AeroScenery Beta - Help With Testing Required

  • Hi Nick, I noticed I am getting a few masked tiles in 0.6 I wasn't expecting. Tracked it down to missing source imagery in the stitched image. Rerunning the stitch process didn't make any difference, so I am guessing that the source image wasn't downloaded. When I reran the AeroScenery process again in full on the same map tile, same zoom level, all source images were downloaded and no mask ttc's produced. Have had it happen on Bing and Google and on level 9, 13 and 14 map size selections. While it is quick an easy to rerun a level 14 or 15 map tile, not so quick on a level 9 sized map tile.

    Thanks, Chris

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

  • Tracked it down to missing source imagery in the stitched image

    Yep, I've had it happen. I believe it's rate limiting by Google or Bing, occasionally stuff just fails to download.

    The solution might be for AeroScenery to try to download again, but then it would slow down grabbing areas with shoreline (as this would legitimately happen all the time).

    Hard to know what's best to do.

    Edit: Often if you can find the failed tile (by file size sort) and open in a text editor it'll actually just be a text file telling you that an image isn't available.

    AeroScenery - Easily create photoreal scenery for Aerofly

  • Had a look in the download folder and surprisingly both folders had the same number of files, but slightly different disk size used. I tracked it down to one jpg. AeroScenery seems to have downloaded something, but when I try to look at it, it is not a valid jpg. I assume it created the name but then had nothing to put in it

    FSET used a queue system for any images it wasn't able to get straight away, although it used to end up with quite a few in the queue not just one. So I don't think it did any retries on the first run. Once it finishes all the other images, it returned to the images in the queue and did a second attempt. I never had an instance where it failed to get all images, so it seems to just be a timing issue.

  • Had a look in the download folder and surprisingly both folders had the same number of files, but slightly different disk size used. I tracked it down to one jpg. AeroScenery seems to have downloaded something, but when I try to look at it, it is not a valid jpg. I assume it created the name but then had nothing to put in it

    FSET used a queue system for any images it wasn't able to get straight away, although it used to end up with quite a few in the queue not just one. So I don't think it did any retries on the first run. Once it finishes all the other images, it returned to the images in the queue and did a second attempt. I never had an instance where it failed to get all images, so it seems to just be a timing issue.

    If you open that file up in a text editor you'll see the issue :)

    The queue idea is good, that would be easy enough to do.

    It always seems to download some data for an image though, so technically this download didn't fail. I'd need to look at the overhead introduced by reading each jpg to check that it looks like a jpg and not a text file. Maybe I get a 404 / 500 response header also, I'll check that.

    AeroScenery - Easily create photoreal scenery for Aerofly

  • Thanks Nick! I think I got the idea. :)

  • I think the shore line feature you mention only works if you are using Google, as Bing gives you the attached image if you request one it doesn't have. As Google comes with watermarks that are very noticeable on water, will many people use it for shoreline areas?

    Thanks, didn't realise that. It should be possible to detect that image by filesize then test for grey and then exclude it so that there's transparency.

    Created an issue so I don't forget this one

    https://github.com/nickhod/aeroscenery/issues/2

    AeroScenery - Easily create photoreal scenery for Aerofly

  • Hi Nick,

    I was experimenting, how to recognize if Geoconvert is ready and shows the green message "Conversion complete"

    I ran this cmd comand:

    tasklist /NH /V /FI "imagename eq aerofly_fs_2_geovonvert.exe"

    When geoconvert is active, it produced 1.800.156 k Memory usage

    After showing the green message "Conversion complete"

    it dropped to 971.804 k Memory usage.

    So my idea would be, to check the Geoconvert memory usage load in a loop. If it drops significantly, then kill Geoconvert as it is ready.

    Cheers,

    Thomas

    Cheers, Thomas


    Edited once, last by TomSimMuc (August 10, 2018 at 8:41 PM).

  • Tested v0.6.

