Official SEOW

~S~

Currently there is the whole sector (a HUGE map) and a handful of islands views. The whole sector, everything is tiny. In the detailed island views, you get higher resolution of that island.

We have decided to add a new level of detail to the Marianas Campaign in between these two variations. Something that balances a good amount of water, but allows a somewhat higher resolution of the islands, or part of an island. (reasoning, long story will provide later if needed)

Okay, the concept in MP is fairly straight forward. I have copied a php file and replaced the values in it. I have made a screen shot of the area I have defined. I have checked and double checked EVERY value and they are spot on.

My problem is that units are being displayed in the wrong position.

Here is the new php file details:

$CampaignMap="Marianas";
$pageTitle="Scorched Earth Mission HQ"; //Title bar text
$pageName="Marianas Saipan NW"; //Title in top left corner of page
$GeographicMapImage="Marianas-SaipanNorthWest.jpg"; //Bitmap of geographic area
$maxpX=1147; //Size of map image in pixels in x direction
$mincX=50000; //Min longitude of image in FB coords
$maxcX=150000; //Max longitude of image in FB coords
$maxpY=803; // Size of map image in pixels in y direction
$mincY=230000; //Min latitude of image in FB coords
$maxcY=300000; //Max latitude of image in FB coords
$mapOffsetX=0.0; //FB longitude offset of map origin
$mapdivoffsetX=250; //Pixel offset of left edge of map image DIV
$mapOffsetY=0.0; //FB latitude offset of map origin
$mapdivoffsetY=0; //Pixel offset of top edge of map image DIV
$ShowRoads=false; //Turns on display of pre-defined road routes
$ShowRoadWP=false; //Turns on display of pre-defined road route waypoints
$ShowRailways=false; //Turns on display of pre-defined rail routes
$ShowRailwayWP=false; //Turns on display of pre-defined rail route waypoints

To test this I have a resupply_point setup and a tank at an airfield. Both of which are located spot on grid points.

Resupply Point:
'0', 'Marianas', 'r', 'Air_Supply', 60000, 290000, 2500

The tank is defined as
2_Static vehicles.artillery.Artillery$PzV_II 2 140000.00 235000.00 360.00 0.0 0

You can see that both the 'items' are within the boundaries of the map. But they don't display in the correct locations. And they aren't equal, they error seems to be greater on the lower right than the upper left.

In the upper left, the supply point is only off by 7 pixels (1-2km) in the up down (no error left to right). However, the tank in the lower right is off by much more and in both directions (it should be close the the south east side of the airfield, but it's actually in the ocean north west of the field.

I've checked everything, even the picture I've looked over time and time again. The dimensions are correct, Cropped EXACTLY on grid lines: I even looked at the other pics and noticed they are 71dpi, so I converted my JPG frm 72 to 71 dpi. (that actually made it worse. )

This is in preliminary to creating a whole new campaign, not in SE.

I'd like to know what I'm overlooking.

Best regards,

Raven

PS I can provide pictures and files if needed, just let me know and I will setup an FTP or email them.

Mission Planner v4.360

Hi Raven,

Some ideas, in decreasing order of magnitue of effect:

Some people forget to change the pixel dimensions. Are you sure the pixel dimensions quoted (1147x803) are EXACT matches for the pixel dimensions of the "Marianas-SaipanNorthWest.jpg" image file?

Secondly, by military convention, military unit symbols are meant to sit immediately ABOVE their true map locations. That is, the indicated location is at the centre of the bottom edge of the military symbol. Airfield symbols and resupply symbols are, instead, centred on their locations, IIRC.

Finally, don't believe everything you see in FMB. You may THINK that you cropped right on a grid line, but curvature of the topography may actually mean that you coordinate estimates are wrong. Sometimes you need to fiddle your min and max coordinate values to get the best fit across the screen.

One nice way to debug is to turn road display ON:
$ShowRoads=true

If you have roads defined on your map, then this will help you align the MP road display with the underlying map.

Cheers,
4Shades

IV/JG7_4Shades wrote: Some people forget to change the pixel dimensions. Are you sure the pixel dimensions quoted (1147x803) are EXACT matches for the pixel dimensions of the "Marianas-SaipanNorthWest.jpg" image file?

Absolutely positive.

IV/JG7_4Shades wrote: Secondly, by military convention, military unit symbols are meant to sit immediately ABOVE their true map locations. That is, the indicated location is at the centre of the bottom edge of the military symbol. Airfield symbols and resupply symbols are, instead, centred on their locations, IIRC.

I wondered about the placements of icons, but the error doesn't fit here. Even plotting waypoints produces errors.

On a similar note, if units are centered above there locations wouldn't it make sense for waypoints to be also. Waypoints are positioned with the upper left of the WP icon being at the WP position.

Resupply symbols are pretty confusing also, with Allied points being 'blue' and axis points being red.

IV/JG7_4Shades wrote: Finally, don't believe everything you see in FMB. You may THINK that you cropped right on a grid line, but curvature of the topography may actually mean that you coordinate estimates are wrong. Sometimes you need to fiddle your min and max coordinate values to get the best fit across the screen.

Will fiddle with mins and maxs, but this really puts a damper on things from an accuracy (as the error is not equal at all points on the map.) and time perspective and severly limits the ability to add new campaigns.

I will also do some measurements in Photoshop. If #pixels between gridlines are equal (i think they are) then there is no curvature or its even and not an issue.

How do 'you' guys go about creating these shots / php files?

MLR doesn't seem to have these issues and it essentially does the same thing.

IV/JG7_4Shades wrote: One nice way to debug is to turn road display ON:
$ShowRoads=true

If you have roads defined on your map, then this will help you align the MP road display with the underlying map.

Marianas contains no roads.

You must be pretty busy admining this project and all. Do you think you might be able to find the time to try this out on the Marianas map(s)? I could post the specifications of what I've been doing and then I could see what you did.

Best regards,

Raven

Hi Raven,
I prefer to take shots without gridlines at all. My method is to use 1600x1200 res. to take screen shots in FMB with no gridlines visible.
From my experience there is always some degree of distortion from the actual co-ordinates and the visible image the degree of which is based on how "high" you take the image from.

When taking images for areas of map with no roads (which really makes life so much easier) just create a test template with units in known specific co-ordinates or better yet at specific visible locations on the map like along the coastline of an island, next to specific tree lines etc. You can then use these unit icons to get the co-ordinates right so that they look right in the image. They may not be acurate to the mtr but you can get them very close indeed. Try to have units spread across the area in the image so you can be sure the location error is miminised as much as possible in the co-ordinates.

Cheers,

Hawk 5