For units of measure, I suggest hundreds of meters, or
tenths of kilometers: an elevation of 0 would mean 0 meters
above ocean level, 1 means 100m above ocean level, etc. Frm
the CIA factbook (specifically, http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ar.html ):
lowest point: Laguna del Carbon -105 m (located between
Puerto San Julian and Comandante Luis Piedra Buena in the
province of Santa Cruz)
highest point: Cerro Aconcagua 6,960 m (located in the
northwestern corner of the province of Mendoza)
Which would give us a range of -1 to 70, or 0 to 70 if we
don't include the laguna del carbon.
From the current map (jfreerails/data/south_america.png), I
measured 191 tiles at the widest point. Using the number
5120km from ( http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0007645.html
), that works out to be 26.8 km/tile, which we could get
away with rounding to 27 km/tile or even 25 km/tile. (I am
assuming that the tiles are square and that the map is
reasonably accurate, so that these figures would work
equally well for north-south distances.)
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The SI prefix for 10^2 is hecto, or h. This would give us
hectometers and hm.
Calculating Height:
I see several ways for figuring out the heights of tiles
when generating a map. From least to most preferable:
* Figure it out once and store it somewhere. Options
include using the alpha channel of the .png map or a
grayscale map next to it (ie, south_america.png and
south_america.height.png).
* Assign numbers to certain terrains (ie, mountains are
60-70 hm, hills are 40-59 hm, foothills are 20-39 hm, and
the rest is 0-19 hm) and randomize within that range.
* Using another XML file, enter co-ordinates and heights of
key locations, and figure out the rest using some sort of
function (perhaps something of the shape of y=1/x^2?) when
generating, randomizing within a certain percent.
I would vote for the last one. If anyone has any other
ideas, please share them.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
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Units:
For units of measure, I suggest hundreds of meters, or
tenths of kilometers: an elevation of 0 would mean 0 meters
above ocean level, 1 means 100m above ocean level, etc. Frm
the CIA factbook (specifically,
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ar.html ):
lowest point: Laguna del Carbon -105 m (located between
Puerto San Julian and Comandante Luis Piedra Buena in the
province of Santa Cruz)
highest point: Cerro Aconcagua 6,960 m (located in the
northwestern corner of the province of Mendoza)
Which would give us a range of -1 to 70, or 0 to 70 if we
don't include the laguna del carbon.
From the current map (jfreerails/data/south_america.png), I
measured 191 tiles at the widest point. Using the number
5120km from (
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0007645.html
), that works out to be 26.8 km/tile, which we could get
away with rounding to 27 km/tile or even 25 km/tile. (I am
assuming that the tiles are square and that the map is
reasonably accurate, so that these figures would work
equally well for north-south distances.)
Logged In: YES
user_id=102421
Units addendum:
The SI prefix for 10^2 is hecto, or h. This would give us
hectometers and hm.
Calculating Height:
I see several ways for figuring out the heights of tiles
when generating a map. From least to most preferable:
* Figure it out once and store it somewhere. Options
include using the alpha channel of the .png map or a
grayscale map next to it (ie, south_america.png and
south_america.height.png).
* Assign numbers to certain terrains (ie, mountains are
60-70 hm, hills are 40-59 hm, foothills are 20-39 hm, and
the rest is 0-19 hm) and randomize within that range.
* Using another XML file, enter co-ordinates and heights of
key locations, and figure out the rest using some sort of
function (perhaps something of the shape of y=1/x^2?) when
generating, randomizing within a certain percent.
I would vote for the last one. If anyone has any other
ideas, please share them.