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ArmA 3 Darken Merge Picturemap Satellite Texture Tiles

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HOWTO darken, merge and create picturemap from global mapper exported satellite texture tiles with Imagemagick.

In these examples we use global mapper exported 4 x 4 satellite texture tiles which is great number as it works on all satellite types from 20,480 all the way up to monster 102,400 resolution.

2020-05-14 updated to Version: ImageMagick 7.0.10-11 Q16 x64 2020-05-09.

Darken

First batch file is to darken the satellite texture tiles. The command is -brightness-contrast -<VALUE> where you can use value depending on your satellite texture type, for example some dark green european forests don't need much darkening while bright desert of Iraq require huge amount of it. In our example we use value of -30 which seems to work more or less OK (depending on your satellite image).

Note that we convert global mapper exported 24bit PNG files here.

_run_imagemagick_global_mapper_darken_tiles_4x4.bat:

@echo off
set MAGICK_TEMPORARY_PATH=c:\temp
 
echo Dsat_A1 ...
magick convert sat_A1.png -brightness-contrast -30 Dsat_A1.bmp
echo Dsat_A2 ...
magick convert sat_A2.png -brightness-contrast -30 Dsat_A2.bmp
echo Dsat_A3 ...
magick convert sat_A3.png -brightness-contrast -30 Dsat_A3.bmp
echo Dsat_A4 ...
magick convert sat_A4.png -brightness-contrast -30 Dsat_A4.bmp
 
echo Dsat_B1 ...
magick convert sat_B1.png -brightness-contrast -30 Dsat_B1.bmp
echo Dsat_B2 ...
magick convert sat_B2.png -brightness-contrast -30 Dsat_B2.bmp
echo Dsat_B3 ...
magick convert sat_B3.png -brightness-contrast -30 Dsat_B3.bmp
echo Dsat_B4 ...
magick convert sat_B4.png -brightness-contrast -30 Dsat_B4.bmp
 
echo Dsat_C1 ...
magick convert sat_C1.png -brightness-contrast -30 Dsat_C1.bmp
echo Dsat_C2 ...
magick convert sat_C2.png -brightness-contrast -30 Dsat_C2.bmp
echo Dsat_C3 ...
magick convert sat_C3.png -brightness-contrast -30 Dsat_C3.bmp
echo Dsat_C4 ...
magick convert sat_C4.png -brightness-contrast -30 Dsat_C4.bmp
 
echo Dsat_D1 ...
magick convert sat_D1.png -brightness-contrast -30 Dsat_D1.bmp
echo Dsat_D2 ...
magick convert sat_D2.png -brightness-contrast -30 Dsat_D2.bmp
echo Dsat_D3 ...
magick convert sat_D3.png -brightness-contrast -30 Dsat_D3.bmp
echo Dsat_D4 ...
magick convert sat_D4.png -brightness-contrast -30 Dsat_D4.bmp
 
echo All done!
pause
exit

Global Mapper v18 exports indexed color palette BMP images, while imagemagick defaults to RGB so if you wonder why original bmp is 100mb and imagemagick processed is 300mb, well that's why. For more details refer to global-mapper export satellite bmp color palette.

picturemap_ca.tga

Second bat is to create arma3 user interface picturemap_ca.tga image which is shown when you load your terrain. This also creates “screenshot.png” which is 1024×1024 resolution image almost ready to go for web use.

_run_imagemagick_create_picturemap_ca_4x4.bat:

@echo off
set MAGICK_TEMPORARY_PATH=c:\temp

rem quick check that we have darkened satellites :)
if not exist Dsat_A1.bmp exit
 
echo resizing Ax ...
magick convert Dsat_A1.bmp -resize 512x512 temp_A1.bmp
magick convert Dsat_A2.bmp -resize 512x512 temp_A2.bmp
magick convert Dsat_A3.bmp -resize 512x512 temp_A3.bmp
magick convert Dsat_A4.bmp -resize 512x512 temp_A4.bmp
 
echo resizing Bx ...
magick convert Dsat_B1.bmp -resize 512x512 temp_B1.bmp
magick convert Dsat_B2.bmp -resize 512x512 temp_B2.bmp
magick convert Dsat_B3.bmp -resize 512x512 temp_B3.bmp
magick convert Dsat_B4.bmp -resize 512x512 temp_B4.bmp
 
