I am currently trying to play around with the the game EU3 and it's map. The blank EU3 map looks like this:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2372313/backgroundlayer.png (warning, big image).
Normally in an EU3, when you take a map screenshot, the borders are overlayed onto the map above. What I want to do is take a current map of an EU3 game I am in and overlay it over a modern political map, also potentially blank like this:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2372313/BlankMap-World.png (big as well)
However the former map is more abstracted and is a lot larger and closer together and more tilted, making overlaying both hard. Is there anything I can do to find a suitable overlay or any graphic imaging tricks etc? It'd really appreciate it.
Help with maps
Moderator: Beowulf
Re: Help with maps
Ahh, what you're running into are the problems with different map projections. Basically, because the Earth is round, and paper is flat, any projection of the Earth's surface onto paper introduces some kind of distortion.
(Wikipedia, I know: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map_projection)
The blank EU3 map appears to be a Mercator Projection. (Sorry, Wikipedia again). This projection is recognizable because landmasses near the poles (Particularly Canada and Russia, because Antarctica is often left out) appear very large. This is because it's a conformal map (preserves shape and angles), and lines of latitude and longitude make straight lines form a grid. If you're looking for a modern map that should overlay easily, you'd want to look for one in that same projection. Google maps appears to also have Mercator projection (again, note how much it exaggerates the size of northern Canada), and you can maybe find something in atlas-type websites. (National Geographic?)
The second map appears to be some kind of equal-area map. In order to preserve area, landmasses near the edge of the projection must be distorted, but it allows for easier visual comparison of sizes. (Which is why humanitarian indices and such will often use that.)
Transforming your second map to overlay your first map is mathematically possible, but I don't know of any easy, free, tools that can do it. I assume photoshop must have some kind of "rubber-like stretching" mode that may generate a close approximation, but it won't ever perfectly match up. I think the best thing to do would be to try to find a world political map in Mercator. You can then use photoshop or another image-editing program to try to stretch and distort the political map to fit your EU3 map better.
http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/contemporarym ... index.html this site might work. It appears to have a large, clean, country borders map. You can try searching for other maps.
I hope that helps.
Edit: Actually, looking at your EU3 map more, it doesn't appear to be a straight Mercator. I'm noticing some distortion (landmasses to the east and west appear "curved" and "angled"). I don't really know what type of projection it is. Also, it could theoretically be anything, depending on how the game chooses to project its data.
Maybe the best thing to do is take a look at some of the Compromise projections listed in that wikipedia page, and seeing if any of those match up.
Edit2: Maybe you can search through http://www.csiss.org/map-projections/ to find one that best matches the game.
(Wikipedia, I know: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map_projection)
The blank EU3 map appears to be a Mercator Projection. (Sorry, Wikipedia again). This projection is recognizable because landmasses near the poles (Particularly Canada and Russia, because Antarctica is often left out) appear very large. This is because it's a conformal map (preserves shape and angles), and lines of latitude and longitude make straight lines form a grid. If you're looking for a modern map that should overlay easily, you'd want to look for one in that same projection. Google maps appears to also have Mercator projection (again, note how much it exaggerates the size of northern Canada), and you can maybe find something in atlas-type websites. (National Geographic?)
The second map appears to be some kind of equal-area map. In order to preserve area, landmasses near the edge of the projection must be distorted, but it allows for easier visual comparison of sizes. (Which is why humanitarian indices and such will often use that.)
Transforming your second map to overlay your first map is mathematically possible, but I don't know of any easy, free, tools that can do it. I assume photoshop must have some kind of "rubber-like stretching" mode that may generate a close approximation, but it won't ever perfectly match up. I think the best thing to do would be to try to find a world political map in Mercator. You can then use photoshop or another image-editing program to try to stretch and distort the political map to fit your EU3 map better.
http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/contemporarym ... index.html this site might work. It appears to have a large, clean, country borders map. You can try searching for other maps.
I hope that helps.
Edit: Actually, looking at your EU3 map more, it doesn't appear to be a straight Mercator. I'm noticing some distortion (landmasses to the east and west appear "curved" and "angled"). I don't really know what type of projection it is. Also, it could theoretically be anything, depending on how the game chooses to project its data.
Maybe the best thing to do is take a look at some of the Compromise projections listed in that wikipedia page, and seeing if any of those match up.
Edit2: Maybe you can search through http://www.csiss.org/map-projections/ to find one that best matches the game.