Description

These mods replace cfs3WWI.lcf (WOFF) land cover files by new ones.

The aim is to display in-game all little villages, towns, cities, and forests. The mods also show woods in place of secondary waterways.

I used two different resources to create them: CORINE Land Cover 2012 (CLC) and a 2GIS map after having converted it to a palette. CLC is a <25m geometric accuracy satellite data. It consists of an inventory of land cover in 44 classes to provide an exhaustive display. The number of classes is far from being covered by CFS3/WOFF classes, therefore, I've also created a second version using 2GIS data. This data is not aimed at being used as a palette, but as it consists of only 5 colors, it has been fairly easy to make it work. It covers the essential classes.

I had to make Microsoft tiff2lcf compatible.

In order to 'paint' the frontlines, I have used several WW1 contemporary and 1920's maps as layers; the vast majority being plans directeurs des Groupes de Canevas de Tirs des Armées (French artillery maps, 1915-1918) and Schwartz's maps (in La Guerre racontée par nos Généraux, Gal. Dubai & Mar. Fayolle, 1920). All of them were accurately localized with Global Mapper prior to serving as layers.

2GIS / CLC land cover samples (without fronlines)


Verdun Ingame comparison: 2GIS vs CLC*


Nieuport Ingame comparison: 2GIS vs CLC*


Other screenshots (2GIS): 1) Bailleul/Nieppe/Armentières, 2) Jonkershove/Houthulst and its forest recreated like 100+ years ago, 3) Saint-Omer, 4) Saint-Quentin, 5) Ypres, 6) Armentières, 7) Arras **
1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7)

* Rivers not included
** Texture not included, used only to make land cover stand-out more clearly

Content

The mods consist of the following files



The New Landcover mods replace each of these files only. No changes are made towards other files of the game. Each mod consists of a set of these files but delivers a different level of variety.

Installation

Use JSGME after having placed the mod root folder in the MODS folder.

Use at your own risk.

Links

XJ-

Where can one d/l your mod?

Link is in the first post

Here: https://mega.nz/file/17ogyKTa#CPdS4j_DUUZafq4vB2dsKcJCrFyLL9dB07ZdFUELomk

Dumb question: I assume this mod is separate from your terrain enhancement mod? Second dumb question: is there any noticeable difference in frame rates between WOFF default, 2GIS, and CLC?

Also, do you have a download to the in-game map mod you were working on? I'm really looking forward to that.

XJ

Thanks for the link. Keep up your terrific work..great enhancements for WOFF!!

May have missed this instruction..can the terrain mod and the landcover mod be used together? Or do they interfere with each other?
Thanks

Worked twice... 2nf time was giving me stutters and when I pressed the Map key, I got a CTD back to the Manager. Now I get WOFF DLL runtime error when I start up.

I'm going to say it might be taxing the game engine a little bit. I'm not sure, but I never had this issue before loading this. I looks fantastic, but might need some performance tweaking to work better with the ancient CFS engine on all systems and settings.

Yes, this mod can be used alone or in combination with elevation data. Regarding FPS, there's no difference between both, but the difference with stock land classes is still to be tested.

Sure, I'll post it in a separate thread.



Both are fully compatible.



- Regarding the runtime error. I've investigated, and found a no-go bug for some 1918 periods. May I ask you if you was flying 1918?

- Regarding the map, this is weird as the mod doesn't affect in-flight map. Maybe something with memory then.

I'm uploading v1.02 at the moment with the correction. Hopefully, this will resolve your runtime problem. Otherwise, I could try making a lite version, but it probably won't be as accurate as this one.

v1.02 link available in first post

Please if you downloaded previous version, consider moving for the new one as it corrects a critical bug.

Hallo @xjouve,

at first I have installed Mod 5) Extremely High resolution Terrain 2.01 (no FPS-Problems alone) and then Mod 1) 2GIS - Landcover 1.02 on my older System.
No FPS-Instability during free flight but twice FPS-Impacts, very probably because of much more civilisation > loading data.

