Better Maps - Using Satellite Imagery

[upintheattic]

Googlemaps was a huge boon to me when developing PG scenarios. Some designers are distance challenged in that they get the distances between towns etc. wrong on their map setups. Googlemaps helped me solve that problem quickly and easily; with all the PG maps out there, it's easy to come up with new map configurations that get the distances right.

So did you actually find the areas with a specific game, like Elsenborn, and then reverse time to 1944? Or something else?

No, I just checked to make sure that the distances on the map layouts corresponded roughly to the distances on Googlemaps. If there was a huge discrepancy I rearranged the maps. Often, I'd see a pattern where a designer seemed to be operating on the erroneous assumption that each hex was 100M rather than 200M, and thus the distances between towns were twice what they should have been. That was the main thing Googlemaps helped me fix.

[drockland]

Vince is right, I was wondering how you can tell contours from Google Earth. Sorry for not being clear on my question. As I recall there is a "terrain" feature that will give you contours on the map image but not on the satellite one (?). And I am not sure if the contour interval is known.

Hey Blackcloud6. Well the bad news is that I don't know a way to put contour lines on the satellite view of Google maps (although I would swear that I could do it a few years ago using a plugin of some sort). However, the good news is that if you switch to the terrain view, it will give you contour lines. Furthermore, if you are at the "1000 ft" distance scale, the contour intervals are 20m, which is perfect for PG.

[Blackcloud6]

Hey Blackcloud6. Well the bad news is that I don't know a way to put contour lines on the satellite view of Google maps (although I would swear that I could do it a few years ago using a plugin of some sort). However, the good news is that if you switch to the terrain view, it will give you contour lines. Furthermore, if you are at the "1000 ft" distance scale, the contour intervals are 20m, which is perfect for PG.

Ah... I could not figure out how to do that in th terrain view. Thanks!

[Dean_P]

Hey Blackcloud6. Well the bad news is that I don't know a way to put contour lines on the satellite view of Google maps (although I would swear that I could do it a few years ago using a plugin of some sort). However, the good news is that if you switch to the terrain view, it will give you contour lines. Furthermore, if you are at the "1000 ft" distance scale, the contour intervals are 20m, which is perfect for PG.

Ah... I could not figure out how to do that in th terrain view. Thanks!

By the way, and not to hijack this thread, but I made a KMZ file of the battlefields of Airborne:Introductory Edition (to the best as I could figure them). Let me know what you think...

http://www.pg-hq.com/comms/showthread.ph...49#pid1049

Dean

[Shad]

Outstanding! The inclusion of scenario links back to PG-HQ takes it from awesome to brilliant!