Having problems with GMAP/custom overlays

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Rangoon
Posts: 87
Joined: Tue Sep 24, 2013 11:12 pm

Having problems with GMAP/custom overlays

Post by Rangoon »

I really like the custom overlays that are included with the community scenarios pack (e.g. Ex Pitch Black 2017). They enhance the experience in key areas. Somehow, the author of Ex Pitch Black 2017 (don't know how to see who the author is; not in the description/briefing as far as I can tell), managed to make nice looking overlays, very small file sizes, and with nice blurred/transparent borders so they blend in with the default layer(s) more organically.

I'm trying to make my own, but am coming across some problems. Many of the satellite maps in GMAP return errors (intellectual property issues?), but Bing seems to work. Unless I choose a tiny area (maybe a few city blocks), I get the error you see in the attached image. Is that normal? Am I simply trying to grab too much area? Or does this indicate some other problem?

Pertinent system specs:
Windows 7 x64
i5-2500K
16GB RAM
most recent version of Demo.WindowsForms exe


Can anyone help me out here? I've read the manual, the guides (the two linked from the mega-FAQ), but can't seem to get GMAP to generate image files.

EDIT: I found Tomcat84's tutorial as well, and I'm giving it another go here. I think the combination of area and zoom level are (hopefully) the cluprit regarding my error. But this tutorial covers the feather/transparency I was asking about, and gives me the impression that it's too much to ask for zoom 17 and a large (whatever that means) area.



Image
Attachments
gmap_error.jpg
gmap_error.jpg (488.01 KiB) Viewed 299 times
RoryAndersonCDT
Posts: 1826
Joined: Mon Jun 15, 2009 11:45 pm

RE: Having problems with GMAP/custom overlays

Post by RoryAndersonCDT »

I'm pretty sure we can't officially support GMap; but my guess is that you are defining a much too big map to be generated. Try reducing the zoom to 10 or so and see if that works. That error means that the area you have selected is much too big for generating such a detailed overlay.
Command Dev Team
Technical Lead
Rangoon
Posts: 87
Joined: Tue Sep 24, 2013 11:12 pm

RE: Having problems with GMAP/custom overlays

Post by Rangoon »

Thanks for the reply, Baloogan! I appreciate the confirmation that I'm probably just asking for too much area. I have been going through the excellent guides by brassem and Tomcat84, and following everything to the letter, and after choosing a smaller area I have stopped getting the errors in my first post. I think I've come to realize I have to start with the smallest, high-detail areas that I want and work out from there, rather than starting with the overviews. For the air tutorial near NAS Fallon, I was able to generate an area which covers the simulated Fallon location, the actual location, and the target area all in one file. I also then feathered the edges and reduced the size by 50% dimensionally and made my pgw scale adjustment. However, (and I tried this before and after the resizing - file sizes ranging from 400MB down to about 100MB) I would see one of two behaviors:

1. an application error when loading in CMANO (failure to load)
2. no errors loading in CMANO (loading success) but no appearance of the actual overlay. I see the file, load the file (it appears in the list), but it won't show up in the simulation despite waiting long periods of time, scrolling and zooming the view.

So I will now try just very small areas at 17, see how that goes, then medium areas at 13, and as you suggest try something at 10. One question about the various zoom levels from GMAP into CMANO: is there anything else to consider when using a lower zoom level? I notice that the only two levels which seem to be discussed are 13 and 17 (until you mentioned 10). Is it just because below 13 it becomes more debatable as to the value of even creating an overlay at that level? Or is there some other logistical reason why 17 and 13 are more recommended in the documentation and guides? Any logistical adjustments along with other zoom levels? Or are the reasons simply subjective?

At any rate, I will try more now. I'm determined to get this to work.

EDIT: Oh, I wanted to also mention that I've read of people (was it brassem?) getting files larger than 1GB working in CMANO. So wy would my 100MB file not show up properly? I have double checked the coordinates for the upper left corner, double checked scaling, etc., but the overlay simply won't appear? And if I get the application error, I seem to get past that by closing and relaunching the overly window.

EDIT: Whoa, and suddenly now the file loaded! I didn't do anything differently, so can't say what did the trick. I had already tried closing and relaunching CMANO, so I don't think that was it. Otherwise nothing is different about the files (same exact files, no alterations), but the one thing that was different is that this time it took time for the overlay to show up in the list after opening it. And then it immediately appeared in the simulation. What happened before is that the file would load into the list instantaneously, but then not in the simulation. This time it actually did something, and I have a successful overly covering the area I described (starting northwest of the NAS Fallon Training Location and extending southeast of the target area) at zoom level 13 and 50% file dimensions scale factor 2.

EDIT: And now it's not working again. I re-edited the same GMAP source png in Photoshop because I wanted to try something different with how I had feathered the edges. And now that file (basically the same file as before, which didn't work yesterday but did work an hour ago) won't load. I get the same behavior in CMANO that the file shows up instantaneously in the overlay list, but then won't show up in the simulation map. When it worked an hour ago, I got a nice loading delay before seeing the file in the list, and then the overlay appeared in the simulation. Now I'm back to immediate file loading to the list, no overlay actually present.

