Africa Bitmaps (Full Version)

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Shannon V. OKeets -> Africa Bitmaps (10/17/2006 10:36:16 PM)

The bitmaps for the coastal hexes and rivers/lakes for southern Africa are in. This is just a tease.

[image]local://upfiles/16701/5FD69A387D6C435DB086E07812809DF9.jpg[/image]



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/17/2006 10:38:02 PM)

Patrice did the drafts for the coast lines and Rob Armstrong did the final versions.

[image]local://upfiles/16701/8B7519EFB8C440D7813FEB94A5B8FD5B.jpg[/image]



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/17/2006 10:39:55 PM)

Here is the upper half of the southern Africa map segment. I'll zoom in on the east and west parts of this next.



[image]local://upfiles/16701/B4A95B1099C2475D8C76AA77F19C082C.jpg[/image]



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/17/2006 10:46:22 PM)

The western part of the upper half of southern Africa - Huh?[&:]

If you look closely at the hexes in the upper left corner, you can see that the row above the top row does not have a correct coastline.

[image]local://upfiles/16701/DD8C2E1CC0A248F0B49CD6DA0016FF19.jpg[/image]



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/17/2006 10:50:46 PM)

And the eastern part which has the lakes. The inaccuracies with how the lakes look is data: a couple missing lake hexsides and a couple of RLS hexes. An RLS hex is a hex that has river/lake bitmap but no rivers/lake that affect game play - they are the tips of the lake hexsides. For example, the hex that the word Blantyre is in should be an RLS hex so the lake above it is complete.

[image]local://upfiles/16701/3976558CE3DF43CD8D4C280194529431.jpg[/image]



Froonp -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/17/2006 11:21:00 PM)

Wow, even if I did the drafts, I'm impressed with the in-game results.

About the rivers (from these screenshots and from those oof Scandinavia), I have the feeling in seeing them, that they are too thin. They seem thinner than the European Rivers.



Incy -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/17/2006 11:26:16 PM)

Some hexes that I suspect are designated as coastal but should not be:

-2 SE of Walvis Bay
-2 SW of Leopoldville
-SW W of Loepoldville



Incy -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/17/2006 11:36:30 PM)

btw, I figured out how you could fix the "inconsistant blue all-land hexsides" problem without extra processing:

-Make the background colour blue(I assume it is?)
-Align hexes 1 pixel apart as now, but draw all 6 sides of all non-coastal hexsides

This will cause most brown hexside pixels to be drawn twice (which should hardly be an extra strain for the graphics engine?). Blue hexsides will not be drawn, but will be the background color. All all-land hexsides will be brown, all all-or-partial ocean hexsides will be blue.

OK, I know this was settled before and I'm supposed to shut up about this, but couldn't help myself *runs for cover*
(will not be upset if you throw away this idea)

Incy



Froonp -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/17/2006 11:37:25 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Incy

Some hexes that I suspect are designated as coastal but should not be:

-2 SE of Walvis Bay
-2 SW of Leopoldville
-SW W of Loepoldville

Unfortunately, it is too late to review the coastlines, you should have said it in the African Review thread. Now that the Graphist has drawn the coastal hexsides, I think it is too late to change them.

But, anyway, why are you saying that ??? I do not see the coast where you say it is ?!? Is it because of the blue hexsides ??? I'm checking in game.

Well, indeed you're right !!!!!
I'll correct the CSV data.



Froonp -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/17/2006 11:48:17 PM)

quote:

But, anyway, why are you saying that ??? I do not see the coast where you say it is ?!? Is it because of the blue hexsides ??? I'm checking in game.

Well, indeed you're right !!!!!
I'll correct the CSV data.

Steve, would it be possible to make some signal (say a large blue dot) appear in hexes that are coastal hexes (by the CSV files) when the game is launched, say, in developper mode ? Some kind of MWiF /dev command line, or I don't know what.

It is a pain to check for wrong coastal (CSV) hexes. Incy spotted 2, I don't know how, but I for one completely overlooked them [:D].



Incy -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/17/2006 11:54:28 PM)

look at the left and two top hexsides. If they are blue, the hex is coastal in the CSV data.

Incy



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/17/2006 11:57:35 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Froonp
quote:

But, anyway, why are you saying that ??? I do not see the coast where you say it is ?!? Is it because of the blue hexsides ??? I'm checking in game.

Well, indeed you're right !!!!!
I'll correct the CSV data.

Steve, would it be possible to make some signal (say a large blue dot) appear in hexes that are coastal hexes (by the CSV files) when the game is launched, say, in developper mode ? Some kind of MWiF /dev command line, or I don't know what.

It is a pain to check for wrong coastal (CSV) hexes. Incy spotted 2, I don't know how, but I for one completely overlooked them [:D].


Given his other post, I would hazard a guess that he saw the blue hex outline and knew from that that the data had the hex as coastal.

So, we look for blue hex boundaries in the interior of the continents?



Froonp -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/18/2006 12:00:54 AM)

quote:

So, we look for blue hex boundaries in the interior of the continents?

Yes [:D]
But it would be simpler, and fairer to my tired eyes, to search for big blue dots [:D] [:D] [:D]



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/18/2006 12:05:03 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Incy
look at the left and two top hexsides. If they are blue, the hex is coastal in the CSV data.

