Background map update - discussion

[ScuL]

Question:
Northernmost Norway, was it done before SCS had a Background map for that area?
I can not remember how it was.

Yes indeed, there was no background map available when this was developed. A lot of it was based on guess work.
When SCS updated their map projection we realised that we needed to shift some areas further north, which was the trigger behind the "Northern rescale" which was first included in 2.45.

[bengt.jensie]

@ScuL

What do you then say about my comparison between the SCS original BG and the Promods one,
showing that the PM one overshoot the SCS one significantly up there, hence the move upwards
wasn't a proper decision, I think!

[Shiva]

Ahh, now I understand bengt.jensie.
I had to go and compare myself regarding the British Isles on SCS vs ProMods.
SCS Basemap shows the 1:15 British Isles shrunk to the 1:19's mainland Europe size.
While ProMods basemap shows the real game/area size, compared to mainland Europe.

ScuL, thank you for the information

[bengt.jensie]

@Shiva

Good, hopefully, as I said, it will be corrected so we all can treat the UK area the same way!

[Shiva]

bengt.jensie, regarding Iceland, not sure at all that it can be done.
Färöarna ingame, sectorwise, is where Island should be, if comparing to real life.
So moving Iceland seems to be out of the question.
No space, unless SCS rescales the British Isles to 1:19 scale.
Or if ProMods totally redoes British Isles to 1:19.

[MandelSoft]

The problem with the scale of the UK is that the way this is done is "hard-coded". What it basically does is this: if you turn it on, it will scale every sector north and west of sector -0009-0003 (if I recall correctly) to 1:15, no matter how far west or north these sectors are. We can't modify how it works, we cannot change where this "pivot sector" is, we can only turn the setting on or off. That's basically what "hard-coded" means: something you can't change by modding, because it's locked into the game's code.

Turning this setting on will have the following consequences:

• We expanded our WIP map to Norwich. However, part of Norwich is in sector -0011-0002. This is east of the scaling line, thus this part is scaled 1:19, and this shifts this entire area to the north-east compared to the rest of the UK, which looks really weird on the mini-map. Basically, if we were to use this setting, part of the UK will be off-limits because it scales incorrectly.
• The UK and Ireland are scaled 1:15, but the Faroe Islands and Iceland are scaled in 1:19 and are in the correct locations. So if you correct the UK, Iceland and the Faroe Islands would be incorrectly scaled. Correcting either one of them will require a lot of work. It's the "Misery Conservation Law"...

So we currently chose to disable this option so we don't have to deal with hard-coded projection inconsistencies...

[ExtremorGP]

In this case I would wait for Revisiting UK by SCS. They might rescale UK to 1:19.

[Shiva]

MandelSoft, that explains more than a few things, thank you.

[bengt.jensie]

@Shiva

These are all islands and is not present in the SCS at all, so it should be a fairly easy process
to move/rescale them and also relocating them at their proper place after having ticked the
ME setting!

@MandelSoft

Yep, I'm fully aware of the anomaly the SCS in game hard coded rescale in UI is creating in Felixstowe
in Promods. But that is also a pretty easy, small movement to do, I think! Another problem experienced
with that auto-rescaling is that if EAA is loaded in a combo, there will be anomalies there too! But that
map is totally out of proper location and according to me is best played as standalone map.

[Uffetjur]

I have read throw the tread regarding the issues with the background map, as i see it this is an issue for SCS to solve, making a proper base for all modders regardless of teams to have a solid ground to work on, this shouldnt be problem for the modders,
my idea about this is that all modders united goes to SCS and demand this solid base. regardless of issues between them...
This for avoiding all unecessary future dramas