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Hi,

since there is always much talk about getting better quality maps I thought I'd give it a go for the common good. I had to modify my game in no trivial manner to establish the long distance zoom and farplane view on the maps (you cannot use this for cheating, so forget about that if you were thinking in this direction; does not make sense anyway since you won't see your friggin' tank). I put together a GenericModEnabler mod with the modified files needed to set it up (for current v.0.8.0).

First to show you a bit of teaser what I achieved:

Topology panoramic shots:
Mapshots:
Now how it is done:

(This spoiler bit is just a reminder for me or anyone who wants to do this from scratch, the edited files are in the mod I placed in the Step-by-Step manual below.)

1. Enable the satteliteprerequisite Mod. (You can toggle on/off GUI elements ingame by pressing "V". Do not use any altered avatar_input_handler.xml except the one in the mod. You will see why.)
2. Get CheatEngine and set it up to monitor the World of Tanks process.
3. Start a battle or (recommended) do a 2 player training room battle with the map of your choice, playing with a friend or using a 2nd PC and a dummy/friends/brothers account.
4. When you are ingame on the map, zoom out as far as the game allows. (That is why a max zoom out mod should not be active. You need the standard max zoom value.)
5. Do your first scan with cheat engine for the exact value of 1103626240 (Value Type: 4 bytes). You should get many adresses.
6. Get back in game and zoom in a little.
7. Do a next scan with cheat engine for decreased value. If you have 2 adresses left: good. If not, zoom back out, go back to Exact value 1103626240 and do a next scan. Double Click the second one and right click on it in the bottom list.
8. Select "Set/Change Hotkeys" from the context menu.
9. Assign a Key, example J, to Increase the value by 5000000 (Five Million).
10. Assing a second key, example K, to Decrease the value by 1000000 (one Million).
11. Assign a third key, example L, to increase the value by 100000 (one hundred thousand).
11. Get back in game and use J to zoom out fast, then K and L to slowly get the distance you want, you touch the normal zoom you are back on the ground. Enjoy taking your sattelite screenshots.

Because the memory adresses change, you have to do Steps 6 to 12 each time you enter a new map.

EDIT: Got them all. I packed the raw pictures into an archive on RS, so you can play around with them or use them as Wallpaper, whatever:

https://rapidshare.c...elite_shots.zip

And the 2 new maps from 0.7.0, Fjord and Swamp:
https://rapidshare.c.../FjordSwamp.zip

Redid Siegfried line, Fjord and Swamp in better Quality:
https://rapidshare.c...tingson_raw.zip

The new Maps of 7.2: Campania and Province:
http://www.mediafire...g4chp4dpdnngjz4

The new Maps of 7.3: Dragon Ridge and South Coast:
http://www.mediafire...93u3tn8ca1dlxu3

The new Maps of 7.4: Airfield and Widepark:
http://www.mediafire...ff8h983ai8q5l42

The new Maps of 7.5: Port, Serene Coast and Highway:
http://www.mediafire...x0o6eef70dqq8xb

To Mods: If anything of the method I described above is not wanted or even against some rule I am not aware of atm. please tell me, so I can remove it.
Edited by locastan, 21 October 2012 - 12:01 PM.

Very nice mod!

Be there a point or no, this is still pretty sweet Gj!

The problem when using this on the minimap is the perspective. Look at the church on the hill in Himmelsdorf. You don't see it from above because the perspective is focused on the middle of the map. For good map screenshots you somehow have to see everything from the same angle. WIthout such a perspectiv.
Anyway good job. Must have taken a long time to figure that out:Smile_great:

(Someone want to use that as new arty mode?)

That would be interesting if that was how arty saw instead of top down. Would make the shots a little more challenging.

Is this a game of where's tanky. I can see a new forum game what sectors my tank hiding in

Dude, that is beyond awesome. Thanks.

PzKpfwV, on 15 December 2011 - 09:52 PM, said:

Yes there is always a problem with Perspective on 3D vs 2D mapping. It is however only prominent on high buildings on the map. Himmelsdorf might be the worst with the castle, since it also happens to be on the most elevated spot of the map. You can still use the shot for Minimaps or tactical purposes like Advanced Tactical center, since you still can see the area around and behind the castle. Some finetuning and stretching of the shot might be needed to fit it right to the grid, but I want to get the shots first. I have no doubt that people out there will photoshop the material to their needs, but it is important they get the pictures in the first place.

