AeroScenery Beta - Help With Testing Required

  • Hi,

    First I would like to thank you for this great project, it really made it possible for me to start playing with the GeoConvert tool, and understand the process.

    Now, I can fly in the South of France, thanks to you!

    I tried it last week-end and I got the parsing issue you just fixed on FSCloudPort aiport coordinates. I was about to send you the patch but you were quicker..

    Anyway, having looked at the code, I found that the stitching process does not run (yet) in parallel when multiple stitched images are generated. I had a little free time, so I played with the idea of implementing it. I attach the patch and the resulting source files for easier review (TileStitcher.cs in particular). Feel free to incorporate this change into your code. On my not-so-fast-computer, on a level 9 area, it went from 14mn41 to 5mn36. So it looks like a worthy optimization.

    I am really looking forward to the rest of your (ambitious) roadmap.

    Take care

  • I tried it last week-end and I got the parsing issue you just fixed on FSCloudPort aiport coordinates. I was about to send you the patch but you were quicker..

    Anyway, having looked at the code, I found that the stitching process does not run (yet) in parallel when multiple stitched images are generated. I had a little free time, so I played with the idea of implementing it. I attach the patch and the resulting source files for easier review (TileStitcher.cs in particular). Feel free to incorporate this change into your code. On my not-so-fast-computer, on a level 9 area, it went from 14mn41 to 5mn36. So it looks like a worthy optimization.

    That's great thanks, I'll take a look. :thumbup:

    Parallel stitching has been on my list for a while.

    I am a software developer for over 35 years now, and i think it should be an easy task for ipacs to add a

    • command line parameter like -q(uit) / -e(xit) or
    • an option in the tmc-file like <[bool][exit_when_finished][true]> or something like that to do that.

    I think your idea looks like 'crack a walnut with a sledgehammer', so why not ask ipacs, should be an intermediate task for relaxing from r22 development ;)

    Yeah, I talked to IPACS and they are aware of it. I'm hopeful they'll come up with an improved version eventually.

    In the meantime I like a challenge ^^

    AeroScenery - Easily create photoreal scenery for Aerofly

  • Version 0.6 is now released

    https://github.com/nickhod/aerosc…s/tag/v0.6-beta

    Lots of bugs fixed in this one.

    - GeoConvert no longer runs if the user stops the generation process

    - Open Map toolbar item now uses decimal point irrespective of system culture

    - Map toolbar items are not enabled if a grid square is not selected

    - FSCloudPort airport coordinates are parsed with a decimal point irrespective of system culture

    - Custom message box form for catch all exception handling

    - Airport markers are now shown correctly when "Show Airports" is pressed if the map has not been moved

    - Database, wokring and SDK folders are now checked for existence on app start

    - UI is locked while tasks are running to prevent collection modified exceptions

    - Recreate raw and ttc folders before running GeoConvert

    - Fixed issue with image tile stitcher where image was cropped to the wrong width

    - Option to shrink grid square coordinates in the TMC file by specified value. Defaults to 0.01. This forces GeoConvert to snap "outwards" to the nearest edge

    - AID files use exponential notation

    - TMC files use more accurate coordinates

    The misalignment issue that crispy136 and Trespassers reported is now fixed.

    This also fixes the "why is GeoConvert generating too many tiles for level 13 and level 14 tiles" issue that TomSimMuc reported

    Under some conditions, the code that crops stitched images was cropping too much. This was mainly noticeable with level 13 and level 14 tiles.

    If you notice any alignment issues with image scenery generated prior to version 0.6, it's probably that issue. The solution is (unfortunately) to stitch and run GeoConvert again. Downloaded tiles are fine if you have those saved.

    AeroScenery - Easily create photoreal scenery for Aerofly

  • Confirmed that the various zoom levels are now lining up perfectly, Great! Liked the new message to prevent you selecting an output level bigger than the map size selected.

    Thanks, Chris

    Win 10 64-bit, 24GB RAM, i5-9400F @ 3.9, 6GB Nvidia RTX-2060

  • Hello Nick,

    thank you for developing v 0.6.

    I ran a level 9 tile which works fine. Also the maps and airports are working now with the locale German.