I flew in Alsace from Habsheim west to Mulhouse. With default you can see the town only because of the streets (no houses). With your mod it is a big town with houses and districts suddenly. Then I flew north-west direction mountains, then north to Colmar, mountains on the left, straight surface on the right. I was surprised about much civilisation, houses, villages/districts. I have no knowledge about the civilisation-density and city size during WW1, my first impressions were … too much, too big.
On the other side: if your data are accurate then it is a new "human-life world" on the ground and we need a complete new inside-map.

Greetings and keep it up!

Hi. Yes, I was flying in 1918. I'll download the new version and give it another try.

Hi, indeed the mod adds urban areas as they are today, not 100+ years ago. So, some are bigger now, but others are smaller. Few examples of changes in population:



When you look at the difference, it is not that much. I believe, it is more significant when it comes to large cities BTW. But, Mulhouse is not small, and a difference of 10k out of about 100k inhabitants is hardly noticeable IMHO.

In fact, rural communities have tended to lose inhabitants since the First World War as a result of the rural exodus. This reduction was made in favor of larger cities, whose attractiveness in terms of work opportunities and access to modern comfort was greater than in remote areas in the countryside.

However, this transfer of population was mainly carried out in the direction of very large cities, like Paris of course, but also, Lyon, Marseille, and certainly Lille if we have to find an example for the geographical area that interests us. This also applies to medium-sized cities, such as Grenoble, and others, whose attractiveness around a leading university and technological pole has been strong. In comparison, the north-east and especially the north of France are not regions that have developed much in this way. The north was mainly a mining basin, and this activity has declined considerably in 100 years.

Thx for your work, xjouve. However, something weird with this mod happens.
Verdun sector, January 1918:
Tantonville airfield


Toul airfield


With mod disabled everything returns to normal.
Probably some sabotage actions of Central powers?

Hi,

That's wierd. The mod doesn't affect neither the way planes are located on the ground nor the location of airfields.

I'll have a look.

May I ask you please to post your hardware setup?

Maybe conflict with other mods enabled? I have tested also other sectors, planes and airfileds - always with the same result. When I tried airstarts, planes loops in air until their crash to ground. Unfortunately, I can not able to make video.
My other mods enabled:

EDIT: Disabled and reenabled this mod few times and it is working now without glitch .
Thx and I am going to test it
EDIT EDIT: No, still NO GO : (

That is so bizarre!

I've uploaded v1.03, which consists in 2x smaller landclass files. I've given it a try, and to my surprise, result is not too bad. So, I guess this version could be an alternative in case of memory problems.

I had exact same issue as JJJ when I tried v1.02, but now no problems with v1.03.

Thank you xjouve for your continued support. Excellent MOD!

Glad to hear! Excellent news!

Yes, I can confirm,v1.03 is working properly. However, front lines (no mans land), ground units, trenches, everything is gone now :-(.

I might have done it too quickly. Could you please tell me the date and the location?

January 1918, Verdun sector.

I see the problem. I'll try to find a solution ASAP.

Added a link to the revised version. You should get proper frontlines over forests.

Looks very interesting!



Does that mean there will be buildings just sitting out in the middle of nowhere? Am I interpreting that correctly?
Also, would this affect flight assigns (or perceived assignments) in anyway since the land cover you use doesn't exactly line up with the game's? *confused*

Hi,

Regarding buildings, it actually concerns only Ypres Cloth Hall, Amiens Cathedral and Albert Cathedral (well, the Basilica to be precise) which aren't correctly located. In a less significant way, this applies also for both Fort de Vaux and Fort de Douaumont. I've already relocated each of them along with the correct altitude in global layer, but I will probably make it available only after more modifications as I have prepared a list of 63 forts to be added. But it seems like more time consuming than I initially thought.

Regarding flight assigns, you may experience some differences indeed, especially passing Reims down south to Nancy/Lunéville -I guess-, because WOFF frontlines are sometimes 13.5km too far to the south in that area. Frontlines need to be relocated, I'll do it later I think.