Any ideas what could be happening here?
Rangoon
Posts: 87
Joined: Tue Sep 24, 2013 11:12 pm

RE: Having problems with GMAP/custom overlays

Post by Rangoon »

Not sure why that file loaded once, but it never did again. As long as I wound up with individual file sizes of less than about 100MB, things seemed to go pretty smoothly. I was able to generate, load, and view a broad overview file at zoom level 10 (feathered and manually offset/georeferenced), medium-level overviews of the Fallon training location and actual location at zoom level 13 (feathered and manually offset), and high-detail overlays of the Fallon training location (pretty uninteresting), the actual location, and the target location (feathered, resized to 50%/scale factor 2, and no need for offset as it seems that zoom level 17 is geolocated accurately).

What an enhancement, though, to have these overlays! Well worth the effort, in my opinion. Got into a groove with setting guides, cropping away the scale overlay from GMAP, assigning a feathering amount proportional to the image dimensions, standardized my color/brightness adjustments like Tomcat84 did in his tutorial. Did the manual georeferencing just like his video, and the resizing just like in brassem's tutorial. Worked like a charm once I got a feel for appropriate areas and zoom levels for each layer.
Tomcat84
Posts: 1952
Joined: Wed Jul 10, 2013 5:13 pm

RE: Having problems with GMAP/custom overlays

Post by Tomcat84 »

I'm glad my tutorial is helping! Couple of notes:
- I found out a few days ago that Baloogan modified GMap to not include the text in the pictures, and to automatically name the file .pgw You can find it here: tm.asp?m=3530108
- You are not just stuck to 13 and 17, for a scenario I am building I now made a 13 big overview, 15 closer in, and 17 high detail target area.
- There does seem to be a limit to how big an overlay can be. Still not sure if it is filesize in megabytes or if it is amount of pixels.
- When you are close to the limit, indeed sometimes an overlay will take a while and load properly, and sometimes the name shows up right away and it doesn't appear in the game. I am working on putting together a proper report for the devs to look at. But: it seems that if you close command, restart the game and then load the scenario and the FIRST thing you do is load that one big overlay, it has a big chance of working. If you were first playing another scenario or load other overlays first, chance gets smaller.
- You can also use jpg files instead of PNG. Note that these wont support transparency so you'll have to do the blending via the method I describe in the end of my video. Have GMap make the png, the resave it as jpg, and rename the .pgw file to .jgw

Should work. Dont know if that has an impact on max size possible.
My Scenarios and Tutorials for Command

(Scenarios focus on air-warfare :) )
Rangoon
Posts: 87
Joined: Tue Sep 24, 2013 11:12 pm

RE: Having problems with GMAP/custom overlays

Post by Rangoon »

ORIGINAL: Tomcat84

I'm glad my tutorial is helping! Couple of notes:
- I found out a few days ago that Baloogan modified GMap to not include the text in the pictures, and to automatically name the file .pgw You can find it here: tm.asp?m=3530108
- You are not just stuck to 13 and 17, for a scenario I am building I now made a 13 big overview, 15 closer in, and 17 high detail target area.
- There does seem to be a limit to how big an overlay can be. Still not sure if it is filesize in megabytes or if it is amount of pixels.
- When you are close to the limit, indeed sometimes an overlay will take a while and load properly, and sometimes the name shows up right away and it doesn't appear in the game. I am working on putting together a proper report for the devs to look at. But: it seems that if you close command, restart the game and then load the scenario and the FIRST thing you do is load that one big overlay, it has a big chance of working. If you were first playing another scenario or load other overlays first, chance gets smaller.
- You can also use jpg files instead of PNG. Note that these wont support transparency so you'll have to do the blending via the method I describe in the end of my video. Have GMap make the png, the resave it as jpg, and rename the .pgw file to .jgw

Should work. Dont know if that has an impact on max size possible.

Thanks, Tomcat84!

Just downloaded Baloogan's gmap.net mod and will give that a try. I've got a nice routine for deleting the scale, but it does take about 30-45 seconds for each one. Life's too short. :)

I appreciate the insight on the zoom levels and loading issues. This seems like such a significant feature that hopefully it will all get sorted out in time. Maybe even come with its own official, embedded utility at some point. (Same with SeaHag ;) )

All of my failures to load did occur immediately after launching CMANO fresh, loading a scenario, and not even hitting start - just straight to the overlay window and try to load. And I guess one time I got lucky with that file loading. All other attempts (close to 20 tries) failed.

One other thing that I wish is for a way to show/hide the overlay layer. It *seems* like that's what should happen when you click on the bottom entry in the View pull-down menu, but that just brings up the Overlay loading window, same as clicking the overlay button. It would be nice if that View menu option would show/hide the custom overlays (without having to unload/reload), and the button would bring up the load window. For example, when I switch to the relief layer, it would be nice to see the relief layer for the entire area if I want, not just areas outside my overlays. But we all have our personal CMANO wishes. That one would be nice, and seems logical (and almost seems like that's what is intended by the overlay menu structure).
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