    AeroScenery v0.6

    Write Image With Mask = No

    Level 9 - Large

    Image detail (Zoom Level) 17 - 1.194 meters pixel

    (Chose Actions To Run)

    - Download Image Tiles

    - Stitch Image Tiles

    AeroScenery v0.6 worked without any problems - and the end result was successful. :thumbup:

    BUT - something confuse me: Inside the "17-stitched" folder I find 81 PNG-files. Eight PNG-files are very narrow (512 x 8192).

    I wonder why?

    (They are not as easy to process in Photoshop).

  • I find 81 PNG-files. Eight PNG-files are very narrow (512 x 8192).

    I wonder why?

    (They are not as easy to process in Photoshop).

    In the settings you'll see an option of how many Google or Bing tiles to stitch together to make a stitched image.

    An AFS level 9 sized square doesn't necessarily divide up into neatly into stitched images of that particular size, so you get these remainder pieces.

    It's a trade off of only allowing users to grab predefined areas (level 9, 13, 14).

    The benefit is that it's easy to build up a collection of tiles you've done.

    AeroScenery - Easily create photoreal scenery for Aerofly

  • The benefit is that it's easy to build up a collection of tiles you've done.

    Thanks for the explanation. I like this way of collecting data.

    I like the AeroScenery tool very much. :thumbup:

    This is a big improvement - that allows everyone to create their own scenery - without having to acquire deeper knowledge. It is an important tool for boosting the interest of Aerofly FS2.

  • Why do my GeoConvert-generated sceneries have shimmering surfaces?

    Hi all,
    I need your help.
    I created some sceneries and wanted to find out about how different programs work.

    I have to admit that, I have created few sceneries and I'm still inexperienced.

    For this scenery I used AeroScenery 0.5 Beta (thank you @ nickhod).

    My settings in AeroScenery:
    -Level 9 - Large (one Grid Square selekted)
    -Select Google or Bing as the image source
    -Image detail (Zoom Level) 17 (1.194 meters pixel); output levels 9, 11, 12 &13.
    -Write Image With Mask = No
    -"Chose Actions To Run"
    -Download Image Tiles
    -Stitch Image Tiles

    --AeroScenery does its job, then..

    -Deselect "Download Image Tiles" and "Stitch Image Tiles" and select "Generate AID / TMC Files" and "Run Geoconvert"

    In my opinion, AeroScenery and GeoConvert works perfectly. The stitched images look very sharp.
    But why is the result in AFS2 so out of focus, and have so shimmering surfaces? It looks like a transparent foil, plastic film would be over it.

    What am I doing wrong?

    To illustrate, here are two shots:


  • Why do my GeoConvert-generated sceneries have shimmering surfaces?

    For this scenery I used AeroScenery 0.5 Beta (thank you @ nickhod).

    Please upgrade to 0.6 beta as there is a bug with previous versions related to stitching images. It could cause misalignment at tile edges.

    As for the "shimmering", I'm not sure. Those screenshots look ok to me, other than the base imagery is a bit washed out as Bing or Google images sometimes are. GeoConvert does compress images quite a bit, there is some loss of quality.

    Could it be that you have duplicate / overlapping cultivation? Does it look as you expect if you remove the cultivation file?

    AeroScenery - Easily create photoreal scenery for Aerofly

  • Thank you so very much, Nick!

    I have now removed AeroScenery 0.5 and will upgrade to 0.6.

    "GeoConvert does compress images quite a bit, there is some loss of quality"
    Thanks for the explanation. But the stitched images are all very sharp.

    "Could it be that you have duplicate / overlapping cultivation? Does it look as you expect if you remove the cultivation file?"
    No, that's the only one cultivation file there.
    No, if I remove the cultivation file, it looks just as blurry and washed out.

    But you might be right with the poor quality of Bing or Google source images.
    I will test with the AeroScenery 0.6 elsewhere and report here.

    Thanks Nick for your effort and for the AeroScenery tool. I like it very much.

    Jakob.

