Map editing question

[Lowell]

I enlarged the Florida map to a size 20 map (runs great.) What do I need to do to cleanup the edges?

I can have some luck at editing and enlarging the bank all the way around, but some dark edges still show.

[stormfather]

I can't tell from the picture, but I think that your problem is that the land at the beach is exactly at sea level. Just use the terrain height tool to sink the coastal water a little deeper.

However, the problem could also be that the ground has been tinted (sort of like the state borders in my America map.) If that's the case, open up the map.tga and go to the all white layer. If there are any black lines on it, wipe them out. Save (as a tga), then open the map up in the terrain editor and save the map again (to update the thumbnail pic.) It should be cleared up.

[Dr Frag]

It looks like there is a little pixelation there. You might need to blur the HeightMap some. Like stormfather mentioned you might need to bump the Brightness 'just a tad' to raise the land a few more pixels above sea level. Send me the TGA file if you'd like me to take a shot at it.

[Lowell]

That would be awesome...I was just going over your wiki on making custom maps.
Here is the tga... http://www.CrimsonSun.cc/map_FLA6.rar

[Dr Frag]

Okay, it looks like you used some sort of filter on the image and it caused the colors to get out of wack on some of the tiles. Strangely the 'Unknown' tile was the culprit. I filled the Blends, Unknown, and Shoreline tiles with their default values and all looks well. Oh, and I also got rid of the strange two rows of trees along the top edge of the Trees tile.

http://www.model-railroading.net/Railroads/map_FLA6.rar

[Lowell]

Fantastic. Thanks.
All I did was take the Florida map and use IrfanView to resize it. I did sharpen the image twice. I should have used fireworks to resize it.

EDIT//When I used IrfanView to resize the map I had forgotten the bottom checklist inside IrfanView. By default it uses one of five filters. I just clicked the "use no filters" button, and now it resizes all maps without adding the torn edges.

Thanks again

[Lowell]

Okay now I've done it...
The older Florida map I was using was incorrect. It buged me. So I went to make a new one. I keep making the area larger than the northern Florida area, but this darn scale at the top left keeps blocking the view. What's worse I even went into Georgia and Alabama so if it poped at the top it would be out of the way...nope it still pops up in the top left corner.
I've attached a jpg image of the map...is there a setting I can turn off that menu bar? What about those ( + ) marks...can they be removed?

[snoopy55]

Ya, that dern scale. You need to first grab the gray scale map larger than you want. then load it into Paint Shop Pro, use the crop tool to outline the area you really want, then crop it. that will take care of the scale.
The only way I know of to get rid of the crosses is in the editor, unless the Doc or someone else knows of a way. On flat land they're no problem, but in mountains they're a nuisance.
Did you put the colors in?

[Lowell]

I have the grey scale. I was following the wiki line by line...works well. I had just saved the color tga and made a jpg just for the picture.

I did make the square much bigger than the Florida area. Then when I made my last square way-over the area I wanted...then hit the Dem key...it placed it right at the florida border ( which I didn't want) and placed the grey scale thing in it's place.

EDIT//I should have had the bottom edge of Georgia and Alabama. I drug the square over all the area but it stopped at the florida border for some reason.

[snoopy55]

OK, go back and decide the area you want. Attached are 2 screen shots. (I know they open with wordpad, but hey....) In the initial map you can see what I mean by oversized. Save this and get out of the map program. now go into a program like Paint Shop Pro and crop it down so it looks like the Final map, or whatever you like. in this way, you get rid of the scale.

[Lowell]

Thanks Snoopy55...

I think see where I went wrong...I didn't go out far enough when I was making my Dem square. I had to go way north and west just to get the bottom half I wanted. Then I croped that grey value bar out in Paint Shop as you had mentioned. Now to adjust the white and dark values... lets see how long it takes me to mess this up...

I want it to be a size 17 map...hope it will play well.


EDIT//Dang...attached the wrong picture...can't edit the other one out...sorry. The top grey scale florida picture is the correct one. That's what I get for having two files with the same name but different folders...that will teach me.


EDIT//EDIT//I got what I wanted...turned the brightness up to 25... But I think Global warming has taken affect. Miami and the Keys are gone. The png I used is the one below. So I guess I need to make it brighter?

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EDIT//EDIT//EDIT//I think I've got it down now. Although the southern area was very low...naturally the everglades are there. However I edited the area by hand and rebuilt the keys and was able to save Miami from global warming. I even placed Key West on an island...although I exaggerated a tad on the islands size for the game. The mountains and hills at the southern Georgia and Alabama borders were way too high...I had to edit that part of the map by hand. Seeing as I have driven this whole three state area myself throughout the years I could tell most of the landscape. I'm not sure if I did it quite correct either...I turned up the contrast to 100...then added brightness till I saw the land surfaces up. But it looks good. I also had to deepen the ocean level...it was only knee deep, you could have walked to cuba without swimming.

The top two screenshots show how I edited the landscape by hand to finish it. The bottom two are where I started.

...The top picture is of Fort Myers with lake Okeechobee in the background...looking from the gulf coast. Off to the far laft you see the inlet and island for St. Petersburg. This map is a size 17... Also... on the top picture the camera was moved a zillion miles up, just for perspective.

[Dr Frag]

Yes, you can disable all those extra details on the MicroDEM screen. Once you get your map image right-click and select Legends/Maginalia and uncheck all that stuff.

[snoopy55]

I spent 18 monthes in Florida at Homestead AFB. Of course, a huricane took the base along with the city of Homestead off the map last I hheard. My fear down there was that if you dug down 12 to 18 inches, you hit water.

[Lowell]

Yes, you can disable all those extra details on the MicroDEM screen. Once you get your map image right-click and select Legends/Maginalia and uncheck all that stuff.

Oh cool...I will try that.

My fear down there was that if you dug down 12 to 18 inches, you hit water.

I lived at Ponte Vedra Beach for several years (between Jacksonville and St. Augustine)...grew up in Hollywood Fla. That southern area is real swampy, the water table is almost at ground level for sure. During Hugo several years back...'89-90 somewhere in there, I was driving up the shoreline on A1A. The sky over the ocean was pitch black...the waves were washing over the sand dunes and over the road, thick sheets of water rushing fast...just about washed me off at one point. The wind was unreal. This was at noon or one o'clock in the afternoon...pitch black. Spooky stuff...

I think their biggest scare a few years back were the sinkholes that keep swallowing up whole houses.

[dwax]

Are you getting close to release the Florida map yet Lowell? The suspense is just killing me