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[Uzin]

@spdr109:
I think it is not the question of the size of map area, but of the true number of objects there present: compare some map of Europe to that of , say, Far East, or even better, the tundra area.

[spdr109]

You are correct Uzin.

A Pacific map could cover a huge area and be finished to the highest level of detail
without any negative consequences whatsoever.

But in a densely populated area of Europe some trade offs must be made. Perhaps scaling
back the area covered just a little bit would allow us to place more objects, relatively speaking?
Just a little better balance I think.

My point is this. Shouldn't we be striving for maximum playability
without having to sacrifice visual enjoyability? 

[Uzin]

Yes, it is the question of both balance and of the taste of users: many players - many opinions. None solution will satisfy everybody.

[spdr109]

But what a wonderful game that provides so many options.

Thanks Oleg!

[spdr109]

We still need to do a little more testing before we are truly finished.

As we were expanding our test mission earlier we saved the configuration
using two flights per runway. Load that mission now and change the aircraft to the
KI-21. Put a maximum bomb load on the aircraft of the first flight on each runway.
Fly the mission. Change the view so that you are following the aircraft closest to the far end of the runway.
Closely observe the aircraft until it is ,we hope, safely airborne.

















Several problems were observed. Aircraft flew into the trees and one just touched the hill as it began to climb out.
Both of these issues are easily eliminated. To “cut down” the trees we will use the blank plates.
To reduce the hill we will use the height tool.

[spdr109]

Thanks Boomer.

[spdr109]

Whenever an object is placed, it automatically eliminates random trees within a certain area around it.
We can use this quality to clear any random trees from the area off the ends of the runways.
The random trees really don't hurt anything. The aircraft fly right through them. It just looks silly.

Let us begin by placing a runway line between our existing runways and parallel to them.
Use the concrete plates to line things up. Make sure you extend this line far enough to clear
any "problem trees" that you noticed when flying the test mission.








Now begin to place blank plates along this line. Leave some space between the plates.
Experiment a little to determine the minimum number of plates required to get the desired results.





Fly the test mission.





All trees but one troublesome clump along the river were eliminated. Look again very carefully to be sure
that these were not trees placed my the map maker. If you are sure that these were random trees,
add a few more plates in that area. Only add enough plates to get those trees eliminated.









Success! All the problem trees have been eliminated.

[spdr109]

Now we need to fly the KI-21 test mission again paying very close attention to the area
where the aircraft hits the hill. Leave the blank plates visible. This will give us a better
idea of where the problem is.

We can see where the aircraft first makes contact with the hillside. Try to remember some
visual clues from the area and reload IL-2 in Unlocked Full Mission Builder.














We need to use the height tool now.
Boomer has a wonderful explanation of how it works here:

http://ultrapack.tuttovola.org/index.php/topic,1977.0.html

Set "Fill Tile Size" to 1. Activate the height tool and try to place the red dot
closest to where you need to reduce the hill. You will not be able to place it
wherever you want. Get it as close as you can. Hit the insert key and the
height will be shown in the bottom left corner of the screen. Work incrementally!
Follow along the runway line that we left as a reference and only reduce
the height by 5. When in 3-D view you can use the mouse to pan around
and view the changes. Save the changes and fly the test mission again.





You may find that you need to reduce the hill even further. Only make the
absolute minimum changes! We do not want to radically alter the landscape.
When you are finished, and the aircraft can just barely clear the hill, go back
into Unlocked FMB and look around in the 3-D view near the area where you
made the height adjustments. If you see any sharp points in the landscape,
use the height tool to lower these peaks just enough to blend in with the
changes that you made.





Wonderful! The aircraft can just clear the hill and we didn't have to ruin
the landscape to do it. In cases where a major adjustment may be needed,
try to reduce the bomb load of the test aircraft somewhat. If you can make
that work without making radical changes in the surrounding landscape that
will have to be good enough. All we want to do is to increase the usability
of the airfield while maintaining the map makers original intentions.


   

[spdr109]

We need to clean things up now. Delete the runway line that we used as a reference earlier.
Delete the concrete plates that we used to line up that runway line.
Check to make sure that none of the blank plates were moved out of place.





Make the blank plates invisible again and load the map in Unlocked FMB. Look over everything very carefully.





If all seems ok, load up the KI-21 test mission and fly it.








Everything looks great!

Now load the TB-3 test mission and fly it to completion.





We are finished.

Thank you for being so patient.

[Seppel]

Wow!
Nice explanations!!!

Uhm..I wonder if I can post my idea here:

While creating maps, I wrote a little handbook for working with the map editor.
I'm far away from being an expert - as I see YOUR works here in the forum, but it may help in some cases especially some new comers.

If there's any interest just ask for it..
But I have to admit, that it is in German by now. Well I could translate it by time...

Greetings, Seppel

[Uzin]

Hi, Seppel,
there are never enough tutorials !
Looking forward to its release.

[vonOben]

Excellent Tutorial!
Thank you very much spdr109! 

I've collected the most interesting information from this thread and saved it as a pdf-document.
The file is posted on the IL-2 page on my site.
http://vonoben.free.fr/


Cheers

vonOben