AeroScenery Beta - Help With Testing Required

  • Hi Nick.

    Are you familiar with this download site:

    http://zonephoto.x-plane.fr/Cartes.php

    Do you think it will be possible to use this orthophoto for Aerofly FS2?

    Yes, I saw that site. I believe the data is already in X-Plane scenery format rather than raw images.

    Technically it would be possible to extract it back to raw images, but in practice it's not really worth it.

    Most of the tiles are quite old (2012) and only go to level 16, which is pretty quick to download with AeroScenery anyway.

    AeroScenery - Easily create photoreal scenery for Aerofly

  • So I did a single square, went all the way through Geoconvert, and then nothing. No errors. But no scenery either.

  • So I did a single square, went all the way through Geoconvert, and then nothing. No errors. But no scenery either.

    Thanks for testing. Can you confirm that you're using v0.4 (top right of the app). 0.3 and before just didn't work.

    Click the square, then "Open Image Folder" from the toolbar. Browse through the folders in there. Did the image stitching work OK? Any GeoConvert raw files?

    Lastly in the GeoConvert folder there's a log file named tm.log. If you rename that to tm.txt you can attach it here.

    AeroScenery - Easily create photoreal scenery for Aerofly

  • Yes, I saw that site. I believe the data is already in X-Plane scenery format rather than raw images.

    Technically it would be possible to extract it back to raw images, but in practice it's not really worth it.

    Most of the tiles are quite old (2012) and only go to level 16, which is pretty quick to download with AeroScenery anyway.

    Actually, it is possible. Some time ago I wrote a simple script that converted the DDS files back to PNG, it then geotagged them and created all the files ready to run with Geoconvert. I did this because I had a large collection of cleaned-up orthos already for X-Plane that I wanted in Aerofly. The filenames of each tile indicate the grid position similar to the filenames of the AF2 tiles (which are hexadecimal).

    However, in particular, the orthos on this site are very old and not worth the hassle (Apart from the Norway ones). This new tool is perfect and I think will make the entire process easy :)

  • Hey Tony, how about sharing those shiny Orbx tools with us? :P Hehe.

    This tool's looking really good though. Really awesome work Nick! :)

    - Ashley

    P3D v4 / AFS2 / XP11 | Intel i7-4790K oc'ed @ 4.6GHz | 16GB RAM | 8GB Nvidia GTX1070 | Windows 10 64-bit | Oculus Rift

  • Hello Nick,

    I was able to overcome my Geoconvert dieing problem:

    I changed the BIOS RAM timing from standard to XMP.

    I also changed the windows virtual ram settings to "defined by system" and to a very fast SSD drive.

    So I am back in the business with AeroScenery now.

    Cheers, Thomas


  • Hello Nick,

    I was able to overcome my Geoconvert dieing problem:

    Great to hear! I knew a sudden crash like that had to be RAM related, but hard to pinpoint.

    Currently got a list of bugs in 0.4 to work through, hoping to get 0.5 out next week sometime.

    One bug to be aware of in 0.4 is that if you go back and click around in the map while AeroScenery is processing, it will crash. The next version prevents users going back to the Map tab.

    Two cool features I'm also working on now:

    • Automated download and processing of USGS elevation data.
    • Markers and download links for FSCloudPort airports

    AeroScenery - Easily create photoreal scenery for Aerofly

  • Now I could more or less successfully converted a big segment.

    To avoid any black stripes by masking, I switched the masking to "off".

    Now here is my problem. When converting the water edge of sardinia, there are blocks which did not convert, though the definition of the segment is well including the missing part.

    Of cause there is also the situation, that google stops delivering tiles with too much water on it. So this caused a raw pictures like this:

    Which eventually might cause these missing blocks:

    Can you use an Alpha Layer to cover the missing parts and then iclude those tiles for a complete conversion?

    For completenes I also include my settings:

    Cheers, Thomas


  • Can you use an Alpha Layer to cover the missing parts and then iclude those tiles for a complete conversion?

    Hmm. This where the lack of docs on GeoConvert has me confused.

    In input files are PNGs so there's transparency already in the file. If GeoConvert has [write_images_with_mask] [true] does it then process that missing square properly?

    The coords I input into TMC files are always snapped to the AFS grid, not orthophoto tile edges. In theory it shouldn't therefore be creating any other masks.

    If it is, it could only be due to the rounding of lat lon coords in this these (which I read have to be 2d.p., but that might have changed)

    Code
    <[vector2_float64] [lonlat_min] [-2.81 51.73]>
    <[vector2_float64] [lonlat_max] [-2.11 51.30]>

    TL;DR: Could you set [write_images_with_mask] [true] in the tmc, run GeoConvert from the command line and let me know what happens.

