Chernarus Height Map

[andrepcg 41]

Since I started playing DayZ, I wanted learn the terrain, the best spots to snipe and camp. Now we have dozens of online maps to choose and thei have contour lines but it's difficult to read directly from it, you have to follow the lines to see if the terrain is at the same height.

So my challenge is to create an online map with an height map of Chernarus with a color pallete representing the terrain height. Anyone could open the map and in 5 seconds look for the terrain changes.

So far I've got this map and it's obviously not perfect http://imgur.com/6sZAd

Then I wanted to create an API for retrieving terrain height giving a point (x, y). I would use an existing online map such as http://dayzdb.com/map and edit it to include the z coordinate in the lower bar (the bar with x y coordinates)

I've extracted Chernarus terrain data from pbo files and now I have a file with x y z coordinates for the entire Chernarus. You can download it here http://www.mirrorupl...ernarus_xyz.rar

XYZ File contents (http://www.mirrorupload.net/file/1KNFEC3R/chernarus_xyz.rar):

Each line contains height information for the terrain at a given X and Y coordinate.

2048x2048 points across 15360m X and Y. First point starts at X=0 Y=0 Z=-51.600, second one is X=7,5 Y=0 Z=-51.660 and so on (the Z coordinate is the variable, X and Y always increment by 1, obviously). The distance between each point in a vertical or horizontal line is 7,5 meters (10,60m diagonally), so 2048 points x 7,5m = 15360m = 15,36km for the X and Y coordinate.

X=0 Y=0 represents the bottom left corner, x=2048 Y=2048 represents the top right

How I did it:

It was not directly accessible from the pbo. It was hard to find but from the chernarus.PBO I got chernarus.wrp, then I convert the WRP file to 8WVR (another kind of wrp), then I used a program called Roller to extract RAW xyz coordinates from the terrain. With that XYZ file you can open it in a program called L3DT and do whatever you want.

If you want to continue my work, keep going and post updates, otherwise please tell me the best way to store all these points online to build a simple API to retrieve the Z coordinate giving the X and Y one.

Height map w/ cities and roads & shadow (2048x2048px)

Plain height map w/ shadow (4076x3926px)

Plain height map (gray scale shadow) (2048x2048px)

Plain Height map 1 (830x830px)

Plain Height map 2 (4092x3944px)

Roads & Cities (7236x5965px)

Contour Lines (7205x5975px)

Overall 3D terrain

Edited July 18, 2012 by andrepcg

[skunk.five@gmail.com 44]

Impressive work sir.

[joemiken 16]

I'm assuming you digitized the contour lines on the map to create the color key? I used to do a lot of 3D terrain modeling and had thought about doing something very similar.

[andrepcg 41]

I'm assuming you digitized the contour lines on the map to create the color key? I used to do a lot of 3D terrain modeling and had thought about doing something very similar.

no. I extracted the terrain height data from the PBO files from ArmA folder. The file type is called .xyz and it contains raw information for each point. I put the xyz file for download, look at the post.

I don't know very much about terrain modelling and I don't know the best programs to export color ramps like this one. I used MicroDem but it's buggy as well in Win7 and a lot of functions just crash the program...

Edited July 16, 2012 by andrepcg

[skudd3r 44]

Google maps API and map markers. Use overlays to add color-mapping

Edited July 16, 2012 by SKuDD3r

[andrepcg 41]

http://www.reddit.com/r/dayz/comments/wq30o/yet_another_chernarus_height_field_wo_roads_and/

[DemonGroover 8836]

Nice - i do thias sort of thing for my job so i might have a play with the data when i get a chance.

[*=LP=*Cpt.Kawa 57]

Really nice work. Maybe don't make the 0-altitude blue, as it looks right now that cherno is underwater. And putting your heights on a high-res map would also be helpful.

Edited July 17, 2012 by *=LP=*Cpt.Kawa

[Xaiier 27]

Good job, you have prompted my first post on this forums...

Anyways, I actually did a similar thing to you recently, pulled the height-map out of the .pbo and loaded it into a 3d imaging software then overlaid a normal map so I could look around the map in 3d. I am curious though, how did you get so much detail out of the height-map? I opened the chernarus file in one of the editing programs and then used it to save a vector image of the terrain it showed me, but it was utterly horrible quality wise compared to the actual shape. It worked enough for what I wanted, but I would like to know how to get the raw data. ^_^

[andrepcg 41]

It was not directly accessible from the pbo. It was hard to find but from the chernarus.PBO I got chernarus.wrp, then I convert the WRP file to 8WVR (another kind of wrp), then I used a program called Roller to extract RAW xyz coordinates from the terrain. With that XYZ file you can open it in a program called L3DT and do whatever you want.

The guy from DayZDB said on Reddit that he might add the feature to display an height field overlay. He needs an higher resolution for it though.. I'm not the best guy working with this stuff (first time) but I managed to do a great job I think :P If you keep doing work around this, you have on the main post a link to the RAW XYZ file so you can work with RAW data from the terrain. :D

http://www.reddit.com/r/dayz/comments/wq30o/yet_another_chernarus_height_field_wo_roads_and/

Edited July 17, 2012 by andrepcg

[Xaiier 27]

Hmm...thats very interesting. I got rather irritated messing with all the strange file systems used so I kinda gave up on getting a super good image.

It will take me a bit to get the raw data sorted out, but I will try and see what I can come up with. Could prove very interesting...

[peliluola@gmail.com 28]

Hello, andrepcg. Mind if I add this map to my DayZ Mobile app's maps section? Credit will be given on About tab & under the map + a watermark on the map. Check my signature for more information.

[andrepcg 41]

WoRtEx, of course you can ;)

[andrepcg 41]

Gray scale height map:

[Red_Sky 140]

Did you know the highest accessible point in Chernarus is the tower in Green Mount-

[Xaiier 27]

So after some messing around, I was able to use MeshLab to save the point cloud as a .obj file, usable by most 3d programs. Loaded it into Maya, will work more on it later. :lol:

[andrepcg 41]

It's good to see people working on this :D Everyone working with the terrain data please provide us updates :)

[DayZPvP.com 143]

I wrote about your heightmap here.

Thank you, it is very useful.

[andrepcg 41]

What I have so far in a small list

Height map w/ cities and roads & shadow (2048x2048px)

Plain height map w/ shadow (4076x3926px)

Plain height map (gray scale shadow) (2048x2048px)

Plain Height map 1 (830x830px)

Plain Height map 2 (4092x3944px)

Roads & Cities (7236x5965px)

Contour Lines (7205x5975px)

Overall 3D terrain

[DayZPvP.com 143]

Wow dude some detailed info there...

Now I just wonder how I can use it all.

[Xaiier 27]

I'm just going to leave this here...

Still not finished, need to clean up the texture or maybe find a better one...

[Xaiier 27]

Heres a new version with a better texture. Still may add things such as inland lakes, some sort of trees, and perhaps labels on the major cities.

[Wambo1992 9]

Working on this too. Rendered some blank satellite picture with L3DT, too:

Currently working on a clean RoadMap Only.

[okano666@hotmail.co.uk 81]

thats pretty cool I would have thought that mountain near elektro was the highest point on the map thought - interesting thanks for the work

[FoulMouth 26]

Amazing work, I salute you sir.