blade2k5's Real World+Fantasy Maps

[M4346]

Or Africa! 



And you can start down south and work your way up on the "dark continent" 

[blade2k5]

My bad...how could I forget Africa   Shame on me 

[M4346]

My bad...how could I forget Africa   Shame on me 

Meh, it's okay, most of the world often do anyway! We're used to it! lol

[Gaston]

I'd have to vote for singles as well.   Easier to deal with that way.   Knowing me I'll download all of um any way.  LOL


---Gaston

[joelyboy911]

Wow. These maps are amazing. Where is it that you find the maps to convert for them? I tried to look for something similar to try to use in SC4Mapper - to no avail. I was hoping to make something from this region [link], Encompassing some hills as well as flat plains and rivers and coasts. If you would like to make it, or point me at where I can learn to extract terrain data and make my own maps, I would be eternally greatful.

[blade2k5]

It's not maps that I convert, it's Digital Elevation Model set [DEM data] that's converted to 16-bit grayscale.  And if you posted a pic in your post, it didn't show   What region are you looking for?  Is it a real world place?  New Zealand perhaps?  Taking a stab in the dark since I see that you're from NZ

[joelyboy911]

I was trying to embed google maps. It didn't work, so I linked instead. Yes, it was from the thames region of NZ.

So where is DEM data found? I guess something must be available easily, Google Earth has terrain elevation, perhaps somehow it can be extracted?

[blade2k5]

Ok, the closet area to that I mapped was Auckland.  In order to convert DEM to 16-bit grayscale png image you'll need Global Mapper, Terragen, Terragen Conv and Photoshop CS2 or higher. 

If you like, I can quickly whip up that 16-bit png for you.  If you have MSN or Yahoo Messenger, send me a PM with your handle and I can get your png image to you as I don't have anywhere I can upload files.

[joelyboy911]

That would be really cool, I have seen your other NZ maps on the STEX. My MSN, also my email is made public in my profile.

[blade2k5]

Oh, ok.  Taking a look at the link you provided to make I get the area you want....give me about 30-45 minutes to convert and set the correct elevation in SC4TF before I make the png...

[joelyboy911]

OK. Thank you very, very much. I am looking forward to it.

[grover_]

WOW!
THANKYOU! thankyou thankyou thankyou! 
I'm very excited for you to release the NSW maps, especially the Ballina-Lismore-Casino one, Lismore is my hometown so i'll have to give you a judgement on it's accuracy. I'm sure it'll be excellent like all your other maps but we'll see  but yes didn't actually think you'd take notice of that part of Australia, but hey i'm surprisingly mistaken.

Well that's all i have to say so, just another big thankyou and good job 

[blade2k5]

Well, there's a slight problem with that...I've been informed, due to my request, that the only NWS map that is accurate is the Nowra map.

Here's what I was told via PM [minus the links he provided because I haven't had a chance to look at them yet...sorry....was partying last night for the annual birthday barbecue at my house for my B-day and my wife's, which were on the 12 &13th]:

Shadow Assassin: 

Ballina-Lismore-Casino: the scale is completely wrong. Lismore is about 20km from Ballina and doesn't even appear to be on the map. Casino is about 15km again from Lismore. See here.

Gosford-Broken Bay is in the right place, though the river work is not detailed enough and there's a lake that should not be there/not completely isolated. Take a look here to see the differences (now, Google Maps is approximate, but gives a fairly good idea of what needs to be changed. You will need to zoom in a bit to see details.) Also, Erina Creek (that's the creek in the north-east) is too wide. Broken Bay is shown on that map, so you've got the right place, but the scaling may be a little off.

Grafton map is incorrect. The picture shown is actually just south of Ballina. Grafton is located about 25km inland from the coast. See here for correct map.

I don't recognise the section of coastline of the Kempsey map. It appears to be of Port Macquarie, but the data appears to be dodgy. Kempsey is located here.

Mildura is actually in Victoria and therefore does not belong in the NSW Map Pack.

Newcastle map is in the wrong place. That's actually Tuggerah Lake, with a bit of Lake Macquarie poking up in the north-east. Reason being that Newcastle actually has the Hunter River pass through it and I can't see it on that map. The correct name would be "Central Coast - Tuggerah Lake".

Nowra is OK.

Port Stephens is correct (that is the correct spelling, FYI, not Port Stevens). You may need to get rid of some of the sandy bits by converting it to water due to the large tidal flows that may have affected this data image - particularly the creek in the centre-north-east-part-of-the-map. See here for details.

Sugarloaf Point is in the correct location, though that is not the correct name of the area. The area's actually Forster-Tuncurry, covering Smith and Wallis Lakes.

Fun trivia fact: That's actually where the Whitefall map was taken from.

Sydney looks good. Needs a lot of cleaning up though, water-ways wise. I'd suggest a map of the entire Sydney metro area including Broken Bay to the north/Barrenjoey Head, Sutherland to the south and the Nepean River to the west. It'd be huge though... about a 80x80 chunk, so not for the faint-hearted.

I'm stumped to as where your Wentworth map is. According to Google, it's just north of the border with Victoria... but the terrain does not appear to match up.

Wollongong is slightly off. It's just outside the borders of the map. The lake there is called Lake Illawarra, so you're not that far off. See here for details.