    Can you please add also a Level 12 Grid square size?

    However I have a problem with a Grid sqare level 14:

    It downloaded that single tile in some seconds and then Geoconvert wanted to convert 13377 tiles!!

    Please also find the geoconvert log attached:

  • Yep, I'll add level 12 in the next release, Added it to the list.

    I can't reproduce the 13377(!) tiles issue when I tried tile size 14, zoom 18 and level 14 & 15.

    Let me know the Google Maps link if GeoConvert does this consistently.

    Also there's now an option to "shrink" the TMC tile coordinates. Check that isn't causing an issue, although I can't see how it would get to 13k tiles

    AeroScenery - Easily create photoreal scenery for Aerofly

  • However I have a problem with a Grid sqare level 14:

    I have also found that zoom level 18 will never produce level 15 tiles. GeoConvert will report it is doing something for level 15, but there is never any ttc's created. I always have to use zoom level 19 to get GeoConvert to produce level 15 tiles.

    Thanks, Chris

    Win 10 64-bit, 24GB RAM, i5-9400F @ 3.9, 6GB Nvidia RTX-2060

  • I'm really not good at remembering this whole commas as decimal points thing am I :D

    If you set it to 0 it should be OK for now.

    I'll do a 0.6.1 release that fixes this (and maybe adds level 12 squares too)

    AeroScenery - Easily create photoreal scenery for Aerofly

  • I've been having a poor experience with GeoConvert with AeroScenery v0.5.

    I tried v0.6 last night and all but one of the zones appeared to skip TMC or GeoConvert steps. That build was set to 'Run Default Actions'. I can't describe further as I closed the app and didn't look at the log. Only discovered no TTC files present later, though I did notice absence of GeoConvert windows.

    Earlier with v0.5 I had been attempting scenery in 3 manual steps:

    1) Download some zones only

    2) Run stitch and TMC steps

    3) Run GeoConvert step

    The first 2 steps seemed to work.

    However GeoConvert did any of the following:

    1) Complete with press key to exit (good)

    2) Hang for 24hrs with no progress and some constant CPU usage

    3) Disappear without finishing or displaying an error message.

    Repeating the GeoConvert step just produced any of the above 3 behaviors.

  • The first 2 steps seemed to work.

    However GeoConvert did any of the following:

    1) Complete with press key to exit (good)

    2) Hang for 24hrs with no progress and some constant CPU usage

    3) Disappear without finishing or displaying an error message.

    If AeroScenery failed to generate a TMC file, that's a bug, but it's not something I've seen.

    How many squares are you attempting at once? As I can't yet detect when GeoConvert is done AeroScenery is opening multiple GeoConverts at a time. This is less than ideal and does seem to cause the problems you experience due to massive RAM usage.

    For now, a better strategy might be to download, stitch and generate AF files for multiple squares (leave it overnight or whatever), then run GeoConvert a square at a time as a second pass.

    Aside from that GeoConvert is temperamental and hangs, restarts, fails to generate and dies without warning for me also. Sadly not much we can do about that other than keeping mentioning it to IPACS.

    AeroScenery - Easily create photoreal scenery for Aerofly

  • I've been having a poor experience with GeoConvert with AeroScenery

    These are the following AeroScenery combinations I have found work reliably on my PC and produce good quality results when viewed in FS2. Times are only indicative of running time based on my PC's specs.

    1. For map areas with no airport - gives VFR quality above 6,000ft

    - Select map tile 9 & zoom level 15 & output levels 9, 11 & 12 (approx. 13mins & 1.1gb disk space per map tile selected)

    2. For map areas with an airport - gives VFR quality above 3,000ft

    - Select map tile 9 & zoom level 16 & output levels 9, 11, 12 & 13 (approx. 60mins & 4.4gb disk space per map tile selected)

    3. For town areas near an airport plus anywhere under the aircraft flightpath - gives VFR quality below 3,000ft

    - select map tile 13 & zoom level 18 & output level 14 (approx. 9mins & 790mb disk space per map tile selected)

    4. For airport inner boundary (optional) - sharpens textures at ground level

    - Select map tile size 14 & zoom level 19 & output level 15 (approx. 3mins & 151mb HD per map tile selected)

    For a level 9 size map tile with an airport, I run 3 AeroScenery sessions (2, 3 and 4 above). I never run more than one instance of AeroScenery at a time, but this will produce as many GeoConvert sessions as map tile selected. Both CPU and RAM get maxed out with multiple GeoConvert sessions, but leaving the PC alone until its finished works just fine. I usually run AeroScenery with download, stitch, TMC & AID and GeoConvert all selected.

