Accurate map for DCS 2.5 Caucasus theatre

[Flappie]

After more than a year of hard work, here's a brand new accurate map for the DCS 2.5 Caucasus theatre. It was created to replace the good old -but obsolete- TC-1 map. Have fun with it.

 

V1.0 (2019-06-23) - Printable and accurate map for DCS 2.5 Caucasus theatre - GeoTIFF format

Here's the webmap : http://dcsmaps.com/caucasus/openlayers

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NEW! Caucasus Raster Chart mod available! https://1drv.ms/u/s!AmalAqGbEduugvh54thylKRVLfeyiw?e=r6DdgT

1. Download zip.
2. Unzip into "/DCS World/" or "/DCS World OpenBeta/" (core game files).
3. Enjoy.

Raster charts are seen in the mission editor, in the kneeboard and in your aircraft MFDs/moving map system.

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Here are the vector data that were used to draw this map. Feel free to make your own maps, as long as you distribute them for free.

 

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DESCRIPTION:

This is not a real-life Caucasus map. This is a printable and accurate map for DCS 2.5 Caucasus theatre. It only shows what exists in the game, be it roads, railroads, rivers, lakes, coastline, urban areas, forests, bridges...

 

I dedicate this map to the mission creators out there. May it serve them well.

 

HOW TO USE IT:

This map is brought to you as a very large GeoTIFF image. You can:

* Open it with any powerful image editor (The GIMP, Photoshop...).

* Open it with any powerful GIS editor (Quantum GIS, ArcGIS...) as a raster.

 

It is also available in a lower quality in the CombatFlite app by Viper39 and in the Tacview app by Vyrtuoz.

 

HOW IT WAS DONE:

* Urban, vegetation and water areas were extracted from a HUGE image composed of screenshots of the DCS mission editor.

* Rivers were all drawn by hand, one by one. Yes.

* Roads and railroads were drawn by AI Humvees, thanks to a MOOSE script by Hardcard.

* Relief shadows are from the ASTER GDEM.

* Town labels and beacons are from ingame LUA files.

* Airbases were drawn by hand.

* Bridges were generated through SQL scripting.

* Tunnels were drawn by hand.

 

HOW CAN I HELP?

If you see any error or missing part, or even if you wish to see some information added, please PM me on the ED forum (user "Flappie").

 

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

BaD_CrC, who's been supporting me from the beginning of the project

All the others who kept encouraging me on the forums : davidp57, BlacleyCole, FoxDelta, M1Combat, rajdary, deep...

Hardcard for his "Google car" scripting wisdom and the MOOSE community in general

Viper39 for his incredible CombatFlite app

Vyrtuoz for his incredible Tacview app

Last but not least, Eagle Dynamics for their wonderful simulator. I was hooked since 2003 and I don't plan to leave.

Edited December 8, 2022 by Flappie
Caucasus Raster Chart mod available

[Rudel_chw]

Amazing work ... really, hats off to you and all the people that helped produce this :) ... will download it right away and then see if there is a way to put it on my iPad pro and zoom-in with gestures :)

 

Thanks you, thank you :D

Edited June 28, 2019 by Rudel_chw

[Fri13]

Great work! Just amazing! Something I have wanted for years....

 

Now what I can start dreaming is that ED would allow this map to be used in A-10C, AV-8B N/A (etc in the future) modules as map in TAD / EHDS. I would be so happy to see a far more useful and clearer map there. (Yes, yes... Unrealistic etc bla bla bla.... but still a nice extra bonus feature for special tab).

[Space Cadet]

Wow... Outstanding...! Thank you very much Sir.

[Flappie]

Amazing work ... really, hats off to you and all the people that helped produce this :) ... will download it right away and then see if there is a way to put it on my iPad pro and zoom-in with gestures :)

 

Thanks you, thank you :D

Thank you. All data are vectors, apart from the relief shadows. I'm planning to upload it as an interactive map (like Google Maps or OpenStreetMap) but I haven't found the best way to do it yet. Work in progress...

[Falcon_S]

Amazing!!! Thanks!

[wilbur81]

Great work!!

 

Question: Has anyone tried having this printed at a Kinkos/FedEx or the like? If so, how much did it cost? How large was it? And did they hesitate to print?

 

Thanks!

[davidp57]

Thanks Flappie, you're amazing ; I admire your resilience, your ingeniosity and your technical talent !

 

Now, someone will have to finish my Kneepad.app ! (BadCrC, this should make you laugh ^^)

[Backy 51]

Nicely done! Release your inner Navigator!:D

[ElementLT]

Simply amazing work thank you so much for sharing this with the community

[BaD CrC]

Congratulations Flappie! This is an amazing work you have done here, and a very hard and tedious one! I am sure your map will become the reference in the DCS community for years to come, a.k.a the « Flappie map ». You just entered in the very restricted pantheon of the DCS community.

[agrasyuk]

Thank you very much for your efforts !

[Red_Donkey]

Thank you Flappie!!! Much appreciated!

[Svsmokey]

Yes a ton of work well done . Any word on the pdf version ?

[Flappie]

Yes, QuantumGIS crashes when I try a PDF export. The vector version will take me some more time. I'm still trying to figure out how to make a PDF file of that size...

[Svsmokey]

Yes, QuantumGIS crashes when I try a PDF export. The vector version will take me some more time. I'm still trying to figure out how to make a PDF file of that size...

 

Thank you !

[Fubarbrickdust]

This is awesome, thank you! :thumbup:

 

The level of work and time investment that's gone into this cannot be understated...quite an effort!

 

Cheers,

Brick.

[Hardcard]

:clap_2:

 

:D

 

 

[Flappie]

:lol:

Thank you, you made my day!

[FoxDelta]

stunning, flappie, thx for all your hard work and time:thumbup:

[Flappie]

I have some good news: the PDF version will happen! It's only a matter of time.

[Svsmokey]

I have some good news: the PDF version will happen! It's only a matter of time.

 

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

[BaD CrC]

Hi Flappie!

So what's up with the mbtiles or pdf version?

[Flappie]

Hey mate ! I've been flying a lot on DCS, mainly as an F-14B RIO for my fellow pilot. But Heatblur is not to blame for the delay, I am.

 

The PDF process is what I would call pretty ugly. I'm not quite satisfied by the result, that is why I haven't published any of it. In fact I'd much rather publish an online vector version of the map (i.e. on Google Maps or so). This summer, I've been searching for the right tool to publish my vector map, to no avail. But some days ago, I found this, simply called MapServer. It's exactly what I wanted. This would require a dedicated server to run, but it's not an obstacle.

 

Now, I need some time to read the docs, create a Linux virtual machine and give this a try.

[Holton181]

... some days ago, I found this...

I had a quick look, and it seems (if I interpret what I read correctly) to support WMS. If we can get access to your map by WMS or similar standard, one can use our favorite maping app on our phone/tablet together with my own DCS add-on "DCS-to-GPS" and have a great moving map for Caucasus, not forced to use real world maps or occupie a big part of the device memory with the downloaded version from Combatflight.

I really hope to see this!

Good luck!