Modern UK terrain?

[+Baltika 85]

Thanks for the headsup re Biggin Hill, snakeman

 

Runways were flattened and placed from TE and I have not had time to test fly them all, but it is easy enough for me to fix a problem like the one you describe if someone brings it to my attention.

 

Working on a 0.5 update hotfix to sort out a few things like that, plus some gross sea mountain effects round the coast of Ireland, plus some major improvements to target areas south of the border.

 

Anyone else spot any strangeness, feel free to post it here and I will try to sort it out.

 

Cheers all,

 

Baltika

[snakeman 1]

Hi Scouserlad13

 

yes I have just checked and I have collision set to hard !

 

Hope that helps

[scouserlad13 0]

Hi Scouserlad13

 

yes I have just checked and I have collision set to hard !

 

Hope that helps

 

Set your collision to off, and that should help with the problem,

I dont expect you crash much anyway?

 

Its worth turning it off to get a look at this superb terrain

[snakeman 1]

ok thanks will have a look

[+Baltika 85]

Hi scouserlad13,

 

From your PM it sounds like there is a mismatch with one of these terrain_Target.ini entries:

 

AirfieldDataFile=german_airbase3.ini

 

which call out how things like taxiing and parking are controlled on each runway, or

 

one of the airfield entries in the terrain_Targets.ini is missing such an entry.

 

I am running this terrain on WoE patched to Oct '08, with my collisions set to hard, and I have been unable to re-create the planes exploding on the runway. Can you tell me which version of the game you are running UK beta on, which airbase(s) you get the problem on, and what planes you see it with.

 

Sorry if I have asked you this already, I have over-enthusiastically cleared out my CA mailbox

 

Ndicki reported a similar problem but he has fixed it by checking he copied over all the terrain files properly.

 

Cheers,

 

Baltika

[Cpt.Cosmos 0]

RAF bases at Lossiemouth, Kinloss and Leuchars now operational.... Weird, but the RAF don't seem so concerned about "security." I was extremely depressed to find that all of the useful information about airfields on Iceland has disappeared from Google Earth, and as that was my main research tool, it is a bit of a knock. Like a lot of these things, the info is still available if you want it, it just inconveniences the general (law-abiding) public. Ho-hum. Rant over.

I am planning on a beta release to give everyone something to fly over and provide feedback on, so for now I am using stock WoE bases. That will hopefully change in the updated versions.

Keep those suggestions coming. If you have a favourite base you want to fly out of, post it up here and it will go in the map.

 

Baltika

 

The more I look, the more this site gets better!!

 

I've been wanting to learn how make a terrain of N.Scotland since I bought SFG, joined CA shortly after & realised the potential of the sim, for 3 reasons.

1. Lossie' is E of my home town & I'd love to fly out in a 617sqn Tornado.

 

2. There are 2 bombing ranges in the area, I don't know the longitude/latitude but Tain is N of Inverness (W of Lossie', follow the coastline NE of Tain on a Google satellite map & you will see the targets/impact craters, N of old WWII airbase) & Cape Wrath on the NW corner of mainland UK. It's a big lump of granite just off the coast, used for target practice from land, sea & air. (I believe it's the only place in Europe where 'live' 1000 pounders are dropped, granite & the N of Scotland are good for that sort of thing)

 

3. Scenery is the best in UK, fast jets from everywhere use The Great Glen (Loch Ness) and the rest of the area, as a low level flight path to both ranges & local knowledge would enhance terrain accuracy. There are other good landmarks, ports, bridges, transmitters, fuel dumps, barracks, mountains, lochs and glens (pIus I don't think I could resist modding Fubar512's submerged sub to The Loch Ness Monster!)

 

 

Looks like I'm buying WOE next payday and downloading the Beta!

[scouserlad13 0]

Hi scouserlad13,

 

From your PM it sounds like there is a mismatch with one of these terrain_Target.ini entries:

 

AirfieldDataFile=german_airbase3.ini

 

which call out how things like taxiing and parking are controlled on each runway, or

 

one of the airfield entries in the terrain_Targets.ini is missing such an entry.