    I also found that there is a limit to the number of GeoConvert sessions you can run at one time. For my system I can run 8 of 1 above and 10 of 3 above. No 2 above is quite labour intensive for GeoConvert, so I usually run these with just 1 or 2 map tiles selected at a time. As 4 above is just for the airport inner boundary I never need to run more than 4 map tiles together anyway. You could test just one or each above to see how your PC specs perform.

    You haven't indicated what AeroScenery values you had selected. If going for the quality everywhere approach, with a selection of map tile 9, Zoom 18, and output levels 9, 11, 12, 13 & 14 selected, you may be asking your PC for too much. My testing indicates that this combination of values in AeroScenery would result in a processing time of > 12 hours and HD space required of > 100GB on my PC. So I stay away from this combination and only target quality where it is needed.

    There are 3 scenarios I encountered that failed to produce any output:-

    1. using zoom 18 or below with output level 15.

    2. running with masks off with a stitched image with a transparency. Unfortunately AeroScenery doesn't indicate if it created a stitched image with a transparency.

    3. Having too many GeoConvert sessions running at once. I was running 9 of 1 above and it didn't produce any data for the 9th map tile, but no errors reported.

    Thanks, Chris

    Win 10 64-bit, 24GB RAM, i5-9400F @ 3.9, 6GB Nvidia RTX-2060

  • Can someone reminds me what the different AFL levels options do? :/

    Best way I can explain it is that say you download a large (level 9) grid square at image detail level 17 or 18, you have a lot of high resolution image data.

    Each TTC file that GeoConvert generates is a fixed 2048 pixels square.

    If you just generated one level 9 ttc file, you're squashing thousands of pixels down into 2048px, i.e. you're losing a lot of detail.

    If you generate level 15 ttc files, you'll have lots of 2048px images, i.e. you're keeping a lot of detail.

    Obviously the question is then "why not just generate level 15 tiles and forget the rest".

    If you're flying higher, you don't need the level of detail you'll get from level 15 tiles, it's wasting gpu, cpu and disk IO to try to render all that. A lower level of detail will give the same experience and be more efficient, maybe level 12 tiles.

    In AeroScenery the "Choose For Me" button implements what IPACS recommends in their wiki, factoring in the tile size and image detail level.

    AeroScenery - Easily create photoreal scenery for Aerofly

  • 2. running with masks off with a stitched image with a transparency. Unfortunately AeroScenery doesn't indicate if it created a stitched image with a transparency.

    As of 0.6 running all the time with masks on should be OK. A stitched image will only have transparency where there's no Google or Bing map tile, i.e. shoreline generally.

    Earlier version were causing GeoConvert to generate masks all over the place due to that cropping bug. With that fixed I've found that GeoConvert is only generating one tile for a level 13 sized square run at level 13 etc.

    AeroScenery - Easily create photoreal scenery for Aerofly

  • This is really good advice by the way, and also the PDF that you sent me. Mind if I use them in the (non-existent as yet) AeroScenery docs?

    AeroScenery - Easily create photoreal scenery for Aerofly

  • Thanks Nick and Chris for responding.

    I was building 5x level 9 tiles with 9-14 levels selected.

    When I first played with AeroScenery I successfully completed 16x level 9 tiles in a single build. Though my hard drive died the next day. Yes, 16 copies of GeoConvert all said they'd completed!

    One more question: Why does 'Choose For Me' skip level 11, and Chris suggest he's skipping level 10?

    In some of my earlier tests I found the high res scenery disappeared quickly in the distance. So I've been building all levels 9-14 and have not seen that effect since.