Yes the original CFS3 landscape is distorted, putting an object in to the real life Lon/Lat will not match up in CFS3. i.e. it's a known error and it gets worse as you get to the edges.

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Thanks for that confirmation Pol, much appreciated. I was hoping you or one of the other WOFF devs/experts would weigh in on this. I seem to remember this now that you say it, from way back when I was doing the maps.

Cheers,

Lou

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Patiently listening...

Thanks Pol. Indeed, I think that you guys with experience on CFS3 original theater have seen that. In fact, the way the theater is sized, is a bit weird TBH. I'll describe this later.

I've increased the LCF file up to 8x, which is I think the max possible (above that, tiff2lcf can't read the input). I've also moved Ypres' layer to the south, quite precisely knowing how much meters, theoretically, a pixel equals to.

And then, welcome to Ypres salient!



There's room for improvement; but it's not too bad actually.

Nice! If you can figure out how to deal with the CFS3 map distortion, you will receive immediate entry into the WOFF modders Hall of Fame!

(As well as immediate entry into the BWOC, if you haven't made it already)!

Last one for today. Langemark and Houthulst Forest; notice that I'm trying to get a better transition to the frontline

A little example of CFS3 terrain flows.

I choose the Dover - Calais area to illustrate the situation.

Layer 1: SRTM30 elevation data



Layer 2: OpenStreetMap



Layer 3: CFS3 Map converted to GeoTIFF (actual original theater coordinates) with 40% translucency



Layer 4: CFS3 LCF converted to GeoTIFF (actual original theater coordinates) with 40% translucency



I could have shown it better but I can confirm that CFS3 LCF is pretty good at matching SRTM/OSM data. Not perfect, but okay.

However, I'm letting you guys judging CFS3 map accuracy.

And the worst part, look now at CFS3 Map over CFS3 LCF... It looks like the map has been stretched north west (controlling myself not to be impolite... )

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Xav, what I can judge from your above illustrations is that I don't really have a clue about any of it. HTH.

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Yes Lou All this is pretty much over my head as well but there is no denying, that based on the last overlay image, the CFS3 LCF is not as stretched if at all for the area shown.

That's right. I really don't understand why TBH. I hope it is not a kind of technique to make it working with something buggy, which is not viewable from the angle of the user...

Anyway, I've suceeded in using a 2x bigger map_background.dds for the entire theater. It seems to work... But I've to be really honest, I can't say it for sure as all my previous attempts failed. Therefore, more testing is needed.



I can follow the Yser river quite well, and I eventually flew over Ypres (missing label), Courtai, Roulers, Staden, Dixmude, and it looks good.

It may just be me but if the infight map could be as clear as your map that would be fantastic xjove.

Robert,

Do you mean the map in the first post?

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It's not just you, Robert. For those that use the in-flight map that would be marvelous.

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Lou, I wish we could have used yours for that. You spent considerable time generating them and they are very good.
Xjove may be able to help in this matter.

Xjove I am speaking of replacing the current WOFF in flight map with yours or Lou's if possible. I am assuming you have flown WOFF and used the "M" key to display the in flight map.

This is ingame. I can do something like this for the whole front line. It needs a bit of cleaning BTW. And adjustments to fit with front line moves.

It comes from 100+ years old maps designed by the French Army.

I can say I'm satisfied with the historical WW1-World of WOFF. Towns, river, historical Topographie, … . It's not perfect but good in my opinion.
And I haven't believed, that an significant improvement is possible with the (old) cfs3-engine.
I will follow this very interesting work!

The Royal Flying Corps, and for that matter, much of the BEF, went to war in 1914 with Michelin road maps
Cheers
Shredward

Hi Shredward,

I didn't know that. Are you sure that you are not referring to Etat Major's maps rather than Michelin's? As per my knowledge the Michelin's came into interest after the war when the brand issued their famous guides of battlefields.

The Cartes d'Etat Major used by the army were not old by the time the war started. The Army has asked for a revision of the 1820-1886 versions and that came into production in 1912.

You can see snapshots there in their Plans Directeurs version (artillery maps): https://sourcesdelagrandeguerre.fr/?p=4037

I've managed to get 2 map_background.dds for the full front line.

It takes the 1:1000000 Schwartz version for January 1915 as a base layer. I've cleaned it (remove the yellowish paper, etc.) and try to get the most accurate positioning over the real geolocations, without distorting it too much (the maps came from 2 scans that are not good). It is not perfect, however, I think that we don't necessarily need more accuracy there, as it could be seen as having been done by hand, and thus unperfectly.

1) Color version



2) Black & White version



The most historically accurate version is the B&W as colorful maps were very unlikely to be used during the war.