  • "GeoConvert does compress images quite a bit, there is some loss of quality"

    Thanks for the explanation. But the stitched images are all very sharp.

    But you might be right with the poor quality of Bing or Google source images.
    I will test with the AeroScenery 0.6 elsewhere and report here.

    Remember that it's the images in the "Raw" folder (after GeoConvert runs) that will actually end up in the game, not the stitched images.

    I do often notice that GeoConvert lightens or reduces contrast in the images. I'm not sure if that's intentional or compression related. If the Bing / Google source is light anyway you end up with something washed out.

    You may want to try using Photoshop / Paint.NET to darken or increase contrast the stitched images first, then let GeoConvert run.

    I guess a feature that lets you tweak brightness and contrast before GeoConvert runs would be cool. The planned features never end!

    I pretty sure it's a GeoConvert / source images thing, so 0.6 wont make a difference to that specifically.

    Glad you're liking AeroScenery. Lots more to come. ^^

    AeroScenery - Easily create photoreal scenery for Aerofly

  • But you might be right with the poor quality of Bing or Google source images.

    Many places Google / Bing photo have "shimmering surfaces". But also good aerial photos I download with AeroScenery and converts to AFS2 then loses some of its "color saturation". The scenery is being "washed out".

    I have therefore compensated for this, by letting the downloaded files from AeroScenery undergo a process in Photoshop. I have made an "Action" that adjusts Brightness (-10) and Contrast (+30). Photoshop then performs this process automatically for all of the files before conversion.

    Aerofly FS 2 Screenshot Thread

  • Remember that it's the images in the "Raw" folder (after GeoConvert runs) that will actually end up in the game, not the stitched images.

    You must check that.

    Because I edit the PNG files in the "stitched" folder - and it is the same edited pictures I see in AeroFly FS2

    Glad you're liking AeroScenery. Lots more to come.

    Exciting. Yes - AeroScenery has become a fantastic intelligent tool. :thumbup:

  • ^^

    I do often notice that GeoConvert lightens or reduces contrast in the images. ...

    You may want to try using Photoshop / Paint.NET to darken or increase contrast the stitched images first, then let GeoConvert run.

    I guess a feature that lets you tweak brightness and contrast before GeoConvert runs would be cool. The planned features never end!

    Hi Nick,

    yes I also suffer from washed out colors. So normally I increase the brightness by 10 and the contrast by 20 with Photoshop. Unluckily your chosen PNG format works VERY slowly with photoshop; probably TIF (which also handles Alpha channels) would be the better choice here. The fact that it does not compress the picture is not so severe, as after geoconversion this does not play a role anymore.

    On the other hand it would be cool if Aeroscenery could do the brightness/contrast correctiondirectly, with the two (adjustable) parameters.

    Until this is implemented, maybe you could make the picture format selectable?

    PS: did you also saw my suggestion how to recognize if ceoconvert has finished?

    Cheers,

    Thomas

    Cheers, Thomas


  • Until this is implemented, maybe you could make the picture format selectable?

    PS: did you also saw my suggestion how to recognize if ceoconvert has finished?

    I'll take a look at making the stitched image format selectable, it should be possible.

    The slowness with Photoshop is probably because PNG is compressed, but it is lossless compression, unlike Jpeg.

    Yep, I saw the suggestion about recognising if GeoConvert has finished thanks. My concern is that I've seen it sit there, finished, still taking up a lot of RAM.

    It's either your suggestion or detecting by screenshot though. I might code up both quickly and see what's more reliable.

    Frustrating when all we need is a "done" written to the log, which would take 30 seconds to add to the GeoConvert code.

    AeroScenery - Easily create photoreal scenery for Aerofly

  • I do often notice that GeoConvert lightens or reduces contrast in the images.

    It would be great if AeroScenery could resample the stitched image files. FSET did by automatically with the default setting adjusting brightness by -6 and contrast by +12. This combination gave enough extra lift to make the textures look vibrant in FS2 without going over the top.

    Thanks, Chris

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