Real data sources for mapping/terrains?

[Chimera]

Gentlemen,

I was wondering if someone from the Tiling/Terrain team could talk with me, perhaps school me a bit on where/how you generated the source graphics for your tiles.

Now, let me clarify. I heard/read somewhere that you used actual map/satellite data to generate the information that you based on. Where did you get that information, and how did you display it so that you could work with it.

I am heading up a project to run an MBX/CPX for a ground-based war sim in Korea, combining Falcon and other warsims to do a complete war. Essentially, ground sims can do the ground war, with players taking battalions of units into combat using sims like TacOps or Armored Task Force, and call on strategic strikes from Falcon pilot teams, etc. I have to generate some maps for the TacOps sim, and thus, need to figure out how to make those ground sim maps as close to the Korean 'real thing' as possible.

I have looked into USGS-style data repositories on the net, and have found a few that offer free data sets, but I have no idea how to view/generate maps/views from it. If one of you has information/experience on this, could you contact me? I would -greatly- appreciate a quick walkthrough, and can probably work the rest out.

I know it is a stretch of a request, but many would thank you for your help, not to mention me!

[Com_gp]

Here is the URL to download the data for real elevation, 1km resolution

http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/seg/ff ... opo/subset

Then use the dem2L converter and when the conversion finish you will have a big map of the area.
There are many other utilities to make this but they use specific dem files and thats not easy to find.
Theres also an URL (i cant remember where) for downloading the roads and that stuff, i mean the features, you will need that also and PERL for making this in the falcon format.

And the source for graphics...(if you are asking for thism, im not sure), they come from many places, Falcon, sat pics, USAF, msfs2000,...

That kind of war based korea seems to me that its gonna be hell of cool, hehehe.

ComGP

[Chimera]

Thanks, Com_gp.

The question i have now is: I get three files when I fill out that form, a .bin, .fmt, and .hdr files.

Am I doing this correctly? I just need to be able to create a top-down greyscale image of sections of the map, so that I can work with it.

[Chimera]

Okay. I am messing with the data I got from the link you supplied in the DEM2L program. I am not having the best of luck. I am wondering if I downloaded the correct thing.

What 'options' do I set on that webpage for best performance?

[ccc]

Just to remind you, DEM data from that link is at relatively low resolution. it could be too rough for ground war.

[Com_gp]

I dont know if you mean you are not able to open the data with DEM2L or you dont like the result.

If its the first one i probably happens because you have downloaded a smaller piece of terrain than 15x15 degrees, i use that size or bigger, if not DEM2L wont open it or it will show something strange.

If its the second one..., well, if you are not happy with 1km of resolution you will have to find for smaller resolution of korea, i know its posible to find free good dems of 90m of resolution of the US (i was thinking in doing my theater with that resolution...), but im not sure if you are gonna be able to find that for Korea.
There are pretty good tools to make maps from DEMS, there are many of them in
http://www.3dlinks.com/software_landscape.cfm
You even can see the terrain in 3D and then copy it to *.dxf for editing it in 3d studio or any other 3d program.

And just a last question, what is your objetive???, i know you want a war with many sims, but... what do you want to do?, just a map of korea, a theater,...??

ComGP

[Chimera]

The goal is to make maps. JPGs, BMPs and the like for outputting to the different mediums we need to display. The mapmaking program wants BMPs, while the website will need JPGs. Have you seen the map of Korea done by Eightball Productions for Falcon as a reference map for airbases? This style of map would be perfect. I am trying to find out who Eightball Productions is, so that I can ask how they produced the map.

I think the problem I was having was the arc size of the data samples, like you say. I will keep looking.

Thanks for the help, guys.