DCS Theater Interactive Topographical Map

[FSFIan]

Download it here (extract somewhere and open dcs-map.html):

 

http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/de/files/599103/

 

 

This is based on the awesome map that EvilBivol-1 stitched together from the 1:500k A-10C TAD chart pages.

Unfortunately, a 9210x5605 pixel image can be cumbersome to handle.

 

I have added a browser-based viewer using OpenLayers 3 which loads the map from 256x256 pixel tiles, so panning around and zooming is very smooth. Using OpenLayers, it was also easy to add a scale line and a Lat/Lon readout that displays the position of the mouse pointer in the format used by the A-10C CDU.

 

When you zoom in further, it switches from the A-10C TAD map to a "surface type" map that I exported pixel by pixel from DCS: World with a Lua script. It shows land (green), water (blue), roads (brown) and airports (white).

 

Try noting the coordinates of an intersection and entering those into your CDU -- it should be pretty accurate :)

 

While I have only tested it on my desktop PC, the map should be useable on any device which has a recent version of any major browser installed.

 

EDIT: I just noticed that OpenLayers 3 supports touch events! I can actually zoom and rotate the map using two fingers on the touch screen I use for Helios (although it is inconvenient on a desktop monitor). If you have a tablet (I don't), give it a try!

EDIT2: Multitouch input only works in Chrome for me; Firefox scales the whole page and in IE 11 only two-finger zoom works.

Edited February 25, 2014 by [FSF]Ian

[Milli]

I just tried this map out and wow, very cool indeed. Ingenious. Thanks Ian.

Rep inbound.

 

Regards,

Milli

[logion]

Nice map Ian :-).

 

A couple of questions from my side, altough they're more related to the stiched map than your interactivity functionality:

* I noticed that it doesn't cover the entire in-game map? For instance Vaziani airport (in the south east), which lies East of Tbillisi isn't on the map?

* I'm guessing it is possible to recreate the entire TAD map with all its scales and use a different a zoomlevel per scale? While this would lead to a large number of tiles, it would be nice to add an other level of detail using the 1:250k scale material from the TAD? Or is the 1:250k scale in game just an zoom-in/stretched version of the 1:500k scale?

[FSFIan]

Take a look at Terrain\A-10C\Maps\TAD_COLLECTION.zip in your DCS: World install directory to see what is available.

 

The 1:500k and 1:250k zoom levels are separate maps. EvilBivol-1 did not use the 1:250k zoom level because it covers less area than the 1:500k one; I did not investigate this further.

[dooom]

does anyone know how this might be attached to a joomla website as a page?

[FSFIan]

Take a look at my new map project: dcsmap.a10c.de

It lacks the integration of the A10-C TAD map, but it has the positions of all buildings marked, which makes it easier to recognize settlements.

 

It is also based on the current version of OpenLayers 3, so all you need to add it to a Joomla page is to include jQuery and OpenLayers 3 in the page, create a div with id="map", and copy the JavaScript code (sorry for the messy indentation, it's in its early stages right now).

[dooom]

Ian - this thing is great - it will be so easy to use with online whiteboard products like twiddla