I've finally relocated Forts de Vaux and Douaumont, plus both cathedral of Amiens and cathedral of Albert, and also Cloth Hall of Ypres. They all fit well with the land cover mod now.
I added 63 forts as well; all with correct coordinates, altitude, and to a degree, angle. I used WOFF Douaumont shape, which is good. Actually, forts were all different, but it's okay for now.





Link to this Global Layer mod (v1.00): https://mega.nz/file/BuIlXIyT#9UFbUxUm5o3uv63b28eUCNDhWgusGE40xgZXvwjxiq0

I've also updated the lite version of the land cover mod to better integrate forts (v1.032): https://mega.nz/file/p7Z1iQSa#fu6YDrZrNFVGphBudvFH4qa3mlE8nIxyQfGUSljTwkM

Xjoyve

I would like to suggest you PM RAF_Louvert regarding the forts. He has a number of fort mods which might be impacted. He will likely need your data to correct his mods.

Best Regards

My apology for hacking this thread, but IMPORTANT NOTICE for users of Realistically populated airfields mod - Global Layer mod by Xavier Jouve is fully incompatible with this mod because it overwrites all global layers and libraries. Never use both mods simultaneously!

Indeed, my mod is not compatible with any other global layer mod, just like any other global layer mod among them. That's why I decided not to include it into the land cover mod, so that anyone can use the land cover mod and stock global layers or another global layer mod.

The fact that I added forts is not relevant, even with relocation of WOFF stock elements, the mod won't be more compatible with other mods of this kind. Actually, the mod is compatible with WOFF since I used stock WOFF global layers to work.

What I can do is to provide with raw data to be used by others if they want it.

.

Xav, I applaud your efforts and the new waterways and lakes and such are a wonderful addition. However, the new populated cities, towns, and villages I am finding much too visually rough. I realize this is a WIP, so are you planning on finding a way to blend these into the landscape in a more organic fashion? I dearly love how the stock WOFF landscape flows together. I realize the devs sacrificed some accuracy for the sake of artistry to accomplish this, but that is one of things that gives this sim such a great atmospheric feel.

Keep up the stellar work, it is much appreciated.

Lou

Landcover mod ver. 1.032, in contrast to the ver. 2.0 water map - works beautifully on my AMD rig - no hit to fps whatsoever, and fits really well with the terrain map improvements too (was using the super-high terrain improvement patch and landcover ver. 1.032 in my test, by the way). Couple of representative pics. below - the landcover mod works fine, as does the improved mesh map, with JJJ's historically populated mod. for 'dromes too - didn't notice any oddities. (Will avoid installing that global patch thingy mod for now since, as mentioned by JJJ in another thread, it clashes with the historical airfields mods.)

I look forward to further refinements with the landcover mod patch, and the water patch - I like the added variety of the building layouts, although I did spot one or two "urbanized/streets patches" with no buildings present.

Von S

Thanks for the kind words! I do know how much you like artistry, your work on textures is amazing. However, I'm trying to reach as much accuracy as possible regarding land coverage, disregarding visual beauty at the moment. Anyway, as you have certainly understood, I didn't make any change neither to stock textures nor to WOFF textures. I'm just using what's available. In fact, CFS3/WOFF hasn't been built to display a great deal of details (little villages, etc.), but only big cities / hot spots there and there. As a matter of taste (really a personal feeling, no disrespect to others), the atmosphere that I like is the one that mimics what I can read in CR and squadron diaries: not a fancy everyday dogfights narrative with flashy colors and stuff (like in most post war books), but 90% of the time it's only about "I've been to there, flying over there and there, I eventually saw x EA away above there, etc.". For me a landscape without accurately located villages and rivers doesn't mean anything, beautiful or not. As an illustration, I 've taken Spa26 diary, opened it randomly and there it is: first days of July 1917. Let me translate.






That being said. At the moment the texture below is much more employed than before, and it clearly doesn't give something that is visually acceptable. It looks oversized to me and needs redesign. Trenches texture too. Nevertheless, I'm not good at texture modding.







I saw that as well. I have to ask OBD about that. It seems like edges of each terrain texture is not diplaying objects (trees, buildings, etc.)

.

