From Orbx land.

As a Canadian, I also hope we see good photo scenery for those bits "North of the border". However, I once quizzed PC Aviator about it regarding their Megascenery for FSX, and was told the challenge is getting good source images that are commercially usable. I hope this has changed. I love my Orbx PNW, and their other "border" products in FSX (ie, Northern Rockies, Central Rockies).. BUT I fly exclusively in the CANADIAN areas of these sceneries. A new product that stops at the border will feel like a backward step, even if the product itself is brilliantly advanced. If they can get Canada in on the act for a PNW for Aerosoft FS2, I will fly it frequently. If they cannot, It will still force me to stay in FSX as my preferred Canadian sim experience, even with an earlier generation approach.

- Kenneth

Well, I suspect that even as Orbx makes its imprint, others will be using the tools to create additional, and more out-of-the-way areas......

Quote from KJKsimmer

HiFlyer,

Are you implying Vancouver (and Canada in general) is an "out of the way area"?

I would but it under "additional" areas people might decide to work on.

Hiflyer.. Thanks for the clarification... Sorry if I sounded put out. I remember being in Fort Worth once, and some people there were convinced every Canadian lived in an igloo and fought off the polar bears. I literally had folk say that to me in a church meeting! I tend to be a wee bit over-protective sometimes!

I applaud every person who attempts their own scenery for Canadian areas. Many decades ago, I was one of the first people to produce addons for the MSFS series. Turned that into one of the first commercial outfits too. These days, I have less desire to be a pioneer in the flight sim world, so instead of learning a whole new format again, I I would prefer to see a premier company work on it, if materials were available of course.

I really do hope ORBX manages to source the images they need. They put Canada on the map again in the FSX series. I would love to see them do it in AF2.

Either way, we all need to keep encouraging the companies out there to rally to the side of AF2. The potential is massive, but the core team is too small to do it alone. Well done ORBX in coming to the table, now let's see if we can get the likes of Carenado, A2A, PC Aviator, and more to do the same.

Best regards

- Kenneth

Quote from Raspou

Hello Ray, Have you find a good ortho source for vancouver island region? It seems with the ORBX PNW photoreal we will not have the canadian part.

I made a FSET scenery at dl level 2 of the Vancouver and Boundary Bay areas last night. They look just like the PNW, quality wise, to me. I will do an enhanced HD of the airports, but I expect them to look the same as I have been seeing all over the US. The Abbotsford area looks especially sharp.

Regards.

Ray

Earlier this year Bing (Virtual Earth) put up higher quality imagery of Vancouver-South Vancouver Island-Kelowna area, but outside of that area it's no good. Easiest way to see what's good and what's not is to go to Bing Maps and zoom right down around the areas you wish to GeoConvert.

Quote from Jetjockey10

I made a FSET scenery at dl level 2 of the Vancouver and Boundary Bay areas last night. They look just like the PNW, quality wise, to me. I will do an enhanced HD of the airports, but I expect them to look the same as I have been seeing all over the US. The Abbotsford area looks especially sharp.

Regards.

Ray

Thank's for your answer and test. You think it will be possible to share it in the future or not because of copyright law of your ortho sources?

Quote from Asheroo

Earlier this year Bing (Virtual Earth) put up higher quality imagery of Vancouver-South Vancouver Island-Kelowna area, but outside of that area it's no good. Easiest way to see what's good and what's not is to go to Bing Maps and zoom right down around the areas you wish to GeoConvert.

Is there a difference of ortho between Virtual earth and bing maps? Because Bing map seems not good for this area, lot of clouds on Vancouver and lot of colors differences on vancouver island.

Quote from Raspou

Thank's for your answer and test. You think it will be possible to share it in the future or not because of copyright law of your ortho sources?

Is there a difference of ortho between Virtual earth and bing maps? Because Bing map seems not good for this area, lot of clouds on Vancouver and lot of colors differences on vancouver island.

I used VE for my test. I find that Google has lots of cloud cover and screws up any body of water. Bing is so limited in SE USA that I don't even bother trying it. I usually have excellent results with Virtual Earth from Texas to Florida and up the East Coast to Nova Scotia.

I am busy for the next few hours but later on I will post a few screenshots of the area of Vancouver that I downloaded.

Regards,

Ray

Raspou - Virtual Earth is Bing Maps. "Virtual Earth" is its old name. When I used to make ortho-imgaery scenery for my X-Plane 11 I found this out. Vancouver Island is not great. Vancouver-Kelowna-Kamloops is alright but still some annoying clouds. A shame really. Also, I never had a result where Google Earth was more preferrable. Virtual Earth was better for me wherever I downloaded orthoimagery.

Quote from Jetjockey10

Photoreal and seasons are not normally used in the same sentence.

Really ? Below is just a quick test in low resolution (I think I just compiled levels 9 and 11, maybe 12, I don't remember) just to check the routine.