Incy


So, I was right. But, Incy, I for one do not have such excellent vision! Quick, which of these hexsides have blue grid lines instead of black? I feel like I'm a blind man by comparison.

[image]local://upfiles/16701/B6729EE0644F40AE808496287D9E8BF0.jpg[/image]



Incy -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/18/2006 12:52:48 AM)

The trick is a hugely bright 24 incher from Dell ;)



Froonp -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/18/2006 1:31:16 AM)

Well, I find that the rivers are not visible enough. My guess is that they are not thick enough.
Are you sure they are equally thick as the european ones ?



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/18/2006 1:54:49 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Froonp

Well, I find that the rivers are not visible enough. My guess is that they are not thick enough.
Are you sure they are equally thick as the european ones ?

I'll check, but I believe you are right. They also follow the hexgrid too closely. When a country border is superimposed on top of them, the rivers are too difficult to see.

But let's fix all that we can before going back to Rob with a corrections list.



Froonp -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/18/2006 2:02:01 AM)

quote:

They also follow the hexgrid too closely. When a country border is superimposed on top of them, the rivers are too difficult to see.

I felt that the Scandinavian Rivers were better than the South African ones, they seemed not to follow the hexgrid so closely. The Scandinavian ones are really good IIRC. I don't know if Rob used an atlas for inspiration for those, and not for the African ones.



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/18/2006 9:46:19 PM)

The rest of the African coastal and river/lake bitmaps have arrived. It is going to take a lot of screen shots to show these.

[image]local://upfiles/16701/0D54EACCD052460A96AD4ACFD2F83A37.jpg[/image]



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/18/2006 9:49:59 PM)

There are a few corrections needed. The most important one will be to make the rivers thicker and with less overlap with the hexgrid. I would like the rivers to parallel and cross over the hexgrid rather than follow it so closely. That's partially aesthetics but since rivers often form country boundaries, I want both the rivers and the country borders visible (i.e., not on top of each other).

[image]local://upfiles/16701/A4028678C03C470887243A4B8A540263.jpg[/image]



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/18/2006 9:52:24 PM)

3rd in the series. Lake Chad has problems, but that is easily fixed in the data files.

[image]local://upfiles/16701/741ED6D2F73544A29A59520D34F677E0.jpg[/image]



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/18/2006 9:54:21 PM)

This screen shot overlaps with the ones from yesterday for southern Africa. All of these are zoom level 3.

[image]local://upfiles/16701/07E2EEE2660141BA8DAE4B4F91C9039B.jpg[/image]



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/18/2006 9:57:02 PM)

Lake Victoria also has data problems, as do some of the smaller lakes (they are missing their tips).

We need the rivers to be thicker especially when they run through the jungle and mountains.

[image]local://upfiles/16701/D56D837E6DCB4EB1B82B0C64220D3A6F.jpg[/image]



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/18/2006 9:59:11 PM)

The horn of Africa, the Red Sea, and the upper Nile. Some pretty famous places.

[image]local://upfiles/16701/4B83593059194E438C410A03CE1DD730.jpg[/image]



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/18/2006 10:01:20 PM)

Most of Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf. The hexes above Kuwait haven't had their bitmaps done yet. They will be part of the Caucasus segment.

[image]local://upfiles/16701/D2A4724CEFF1474EBAF6A533875BBB83.jpg[/image]



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/18/2006 10:06:15 PM)

Last in the series of 8. I kicked this one up to zoom level 5 (the others were at 3). Looking at the Nile, you can see the 3 variations we have tried for the rivers. The northern portion is correctly done. I have the correction for the center piece lying around somewhere - I think it is under that chair over there. The southern river bitmaps need thickening; not a lot, but enough to match the northern ones.

[image]local://upfiles/16701/95A695B6C26E4A6696128E764755D8DB.jpg[/image]



Ballista -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/18/2006 10:19:20 PM)

A small thing here, but something about islands and their fade outlining seems cut off when it approaches a hexside (compare "A" with "B" and "C" below:

[image]http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m36/Crapulentis_Sum/untitled3.png[/image]]


Many apologies- I can't seem to get the picture to embed properly :(


Finally got it though :D



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/18/2006 10:27:44 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Ballista
A small thing here, but something about islands and their fade outlining seems cut off when it approaches a hexside (compare "A" with "B" and "C" below:

[image]http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m36/Crapulentis_Sum/untitled3.png[/image]]


Many apologies- I can't seem to get the picture to embed properly :(


Finally got it though :D


Yes, I see your point. But this is sort of the nature of the beast, since we need to have all the all-sea hexes look alike. The blending that the artist can achieve has its limits. If you look at the hex the text "(CW)" is in, a similar situation exists. And of course the land hex terrain does not blend whatsoever.



Ballista -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/18/2006 10:29:06 PM)

That's cool. Just something I noticed pouring over the maps segments (map-o-phile that I am :D )



Incy -> RE: Africa Bitmaps (10/19/2006 12:28:10 AM)

There are
-3 inland hexes that are designated coastal in nothwestern Mauretania
-2 in eastern Senegal
-hex SW of Bamako
-hex that has the IVO in IVORY COAST
-hex NW of Accra
-Hex 3 E Libreville
-All of the Quatarra depression (or?)



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