2Mb in jpg format

Information about the photos: These were great for a guide to guarantee that the ocean levels decreased at approx the right spots and for checks on land tile choices, even though satellite data can be misleading.

So after 25 days the project is complete. All that is left is to start making maps. One warning is that the map doesn't have beach tiles included since I couldn't find a good way to put beach along the land/water interfaces without decreasing accuracy of the land. This means a little touch up work for the mapmaker. All that I need now is a test location to show the map off.... I could make a map at full size which would be able to be run on CTP2 but it would be dam slow... but I will hope that this will be useful in the future as the computers get faster...

All that's left is what most people reading this are waiting for and that's the image of the final product... Well I can't disappoint my fellow civers...



The map has been offered to Firaxis for Civ III but I am doubtful they will want it but I will wait until I hear from them before I post it on the web in full and half size formats. This has been fun and now I think it's time to focus again on school... can't be a doctor without studying now can we

Richard
Class of 2003 PCO

[Dale]

Omni:
I wouldn't mind a map of just Australia. Way back when I first got CTP2 I thought of making like an Australian aboriginal tribe map, with Captain Cook sailing into Botany Bay with the first English settlers.

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Rommell to a sub-commander outside Tobruk: "Those Australians are in there somewhere. But where? Let's advance and wait till they shoot, then shoot back."

[OmniGod]

Your wish is my command.... check out this link... http://apolyton.net/cgi-bin/ctp2/db/review.cgi?ID=588 I think you might like it... and here is an updated version of the map (I focused on Eastern NA for a better view).

[Dale]

Thanks Omni. May have a new scenario for ya when I've finish the Diplomod.

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Rommell to a sub-commander outside Tobruk: "Those Australians are in there somewhere. But where? Let's advance and wait till they shoot, then shoot back."

[Roman]

Huray! WOnderful job Omni!

What is the max. size of this map in terms of Ctp2 tiles?

[OmniGod]

There is no max... but the map is 21600 x 10800.... I tried to load it into CTP2 but it crashed... I tried 5400 x 2700 and it crashed I think I need a new computer...

[Chris B]

Awesome. Atleast one of you mod peole hasn't neglected serving the rest of us non mod people. I'm anxious for you to chop out the middle East, Africa, Western Europe, and South America. Australia and NZ looks good!!!
-CB

[Kull]

This REALLY is an impressive piece of work. Hopefully it's playable!

[OmniGod]

Playable???? Why I ought a... Of course it is.... just needs to be loved and nurtured into a nice map.


I've created some maps of various locations and since I don't have all the time in the world, I thought maybe some people would like to finish them. They are txt maps which you just need to import and clean up the ocean/shallow water interfaces. If you desire you can add the rivers too, but I haven't added guides to the maps yet.

The maps are all 210x210 txt files including:

Japan/Korea
Western Europe
Ontario and Eastern USA (1812 battle?) ----> Completed March 2 @ 11:45pmEST
Africa ----> Completed March 3 @ 4:55pmEST
Middle East
Middle East (closer view of Egypt and Israel Area) ----> Completed March 2 @ 11:35pmEST
South America
United Kingdom ----> Completed March 3 @ 5:30pmEST

Those were the areas that I thought of first. Any takers???
EDIT: Note that the completed ones are without rivers...

[This message has been edited by OmniGod (edited March 03, 2001).]
[This message has been edited by OmniGod (edited March 05, 2001).]

[skorpion59]

Omni,

Do you have the original giant map somewhere so us cable-modem users could D/L it?

[OmniGod]

I have it on my harddrive right now I can start the upload to a site if you really want it now, or can you wait til I get it cut into 16 pieces?

Well I just put it into zip format, and guess what... it's only 12.5Megs... so I have to talk to Mark about getting it onto the db since last time I tried something above 10Megs it said "not going to allow that". Well it really didn't say that but you get the idea.
[This message has been edited by OmniGod (edited March 05, 2001).]