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Subtle elevation changes


A co

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I often have trouble figuring out slight terrain elevation changes on a map. (Perhaps because I'm a bit impatient.) But I have discovered a helpful trick to identify the important elevation changes, even when it's only a matter of a couple meters in height.

What I do is go down to the lowest level, or just slightly above the lowest, and then place the mouse cursor right on the skyline (or horizon). Then, (without touching the mouse, keyboard command only)I slowly rotate my POV and watch as the horizon line dips below or rises above the cursor.

This might sound kind of dumb, but this method makes it far easier to precisely judge the shape of the terrain, especially when it is crowded with high grass, trees, etc, which can be very distracting to the eye. And sometimes the terrain is sloping very evenly, deceiving you into assuming that you're looking at a level plane.

I hope this is of some use to anyone who has regretted concluding, 'Heck, the map's pretty much flat; I'm gonna ignore elevation entirely on this one!'

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I often have trouble figuring out slight terrain elevation changes on a map.

Thanks for posting the tip. Every little bit helps. As you can see from my sig line I wish the maps had an on/off toggle for contour lines. I like a mod called Bil’s Ground-Gridded developed by Bil Hardenburger. It is in the repository. I think this mod also helps to identify subtle elevation changes.

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I remember awhile ago suggesting that someone go out into the real world and check how well they can really eyeball subtle elevation changes at 'combat ranges'. I suggested that after I had visited friends out in Arizona. Wandering the desert I was surprised how even on a flat open landscape you can miss spotting a pretty substantial terrain feature until you're right on top of them.

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I remember awhile ago suggesting that someone go out into the real world and check how well they can really eyeball subtle elevation changes at 'combat ranges'. I suggested that after I had visited friends out in Arizona. Wandering the desert I was surprised how even on a flat open landscape you can miss spotting a pretty substantial terrain feature until you're right on top of them.

Yes... On/Off toggle for topographic contour lines on maps would be nice. It is amazing how terrain features are not easily recognized ... even without people shooting at you;)

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if you give every "meter" its countour line the game need 999 countour line colours, form 0 to 999.

this defeats its purpouse as the map look like a colour palette and the colours much to close together, practically no difference in colour form height 255 to 256 for example.

every 5 meters could make sense but this is no subtle change and 5 meter change are easy to see in the game. heck you cant play the game from top down zoom lvl, with contour lines or not, so better dont waste dev hours in this. thats what i think.

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Actually every meter with a different color (assuming enough unique colors) would be pretty useful. At an individual level the change in height doesn't matter much. but it would give you a solid idea of how the map's elevation changed by viewing the colors. Alternatively a single color could be chosen and as elevation became lower the color became darker. In effect you would see color pits where elevation is low.

5 meter contour lines would also be useful. Less so than single meter changes, but still it is sufficiently hard to see a 5 meter change in elevation that it would be beneficial.

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  • 3 years later...
On 8/4/2014 at 4:38 AM, A co said:

What I do is go down to the lowest level, or just slightly above the lowest, and then place the mouse cursor right on the skyline (or horizon). Then, (without touching the mouse, keyboard command only)I slowly rotate my POV and watch as the horizon line dips below or rises above the cursor.

This might sound kind of dumb, but this method makes it far easier to precisely judge the shape of the terrain, especially when it is crowded with high grass, trees, etc, which can be very distracting to the eye. And sometimes the terrain is sloping very evenly, deceiving you into assuming that you're looking at a level plane.

I spend a lot of time on level 1. Maybe you'll like this ( post #9 (Franko Iron Man Rules ))

 

Edited by Ales Dvorak
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17 hours ago, Tactical Wargamer said:

ps. the texture pack looks great!!  Maybe I'm on a flat map don't see any grids yet. Will try another one with some elevation.

The post on the mod site says that grids are optional. It is very likely that to get the grid you would have to rename or delete the non grid folder. He usually includes a text file with instructions.

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  • 4 months later...

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