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/AhJiErl.jpg]

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/FmVYDJp.jpg]

[Blocked Image: https://imgur.com/a/byiCg][Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/RJSwKcZ.jpg]

Thomas (TomB on this forum) released his unofficial conversion tool for Switzerland Pro for FS2004 more than 10 years ago. At that time we were converting the 5 seasons (spring, summer, fall, winter, hardwinter), meaning 5x the scenery volume (no wonder).

We worked together to optimize it down to 3 seasons (summer, fall and hardwinter) by creating a replacement Seasons.bgl to locally force 3 seasons only. This reduced the scenery "overweight" and Spring looked better using summer textures together with spring vegetation autogen.

At that time I converted also a scenery for the French Alps to join Switzerland with the same seasons

Then came FSX with a different format enabling seasons definition within scenery, included in the same bgl, and the new (at that time, we're talking of 2007) release of Switerland Pro X included from factory both Summer and Hardwinter seasons by default.

Together with Roland we implemented Thomas' routine to FSET, so that everybody using that tool can create seasons for their photoscenery with a couple of clicks.

Still, winter and spring texture conversion are quite poor and not so interesting.

Fall texture may look nice with some optimization, at the cost of a set of ground textures (volume).

The most interesting part is of course Hardwinter, especially for places that may be expected to be covered with snow.

For instance, I made my own release of French Alps to join Switzerland with the same seasons in P3D. I don't mind if IRL you hardly get a few days/weeks a year (and not anymore each year) when all is covered with snow, it makes a refreshing change in the sim.

I'd rather wonder what seasons are supposed to actually look like in Netherlands, probably something more grayish in winter and summer textures the rest of the year, with vegetation that follows the seasons. As the case may be, a set of hardwinter for the fun, despite I wouldn't bet Holland gets actually covered with fresh snow so often.

Regarding AeroflyFS2, there are no seasons (yet), but one can easily make a scenery for a dedicated season (hardwinter for instance) and use it as such.

Cheers

Antoine

Thanks for the flowers Antoine - although I was involed in these developments the tool itself was made by Thomas Mack and not me.

Kind regards,

Thomas

Quote from TomB

Thanks for the flowers Antoine - although I was involed in these developments the tool itself was made by Thomas Mack and not me.

Kind regards,

Thomas

I was indeed talking of Thomas Mack, who left a post on my wall with this pseudo (TomB). Are there several TomB around here ?

Sorry for the confusion...

Antoine

50 minutes ago on the ORBX forum:

JV CEO of ORBX about Meigs:
I have tested a build of the autogen buildings but have asked IPACS to also add trees to this large area. Hopefully it won't be too much longer.

Hello BennyBoy,

though this screenshot is only done with normal cultivation, it might give an idea how magnificent (and better) the enhanced ORBX scenery could get.

Regards,

Thoams

It is great to know that we hadn't been forgotten after all!

One of the other Orbx developers further stated that while Innsbruck was ported over by one of their developers, Mieg's is being ported over by IPACS, and John stated they need to add trees. So now IPACS, how is the Mieg's update coming along? It's been some months.

Quote from Asheroo

Raspou - Virtual Earth is Bing Maps. "Virtual Earth" is its old name. When I used to make ortho-imgaery scenery for my X-Plane 11 I found this out. Vancouver Island is not great. Vancouver-Kelowna-Kamloops is alright but still some annoying clouds. A shame really. Also, I never had a result where Google Earth was more preferrable. Virtual Earth was better for me wherever I downloaded orthoimagery.

Quote from Asheroo

One of the other Orbx developers further stated that while Innsbruck was ported over by one of their developers, Mieg's is being ported over by IPACS, and John stated they need to add trees. So now IPACS, how is the Mieg's update coming along? It's been some months.

On the Meigs statement. I think you read more into JV's statement than intended. Orbx will be making the update as promised to the original purchasers. Orbx is has asked IPACS to add their trees to the expanded area. Orbx will be doing the autogen houses and buildings for this large area of the Meigs add on.

Regards.

Ray

Someone asked why IPACS needed to add the trees for Mieg's and asked who did the trees for Innsbruck. This was Alex's (Orbx Developer) statement...

Quote

IPACS worked on the port for Meigs to Aerofly, and Jarrad Marshall did the port for Innsbruck.

https://orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/14…-update-part-2/

Quote from Asheroo

Someone asked why IPACS needed to add the trees for Mieg's and asked who did the trees for Innsbruck. This was Alex's (Orbx Developer) statement...

https://orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/14…-update-part-2/

Borh true statements but, not the full story. IPACS was still working on the specs for autogen/cultivation so Orbx was impacted on completing their Meigs expanded area. The close in stuff was ported from FSX/P3D but the large additional scenery area is specific to Aerofly FS2.

Meigs is Orbx, not IPACS.

Regards,

Ray