Easy way to add countour/elevation lines

[ravells]

Hi Redleg - You chould check out Combat Mission Barbarossa to Berlin (CMBB), produced by a company called Battlefront. It's a turn based 3d, WW2 company level wargame. For your purposes it has a tile based map editor, which will allow you to produce maps in 3d. What it also allows for is the ability to check lines of sight (and it's a fantastic game), there is also a version - Combat Mission Shock Force, which is set in the modern day, I don't have it, but it will probably have a terrain editor too (not sure if it is only desert terrain though). Some screenshots attached of CMBB, giving you an idea of what I mean. In the second pic you can see I am checking what LOS the lead tank has (you simply hover the mouse over the point of terrain you want to check). If you are into 3d texturing, the mesh textures are all jpgs so they are easily modded too. In fact there are a large number of mods available. For infantry, the smallest represented unit is a squad, so I think this is the scale you are looking for. I think the largest map you can generate using the map editor is 2km square. Hmm.... looking at your map though it looks like you are after something more strategic though.

[redleg7]

Hi Redleg - You chould check out Combat Mission Barbarossa to Berlin (CMBB), produced by a company called Battlefront...

Lol, funny you should mention CMSF. I know Steve Grammont who is one of the designers, a few years back he visited my lab at West Point. Talked with him for over an hour one night in regards to how to model the Artillery (FYI a "Redleg" is an artilleryman).

The CM series is really meant for the grognards who like a ton of detail. Unfortunately I only have an hour with the cadets which means I need a fairly easy game that they can start playing within five minutes, and master the interface within 10. There's also a requirement to model actual terrain, at a minimum use some kind of imagery, I still have to code the terrain by hand. I have access to all kinds of map data, but I prefer to work with geotypical maps nothing specific. That way no one can nit pick the area, especially if it's one they've been to.

I didn't think it would be to very easy to generate what I need, but I thought I'd ask. I made some great progress mainly due to Tear's great tutorial, as well as some private convos with a2area, and the CG site in general. The maps that I thought were pretty good are looking kind of bland compared to what I'm doing now, and that's a good thing.

[ravells]

Lol, funny you should mention CMSF. I know Steve Grammont who is one of the designers, a few years back he visited my lab at West Point. Talked with him for over an hour one night in regards to how to model the Artillery (FYI a "Redleg" is an artilleryman).

The CM series is really meant for the grognards who like a ton of detail. Unfortunately I only have an hour with the cadets which means I need a fairly easy game that they can start playing within five minutes, and master the interface within 10. There's also a requirement to model actual terrain, at a minimum use some kind of imagery, I still have to code the terrain by hand. I have access to all kinds of map data, but I prefer to work with geotypical maps nothing specific. That way no one can nit pick the area, especially if it's one they've been to.



I didn't think it would be to very easy to generate what I need, but I thought I'd ask. I made some great progress mainly due to Tear's great tutorial, as well as some private convos with a2area, and the CG site in general. The maps that I thought were pretty good are looking kind of bland compared to what I'm doing now, and that's a good thing.

Oh wow, how cool is that! I don't know if this might be any help (because I have no idea what you want your game to achieve) but Redrobes (one of the CLs) has software which does 3d terrain...might be worth having a chat with him? If want you want is to generate random terrains with contour lines, then the only suggestion I can make is that you get Fractal Terrains and Campaign Cartographer by Profantasy. You can make random heightmapped terrain in the former which you can export to the latter. The result will be a vector map with countour lines which you can set to whatever divisions you want to. Best of luck with your endeavours!