Bodenplatte, a more accomplished map!

[VAG_Sevy]

Hello everyone.

For some time, I've been working on the project of making bodenplatte map more in line with the reality on the ground. I know it's impossible to replicate actual urbanization, but it still misses important towns and villages that were historic places from 1944 to 1945. After all, Belgium and the Netherlands are the two most densely populated countries in all of Europe, from Russia to Spain and even in 1944!

 

I started with simple things, I now work in the Ardennes and Eifel sector. Bastogne and the surroundings are really neglected as well as the forest of Hurtgen.

But I am facing a problem. I appeal to the developers.

I can't find any information on how to work topology !!!

How to add and remove trees and forests,

how to modify ground elevation,

how to add roads and railways?

 

If I could get this information, maybe this work could benefit everyone!

I join this post, a small example of work already done.

[Uufflakke]

I appreciate your effort.

 

What also might help to make the map more populated instead of the current islands of brick houses in a green sea is to add farms randomly.

A variety of farm sites consisting of a few farmhouses + barns, a farmhouse + shed and single farms/ houses sprinkled all over the map.

 

I think it will not influence loading time or fps that much.

 

 

[VAG_Sevy]

23 minutes ago, Uufflakke said:

What also might help to make the map more populated instead of the current islands of brick houses in a green sea is to add farms randomly.

A variety of farm sites consisting of a few farmhouses + barns, a farmhouse + shed and single farms/ houses sprinkled all over the map.

I know ... I made a template already to populate the map in this sense!

And I understand very well what you mean, I agree with you.

But what I'm trying to do above all is fill in the major gaps (cities, industrial areas, etc.) that have had strategic importance to increase the possibilities of scenarios because a missioner who wants to diversify his missions is quickly run out of breath on this card. And also, you who live in the Netherlands, you will agree with me to say that we miss a lot of immersion spirit when we are supposed to fly over the place where we live. that's one of Il-2 GB's big downsides. And when I'm ready to modify Holland, I'll need help if you agree.

Edited February 12, 2022 by VAG_Sevy

[352ndOscar]

You might want to start with this guide……

 

 

 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

 

1 hour ago, VAG_Sevy said:

How to add and remove trees and forests,

how to modify ground elevation,

how to add roads and railways?

You cannot add or remove trees and forests. You can't modify the ground elevation either.

You can add road/railway textures though; check the guide 352ndOscar just posted.

 

That said, your scenery looks good. But be aware that a number of the areas are already being worked on by other people. It would be a shame to see some areas done twice while there's so much important areas that could use a little TLC

 

The Hürtgen forest is already being done by myself:

This is severely outdated though; a much improved version will be released shortly.

 

Part of the Ardennes are already being done by @Hamaha15:

Same goes for Vlissingen:

 

Perhaps it would be a good idea to coordinate who does what among us surface editors?

[VAG_Sevy]

THX Oscar.
I already have that work, great amnual, very useful!
But it's all about texturing and I know how to do that. I'm still learning but I'm not so bad.

What I want is to modify ground topology and formal roads and rayways, not by texturing them!
I thing, tools to do that are not aviables with a standart installion.
That's why, I think we should ask the developers if we can have access to the tools and how to use them?

15 minutes ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

Perhaps it would be a good idea to coordinate who does what among us surface editors?

I would like to
It looks like a great job .

Edited February 12, 2022 by VAG_Sevy

[CountZero]

Cant wait to see if Normandy map will be same as BoBp or more like Kuban

[Uufflakke]

2 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

 

You cannot add or remove trees and forests. You can't modify the ground elevation either.

You can add road/railway textures though; check the guide 352ndOscar just posted.

 

 

 

Adding roads and trees seem to be possible. And also changing height map.

Don't ask me how to do it, I am completely ignorant.

 

https://forum.il2sturmovik.ru/topic/493-вопросы-и-ответы-по-изготовлению-карт/page/7/

 

 

2 hours ago, VAG_Sevy said:

And also, you who live in the Netherlands, you will agree with me to say that we miss a lot of immersion spirit when we are supposed to fly over the place where we live.

 

Two typical Dutch elements are missing on the map: grassland divided by ditches and sand dunes along the coastline.

Edited February 12, 2022 by Uufflakke

[AEthelraedUnraed]

2 hours ago, Uufflakke said:

Adding roads and trees seem to be possible. And also changing height map.

Don't ask me how to do it, I am completely ignorant.

They seem to use some long-lost tools from RoF, that don't work with the current maps even if you could find them. Besides, even if you could edit the maps, they are unmoddable. The map files need to be binary equal to the originals, or the game will give an error if you try to load them. If I'm mistaken and it's still possible, please enlighten me since it'd be absolutely great if we could edit the terrain itself

 

5 hours ago, VAG_Sevy said:

What I want is to modify ground topology and formal roads and rayways, not by texturing them!