Xav, I am thrilled to be seeing accurate rivers and water, as well as all the many little villages and hamlets, but I want those and the artistic blending too - I want it all! I also love reading the old pilot's notes and diaries and then trying to fly in the sim where they flew in RL, and see what they saw. To aid in reaching that end, let me know when you have things to the point where a few different village and blending tiles will help to tie things together more seamlessly and I'll see what I can come up with for you. Also, is there a way to have those little villages not have the big city apartment buildings in them? Is that something that is determined by the landscape tile or by how things are assigned in the files you are manipulating?

Cheers,

Lou

.

I can confirm that the larger version 1.02 works when direct file overwrite is used. It does not work via jsgme for me.

Lou, I second you, that would be great! ^^

Well, for making the 2GIS palette and thus the only landcover mod available so far, I linked color 234:230:210 RGB (i.e., "urban areas" in 2GIS) to medium cities landclass in WOFF. The corresponding texture set brings appartments, which is indeed okay for real cities but not for villages indeed. I concur. So, for future developement I'm planning on applying a new layer on top of actual one, with only cities above a significant size shown in another color (I'll change color assignments). So that, real cities will have appartment buildings and villages, only houses. That being said, I'm not sure that I like the way villages are displayed by the game vanilla textures. It has to be tested.




Oh I see. Very interesting. I've to try it

XJ

I have your XJ10, XJ11, XJ13,XJ14 mods installed. Global, Land Cover, Total Water and Terrain.

Can I assume that they all work properly together? One doesn't cancel the other etc.?

I would just point out that the landscape of a century ago is very different than the one we see today. Industrial estates, ballooning cities, towns, and villages, and modern agriculture have replaced what was then a very rural intricate landscape, and eaten up large chunks of countryside. That must be taken into account when using modern satellite imagery and maps.
Cheers,
shredward

Yes. Each one consists in different files.



Indeed, changes are real and it would be very hard to get something very accurate. However, I don't think agriculture has really changed (regarding land occupation), and in northern france apart from big cities, urban areas have not changed too much. You may wish to read my reply to Becker https://SimHQ.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4519220/re-new-landcover-mods#Post4519220

I think that the ideal way to make it better would be to work from maps of that period. Unfortunately, I had tons of Etat Major maps 10+ years ago, but they appear to have gone with an old hard drive.

Enjoying the technical posts gents' - I suppose the only real change is the movement from hand plowing (still typical during the WWI period), and the occasional steam tractor - to diesel tractors and more fancy plowing methods. Ox plowing would have gone by the wayside already by the early 19th cent. approx. - so horse plowing would have been "de rigueur" as late as the 30s/40s of the 20th cent.

I'm not asking that OBD simulate such details - simply commenting on these stimulating posts.

Happy flying and tilling,
Von S

Added first release of CLC version. Actually, I added a bit more to it.

Any chance that someone is modding terrain textures? I really think that something more photorealistic would be great. Especially regarding villages, and background texture of urban areas. But also fields, which are way more yellowish in RL! Ingame is so green; it looks like Ireland! It has to be adapted.

Here are screenshots of my third try modding the trenches texture (May 1918). Field texture has been modified as well.

Aim is to make them standing out much clearly and make the fields underneath to be much more viewable.



Trenches in the vicinity of Ham: devastated villages of Brouchy on the left and of Villeselve of the right (German airfield of Villeselve appears next to it)



Trenches in the vicinity of Nelse: they clearly stand-out along the "Somme canalisée"



Trenches in the vicinity of Nelse: they enter the devastated village of Réthonvillers by the north



Trenches in the vicinity of Chaulnes: they appear on fields next to the devastated city



So, I'm happy with what I'm seeing and I'm pretty sure that there's room for improvement.

1) I think trenches might standout a little more
2) fields underneath can be even more viewable
3) displaying more trenches on a single texture is something to consider
4) checking width of trenches is something to consider

Excellent developments - I look forward to these additions. The landcover changes in these screenshots look very real/historical. I'm sure they will be good with FPS in the same way that the landcover mod ver. 1.032 is.