 

I am running this terrain on WoE patched to Oct '08, with my collisions set to hard, and I have been unable to re-create the planes exploding on the runway. Can you tell me which version of the game you are running UK beta on, which airbase(s) you get the problem on, and what planes you see it with.

 

Sorry if I have asked you this already, I have over-enthusiastically cleared out my CA mailbox

 

Ndicki reported a similar problem but he has fixed it by checking he copied over all the terrain files properly.

 

Cheers,

 

Baltika

 

 

Nope you havnt asked me already lol. I am running this on SFG with the Oct 08 patch.

 

This occurs all of the bases that i have come across so far to be honest, maybe its just because of the version of the game i am running. I will check over my files to make sure i copied over all the terrain files correctly mate

 

Honestly, its not that big an issue to me though seeing as i dont have collide on, i was just sayin it to see if anyone else had the same problem. Great terrain by the way. Cant wait to see the whole thing

 

You going to put any easter eggs in there? Famous buildings of the UK perhaps?

[+Baltika 85]

OK,

 

I have dug into the .ini files a bit more and sussed out what is going on.

 

Scouserlad13, the reason you are getting planes blowing up on the runway is because UK beta .04 calls out airfield data files which only exist in the WoE Germany_CE.cat file, not in SFP1/SFG. I know I said in the readme the terrain would work in those other games (which it will) but I also said it wasn't tested there, which it wasn't. Sorry about that, to everyone running SFP1/SFG (and I d/k about WoV or WoI) who has d/led the beat and had this trouble.

 

The reason is, the UK_TARGETS.INI file calls out runways as follows:

 

[TargetArea041]

Name=RAF Leuchars

Position=869000.000000,772000.000000

Radius=8485.281250

ActiveYear=0

Location=1

Alignment=FRIENDLY

AirfieldDataFile=german_airbase3.ini

NumSquadrons=12

Target[001].Type=Runway4

Target[001].Offset=0.00,0.00

Target[001].Heading=90.0

 

etc etc, and various variations on that theme. The problematic entry is the AirFieldDataFile= line. The various German and Soviet airbases called out do not exist in the stock desert.CAT file you get with SFP1/SFG. So, all the a/c in your flight end up siiting on top of one another on the end of the runway, and blow up.

 

This can be fixed by changing the AirfieldDataFile= entry to match one which exists in SFP1, and corresponds to the type of runway you are sitting on. Now that I am aware of the issue, I can fix it for the next version update. Unfortunately, that is a fair bit of work given the number and different types of runways featured in this terrain. But it will get fixed.

 

Meantime, the beta will work fine in SFP1/SFG so long as you do not select runway takeoffs. Cpt.Cosmos, no need to buy WoE to run this terrain (allowing for the above problem) but don't let me put you off the purchase. It's well worth it.

 

Cheers all,

 

Baltika

[+Baltika 85]

Anybody know how I can get DEM data for an accurate projection of northern europe, like so:

 

 

The downloadable DEM data I am using has the northern latitudes "stretched" in such a way that I cannot get Iceland to appear on this map, no matter how hard I try.

 

The good news is, that Baltic Sea map is benefitting from work done on NZ map, so it is all coming together.

 

All suggestions gratefully accepted.

 

Slainthe,

 

Baltika

Edited August 1, 2009 by Baltika

[+PureBlue 71]

Nice one Baltika

 

Can you import a small part of a DEM and get the proper Iceland? Or is the island all messed up from the beginning. Because if you can then there's a way to cut/paste that data over to your bigger map.

[+Baltika 85]

Hi pureblue,

 

My new build of this terrain looks like this:-

 

 

When you compare it to the Google Earth projection, you see the problem I am having. It is a known artefact of TE that it compresses the north/south distances, especially the closer you get to the poles. It's not the fault of TE, I suspect it has to do with the trajectory of the satellite that scans the DEM data.

 

I can cure north/south compression by exporting the heightmap and editing the scale of the image in gimp. And, sure, I can cut and paste my Iceland map into the northwest corner of this map. But the basic problem is that distances across the whole map are messed up because of the projection issue with the DEM data. That's why Iceland doesn't appear in my new terrain build at all.

