BoB2 GIS Campaign Map - Version 1.00

[GlobalExplorer]

I have created a first version of a multilayered GIS version of the original campaign map. This was done programmatically by extracting the required information from the source code and exporting it into common GIS formats.



It is a layered, zoomable GIS map with all RAF and Luftwaffe squadrons at their exact ingame positions - a thing which I have sorely missed when I started my first campaign, and particularly useful if you are new to the game. You can view it quite comfortably with a free GIS viewer. A download link for that program is provided as well. All you have to do to use it is install the viewer and open the map with it.

Keep in mind this in automatically generated map, so some manual correction might be necessary. When and to which extent I will do to depends on the amount of user feedback.

I have compared all map content with the multiskin pdf-maps and - apart from some minor things which I will do later - everything seems to match.

Instructions

First, download the map files:

http://www.christian-wendt.org/Bob2Map/ ... 100_r2.zip

Before you can use you must also download and install TatukGIS Viewer.

http://www.christian-wendt.org/TatukGIS.exe

(You can of course get a more up-to-date one at http://www.tatukgis.com but the one at my site should work fine.)

After you have installed it, simply click on this file:

Bob2_CampMap_v100.TTKGP

and the map will open. Keep in mind it takes some a while before the background image is loaded. Also, it takes a while to learn how to use the viewer, but it should be fairly obvious if you have some experience with CAD, Photoshop, etc.

An interesting feature is the possibility to link every object with a html-file, which will open if you doubleclick it. That way it is possible to build a comprehensive Bob campaign encyclopedia, which will show all kinds of backgound information (photos, text, etc) if you double-click an object on the map. All that is needed is someone who creates the html-files, of course.

Feel free to ask questions or report problems, as I have plans to expand this in the future, and I want to learn how to make good maps

TIP: If you like the look of the map, you might also want to see this thread:
http://shockwaveproductions.com/forum/v ... php?t=8966
there you can get a mod that replaces the BoB2 ingame campaign graphics with the look of my GIS map.

Screenshots





P.S. I have also created a simplified jpg version for people who dont want to download any additional software. Simply download and open this file:

http://www.christian-wendt.org/Bob2Map/export-1.jpg

Keep in mind that the jpg contains much less information than the full version and is no replacement. In fact it was created by disabling 2/3 of the information and using the viewers inbuilt "export to raster" feature.

[GlobalExplorer]

-- START OF ORIGINAL DISCUSSION --

I have developed a tool that exports the campaign data from another game ( Silen Hunter III) into standard GIS maps - these can be opened and viewed with a free viewer. And I would think such an addon would be absolutely cool for Bob too, because I find the campaign screen downright confusing, when it comes to where my squadrons are located. A nice thing is that people with two computers can run the GIS application on the second one, and use it for a much better overview on the campaign situation.

You can have a look here at what I did for SHIII:

http://www.global-explorer.de/contentpa ... g_room.htm

My question is if there is someone who can tell me how to read the campaign data from BoB with an external program, i.e. I need information about the formats.

I have looked at the sourcecode but it didnt really help because there seems to be no "BfReader.h", to do that it seems I have to compile the whole Battlefield namespace which probably means I have to compile the whole game!

From what I know now it looks like the information are in the .BF files, which unfortunately are binary files. Which also leads to the question if they are not plain text because any tampering in these files is against the interest of the developer. Or if a text format was solely discarded because Rowans backend was already working, and no one wanted to mess with it - which would make sense to me

Still I ask myself if it was ever considered to export the data into self explaining text files. Again, I can only recommend you to have a look at SHIII and the mods for it to see what will be made possible by this approach. People have done all kinds of great campaign improvements, that surpassed the vanilla ones in an incredible way, and they are still improving.

The map for Battle of Britain would of course contain much more information that this one, but as a preview this should do:

http://www.global-explorer.de/screens/uk2.jpg

[Rummy]

Hi, neat looking application. You need to speak with Fred, I'm sure he'll make a visit to this thread. He has delved into the BF files for his mission editor, would be nice to bring a graphical side to that as well.

[Lepton]

Two things:

1. Out of curiosity, are you using shapefiles for housing the GIS data?
2. The links to the screenshots on your webpage have an incorrect format. Currently they look like this:

http://www.global-explorer.de/screens\uk1.jpg

and browser interprets it like this:

http://www.global-explorer.de/screens%5Cuk1.jpg

But they should look like this:

http://www.global-explorer.de/screens/uk1.jpg

[PV]

The .bf files are not written during the campaign, as I presume you have deduced from their date codes. All events during the campaign are recorded in the files in the Savegame folder. .bf file are compiled, we have the text script for some, but by no means all of them.

[Osram]

Hi! Your tool looks very nice

My question is if there is someone who can tell me how to read the campaign data from BoB with an external program, i.e. I need information about the formats.

Fred would indeed be your best bet, I will alert him to this thread.
The other source of info is of course the C++ source. It is not THAT hard to compile given the correct compiler (MSVC 6-8 should work well).

From what I know now it looks like the information are in the .BF files, which unfortunately are binary files. Which also leads to the question if they are not plain text because any tampering in these files is against the interest of the developer. Or if a text format was solely discarded because Rowans backend was already working, and no one wanted to mess with it - which would make sense to me

As to Rowan's decision: They did not care for modding much either way (or simply did not have the man power to care for it...). AFAIK *ALL* formats read during 3D are binary. Maybe a bit of "overkill" woth the BF files as they are very small but then it makes sense to be on "the safe side".

Our decision: We are only starting to work with the battlefield format as we did not need to earlier on and our plates always overflow with stuff we (basically) HAVE to do.

