Update 30/12/17: Save time and skip to this post where a full simplified workflow is provided that avoids a Graphical Information System (GIS)
I'm very impressed with my first attempt at cultivation, but the data was a bit thin for where I am in the UK, so I looked for alternatives. I found the Ordnance Survey site who offer a free download. I haven't got as far as data into FS2 yet (bit of a learning curve), but thought I'd share work in progress in case others want to contribute. This is where I'm up to:
- Go to the OS Site
- Pick the squares you want data for (ctrl for multiple) - check you're downloading data type:vector download ESRI shape
- Scroll to the bottom and click Continue, enter your details
- A few minutes later you get a download link
- Now you need a GIS. So download and install QGIS
- Now you need to get the OS data into the GIS, so unzip the OS download and follow these instructions
Compared to what I get from OSM this is amazing. Next step is to try and get it into FS2 via ScenProc. I think I need to export to a KML, but once I've done that it would be great to do a more sophisticated mapping job, relying not just on building dimensions to guess at what type of building it is, but to use all this meta data.