There is however no way of getting rid of the perspective with ingame engine shots. Even artillery mode has perspective. I tried to photostitch together some smaller scale arty screens, but that failed miserably because of it. You can't merge houses, that are seen from various angles in front, above and back. The only way to get a ingame picture of the entire map is fit all on one single shot.

To answer the question of the point of the mod I attached: I saw a lot of people asking how the "hacked SAU zoom" (ridiculous title, there is no real hacking there) video on YouTube was made, because they wanted to do these HQ mapshots with it. There is nothing more to it.

I think the "topology" shots from corner to corner show the heights and ditches of the map in a nice overview style and make nice additional content for wikis and fanpages with mapinfo for new players.

Edit: I attached a RS Archive with all raw shots I took for current 6.7 in my first post. Have Fun!  

Hope to see mapshots off all maps ^^

J1mB091, on 17 December 2011 - 06:53 PM, said:

They are up for grabs (45MB). See the Rapidshare link I edited in at the bottom of my first post.  

I hope you guys out there enjoy them and I want to see some bitching tactical maps built from them soon. Pronto!  

Amazing! Reminds me of Company of Heroes.

Would also be nice to see an ATC pack with this maps ^^

J1mB091, on 18 December 2011 - 07:56 PM, said:

I just tipped unknown14725 off on this thread. I think he will be interested in getting his hands on them for his ATC pack.

I added the new maps of v0.7.0 as download, if anyone is interested in seeing them.  

I also updated the mod to 0.7.0. You can use it with the camera mod for 7.0.

http://czevak.cz.fun...t/Fjord-cut.jpg

http://czevak.cz.fun...t/Swamp-cut.jpg

Okay...with 7.1 it is no longer necessary to use the camera mod, the GUI is toggling on/off with pressing V.

One small addenum:

The thing is you need to change the angle settings in avatar_input_handler.xml inside the folder res\gui\ :

<angleRange>10 360</angleRange>

to

<angleRange>1 360</angleRange>

That allows you to angle relatively straight up. (0 is not allowed)

You need the XML editor (v0.5) for this from here:
http://lead-games.co...d-of-tanks.html

Those screens look awsome!

Hey locastan!

I love your work and i'd love to learn more or ask a favour :3

I've allways looked for a HD map pack sortof, you know for the in-game maps. But there's not many Map mods that change the map displayed, only on how it is displayed. So now i tried to mod a .dds file for the first time to see how it would work. I was amazed when i managed to make this work

I made this with your picture and i think it looks really good. I tried Himmelsdorf first but the perspective, as stated before, was a menace. So i'll have to lay down a lil more work on that one. Though i made just a quick mod with the Swamp map which is very flat just to see how it will look. This is the results :3

(can't use [img])
http://img848.images...20120116011.png
http://img213.images...20120116011.png

But yeah, thoughts?

This is just a quick try as to how, if it was even possible, to change the maps which i thought it should be, and it could use some more work. So don't be hatin'!

EDIT:
Added a little sharpness to the map which made it pop out more.

http://img62.imagesh...20120116144.png

This is excellent, thank you.

From this high out all the maps look beautiful and pretty realistic.
You accomplished on your own what WG should have put as animated map loading sequence, to see the map from different angles...

Pettingson, on 16 January 2012 - 01:52 AM, said:

I won't hate. That's exactly what I want to see and why I did these shots. The ingame minimaps are not very detailed and the resize option is no real feature atm, if you do not see more detail on the bigger map.

Keep it up and tell me if you need sth. special. (I know some mapshots have to be rotated because I was not able to get a clean shot from the normal orientation standpoint.)

Thank you ^^

This is a re-imageing of my first try to the Himmelsdorf map. This one i spent alot of time(Im not so good with PS) distorting the hill to make it look flat. Also it didn't get it so sharp, even after unsharp mask etc. But here it is

http://img822.images...20120116172.png
http://img849.images...20120116172.png