 

I know google earth has a "terrain" setting which means the altitudes of any given point are available. What I am hoping to do is convert the google earth image into a DEM data file that TE can read, or, find a DEM file which reflects the projection I can get of the region in google earth.

 

Just a thought

Edited August 1, 2009 by Baltika

[+hgbn 91]

Hi pureblue,

 

My new build of this terrain looks like this:-

 

 

 

When you compare it to the Google Earth projection, you see the problem I am having. It is a known artefact of TE that it compresses the north/south distances, especially the closer you get to the poles. It's not the fault of TE, I suspect it has to do with the trajectory of the satellite that scans the DEM data.

 

I can cure north/south compression by exporting the heightmap and editing the scale of the image in gimp. And, sure, I can cut and paste my Iceland map into the northwest corner of this map. But the basic problem is that distances across the whole map are messed up because of the projection issue with the DEM data. That's why Iceland doesn't appear in my new terrain build at all.

 

I know google earth has a "terrain" setting which means the altitudes of any given point are available. What I am hoping to do is convert the google earth image into a DEM data file that TE can read, or, find a DEM file which reflects the projection I can get of the region in google earth.

 

Just a thought

 

Now this will be a great terrain. You can use the targetslist and Citylist from WOE as a base, you just need to figure out how much to add on cordinates in the ini's, could save you a lot of work in the end.

 

Whew, got lucky on that.

 

It looks like the TE assumes that 1 degree is equal to 40 kilometers. So, I was able to move my initial map coordinates North 1 degree and West 3 degrees. I then adjusted the x,y coordinates for all cities by +120 and +40 respectively and they are exactly where they are supposed to be.

Edited August 2, 2009 by hgbn

[+76.IAP-Blackbird 3,557]

How is this new map scaled 1:1? or other ratios? looks good and will be nice for some intercept missions... the bear is coming

[+Baltika 85]

How is this new map scaled 1:1? or other ratios? looks good and will be nice for some intercept missions... the bear is coming

 

The new map has been scaled by pulling and stretching the heightmap .bmp in gimp to give as close as possible to "real" distances in-game. Bear in mind the projection limitations discussed a couple of posts above. The UK looks even more stretched than in the older build, but as you will see, it should not only be stretched like that but also rotated about 20-30 degress clockwise. I am not saying you can fly by instruments from Lossiemouth to Moscow, but the overall distances are about right.

 

I am wondering if I can create a huge map to cover all of the above plus Iceland, then stretch and squeeze the whole thing in gimp to get an approximation of a correct projection. Just a thought for now.

[+Baltika 85]

Progress update:

 

 

OK, I don't think my idea of a projection including Iceland is going to work. So I will press on with this build for now. The above map will give some idea of the coverage of the proposed terrain. Alignments are up for grabs and in any event can be made campaign-specific from the campaign data file for different eras (WW2, Cold War, Modern).

 

Most of the airbases suggested to me can go in.

 

Anybody fancy building a model of the Kremlin

[+hgbn 91]

Progress update:

 

 

 

OK, I don't think my idea of a projection including Iceland is going to work. So I will press on with this build for now. The above map will give some idea of the coverage of the proposed terrain. Alignments are up for grabs and in any event can be made campaign-specific from the campaign data file for different eras (WW2, Cold War, Modern).

 

Most of the airbases suggested to me can go in.

 

Anybody fancy building a model of the Kremlin

 

May I suggest that all airbases from the stock germany map is included in your terrain plus those mentioned in the Campaign data ini of WOE/SP2E. Personally I would like to move the NATO Fighters series to this terrain, at least in my own install. Danish airbases I would like to see is: Aalborg, Karup, Vandel, Tirstrup, Vaerloese and Skrydstrup.

