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Rotareneg

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Yes... I hope that one day we can include it in SB Pro. Of course, high-res LIDAR scans work best with something like sand dunes to recreate the small details. And it can have a substantial impact on simulating outcomes; where a 10m DTED3 map predicts engagement average ranges of 2,200m, the LIDAR terrain database suddenly drops the average(!) engagement range to under 500m inside the dune field.

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On 1/8/2022 at 3:49 AM, Ssnake said:

Yes... I hope that one day we can include it in SB Pro. Of course, high-res LIDAR scans work best with something like sand dunes to recreate the small details. And it can have a substantial impact on simulating outcomes; where a 10m DTED3 map predicts engagement average ranges of 2,200m, the LIDAR terrain database suddenly drops the average(!) engagement range to under 500m inside the dune field.

I'd pay triple or more to get a version with this map format. Does the classroom version of SB have this mapping capability? Should I buy that version?

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4 hours ago, Wax Savage said:

I'd pay triple or more to get a version with this map format. Does the classroom version of SB have this mapping capability? Should I buy that version?

You have a version with this map format. It's any SB Pro PE version since 4.1

What you don't have is an actual map that contains high-res LIDAR data. That will change eventually as European topographical offices are gradually opening their archives to the general public, but of course there's more to a map than just importing a handful of files. 

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1 hour ago, Wax Savage said:

I have nothing but time. Where could I get LIDAR data files? There must be one LIDAR map out there to practice on.

 

Well if you are only interested in the US you could try here:

 

https://gisgeography.com/top-6-free-lidar-data-sources/

 

Of course once you have imported the map all that gives is the geographical shape (hills, etc.) Then you need to populate it with water courses, roads, buildings, bridges, barns, vegetation, fences, power lines, traffic lights, ....

 

This is one of the reasons for Ssnake's comment:

  

22 hours ago, Ssnake said:

... but of course there's more to a map than just importing a handful of files. 

 

Its is not simply a case of pressing a button and X hours later you have a map 100% ready to build a scenario with.

 

Edited by Gibsonm
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12 hours ago, Wax Savage said:

I have nothing but time. Where could I get LIDAR data files? There must be one LIDAR map out there to practice on.

The problem is not the data. Data is relatively easy to find. On the other hand, you need someone with the classroom license so you can import the data.

Recently I started a project using 2m/px Lidar data from Poland.

Ideally you need a software like Global Mapper. Most of the work, if you want to be efficient, has to be done on the shapefile data. Even if that means that you're gonna get your hands dirty and create this data yourself. This is better done outside of Steel Beasts because you can use said software instead of SB's Windows 95 interface, and then simply import along with the heightmap data.

 

For the polish map, all the shapefile data was all ready and it was pretty accurate.

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14 hours ago, Ssnake said:

Well, LIDAR import is limited (as of yet, like importing any other geodata) to the classroom version. But if you can point us to the download location of the (*.ASC) data, we can give it a try and then send you the result.

I can get LIDAR map files in "Arc ASCII Grid" format. I that what you need?

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21 hours ago, Wax Savage said:

I can get LIDAR map files in "Arc ASCII Grid" format. I that what you need?

Don't look Lidar per se. Look for data in no particular format.

Lidar is method and not format. It results in a DSM or a DTM. DSM, if you're not geographer, is of no use. A DTM is a processed DSM.

DTM can be divided in quality tiers. 30m+/px, old tech, good for flight sims, bad for tanks

12.5m/px, old tech, reasonable but not great

5m/px, good.

2m/px is great, the sweetspot.

Anything below 2m/px will make very big files, 5Gb+ for a 50x50km area.

 

Also, don't look for a particular area of interest, look for available data, even if that's in another language. That's very common, specially in Europe. European countries cooperate in geography, except, they don't publish their great data in english. In the same place I got all my polish data, the english version was a 404 and the great data required a very hard digging, in polish. I had to translate, for example, all the shapefile data, that included all kinds of trees, forests, roads, buildings, etc.

You can do all that in global mapper, but it's not cheap, it's passion.

 

 

 

Edited by stormrider_sp
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1 hour ago, stormrider_sp said:

Anything below 2m/px will make very big files, 5Gb+ for a 50x50km area.

Yes... but if you want to see sand dunes like in the video that sparked this particular debate, then you need ca. 40...50cm resolution.

Provided, of course, that there are dunes.

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11 hours ago, Ssnake said:

Yes... but if you want to see sand dunes like in the video that sparked this particular debate, then you need ca. 40...50cm resolution.

Provided, of course, that there are dunes.

Don't say dunes. It gives me nightmares. I tried very hard to come out with data for the kuwaiti desert. I even got raw remote sensing data in order to get past the paid high res commercial.

Sand can have for the same area, varying levels of EM penetration, which results in a very bumpy terrain, when in fact, it's very flat and smooth. Good if you're looking for archeological locations, you can see under the sand, very bad terrain modeling.

 

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