FSCloudPort Support Thread

1st Official Post

    Please use this thread for support questions for FSCloudPort. So far there have been quite a few good points raised by people starting to use it but the feedback has been given via private conversations to me or others helping me. I have closed down a lot of conversations today and encourage people to send feedback here so that others can see it and benefit from answers given publicly. Glowing praise is of course very welcome ;) but so is criticism or improvement suggestions. This is v1.0 remember and, as the documentation says, should be considered a beta. We could have kept FSCP under wraps until we had finished a lot more functionality, but we felt it was at a level that a lot of people could benefit from already, especially with smaller airports.

    Please also be aware that the way FSCP is designed, the cloud is not actually storing a completed airport, but the data points of that airport. As FSCP improves the download quality of the airports, based on the same data, will improve. Runway numbers for example. Also you can always edit and add features. So in many ways all the airports are work in progress - I might add a note to each page to set expectations to that effect or give authors a second space to explain where they are up to if they wish.

    Finally if you are posting requests or areas of weakness here's the major items development list we already have for future versions:

    1. Cross-over runway solution
    2. Runway numbers, landing markings and additional decal options
    3. Alternative runway textures including grass
    4. Taxiways, aprons, extended thresholds
    5. Cultivation
    6. Improved runway lighting and approach lighting
    7. A footprint to show the true size of a static aircraft
    8. Additional objects
    9. Bulk downloads

    One interesting scenario was by TomB who tried to use FSCP to add an outlying runway to one of the airports in the Swiss DLC. This doesn't work due to the terrain flattening of FSCP conflicting with the DLC.

    My vote is for Runway numbers.

    I wish we could find a few basic or generally found terminal buildings added and get IPACS to add the articulating gates and moveable steps/stairs to the xref objects. Same for nearby airports objects like large water towers. I find the existing storage tanks are so easy to add and are very visible when looking for an airport in the distance.

    Regards,

    Ray

    I have to admit that the more we get the more we want to be added. I just made a flight in the F4U with the updated Skysong Sounds from Bergen, Norway to Stavanger, a location that I am personally familiar with. I used FSET to build a wide area 3m scenery overnight to connect the two areas that I had built HD scenery and added FSCP airports and structures a few days ago. I had TomSimMuc's elevation mesh to enjoy the small mountains along the way.

    I used FSWidget's excellent AFS2 map add on to keep track of my progress and to identify communities along my path.

    A month ago I would not have thought this would be possible this year. :/

    Regards,

    Ray

    Hi Phil, i vote for more objects on position 2 or 1. This includes stairs, trollies and more specific airport buildings. I mean all existing x-ref objects and Steves airport objects. Then we would be able to do overwhelming airports...

    Cheers, Thomas


    Edited 2 times, last by TomSimMuc (March 31, 2018 at 7:04 PM).

    I also vote for more objects, notably airport-specific ones. These should include e.g. generic terminals and jetways + round objects, as Oldar notes.

    We also face an issue I have foreseen: The aiports are virtually unusable without some ground below. Not sure which method will be best to deal with that (just providing a grass area below, providing people with a SIMPLE or better automatic tool for making some FSET/Geoconvert Area or, perhaps, something better) but we should keep it in mind.

    Overall, I think that's a pretty good list.

    Kind regards, Michael

    Intel i7-6700K 4.0 GHz / Asus MAXIMUS VIII RANGER / Kingston 32 GB DDR4 / Samsung SSD M.2 500 GB + Samsung SSD 1 TB + Intel SSD 500 GB (AeroflyFS2) + WD HD 6 TB / EVGA GTX 1080Ti 11 GB / LG 34UM95 3440 x 1440 / HP Reverb / Win 10/64

    I'm a recently retired developer with 30 years experience with C/C++ C# javascript webdev. Need any help?

    Could you describe the basic pipeline that you've implemented for Fscloudport for the more technical amongst us?

    Is there any plan to put airport models onto Github so people could collaberate on them?

    Edited once, last by spudwa (April 9, 2018 at 5:25 AM).

    Hi spudwa,

    it's not directly related to FSCloudPort, but still an open topic:

    USGS images: Looking for a programmer

    We could freely publish aerial data for the FSCP airports, at least in the USA.

    If you are interested, please contact me.

    Regards

    Rodeo

    Quote from spudwa

    I'm a recently retired developer with 30 years experience with C/C++ C# javascript webdev. Need any help?

    Could you describe the basic pipeline that you've implemented for Fscloudport for the more technical amongst us?

    Is there any plan to put airport models onto Github so people could collaberate on them?

    thanks for the offer spudwa. All the back end is on a Lotus Domino server using lotusscript and lotus formula language. Front end is google maps api/jquery. The runways were pregenerated by reverse engineering ac3d files and then generating them as needed in lotusscript, then script driving ac3d for hours on end using TCL mixed with some BAT files to do file/folder management and afs2 conversions.

    I would like to open things up a bit for extra models but i'm easing off my focus a liitle for a while now as i've been burning the candle at both ends for the last 3 months.

