Bridge Over Troubled Water

The work on the new map is over! here's a screenshot, isn't it nice? isn't it nice???? the national boundaries are the result of an extra job from vmap0 dataset. I like the fact that the map is not just a rectangle with a texture applied, but it's a "real 3d thing", you can clearly see the mountains, and the extra detail is achieved thanks to a normal map.
I can now start working on the new gui.
Meanwhile... merry Christmas!

Yes, it's the time it's taking to finish the new graphics, then I'll have to start with the new gui...
The good thing is that I've learnt a lot of new things, and now the map should have a better look. I only have to complete the map with the political boundaries, I've tried to mix the old map with the new one but the results were disappointing even if the projections of the two maps match.

I've made a map combining texture and normal mapping, applied upon a very low poly model (my first idea required more than seven millions of polygons!). I'm still not satisfied because the squares that make up the final map can't be perfectly aligned, and the space between one and another can be seen. I've tried with one unique mesh, with rather big textures (8192 x 4096) but it seems it's too big a dimension for the engine (i.e. I can't see anything on the screen...)
I'll make some other tests, but I hope this part will not take too much time.