 

German Airbases: Leck, Hussum and Schleswig (Jägel)

Edited August 9, 2009 by hgbn

[+Baltika 85]

May I suggest that all airbases from the stock germany map is included in your terrain plus those mentioned in the Campaign data ini of WOE/SP2E. Personally I would like to move the NATO Fighters series to this terrain, at least in my own install. Danish airbases I would like to see is: Aalborg, Karup, Vandel, Tirstrup, Vaerloese and Skrydstrup.

 

German Airbases: Leck, Hussum and Schleswig (Jägel)

 

Thanks for the airbase suggestions, I'll add them to the list

 

I tried your suggestion for converting the Germany_CE targetlist, but sadly as this terrain is stretched to full-scale, it's not an easy job. The focus for this terrain will be the northern frontier (Scandinavia) and the Baltic sea, at least initially, then Eastern Europe and Russia. Germany is a relatively low priority (to begin) just because it has been covered in great detail in the stock game.

 

I hope to post a beta preview (two weeks ) with at least a few cities and airbases for each country featured (still a lot of work) so that everyone can fly from their home patch.

 

The detail of each country can be built up from there.

Edited August 9, 2009 by Baltika

[+Baltika 85]

Well, I just couldn't let it lie

 

Having recently finished Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising, I realised why everyone was getting excited about Keflavik-based intercepts, and I realised that I just couldn't leave Iceland out of this terrain.

 

So, I rebuilt the darn thing from the ground up, again

 

Here is the revised version:

 

 

I have also messed with the heightfield data to make the whole thing more rugged, and fun to fly over.

 

The "stock" terrain frontline will be Cold War-era, as that is what the stock sim can handle for single missions. The terrain will ship with a modern 2010 based campaign featuring the air forces of everyone on the map. Russia and Belarus get to be the bad guys, everyone else is the good guys. The campaign engine can handle placing "ENEMY" nations on the FRIENDLY force, so Poland and Ukraine vs Russia will be catered for in the campaign.

 

If anyone feels like whipping up a dedicated modern Polish skin for the MF MiG-29, that would be highly appreciated. My efforts are amateurish at best.

 

Cheers all,

 

Baltika

Edited August 20, 2009 by Baltika

[mppd 16]

This looks great - it will revive some interest in the European theater for me as the Germany terrain in WOE did not interest me that much. Nice work, and thanks.

 

Mike D.

[+Sundowner 4,818]

Terrain looks great.....there should be a couple of Polish skins in the MF pack m8....if not let me know...

[+EricJ 4,244]

I got a screenie somewheres of a Polska modern -29 somewhere.. Found em..

[+Baltika 85]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

 

My mistake

 

Turns out I had only installed the Soviet MiG-29 pack. I have now corrected that mistake. Duh!

 

Off to fly some new MiGs :yes:

 

Thanks to the MF & team for these great birds.

 

I will keep you posted re terrain progress.

 

Cheers again,

 

Baltika

[Derk 265]

May I suggest that all airbases from the stock germany map is included in your terrain plus those mentioned in the Campaign data ini of WOE/SP2E. Personally I would like to move the NATO Fighters series to this terrain, at least in my own install. Danish airbases I would like to see is: Aalborg, Karup, Vandel, Tirstrup, Vaerloese and Skrydstrup.

 

German Airbases: Leck, Hussum and Schleswig (Jägel)

 

And as a very modest suggestion LEEUWARDEN and SOESTERBERG AB in Holland, . home of 322 / 323 Sq and 32 Sq USAFE respectively and prime interceptor bases with alert facilities and a long history ..... Aerial pictures are still avalable though not on Google Earth. (there's a big row in Holland about it )

And if you can use Gepards and HGBN's airfields you're a real hero !! The standard WOE airfield does not look very European....... Gepards NATO and WARPAC airfields, which were lost in the latest patches, were revived recently and are available again (albeit minus the static planes), but he did not include them in the File Anouncements....

 

Hou doe,

 

Derk

Edited August 20, 2009 by Derk

[MaverickMike 10]

This is looking awesome. I like the sound of the campaign too. Keep up the good work mate

[+hgbn 91]

If you can fit a fake Thule Airbase on the tip of Greenland, yeah I know it's located on the west coast in real world, then SAC could be a player in it to with the B-52's... Just a thought