I haven't really done much testing on this subject, but roads (roads.ini) and railroads are basically just a list of coordinates between which a spline is drawn (each line is a road. B means that there's a gap that a bridge should fill up). This file is compiled into a .bin at runtime (if the .bin doesn't already exist), which implies that roads and railroads are likely editable. As I said, I haven't really tested it, but adding a road/railroad should be as easy as adding a line containing the coordinates of the desired waypoints.

 

That said, why isn't texturing good enough? You can make them look exactly the same with surface textures, and you can make AI vehicles follow this road by adding waypoints along the route. Also, it doesn't seem like you can specify the roads files anywhere in the mission files, which means that you have to have Mods On to see "real" roads. Which is not the case with "fake" roads.

 

2 hours ago, Uufflakke said:

Two typical Dutch elements are missing on the map: grassland divided by ditches and sand dunes along the coastline.

Typical Hollandic elements, you mean to say

 

Yeah, the coastline could be better. You could widen the beaches a bit with the tools we've got by extending them inland, but it's a lot of work to make it look good. To do it really well, you'd need to edit the water files (the beaches themselves, water depth and rolling waves along the coastline) and to add dunes you'd need to be able to edit the height (@Jason_Williams I don't suppose you guys would provide access to those tools to a couple of modders like us??).

[VAG_Sevy]

12 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

Also, it doesn't seem like you can specify the roads files anywhere in the mission files, which means that you have to have Mods On to see "real" roads. Which is not the case with "fake" roads.

There, I'm a little lost ... Don't we to be absolutely modded to display the personalized textures? ?

Edited February 13, 2022 by VAG_Sevy

[FTC_Woop]

20 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

The Hürtgen forest is already being done by myself:

This is severely outdated though; a much improved version will be released shortly.

Would be very interested in an updated version of this! Looks amazing!

[AEthelraedUnraed]

1 hour ago, FTC_Woop said:

Would be very interested in an updated version of this! Looks amazing!

Thanks. Have a little patience, in a few weeks I'll release a P-47 campaign that includes a heavily upgraded version of the Hürtgen terrain

[VAG_Sevy]

34 minutes ago, VAG_Sevy said:

If you want to add granite aspect of national roads of the 1940's on Rheinland map, here is for you!

 

Download here

 

 

 

 

[FTC_Woop]

Has anyone added the Lion Mound of Waterloo yet, or is that not possible due to the heightmap changing?

 

You guys adding all these missing things to the map really do breathe new life into it, very impressive stuff.

[Hamaha15]

On 2/14/2022 at 1:19 PM, VAG_Sevy said:

If you want to add granite aspect of national roads of the 1940's on Rheinland map, here is for you!

Looks great and when added to the SurfaceTex file, these roads can be placed everywhere.

 

May I use them with the upcoming Operation Oyster mission updates?

 

[VAG_Sevy]

1 hour ago, Hamaha15 said:

May I use them with the upcoming Operation Oyster mission updates?

You can use anything you want, that's why I'm sharing

[Jade_Monkey]

Lovely

[Jason_Williams]

We do not condone or support altering our topology.

 

Jason

[Avimimus]

That is ominous... makes it sound like some catastrophic bug could happen if someone tries!

[Danziger]

11 hours ago, Avimimus said:

That is ominous... makes it sound like some catastrophic bug could happen if someone tries!

Possibly. The Moscow map was updated officially some time ago and the ground level was lowered overall. This resulted in some interesting bugs regarding the AI vehicle and train movements. If you were using any terrain mods for the map, the roads and railways were suddenly levitating above the ground. 

[Avimimus]

7 hours ago, Danziger said:

Possibly. The Moscow map was updated officially some time ago and the ground level was lowered overall. This resulted in some interesting bugs regarding the AI vehicle and train movements. If you were using any terrain mods for the map, the roads and railways were suddenly levitating above the ground. 

 

Yeah  I remember that - I'd completely forgotten that I'd loaded a texture mod for the roads and just assumed it was a bug that'd be fixed in a later patch - it took me a few weeks to realise it was my fault ? 

[IckyATLAS]

Touching the very basic building blocks of the map or its structure is off limits. We can add things on it on the base of what is given with the editor. But going further is not appreciated. And indeed we lack too many things and too much information to make a complete and proper work to improve the map. This is why I looked at it long ago and gave up. I invested more time in mission and campaign building and also flying for sure.

There is a fundamental difference between what Jason and its team will do and what we as a community can do.

The time that Jason and his team will invest to develop a map, new planes etc. is based on economics like return on investment, profit, marketing, milestones, planning, communication etc. etc. It is a business. I am convinced that each one of the dev team including Jason are passionate about what they do, but they do it for a living and this is why there are limits to what they can do and what project they can decide to do or not.

On the other side for us it is a hobby, leisure, passion etc. and there are no economics involved, pure pleasure. We thank here Jason and its team to have made this possible. As a consequence we can very well invest an absurd amount of time and money to make the sim as perfect as we would like.

Here the delicate thing is how to find the right mix between what is made available to the community and what should not be. And the decision does not belong to us.

But let's admit that we have already a lot, but and that is very natural we want always more ? 

Edited February 21, 2022 by IckyATLAS