California

[Guest]

I am a little lost on some of this stuff but I really want to produce a California Terrain map for Falcon4. Some of this talk is a little over my head (Perl, Unix) but if someone is willing to guide me through this I will see it through. I think CA would be a great place for a battlefield. It has all of the cool terrain elements. Populated cities, mountains up to 14,000 feet, coastal terrain, plenty of airfields and lots of opportunity. I would like to include as much of Nevada, and California as possible. If anyone is interested in getting me on my feet, I sure would appreciate it. It most definitely would be free to everyone upon completion.

[Guest]

Thats why these pages are here for

Read our tutorial and if you're still lost, ask something specific and we'll get you going.

BTW I made the Nellis AFB terrain some days ago, you could check out the map screenshot if that might do the job for you.

http://www.pmctactical.org/f4/screenshots/NellisAFB.jpg

PMC TFW
Snake Man

[Guest]

Ok, here goes.
1)I see that I will have to acquire the balkans terrain. Where do I acquire it and does it have a readme explaining what to do with it?
2)In the MAP CREATION section of the tutorial, it says i need to acquire DEM data. I am unsure of what format, compression option, and text entry vs. map based data I select.
3)Is perl difficult to use and does the ./dem2lf.pl get used internally by perl?
and how do I come about dem2lf.pl?
4)do I "untar" the DEM download utilizing perl?
5) When downloading from MAPROOM in the Creating Terrain Tutorial I must select a state, can the states be merged on the end result map? and I don't see Potical/Ocean as a selection.

I downloaded Perl just in case I need it, but don't have a clue on how to use it. I am hoping that all i have to do is the steps in the tutorial.

[Guest]

Never mind on the dem2lf.pl. I see I already downloaded it in the terrainscripts.zip file.

Another question, though, is there a certain directory this all has to be in? I am trying to keep it out of my Falcon4 directories unless necessary.

Thanks for any help rendered.

[Guest]

> 1)I see that I will have to acquire the
> balkans terrain. Where do I acquire it and
> does it have a readme explaining
> what to do with it?

You can download Balkans from:
http://www.mpgtext.de/f4/bosnia%20theatre_dl.html

> DEM data. I am unsure of what format,
> compression option, and text entry vs.
> map based

text entry or map based is just for user to see the coordinates visually. text entry you just type the coordinates, in map based you can see the region on the browser.

> 3)Is perl difficult to use and does the
> ./dem2lf.pl get used internally by perl?

Its not difficult to use if you just type the command line from the tutorial, but to get perl working in WINDOWS environment - that I have no idea. I'm a linux guy.

> 4)do I "untar" the DEM download utilizing
> perl?

Yes if you downloaded TAR package (there is option for PC zip I guess, dunno), you need to untar the package like "tar zxvf california.tar.gz" but... it depends which package type you download.

> 5) When downloading from MAPROOM in the
> Creating Terrain Tutorial I must select a
> state, can the states be
> merged on the end result map? and I don't
> see Potical/Ocean as a selection.

Yes you can merge the datas, if you map contains California and parts of Nevada, you can merge the both states data. Dont worry if you state (Nevada) does not include some features, just download what you can grab down.

> I downloaded Perl just in case I need it,
> but don't have a clue on how to use it.

Join the club buddy! I have no idea how to operate Windows perl either, someone posted some details of it on here earlier, brwose thru the message - although it was nothing definite tutorial type of data, but still it might help you out.

If this everything seems too overwhelming, I could always create you the L2 nad O2 files for terraview - then you'll skip the whole DEM creating part and go directly to tiling/flying the map.

PMC TFW
Snake Man

[Guest]

That would be great! I am a bit worried about that portion of the process. I have read through most of the posts and it seems like perl for windows doesn't work for this application, but I feel a lot more comfortable with the rest of the procedure.

Let me give you the information. I am looking for all of California but I think it is slightly too large for 10x10. If so, I would want the top part cut off. This poses a question though. If I tile a 10x10 area now, can it later be extended to a 20x20 area? If not, I would want the 20x20 DEM and I would just worry about California first. It should still be flyable, only untiled except for CA, correct?
I have read the How-to-tile and it seems like it would take a while to tile the whole area. What is your estimate on length of time?

Thanks for the help. My E-mail address is mawianal@juno.com. I will be anxiously awaiting L2 and O2 files, at your convenience of course.

[Guest]

Hi Hornetmech,
Welcome join the real thing of theater-making! California sounds great, it remind me of Jet Fighter series!

>If I tile a 10x10 area >now, can it later >be extended to a 20x20 >area?

Hey, that's my guestion for Falkland theater too. I think its doable. TV got export function. Ideally, you export the whole tiled 10x10 map, then post it on a well-coordinated 20x20 map, with some script to convert your original tile coordinates to new ones.

>I have read the How-to-tile and it seems >like it would take a while to tile the >whole area. What is your estimate on length >of time?

My experience is, it takes 20-30 min to tile a segment in Falkland theater. I spent more time on adjust coastline pattern, less on inland. so it depends on the complexity of terrain. if you tiling a very complicated and important seg, it takes more; while a monomorphous plain/desert, could be much less.

Well, I note f4 people came this board and proposed ideas for new theaters..hope they could post their latest progress here.