Hope this helped. I know how cruddy Aussie DEM data can be... so, it's understandable. I did find a good site with DEM data on it somewhere, I think moganite actually provided the link to it, either that, or I stumbled across it on my Internet travels.

One of the reasons I goofed on these is because I was never taught how to do latitude/longitude in school, I have to guess where these places are when looking at the data with Global Mapper.  So, all of them except Nowra, will have to be fixed or completely re-done.  I apologize for this, but I'm hoping my mapping partner papab2000 can come back to fold pretty soon to give me a hand with the latitude/longitude part of things.

I do have a trade -off though.  There are areas of Australia I mapped where there are no settlements, towns, cities etc etc. Just large open spaces that have some great looking coastlines and waterways that would be interesting to see what the areas would like if cities and such were built there.  Since I at least got the Nowra map right I'll be releasing that one in a couple of days.

Can you imagine how embarrassing it would have been if I had released these maps as is and then these facts came to light?  Boy do I feel smart by asking first this time around...and it was the Sydney map that got me wondering in the first place...

[grover_]

hahaha. I was looking at the Ballina map yesterday and thought it looked a bit odd  I was trying to match up the river with google maps but i couldn't do it... anyways that map that you thought was Grafton is still a great map and contains lots of little towns that i know well. Would you be able to release it anyways or make it so that the actual town of Ballina is in the map? I would be super grateful if you could.. But anywho we all make mistakes and you're not from Australia and you make good maps so you can be forgiven 

[blade2k5]

I've spent the past couple of days re-gathering the DEM for Australia [some 7or 8gb worth ] and will be putting together a series of SOCYP [Somewhere On Cape York Peninsula] maps for release soon, while I re-work or completely re-do the NSW maps.  Some will be smaller maps, some will be medium in size and some others will be on the bigger side, they'll be flat to hilly to mountainous depending on the land terrain of the area of the Peninsula being mapped.  Pics of these maps will follow within the next few days as I finish them and get them packaged up for release.

[blade2k5]

I snapped a couple a of screen pics when looking at and cropping DEM data with Global Mapper of the northern and southern portions of Australia's Cape York Peninsula to share and give you an idea of where the SOCYP [Somewhere On Cape York Peninsula] series of maps in the works.  As I showcase the maps from the northern and souther sections of the peninsula, I'll pinpoint as best I can where the said map is located.  I am confident however that our Australian members will know what's where when they see it

I have already cropped out 12 areas along the coastlines of the northern section of Cape York, including the islands at the tip of the peninsula.

Northern Section:


Southern Section:


Check back for pics of the 12 northern section maps in the next few days.

[blade2k5]

Here's a sneak peek of a few of the 9 out of 12 maps I have finished through TerraFormer.  All's that's left to do on those 9 maps is to open and save the tiles in game for the regional view.

SOCYPN = Somewhere On Cape York Peninsula North



SOCYPN #4 16km x 14km


SOCYPN #7 40km x 20km, the largest of the 12 maps


SOCYPN #1 30km x 24km


Check back within the next 24 hours for the full pictorial of these 3 maps and the other 6.

[M4346]

These look really good! I like the "potential" they possess! 

[blade2k5]

Thanks.  I was up til 3am this morning and have 7 of the 12 maps completed.  I'm about ready to go finish off the other five and then I'll be back sometime this evening to post the pictorial for all twelve.

[blade2k5]

The first series of Cape York maps have been completed and will now be presented here for the first time, before their initial release to the LEX.  Posted below is the northern section of Cape York of which these twelve maps were taken from.  This is a look at what the GEO Tiff DEM file looks like when viewed with Global Mapper.  I can't get a pic any larger than that, but most of the twelve areas mapped are easy to find.  Most of the maps are taken from the west coast of the peninsula and I had very little in the way of rivers to draw in, it was a matter of a touch up here and there.  I also did a light smoothing of the coastlines, just enough to soften the obvious squared-edges you get with 90M [3 Arc Second] DEM data.

If any of our Devotees from Australia want to pin names on these areas instead of the generic SOCYN tag, please do. 
Also, any ideas on a better terrain mod you may know of that would better suit the region? I'm currently using Heblem's Yucatan terrain mod.

Cape York Peninsula North:


Somewhere On Cape York North [SOCYN] #1 I believe this to be Thursday Islands that are featured in this map, but I'll leave that to the experts to determine.  If it is, then the name of the map will be changed to reflect that.
Size: 30km x 24km




[SOCYN] #2 I believe the Prince of Wales Island is featured in this map, but once again, I'll leave that to the experts to determine.  If it is, then the name of the map will be changed to reflect that.
Size: 24km x 24km




[SOCYN] #3 This area features the tip of the Cape, not very far to the east of SOCYN #2 above.
Size: 30km x 20km




[SOCYN] #4
Size: 16km x 14km




[SOCYN] #5
Size: 20km x 24km




[SOCYN] #6
Size: 32km x 26km




[SOCYN] #7
Size: 40km x 20km




[SOCYN] #8
Size: 24km x 24km




[SOCYN] #9
Size: 28km x 24km




[SOCYN] #10
Size: 16km x 26km




[SOCYN] #11
Size: 26km x 24km




[SOCYN] #12
Size: 22km x 20km