Have now tested the Iser-Somme water sub-theater mod. on my setup and it gives similar ave. FPS to the lighter, ver. 1.10 water mod - of about 60 fps (down from an ave. of 100 or so). I look forward to further improvements to your excellent mods. (Perhaps there is something in the cfs3 code that gives an FPS hit with water modifications, but not with ground terrain changes?)

Von S

I can remove all the seas from the subtheaters. I mean, when you are flying over Arras, you don't need the sea... It worths a try to reduce the load.

I did another try with texture of trenches

Trenches in the vicinity of Roye-sur-Matz:



They are too beige and especially I think they are too wide, and not numerous enough.

Here are 2 aerial photographs I've recolorized, which give a good idea of what I want to reach. Both were taken in the Somme region.

Le Transloy



Sailly-Sallisel

Hallo @xjouve,

short Feedback:
I have tested this combination of your mods with "01_VonS_MaxFPSnGraphicsGPUtuner_ver1.1.1", with default settings and Free Flight over Alsace / Habsheim (Mulhouse):
"WOFF - XJ0 - Terrain (1 arc-sec hi) 2.01" (one of the absolut must have-mods in my eyes) with "WOFF - XJ3 - Total Water 1.10" and with "WOFF - XJ1 - Landcover (2GIS) 1.032" or with "WOFF - XJ1 - Landcover (CLC) 1.00".
To be honest I was surprised. Even with my older system I have had good FPS between 55 and 62.

The same test with "WOFF PE - (1) Scenery Improvement (Balanced) by Panama Red" instead of "01_VonS_MaxFPSnGraphicsGPUtuner_ver1.1.1" did provide similar results,

Greetings and nice weekend

Hallo Becker! Ich danke dir sehr! Das macht mich sehr glücklich!

Here's another try with a mod of trenches. They come from a photograph of the Cavaliers de Courcy (frontline N or Reims) taken at 2,000m by a plane of SAL210.

Trenches in the vicinity of Nelse: they stand-out next to the devastated town



German trenches north of the frontline: the devastated village is Boulogne-la-Grasse, we can recognize the watershapes on the map below

Playing a little bit to make this screenshot looking like a WW1 aerial photo.

Taken while flying over Foucaucourt-en-Santerre. Notice the German airfield, and the devastated village on the right. Trenches network is visible parallel to the road.



Regarding this version of trenches: I tried to add volume, but I don't like the result. Also, they definitely need to stand-out more. The color needs to be clearer.

That's a convincing pic... looks almost real.

bit thick I know but....where is the link for the XJ4 Global layer ????

It's up in the first post. Scroll the "Links" text box to the right.

Quick update - have now tested the CLC ver. 1.0 landcover mod. on my rig and it behaves well - no drop in fps and I think it looks a bit better/crisper than the light ver. 1.032 landcover mod. Also, may be a placebo effect, but I think the ver. 1.032 mod. shaves off four or five more fps, on ave., than the CLC variant - although both types hold up fine, overall, in terms of fps, and in contrast to the water mods.

(Those who are using the landcover mods. are, in my opinion, better off also using Xjouve's modified in-flight maps - for easier navigation - since the Nibbio map fits better with stock terrain - a link to Xjouve's modified in-flight maps is here: https://SimHQ.com/forum/ubbthreads....heater-questions-for-the-dev#Post4514670). This is the link to the earlier maps that contain icons for balloons, airfields, etc., and a modified frontline, by the way. For newer maps with modified frontlines but no object icons present, see Xjouve's separate "Inflight Map Mods" thread.

Von S

Very interesting indeed! Thanks for posting!

CLC is much more varied (and even more because I added layers on top of it to better display the urban areas according to their size), but since both are applying same number of tiles, and that each CFS3/WOFF terrain tile is of the same size (I guess, please guys correct me if I'm wrong), I would say that it should not impact FPS differently than 2GIS. But I may miss something. For example, I'm not sure about the impact of objects such as buildings...