    AeroScenery - Easily create photoreal scenery for Aerofly

  • Hi Nick,

    I repeated the geoconvert with attribute mask=true.

    The result is ........ beautiful!

    With mask:

    Without mask:

    The missing squares are filled now. Also my fears, there could be black stripes where two of your big tiles edge to each other resolved.

    Obviously the strict cutting from you against the AFS2 limits prevented those.

    Interestingly also the non maked tiles showed now problem, as long as they are on the land.

    Only the mixed land/water tiles where google supresses some water parts do bring a problem when not masked.

    So my conclusion is to keep the masks on in your program :)

    I am eager to see a level 20 tile when you introduce the Grid Square Selection size.

    Question: equates Zoom Level 20 to FSET -1? And so should be generated as AFS2 Level 15?

    Could you write the appropriate Zoom Level after these Level entries into this table?

    Cheers, Thomas


  • So my conclusion is to keep the masks on in your program :)

    Great! I'm pleased you got there in the end. In v0.5 I will keep masks on.

    Zoom levels and AFS generation levels aren't related 1:1. You could download zoom level 20 for instance, then generate a level 9 tile from it. It would be pointless, but you could.

    In the Wiki, IPACS recommend Level, 9, 11, 12, 13 & 14 for something level 9 size. The zoom level is going to govern the quality of imagery of those 13 and 14 tiles.

    In v0.5 I'm making it so that if you choose a, say, level 14 selection size you can only choose Level 14 and 15 to GeoConvert.

    I don't know anything about FSET because I only opened it once, took a look at the UI and stared writing AeroScenery :)

    AeroScenery - Easily create photoreal scenery for Aerofly

  • nickhod,

    Great progress. Looks like the final stretch of fine tuning. Thanks a million for your creative work. We could certainly use a user friendly method of obtaining the necessary scenery.

    I hope you don't burn out before attacking the USGS problem. They have the best scenery available and we can freely share it with the world.

    Regards.

    Ray

  • I think this is an important subject where a lot can go wrong!

    In FSET (with Google) the highest senseful Download Resolution is -1. That belongs to Geoconvert Level 15. Only makes sense for quite small areas.

    When selecting Download Res 0, then 14 is the max GC Level, with 15 no tiles are generated.

    So typically I use Download Res 1 (which is about 1m) and geoconvert it to 14.

    If we know the Google Zoom Level for 1m per pixel we easily could convert it, to get a feeling for the right zoom factor.

    (Why do I refer so strong to FSET? It was the only tool we used until now...)

    Cheers, Thomas


    Edited once, last by TomSimMuc (July 6, 2018 at 10:47 PM).

  • Level 1 (1m) download converted to level 14 (either Google or Bing) is just about all I use for scenery. Maybe 2m / lvl 13 for larger areas to see how it looks before I commit to doing the level 1 download.

    Regards,

    Ray

  • After spending the last few months flying around non-DLC areas that was built with FSET / GeoConverter the Southwestern USA DLC looks a little anemic and washed out in color now. hmmm.

    Regards,

    Ray

  • After spending the last few months flying around non-DLC areas that was built with FSET / GeoConverter the Southwestern USA DLC looks a little anemic and washed out in color now. hmmm.

    Regards,

    Ray

    Well, imho all SW-USA aera's that are dominated by greens look a little anemic and washed out, even without having flown around non-DLC area's. ;) I am not too fond of the default sceneries when it comes to the colors. Utah and Colorado look great though but well, they are mainly yellow. It seems gettings the greens right is a big problem.

  • (..)You could download zoom level 20 for instance, then generate a level 9 tile from it. It would be pointless, but you could.

    (...)

    In v0.5 I'm making it so that if you choose a, say, level 14 selection size you can only choose Level 14 and 15 (...)

    I'm afraid it isn't a really good idea.

    Whatever the scenery, you try only downloading material once, which already may take hours and is subject to download errors and losses of connection.

    Geoconverting the ground textures up to level 14 is another lengthy process that may keep the fastest PC busy for a many hours even with a small-sized scenery.

    A common good practice is to first geoconvert levels 9 and, maybe 11 only, to ensure your raw material is complete and consistent, that your masks are ok, etc.

    This goes rather fast and allows a quick but thorough check, provided that it is geoconverted with the same raw material you'll use for geoconvering up to higher levels.

    Cheers

    Antoine

    Config : i7 6900K - 20MB currently set at 3.20GHz, Cooling Noctua NH-U14S, Motherboard ASUS Rampage V Extreme U3.1, RAM HyperX Savage Black Edition 16GB DDR4 3000 MHz, Graphic Card Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 8GB, Power supply Corsair RM Series 850W, Windows 10 64 bit.

    Edited 2 times, last by Trespassers (July 8, 2018 at 11:25 PM).