Larger sim maps?

[Jo Yardley]

I love looking at the maps of sims, how they change trough time, roads, houses, etc.

Sims sometimes look as interesting from above as from streetview.

But I can only find very small ones to download, like here;

http://www.gridsurvey.com/display.php?id=85777

It is tiny!

I'd love to know if theres a place somewhere where one can view larger, perhaps more detailed maps.

[ROB34466IIIa]

I think there' s a limit for the pictures generated. Sim maps seem stuck at 256 x 256.

Your region looks same on Second Life maps .. cannot zoom in further.

 

[Ceera Murakami]

I don't believe the system generates any more detail than that for sim maps. To get any higher resolution, you have to go to the sim yourself, turn your draw distance way up, turn off the particle clouds (if your viewer still supports them), and take one or more aerial snapshots on your own.

[Jo Yardley]

Yes I know, I've made maps like that, zooming out (almost impossible with my old computer), making lots of snapshots and then spending ages photoshopping the whole thing together.

A lot of work, the result below.

Now, I don't expect this kind of resolution on any kind of SL map, but still, would be nice if it was a little bigger then it is now!

[Knowl Paine]

I also enjoy viewing the World Map.

LL likes selling things, I don't see why a Region Snapshot couldn't be an option. Maybe the option could be added to the camera, or from the world map. I would like to see the option on the world map, if it was possible. I could get an aerial photo of a Region without having to visit the Region. A land based system, where you have to be in the Region, might be easier to implement using the camera.

[Triple Peccable]

Wow, snapshots that close-up and detailed might violate my privacy. Someone might actually see where my pot plants are growing!

 

[Jo Yardley]

Come live with us in 1920s Berlin, drugs are legal till december 1929

[ROB34466IIIa]

*gulp* Errr... you' d have to arrange servercode would adjust map resolution to 1,020px × 1,024px .

Excuse my sarcasm but : Good luck on that. You're on your own, kiddo.

( Beautiful detailed picture of your sim though)..

[Jenni Darkwatch]

If I may suggest a faster way to stitch images together: Hugin (free). Easy to use, pretty much automatic, works pretty great.

[Perrie Juran]

---

Jo Yardley wrote:

I love looking at the maps of sims, how they change trough time, roads, houses, etc.

Sims sometimes look as interesting from above as from streetview.

But I can only find very small ones to download, like here;

http://www.gridsurvey.com/display.php?id=85777

It is tiny!

I'd love to know if theres a place somewhere where one can view larger, perhaps more detailed maps.

---

You piqued my curiosity a bit so I started panning around the mainland on the map which resulted in the following three images:

First, the map in the viewer:

 

There appeared to me what I thought were kind of obnoxious roof tops so I decided to visit and see what was actually there.  Well, those words are not on roof tops.  They are setting on platforms at about 350 Meters.  The letters are constructed of very large prims, the next two pictures.  And for a sense of scale, that is me standing in the middle of the last image.  The prims appear to be about 10M high.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Papa/130/35/351

 

 

All of which leads me to a few observations and/or guesses and questions.

1.  The images in the viewer map must some how be computer generated from the information in the servers.  They obviously can not be from actual snapshots.

2.  Which makes me wonder from what height perspective the images are supposed to represent.  In other words, from how high up looking down.

3.  There were objects above these letters that do not appear in the viewer map.  Do objects above a certain height not get included?

4.  If all the images are created from data on the server, I can see no reason why a greater level of zoom could not be provided unless the processing power required was truly prohibitive.   I know I would love to see greater zoom / level of detail.

5.  To create a map of the entire Mainland with greater detail would require stitching together a ton of images given the number of  SIMS but it is feasible.   It could be zoom-able and pannable.  Consider this GigaPixel image:  http://www.sevilla111.com/default_en.htm

6.  While I am not sure of the technical problems involved, I would guess a map of the mainland with the kind of detail in the image in the above news article could be computer generated.

 

[Hugsy Penguin]

"Only objects lower than 400 meters on the Z-coordinate (vertical) plane appear on the World Map."

Source:  http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Viewerhelp:World_Map

Regarding the resolution, my personal guess is that when they implemented the map, they just went with 1 pixel per square meter thinking that would look good enough.  They implemented it that way and it worked fine.  I'm guessing they didn't do any analysis of processing time versus map resolution to get the best trade-off.

Even if they don't add resolution, I'd like to be able to zoom in further (way further) and will accept the pixelization.

I used to have a smiley face on the map.  Also, I used to have a map clock.  I never kept logs of when the map updated, but from casual observation, in Suisun it always seemed to update sometime after about 12:30am and sometime before about 1:15am, IIRC.

[Anaiya Arnold]

I agree with Jo.

I'd love the maps to zoom further.