Problems creating Overlays in Earth

Gorkde · March 25, 2015, 13:27:35

Hi,

I do use Overlays quite a bit wwith historical maps.
I always import a picture in Earth, set the boundaries and convert the data for use with locus.

Since I did smaller maps all the time I never noticed that the map projection in GE distorts my plain maps but I always did wonder why my historical map never did fit exactly the actual German landmarks.
I always thought th old maps just were slightly inaccurate and did a centering so it does fit the best possible.

Now I tried overlaying an entire Germany map and saw a huge distortion which makes me unable to fit the jpg to the actual Germany map. (1)

then I tried converting the overlay in GE (Overlay settings-Position) to LatLon.
Now I could move the edges and distort the map but now it has another roundness which makes me unable to fit the map in the other direction. (2)

How the hell can I get my plain map ready to overlay it in GE?
I'm getting Crazy by now, read the net for Hours without finding any helping tips.
Anyone here who can help me?

john_percy · March 25, 2015, 14:03:52

Historic maps had a projection which was optimised for certainly no more than a single country. In the UK, the projection varied from county to county until the advent of the ordnance survey in the 19th century. The county based maps just could not be made to get the roads to join up when you went from one county to the next. The Google projection is optimised for the entire globe, something that has become possible with satellite mapping.
None of which is much help towards solving the problem you have.

Gorkde · March 25, 2015, 14:09:22

Thats not the problem!

The actual maps in my example are modern maps.

The pictures are stretched wrong in GE

balloni55 · March 25, 2015, 15:04:18

Take a look on mapc2mapc
http://docs.locusmap.eu/doku.php?id=manual:convert_images_to_sql
creat with free version a testmap (with red crosses) and if it fit, you buy mapc2mapc,
or if you need only 2 or 3 maps contact me

Gorkde · March 25, 2015, 17:54:47

I already own it but did use Earth for calibrating then Map2Mapc for conversion.

Maybe this is the better way, just testing

john_percy · March 25, 2015, 18:10:24

Other possibilities:
MapTiler http://www.maptiler.com/
Hugin (recommended on the web for 'unusual' projections): http://hugin.sourceforge.net/

Gorkde · March 25, 2015, 18:37:37

Same outcome the map is correctly alligned but distorted.

Maybe the original map is alredy distorted since the horizontal degree lines are rounded (see top of picture)
So I need a way to distort the original picture in a gfx program but my Photoshop dosent have such option since i own an old version.

Any Idea?

john_percy · March 25, 2015, 20:49:16

Hugin does that sort of distortion

Gorkde · March 26, 2015, 08:36:47

Hi, tried that program but I can't figure out how to use it for this task since its pretty complex.

Is there any PS Filter that allowa me to manually bend like I need?

There's a "Verbiegen" (bend) filter that would do the job but I can't use it since it always reports low ram no matter how much ram or temp space I assign (should have enough ram).

So I would need a custom bend filter for my PS CS (the first CS)