echo resizing Cx ...
magick convert Dsat_C1.bmp -resize 512x512 temp_C1.bmp
magick convert Dsat_C2.bmp -resize 512x512 temp_C2.bmp
magick convert Dsat_C3.bmp -resize 512x512 temp_C3.bmp
magick convert Dsat_C4.bmp -resize 512x512 temp_C4.bmp
 
echo resizing Dx ...
magick convert Dsat_D1.bmp -resize 512x512 temp_D1.bmp
magick convert Dsat_D2.bmp -resize 512x512 temp_D2.bmp
magick convert Dsat_D3.bmp -resize 512x512 temp_D3.bmp
magick convert Dsat_D4.bmp -resize 512x512 temp_D4.bmp
 
echo combine temp_Ax ...
magick convert +append temp_A1.bmp temp_A2.bmp temp_A3.bmp temp_A4.bmp temp_Ax.bmp
echo combine temp_Bx ...
magick convert +append temp_B1.bmp temp_B2.bmp temp_B3.bmp temp_B4.bmp temp_Bx.bmp
echo combine temp_Cx ...
magick convert +append temp_C1.bmp temp_C2.bmp temp_C3.bmp temp_C4.bmp temp_Cx.bmp
echo combine temp_Dx ...
magick convert +append temp_D1.bmp temp_D2.bmp temp_D3.bmp temp_D4.bmp temp_Dx.bmp
 
echo combine picturemap_ca.tga ...
magick convert -append temp_Ax.bmp temp_Bx.bmp temp_Cx.bmp temp_Dx.bmp picturemap_ca.tga
echo creating screenshot ...
magick convert picturemap_ca.tga -resize 1024x1024 screenshot.png
echo deleting temp files ...
if exist temp_*.bmp del temp_*.bmp
 
echo All done!
pause
exit

Merge to 2 x 2 Tiles

Finally we merge the darkened satellite texture tiles into 2 x 2 tile setup; top left, top right, bottom left and bottom right.

You can also modify this bat file yourself to combine them into one monster huge satellite texture, however satellite sizes of 40960 or larger are very Very demanding to your computer (ours is win7 64bit with 16gb ram) so be warned before attempting to merge.

_run_imagemagick_merge_global_mapper_satellite_tiles_4x4.bat:

@echo off
set MAGICK_TEMPORARY_PATH=c:\temp

rem quick check that we have darkened satellites :)
if not exist Dsat_A1.bmp exit
 
echo appending TOP LEFT ...
rem top left
echo A1 + A2 ...
magick convert +append Dsat_A1.bmp Dsat_A2.bmp temp_up.bmp
echo B1 + B2 ...
magick convert +append Dsat_B1.bmp Dsat_B2.bmp temp_bottom.bmp
echo top_left ...
magick convert -append temp_up.bmp temp_bottom.bmp top_left.bmp
echo cleaning temp tiles...
del temp_up.bmp temp_bottom.bmp
 
echo appending TOP RIGHT ...
rem top right
echo A3 + A4 ...
magick convert +append Dsat_A3.bmp Dsat_A4.bmp temp_up.bmp
echo B3 + B4 ...
magick convert +append Dsat_B3.bmp Dsat_B4.bmp temp_bottom.bmp
echo top_right ...
magick convert -append temp_up.bmp temp_bottom.bmp top_right.bmp
echo cleaning temp tiles...
del temp_up.bmp temp_bottom.bmp
 
echo appending BOTTOM LEFT ...
rem bottom left
echo C1 + C2 ...
magick convert +append Dsat_C1.bmp Dsat_C2.bmp temp_up.bmp
echo D1 + D2 ...
magick convert +append Dsat_D1.bmp Dsat_D2.bmp temp_bottom.bmp
echo bottom_left ...
magick convert -append temp_up.bmp temp_bottom.bmp bottom_left.bmp
echo cleaning temp tiles...
del temp_up.bmp temp_bottom.bmp
 
echo appending BOTTOM RIGHT ...
rem bottom right
echo C3 + C4 ...
magick convert +append Dsat_C3.bmp Dsat_C4.bmp temp_up.bmp
echo D3 + D4 ...
magick convert +append Dsat_D3.bmp Dsat_D4.bmp temp_bottom.bmp
echo bottom_right ...
magick convert -append temp_up.bmp temp_bottom.bmp bottom_right.bmp
echo cleaning temp tiles...
del temp_up.bmp temp_bottom.bmp
 
echo All done!
pause
exit