    Github won't be needed for collaboration as i'm going to build a forking concept into fscp. There is no source file in any event other than a set of data points. I'll certainly keep you in mind as i work on the next phase of the architecture.

    Hi spudwa

    I think it would be good if someone with your c++ etc experience would take care of the external_dll which is part of the aerofly sdk. This dll reads out and writes back data of AFS2. Think of fsuipc or simmconnect. This could be helpful for aircraft developpers and hardware interfacing. I myself mainly fly vr now but still have Goflight modules around I cannot connect to AFS2. Others have modules from saitek and desperately wait for a solution.

    Regards,

    Thomas

    Regards,

    Thomas

    i7-14700KF @ 5.6 GHz, Geforce RTX 4090, 32MB RAM, 1TB SSD M.2, 1TB SSD M.2, 2TB SSD M.2, 32" Monitor 4K, Pimax Crystal

    With all these FS2 tools popping up, what's the correct pipeline sequence I should follow when I want to create a full city in a region that doesn't currently have any hi-res scenery?

    1) use enhanced elevation tools to pull the elevation tile for that town/city (~40nm x ~40nm)

    2) use FSCloudPort to create at least 1 airport

    3) pull 1m resolution scenery tiles that match the same area as 1)

    4) add photorealistic matched trees for the same area as 1)

    5) add autgen buildings for the same area as 1)

    6) import iconic landmark 3D objects

    7) did I miss something???

    I learned the hard way when I created 1m scenery and then decided to enhance the elevation data but I should have worked the elevation data first since those tiles have fixed coordinates.

    Is this the correct order of scenery development steps? I wish there was a Bob Ross how-to video/checklist to pull all these scenery work together :)

    Hm yes, a better mesh (without spikes and other anomalies) would be nice. Does anybody have a free source to build it for Europe? I will be interested.

    On the other side... beside of the Alpes and some other mountains Germany is quiet flat so I did not put too much thought into a new mesh.

    But this would be the first step.

    Second: Build the photo scenery:

    Use the tools:

    AFS2GridGenerator and worldgridcoords_v1.6.xlsm: Use this to get the size and location of the tiles correct.

    FSET - for downloading the textures

    aerofly_fs_2_geoconvert and GeoConvertHelper to convert the bitmaps to AF2 scenery

    sceneproc - To create cultivation from OSM-Sources

    For the boundaries: Use Level 9 from the xlsm to define the large areas. In FSET use Download Resoution 4 to download the tiles, compile Detail Level 9 and 11 with aerofly_fs_2_geoconvert/GeoConvertHelper

    For the cultivation: Use Level 10 from the xlsm to get the cultivation files (generated with sceneproc), find an airport in that area and connect it with the cultivation file. If no airport is in this area, I use a dummy airport. With this you have files with a size of 50 to 200 MBytes and an airport size of 50000 so AF2 does not have to load too much data.

    Then think of the area around the airport. I use the following:

    worldgridcoords_v1.6.xlsm -> 9 tiles around the airport with Level 12.

    This copied to FSET with a Download Resolution of 2 gives me a smooth transition to Level 9.

    Compile this with aerofly_fs_2_geoconvert/GeoConvertHelper with Detail Level 12.

    Now the close area: (Have in mind that in Europe we don't have such high resolution like the US so in America you could go up to 15...)

    worldgridcoords_v1.6.xlsm -> 9 tiles around the airport with Level 13. (You might extent this if you have big airports. Just take reference in FSET)

    This copied to FSET with a Download Resolution of 0 gives me a smooth transition to Level 12 and the best solution I can get in Europe.

    Compile this with aerofly_fs_2_geoconvert/GeoConvertHelper with Detail Level 13 and 14. (For 15 the sources are not good enough.)

    If you have this you can go into details in building your airport scenery.

    One remark to the cultivation files: If you use sceneproc you can exclude the airport region.

    I will not do this yet but I will write later a tool that will investigate the TSC File with the included objects and automatically remove buildings from the cultivation files. The advantage will be: I have buildings from the start and can make excludes automatically everytime, I add objects to the airport.

    Well... you don't have to do it this way. This is just my approach. :saint:

    Wish for Aerofly FS 2/4:

    - Flightpath recording on hard drive and replay in sim from different view points

    - Smoke for aerobatic planes

    - Multiplayer or at least watching other people flying sitting on ground or inside tower

    Phil, it seems like FSCP is basically a GUI for placing objects with point-n-click ease versus manually defining coordinates for those objects. I see you have cultivation listed as #5 - is your thought that users will use FSCP to place individual palm trees, etc at specific locations around an airport?

    Quote from kenventions

    Phil, it seems like FSCP is basically a GUI for placing objects with point-n-click ease versus manually defining coordinates for those objects. I see you have cultivation listed as #5 - is your thought that users will use FSCP to place individual palm trees, etc at specific locations around an airport?

    My idea is more to draw polygons which will be used to randomly generate trees of a defined type - scenproc style. For small areas this isn't very intensive and feasible using my approach.