I'm Completely Clueless

[Cleaner475 150]

I've been trying hard to get the Dubai map on th STEX to work: the map in question

When you try to create the map within SC4 it says the maps the wrong size, when I do it with SC4Mapper the map is covered in tiny tiny mountains all over and when I use SCRACC to resize the map it looks like this:

I've checked the grayscale, its covered in little dots which is what causes the tiny thousands of mountains in SC4Mapper but yet when I do it in SC4 iteself after using SCRACC the effects are clear to see with chunks of land missing.

So unless I'm missing something I'm completely cluessless

Richard

[Vandy 110]

Hello, Cleaner.

I can't see your graphic as dropbox is blocked at my work. I've downloaded the grayscale image and have looked at it six ways to Sunday but don't see the little dots you've described. I see solid gray areas for the land and blacker areas for the water.

I can help you with the size problem on the two files.

The grayscale image shows a size of 2381 x 1398. Right off the bat, those dimensions are wrong as a grayscale image SHOULD NOT have an even number as one of its dimensions.

In order to ensure you have the right dimentions for grayscale image and config.bmp file, follow the below formula:

cw = width of the config.bmp in pixels

ch = height of the config.bmp in pixels

gw = width of the grayscale image in pixels

gh = height of the grayscale image in pixels

If the region size is known, find the dimensions of the config.bmp file:

(gw-1) / 64 = cw

(gh-1) / 64 = ch

This would result in the 2381 x 1398 pixel gray scale image neede a config.bmp fille of the size 37.1875 pxiels by 31.828125 pixels.

(2318-1) / 64 = 37.1875

(1398-1) / 64 = 31.828125

This size is completely ludicrous.

If you take the existing config.bmp dimentions and apply the formula:

(cw * 64) + 1 = rw

(ch * 64) + 1 = rh

You'll get a grayscale image dimension of 3073 pixels by 2049.

(48 * 64) + 1 = 3073

(32 * 64) + 1 = 2049

Given these two files dimensions, you should be able to create the region in SC4.

Finally, I'm completely at a loss to understand why, if you've already used the grayscale image and config.bmp files to create a region in SC4, you have to then use SC4Mapper or SC4Terraformer to futher "create" the region. It's already been created in SC4 (assuming you've modified the files as I've outlined above).

Good luck!

Regards,

Vandy

[Cleaner475 150]

Hello, Cleaner.

I can't see your graphic as dropbox is blocked at my work. I've downloaded the grayscale image and have looked at it six ways to Sunday but don't see the little dots you've described. I see solid gray areas for the land and blacker areas for the water.

I can help you with the size problem on the two files.

The grayscale image shows a size of 2381 x 1398. Right off the bat, those dimensions are wrong as a grayscale image SHOULD NOT have an even number as one of its dimensions.

In order to ensure you have the right dimentions for grayscale image and config.bmp file, follow the below formula:

cw = width of the config.bmp in pixels

ch = height of the config.bmp in pixels

gw = width of the grayscale image in pixels

gh = height of the grayscale image in pixels

If the region size is known, find the dimensions of the config.bmp file:

(gw-1) / 64 = cw

(gh-1) / 64 = ch

This would result in the 2381 x 1398 pixel gray scale image neede a config.bmp fille of the size 37.1875 pxiels by 31.828125 pixels.

(2318-1) / 64 = 37.1875

(1398-1) / 64 = 31.828125

This size is completely ludicrous.

If you take the existing config.bmp dimentions and apply the formula:

(cw * 64) + 1 = rw

(ch * 64) + 1 = rh

You'll get a grayscale image dimension of 3073 pixels by 2049.

(48 * 64) + 1 = 3073

(32 * 64) + 1 = 2049

Given these two files dimensions, you should be able to create the region in SC4.

Finally, I'm completely at a loss to understand why, if you've already used the grayscale image and config.bmp files to create a region in SC4, you have to then use SC4Mapper or SC4Terraformer to futher "create" the region. It's already been created in SC4 (assuming you've modified the files as I've outlined above).

Good luck!

Regards,

Vandy

Hi Vandy,

This is difficult to explain,

The reason I've tried to create the region in SC4Mapper and SC4 itself is because the creator of the map suggests using SC4Mapper to create the map (SC4Mapper tells you it needs to change the dimensions of the map when you try to create it). However when I do this my maps is covered in these tiny mini mountains, the dots of the map cannot be seen on normal image viewer but can on the program I use paint.net. The also show up on windows paint, but not any other image viewer programs I have

Heres what they look like close up:

When I edit the image and remove some of the dots by using a paint brush tool and filling covering over the dots with the normal land colour, the small mountains disappear although doing this for the whole map would take several hours, and that not the single problem, all the coastlines are also raised higher than they should be.

EDIT: Been generating it in SC4Mapper again and have not experience the same problems with the dots causing mini mountains anymore (don't really know why) however the map is still not as it should be, I get these results:

Clearly not as it should be

When I resize the map to 12x8 large cities as suggested by some people using the SCRACC tool, as shown in the first picture I posted, chunks of lands are missing.

Hope this explains it a bit better.

On your advice, shouldn't resizing the image using SCRACC or letting SC4Mapper resize it for me solve the grayscale size issue. Other people seem to have used SCRACC to resize the map and don't seen to be experiencing the same problems I'm having.

Richard

  Edited March 30, 2011 by Cleaner475  

[Tropic Storm 15]

Hi Cleaner

There must be something wrong with the grayscale info, might have been during the export process.

I cannot say for the SCRACC (it may be wrong elevation settings, not sure enough though, never used SCRACC), but I can most certainly say something about the craggy coastline.

I've remembered facing with a problem like it from modding the grayscale of an old Auckland map. All those bumps in the coastlines are caused by the compression from saving it as a .jpeg in the paint program, like this for example.

All the white dots ended up like huge rocky spikes. I don't know why, but some pic editors love to compress such files. Editing before was such a PITA!

If by any chance you have Photoshop, that would be a much better editor for large jpgs like this. In my version of PS, once I click "Save", it gives me an option of saving it in maximum quality so there would be little to no compression at all.

After that said, this is a seriously nice region and to have UAE and Qatar on one map in SC4 would be just awesome!

[Cleaner475 150]

Hi tropic storm,

I don't have photoshop but paint.net is a very similair program, it allows me to save really high quality JPEG's but I wouldn't have thought it would be possible to uncompress this file, wouldn't you need the original to do that? Anyway I've given your advice a go and I've resaved the JPEG file at 100% quality (highest setting on paint.net) and the file size has jumped from 326kb to 2.11 meg, I'll try it out on SC4Mapper later once I get back from work and see if it solves the problem,

Thanks for your help,

Regards,

Richard

[Tropic Storm 15]

I've resaved the JPEG file at 100% quality (highest setting on paint.net) and the file size has jumped from 326kb to 2.11 meg

Sounds like a healthy number to me. My land jpegs are stuck at 7mgs!

[Cleaner475 150]

I've resaved the JPEG file at 100% quality (highest setting on paint.net) and the file size has jumped from 326kb to 2.11 meg

Sounds like a healthy number to me. My land jpegs are stuck at 7mgs!

Very healthy . I've been busy recently so haven't got around to seeing if it's fixed the problem, should be able to test it later today and I'll post the results

Richard

  Edited April 3, 2011 by Cleaner475