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I found a nice little program in russia : Download SAS planet.
If you know Google maps downloader or Mobac you also know that map sources are often quite limited.
SAS Planet fills this gap by providing many map sources from all over the world.
The main aim is Russia and eastern Europe, but other sources are available for selection - there are too many to list them all!
Of course using a Ukranian map server won't help you in the US or in Australia, but you also have sources for Google, Bing, Yahoo and Topo maps.
To top it up you also get access to to images of the planet inside our solar system - just in case you have a rocket ready to go
For people interest in the WWII you can also find historic maps
Even if the Website (Google translate) is in russian, the program has an english interface.
They also offer a solution for Windows Phone and Android but as far as I know only for the russian areas, no international mapping
I played with older version but gave up on it as the interface was not nice and map sources very limited.
The current version offers more map sources than I ever knew existing.
Export is possible in different image formats plus calibration data for Ozi, Google and some others.
Although the program is now pretty intuitive and offers polygon selections for maps getting a useful result can be frustrating to say the least.
Common problems include:
The downloaded and combine image is not from the source you wanted.
The result is in a complete different zoom level than intended.
The wrong area is created.
All these problems can be easily avoided if you know how the program works
In order to create a map you first need to define the area of interest, this can be done with a quick recangular box or by using a polygon that surrounds your area - don't be tempted to use the line feature, use the thing that looks like a dotted circle or you will end with a line instead of a filled area.
While selecting you see a tiny box on the screen, when done click on the green arrow.
Now comes the part the messes up the result for most newbies.
You first have to download the are into the program cache on the hard drive.
This is the left tab of the box that appears after you pressed the green arrow.
You must select the zoom level you want as well as the map source!!
Click download when done and wait to finnish.
You tick the box in the bottom left to keep the window open.
After the download has finnished you need the stiching tab.
Again: map source and zoom level must be selected!!
Keep the size limits for the different graphic formats in mind, for example PNG is limited for most programs to 30.000x30.000 pixel, some can handle 32.000x32.000 pixel.
If the resulting image is bigger (you see the size in pixel in the box) you should create tiles.
Same if your PC is slow and with only a bit of Ram equipped.
Select the folder where you want to save to files and select the calibration file(s) you need.
Now you can start the creation and will get exactly what you wanted.
One more hint: you can use the simple Google map to create your selection as the actual download source is fixed as explained above.
I know quite a few people need the Ozi maps in the old unprotected format but the program only produces images with calibration - no OFZX3 files (or other map files for that matter).
I realised that the color reduction used in the Ozi tools is not really fast, sometimes it takes several hours for a big map just to reduce the colors.
If you use Photoshop to enhance the contrast and reduce the colors to 48 the tools can create the map directly, just untick the color reduction box.
When creating big maps from multiple files this can save you a day or two in waiting time
If you know Google maps downloader or Mobac you also know that map sources are often quite limited.
SAS Planet fills this gap by providing many map sources from all over the world.
The main aim is Russia and eastern Europe, but other sources are available for selection - there are too many to list them all!
Of course using a Ukranian map server won't help you in the US or in Australia, but you also have sources for Google, Bing, Yahoo and Topo maps.
To top it up you also get access to to images of the planet inside our solar system - just in case you have a rocket ready to go
For people interest in the WWII you can also find historic maps
Even if the Website (Google translate) is in russian, the program has an english interface.
They also offer a solution for Windows Phone and Android but as far as I know only for the russian areas, no international mapping
I played with older version but gave up on it as the interface was not nice and map sources very limited.
The current version offers more map sources than I ever knew existing.
Export is possible in different image formats plus calibration data for Ozi, Google and some others.
Although the program is now pretty intuitive and offers polygon selections for maps getting a useful result can be frustrating to say the least.
Common problems include:
The downloaded and combine image is not from the source you wanted.
The result is in a complete different zoom level than intended.
The wrong area is created.
All these problems can be easily avoided if you know how the program works
In order to create a map you first need to define the area of interest, this can be done with a quick recangular box or by using a polygon that surrounds your area - don't be tempted to use the line feature, use the thing that looks like a dotted circle or you will end with a line instead of a filled area.
While selecting you see a tiny box on the screen, when done click on the green arrow.
Now comes the part the messes up the result for most newbies.
You first have to download the are into the program cache on the hard drive.
This is the left tab of the box that appears after you pressed the green arrow.
You must select the zoom level you want as well as the map source!!
Click download when done and wait to finnish.
You tick the box in the bottom left to keep the window open.
After the download has finnished you need the stiching tab.
Again: map source and zoom level must be selected!!
Keep the size limits for the different graphic formats in mind, for example PNG is limited for most programs to 30.000x30.000 pixel, some can handle 32.000x32.000 pixel.
If the resulting image is bigger (you see the size in pixel in the box) you should create tiles.
Same if your PC is slow and with only a bit of Ram equipped.
Select the folder where you want to save to files and select the calibration file(s) you need.
Now you can start the creation and will get exactly what you wanted.
One more hint: you can use the simple Google map to create your selection as the actual download source is fixed as explained above.
I know quite a few people need the Ozi maps in the old unprotected format but the program only produces images with calibration - no OFZX3 files (or other map files for that matter).
I realised that the color reduction used in the Ozi tools is not really fast, sometimes it takes several hours for a big map just to reduce the colors.
If you use Photoshop to enhance the contrast and reduce the colors to 48 the tools can create the map directly, just untick the color reduction box.
When creating big maps from multiple files this can save you a day or two in waiting time