dctim's profile update thread

[dctim]

I don't update my profile often, but I did today (Aug 3, 2011).

If anybody wants or needs blank PNG or JPEG versions of VA, MD or DC maps, let me know.

[Kalisiin]

Nice!
And I'll take the maps. Should offer them to Markus, too. Be nice to have more states coded.

[dctim]

I have now added West Virginia to my profile page, just for fun. (Feb 15, 2012)

I will be updating my self-kept maps for every new county I get since I have knocked out all the easier ones.

I have also settled on PNG versions of my self-kept maps. JPEG seems to loose resolution every time I save them.

[Kalisiin]

need to grab your maps.

I might try and do something on my own, too, with regards Kentucky and Illinois.

Have not heard from Markus in a while about this.

UPDATE: I added Kentucky and Illinois to my profile now.
I have a blank Kentucky Map and Illinois Map for Markus, or anyone else who wants it.

Would love to see these get auto-mapped...but, for now, I have Kentucky and Illinois.

[dctim]

I dropped West Virginia from my profile awhile back, but have decided to add North Carolina to the mix.

Feedback is always welcome.

[Kalisiin]

I dropped West Virginia from my profile awhile back, but have decided to add North Carolina to the mix.

Feedback is always welcome.

I'm grabbing that.

[dctim]

I dropped West Virginia from my profile awhile back, but have decided to add North Carolina to the mix.

Feedback is always welcome.

I'm grabbing that.

It needs a bit of work around the Outer Banks. I have not yet decided if I am connecting those shoals to the mainland or how I might do so.

[Kalisiin]

I dropped West Virginia from my profile awhile back, but have decided to add North Carolina to the mix.

Feedback is always welcome.

I'm grabbing that.

It needs a bit of work around the Outer Banks. I have not yet decided if I am connecting those shoals to the mainland or how I might do so.

I'm actually working on it now.

[dctim]

I'd love to get your updated version. No sense both of us doing it.

[Kalisiin]

I'd love to get your updated version. No sense both of us doing it.

Be happy to send it to you.
It won't look a lot like the original because I'm going to re-do the wording and stuff, because, when you look at it under high magnification, everything's blurry and different colors, so it won't really fill right. I'm changing it so that it WILL fill right.

You got this map from the same place I get my maps that I then work on, like my Kentucky and Illinois maps...which you are free to grab, by the way, from my profile. I also did Oregon.

[Kalisiin]

I'm about 60% done with North Carolina.

There's gonna be a few more numbered counties...no way around it, North Carolina is just a pain in the ass.

There's also a number of counties with the names outside the borders and lines pointing into the counties. North Carolina just has too many small counties with huge names.

Update: about 70% done, I have handled the Outer Banks now...that was tough...I ended up surrounding that area with water, to show the difference between land and not-land - (the lines dividing which islands belonged to which county made it a little difficult to tell)
So, the bay and the northern part of the east coast of NC is done with a little water to make that all show up just a little better. It IS, of course, on the ocean, so this is okay....

[Kalisiin]

North Carolina is done.

Here ya go!!



Well, darn, it cuts off the outer banks...hang on, let me upload the image with the western half cut off so you can see the outer banks.

[Kalisiin]

Outer banks can be seen this time...cut off western half of state.

But I have, and will post to my profile...the full state.

[dctim]

That's great - thanks

[Kalisiin]

That's great - thanks

No prob. The top picture, if you copy the image, will still give you the full state...it just does not show up here because of space limitations, so I put the eastern half up so one could see the Outer Banks.

I used the water to show where land is, and isn't...and to give the final map the familiar shape of North Carolina we are used to seeing...you know, with a smooth coastline instead of all the inlets and what have you.

by the way, what you are looking at represents about ten hours of work with Paint.

I really wish I knew how to use other drawing programs, like GIMP - which I have, but can't figure out how to use layers...I wish I could figure it out so that it would be possible to make maps useful for Markus. The problem is...of course...the County Names block the fill function. If anyone could tell me how to do the layers...so that the names of counties were on a different layer than the actual counties...the names would no longer block the fill function, and then Markus could use the maps on this site to give us more auto-fill states.

Can anyone give me a crash course...or maybe go over the maps I have made with a program like GIMP or PhotoShop to create the necessary layers so that the fill would work right?

[dctim]

I was not familiar with GIMP until you mentioned it. I am a big fan of the open source stuff, so I will go try it out. If I figure anything out about it, I will let you know.

GIMP Online User Manual (html version)

[Kalisiin]

I was not familiar with GIMP until you mentioned it. I am a big fan of the open source stuff, so I will go try it out. If I figure anything out about it, I will let you know.

GIMP Online User Manual (html version)

Would appreciate it.
Most of these manuals and tutorials read like Greek to me, and are usually too general to be of much help. I just haven't had the time to get in there and noodle around, which is usually how I learn things.

It would be nice to find out if the county Names, themselves, could be put on a transparent second layer...and then if the bucket-fill function would work on the first layer...so that the County names no longer block the fill.

If we could get to that point, and then save the file...we would have a map Markus could then use to write the Delphi code to include it in all our profiles as an auto-filling map.

I have the vaguest and most basic grasp of how Markus does this, but I do know what he needs...and what he needs is a map where the County names don't block the fill function.

You can see what I'm talking about if you go into PAINT and look at my North Carolina map, and magnify X8 you can see that the county names are not just black pixels, they are all different colors, so it can't even br programmed to ignore. So this gives you some idea of what I'm looking for...if you can figure out how it's done and teach me, then I could do it too, and we can deliver a bunch of really good maps to Markus, and make this site even better!

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