Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[EHood]

In the middle of Peter Harmsen's "Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze" (Casemate 2013). This is the best account I've read of the battle, and it goes into some detail about missions flown in the area by the CAF and IJN at the time. Indeed, these accounts could be used to produce missions, or even a campaign in TGA and/or WAW.

I have found a number of inquiries in SAS regarding a map of the Shanghai-Nanjing area, but there doesn't seem to be one available yet. Anybody heard anything lately? This would be a very useful addition to the TGA and WAW assortments.

Thanks. 

[Gubi]

In my "not loadable yet" file, I have slugs, made by agracier, maps of Hong Kong, Hainan, Kunming and Shanghai-Nanking.  The terrain is there but they are not populated.  A while back, he posted these to SAS, offering them to anyone who wanted to complete them.  I don't know if anyone is working on them yet.

Cheers

[EHood]

Thank you, Gubi. I'll see if I can find agracier's work.

[Koi]

I have take on the ambitious task of trying to working on a Shanghai map.  My biggest failing is my  desire to be accurate and in a world where change is key this is difficult.  The greatest handicap to accurate maps is that the world of the 1930'and 40's no longer exists geographically and  information about it,  in the form of era  maps, is very hard to find.
 Todays satellite scans, that are the bases of any il2 map, show lakes, river ways and land forms that have been greatly altered over the last 70 years and many of which did not exist in 1937 and of those that did are gone. So any work in this area will be long and difficult.  I can see why there  are so few maps for China's war and the few that are used for such are full of mistakes or just wrong. I myself have used the Manchuria map as a stand in for China but the map is not really of China or even Manchuria because  it on the wrong side of Korea. It really is a map of North eastern Korea and Pacific Russia and should be called Vladivostok. To really be of Manchuria and of use as China it should be of the other side, the western side,  of the Korean Peninsula. However it the best we got so I use it and I thank the map maker for it and praise their efforts.
 The good new is, that in the past I have noticed that as soon as I start on a map someone else bring one out of the same place. So while mine will take a long time to do one may be out shortly

[EHood]

Thank you, Koi. All I've managed to find so far is an SAS thread, started in 2009, describing farang65's efforts. Here's a link to the thread:

https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,1782.0.html

The first post in the thread contains a link to a mediafire source for farang65s China Starter Map Pack. The thread still works, at least on my PC. The China Starter Pack consists of eight different China maps, the last of which is called China_Shang_Hai_Nan_King.rar. Clicking on that item will take you to another mediafire source:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/3gdn22dzwnc/China_Shang_Hai_Nan_King.rar

That link works as well, and you can use it to download a zip folder containing what appear to be the components of just the sort of map I'd like to use. In fact, I have downloaded a copy of the rar, but I have absolutely no idea of what to do with the files, or if the map would work in a CUP installation. Which said, in terms of terrain and details, the map looks as if it would be perfectly adequate for producing Il-2 missions in that area.

Meanwhile, the search for agracier's Shanghai project continues.

[agracier]

A Shanghai map would certainly be of great use. But the thing is, making the city of Shanghai would necessitate a gigantic static file with so many objects. Loading times would be prohibitive, not to mention populating the map itself would be so time consuming. Large urban areas don't work very with Il-2. They either look contrived and cartoonish or unrealistic. A shame really ...

I was busy on a Shantung map some time ago, with very appropriate textures for China. I started it some years ago and in the meantime it has languished. I still have a workable version of it though, but without village/urban populating with objects and without the finished and proper airfields. It does work well for simple dogfighting and in the air missions though.

[EHood]

Thank you, agracier. It's good to hear from one of my favorite skinners. Having produced single-mission sets for stock Il-2 installations, with maps including elaborate and very crowded arrangements of available FMB objects, I do have a clue and some understanding of the tremendous amount of work REAL map-modders and makers put into their creations. I can also say that as often as not, when I'm actually flying Il-2 missions, I tend to ignore scenery which doesn't provide some immediate reference to my position in a given map. LOL.

If your Shantung map is compatible with BAT, I would be interested in using it. In my case, however, having never attempted to install a map, I would need a detailed, step-by-step tutorial on the process. Otherwise, I'd be liable to bung up my entire BAT installation. I think I'll leave well enough alone and wait to see if the Shantung map appears in a new BAT upgrade.

In any event, Harmsen's book about the Battle of Shanghai is an excellent study;  given the number of CAF period skins you've produced, you may already be familiar with it.