Anyway, with BoB you can get the source to BoBI, so you have oportunities you do not have for other games. Especially in the BF area as it is pretty unchanged in BoBII. Oportunities like understanding formats more easily, adding a format to the system, interfacing or integrating tools etc. We are definitely hoping for more modders and have already spent 1000s of hours on making BoB more modding friendly (especially in the 3D area though). The main limitation is that we are so few that our time is always limited.

"Externalising" data is definitely one important job, for example the list of units in BoB(II) is hardcoded in the exe, but we are working on that.

[Fredrick - A2A]

Hi, i am happy to help you on making this program possible for Bob2.

The main bulk of the objects are indeed placed in the binary .BF file, the files themself are static but as the campaign progresses it keep taps on what object is being destroyed.

The pre-binary bf files are called .BFI files, they hold the information on what type of object with a few property values such as position and the object value to the campaign.

We also have a file format called objectsadd which are mainly simple objects which does not get tracked by the campaign, so they could be a good start, they can be read to your tool via a simple ASCII parser.

They are located under Battle of Britain II\ObjectAdds and grouped together in their respective text files.


pm me with your email and i can email you with the BFI source files.

[GlobalExplorer]

Two things:

1. Out of curiosity, are you using shapefiles for housing the GIS data?

I think it is quite easy to create a much better campaign map with existing GIS technology, even if its free.

My application writes shapefiles and/or gml files via Nts (C# version of Jts) and arcviewshapefile. For the terrain I use gshhs shoreline data which I have made ready for realtime rendering, i.e. split into smaller polygons. The highest resolution of the shoreline data has an accuracy of ~100m, resulting in very big files for the terrain (~150MB), but of course there are cruder ones, and for the BoB there is only need for a much smaller theater of ops, no more than 5% of the data.

2. The links to the screenshots on your webpage have an incorrect format. Currently they look like this:

http://www.global-explorer.de/screens\uk1.jpg

and browser interprets it like this:

http://www.global-explorer.de/screens%5Cuk1.jpg

But they should look like this:

http://www.global-explorer.de/screens/uk1.jpg

Thanks! This seems to happen with Windows Vista, as I never had probs with XP. I must look into this asap.

[GlobalExplorer]

Hi, i am happy to help you on making this program possible for Bob2.

The main bulk of the objects are indeed placed in the binary .BF file, the files themself are static but as the campaign progresses it keep taps on what object is being destroyed.

We also have a file format called objectsadd which are mainly simple objects which does not get tracked by the campaign, so they could be a good start, they can be read to your tool via a simple ASCII parser.

They are located under Battle of Britain II\ObjectAdds and grouped together in their respective text files.


pm me with your email and i can email you with the BFI source files.

I have pm'd you as soon as I read this.

I understand as much that BFI files are the uncompiled campaign data. In that case, I should be able to create a set of GIS files pretty easily. Of course they would be static, which limits their usefulness very much, but it would be a start, especially for people who yet have to learn the composition of forces.

The pre-binary bf files are called .BFI files, they hold the information on what type of object with a few property values such as position and the object value to the campaign.

Do these files contains information like position, aircraft type, squadran name, airfield, which I require for building a map of the forces, in a self explaining text format? If yes, then you should absolutely bring them on, as I can make something nice from them!

[GlobalExplorer]

Where can I get information about Freds Mission Editor? Is there already a release?

[Osram]

Fred will answer, but he is very busy right now.

You should already have BFI files as you have the BoBI source.

[stalkervision]

WoW absolutely great work!

where are the u-boats hiding?

Only kidding...

[Fredrick - A2A]

Where can I get information about Freds Mission Editor? Is there already a release?

What kind of information do you seek?

this is a download, binary version ( no source )

http://www.franva.org/download.php?view.1

Version 3 is in works and not ready for public as of yet.

I can provide you with focused source code do crack open quick.dat and such, just let me know.

Do these files contains information like position, aircraft type, squadran name, airfield, which I require for building a map of the forces, in a self explaining text format? If yes, then you should absolutely bring them on, as I can make something nice from them!

Squadron names and related data like plane type and squadron resources is hardcoded in the game, however if you need to take a closer look at that i can give you source to that.

90% of the other data is in the mail i just emailed you

[SeaVee]

GlobalExplorer,

This looks like very interesting work. Keep it up.

I think the complex campaign of BoB2 can be a real attraction for people into the subsims.

People like you with skills and talent are always welcome here. We need as many as we can get.

[GlobalExplorer]

Yesterday I had made some progress in understanding the battlefield data, and I was close to making the first sample maps.

Unfortunately it looks like my concept isnt working, because BoB is using a coordinate system that does not fit into a standard cartographic projection. At least not without extremely complex transformations.

BoB objekt coordinates are stored (in bfi and cpp files) as absolute x and z values and with some calculations* they should transform into lat / long values, but I found it impossible to find a common scaling factor that would work.

In plain language, no matter how I scaled the coordinates they would show up all over the place.

I then combined my shoreline data with a screenshot of the campaign screen and found that indeed they would never match. The map in BoB differs from the common cylindrical projection, in fact it might just be an approximation.

That means that right now I see no way to use high quality cartographic data instead of the bitmap tiles you know from BoB.

Ok so I will have a look at the tiles. It looks like 16 of them are combined into a 1024x1024 tile and so on, and it should be pretty easy to write a program that stitches them together.

Of course that would mean that the new map looks like the old one. It could however contain more information and be extendable.

------------------------------------

*This is how I tried to transform the absolute coordinates into lat / long values

1. subtracting the absolute X coordinate of Greenwich (because points west of Greenwich meridian are negative longitude)
2. finding the scaling factor by taking well known places and divide their real lat/long values with the values in abs X

Absolute X for Greenwich was easy, I used the value for East India Dock.

Scaling factor, as I said above, did ot yield the results I was hoping for.