Brilliant work with the frontlines - really like that new texture work with the trenches. Combined with the other terrain work, it really does look very much more photo-realistic now

As for the performance difference and buildings/trees, I suspect that may actually be the reason. I'm really curious how the CFS3 code (and whatever changes WOFF may have introduced) works with autogen, and how that may be different from, say, its close cousin FS9. My suspicion is that it's a slightly older and simpler system it uses for placing buildings and trees, designed for lower-resolution landclass and terrain geometry. So it might be that the new smaller and irregularly-shaped villages and towns are creating additional load of some sort trying to place those buildings. I wonder if that might be possible to adjust!

Hallo @xjouve,

short feedback again:

After I did fly a longer time with various mod-combinations let me say, thast I did recognice FPS-Decrease. On the one side flight and fight was good possible, on the other side the decrease was clear. So my personel conclusion is, that we must always consider the limits of the older CFS3-Engine in consequence.

What could it mean for your work and your mods IMHO?
Maybe two ways are the best solution:
1) A High Qualitiy Mod-Kombi for very good High End Machines; elevation, water and landscape are very detailed .
2) A light Mod-Kombi. YOU HAVE EARNED TO ACHIEVE AS MUCH WOFF-PC's AS POSSIBLE WITH YOUR WORK! It could start with the CFS3--suitable 90MB-Toplogy-Mod 3, then Total Water 1.10, and then Landscape 2GIS or CLC with … less civilisation, f.e. not every little village maybe. Other: Water and landscape are reduced to the important details only for the priority of navigation, not more.

What do you mean?

Greetings and nice weekend

Stimulating observations gents' - I definitely like the improvements that Xjouve has been providing for WOFF. In terms of fps hit, the only problematic patch I'm noticing is the total water mod, and to some extent the sub-theater water mods too. None of the other patches, terrains, landcover, mesh, global layer, etc. - at least on my rig - have a negative effect on fps. As indicated in one of my posts above, the CLC terrain variant, from what I've been able to test, not only looks better than 2GIS but also improves fps slightly.

I suppose the tests vary by rig, but I haven't noticed an fps drop with more villages - more water, on the other hand, is a real fps killer for some reason that I don't understand. Maybe the water mods require some kind of tricks to be put in place to offset lowering of fps. Thinking out loud here - obviously Xjouve knows the technicalities of this - but would it be possible to somehow "rig" all of the different water bodies (lakes, rivers, rivulets) to call up the same sea water patch used for the seas, etc., in WOFF?

Maybe that is being done already and I'm naive with my thinking here - but, if each different type of water body calls up a different water texture type - this may be slowing things down. Also, do the water mods/patches use the same 2GIS and/or CLC framework that the terrains use, or something else entirely? - perhaps CLC water, if possible, is the "trick" we need - similar to how the CLC terrains are fps friendly....anyway, I'm sure a good solution will be found eventually.

Thank you Xjouve for continuing to work on all of these excellent patches and developments.

Von S

EDIT: I doubt that a reduction in the size of the water texture will help with fps since, for example, I am running the 2MB Gecko water textures and, from what I've observed, there is no negative impact on fps. (Stock water textures appear to be half of one MB in WOFF.)

Hallo,

new weekend-evening-test again in relation to FPS:
I have tested combinations of the mods with "01_VonS_MaxFPSnGraphicsGPUtuner_ver1.1.1", with default settings and Free Flight over Alsace / Habsheim (Mulhouse):

result:
Elevation-mesh-data:
It seems it is even if I use the topology mods "WOFF - XJ0 - Terrain (1 arc-sec hi) 2.01" or topology Mod 3 with 90MB (CFS3-suitable). So I will continue with 2.01 as before.

landscape:
The difference between "WOFF - XJ1 - Landcover (2GIS) 1.032" and "WOFF - XJ1 - Landcover (CLC) 1.00" seems to be small on my system. From time to time there were FPS-Impacts with CLC, as if the system must load data. I can't say it significantly but "2GIS 1.032" seems to work a little bit more stabil.

water:
very clear: "WOFF - XJ3 - Total Water 1.10" works much better than the 2.xx-subtheater-series.


Greetings

This is an interesting site to test the difference between then and now: https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/sid...3&layers=101465152&right=BingHyb

This one less favorable: https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/sid...6&layers=101464912&right=BingHyb

Links updated