AeroScenery Beta - Help With Testing Required

Ok merci, et effectivement mieux vaudrait de simplement relancer le processus entier ... 2 heures.

I sometimes use AeroScenery to convert a level 9 tile area with tiles from levels 9 to 14. The whole process takes about 11 hours. What I have noticed, however, is that Geoconvert slows down with time - particularly as it processes the level 14 tiles. At the beginning it is producing several level 14 tiles per minute - towards the end it is producing them at a rate of about 1 per minute.

I have no idea why this happens. Have other people found the same thing? If it is happening to others as well it has implications regarding the most time-efficient way to use AeroScenery. It seems that it would be better to process a lot of smaller areas rather than one big area? This is not convenient at the moment because Geoconvert doesn't process areas sequentially, but when that problem is overcome it might be something to bear in mind.

Quote from Ian C

I sometimes use AeroScenery to convert a level 9 tile area with tiles from levels 9 to 14. The whole process takes about 11 hours. What I have noticed, however, is that Geoconvert slows down with time - particularly as it processes the level 14 tiles. At the beginning it is producing several level 14 tiles per minute - towards the end it is producing them at a rate of about 1 per minute.

I have no idea why this happens. Have other people found the same thing? If it is happening to others as well it has implications regarding the most time-efficient way to use AeroScenery. It seems that it would be better to process a lot of smaller areas rather than one big area? This is not convenient at the moment because Geoconvert doesn't process areas sequentially, but when that problem is overcome it might be something to bear in mind.

I don't know all the factors that affect the speed, but I can prepare a level 9 tile w/ 9 - 14 in about 2 hours. 1,365 total tiles with 13 having 256 and 14 having 1024. You have to watch that GeoConvert doesn't start over and redo the same area and same tiles a couple of times. I check the tile count and when it reaches 1,365 I stop GeoConvert and copy the tiles over and start flying.

Regards,

Ray

I should add that this is at Level 17, 1.1 m

I use Nick Hods "Aero Scenery" at Zoom Level 16 (2.389 M/Pix) resolution with AFS Levels 9, 10, 12 and 13 and it takes about 2 hours per tile. I only process a maximum of 8 at a time.

I only run one instance of GeoConvert with a grid 9 square, but I can easily run 6 concurrent instances with the Small levels.

Regards,

Ray

Thanks to all who have replied. I'm using zoom level 18 so that may be slowing things down a bit (though not on the download side of things, because that only takes a couple of hours).

I'm fairly sure that GeoConvert isn't restarting - though I have encountered that problem in the past.

If I only go up to level 13 (using zoom level 17) it only takes a couple of hours.

I found that with 16 gig of memory more than 2 concurrent GeoConvert instances are thrashing away in the page file.

So I doubt more than 2 instances are actually gaining any performance benefit over dual instances run sequentially.

Eight concurrent instances eventually cause a pagefile crash.

Hopefully v1.0 of AeroScenery will have some configuration for MaxConcurrentGeoConvert instances.

/Stu

Quote from lenidcamper

I found that with 16 gig of memory more than 2 concurrent GeoConvert instances are thrashing away in the page file.

So I doubt more than 2 instances are actually gaining any performance benefit over dual instances run sequentially.

Eight concurrent instances eventually cause a pagefile crash.

Hopefully v1.0 of AeroScenery will have some configuration for MaxConcurrentGeoConvert instances.

/Stu

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Yup. And if you do max out your memory, you will get MUCH better performance from geoconvert if your OS installation is on a fast SSD (preferably two two of them striped in raid) instead of an old spinning HDD because of that page file utilization.

Hi

I've been trying AeroScenery, and i have to say it works very well, and is way more practical the old method using FSET.

But i'm having a problem with the textures that i can't solve, even trying different settings in AeroScenery. The water part of the tiles always comes white, with that 'no image' symbol repeated. I tryed Google and Bing satellite images, but it's the same. Changed the settings in the Geoconvert tab, the Write Images with Mask, to see if it would change anything, but no luck.

Here are some examples:

What am i doing wrong?

Thanks,

Nuno

Quote from NFelix

But i'm having a problem with the textures that i can't solve, even trying different settings in AeroScenery. The water part of the tiles always comes white, with that 'no image' symbol repeated. I tryed Google and Bing satellite images, but it's the same. Changed the settings in the Geoconvert tab, the Write Images with Mask, to see if it would change anything, but no luck.

Hi, Nuno, it's normal, there are usually no aerial photos for water, therefore the "no image" logo where aeroscenery couldn't find any image.

You'll have to manually edit your source images before geoconverting.

2 alternate solutions :

Solution A) : with masks

If the default sea in AFS2 is consistent enough, just copy your source image (generated by Aeroscenery) and save it under the same name but with a _mask suffix, then paint pitch black (R0G0B0) all zones that must be transparent, i.e. where the original AFS2 schenery must show through, ansd white (R255G255B255) all zones where you want your scenery to be visible instead of default AFS2.

You should have a discrete black/white picture, that's your mask. No need for smooth transition, AFS2 ignore shades, it's black or white.

Edit the image AID file by adding the mask file name in the [ ] for masks and geoconvert.

It works best with BMP images.

If you use FSET, you may draw your mask line as a KML in Google and automatically generate mask files.

Since these are designed for FSX, they still need some light editing for AFS2, but that's easy stuff.

Solution B) without masks

You may paint your source image with water to fill up zones where no image was available. This needs some trial and error to get a shade that blends seamlessly with AFS2 water at the end of your scenery coverage, and some artistic talent to blend your shade with your source image.

For a start you can try color R0G11B24, it worked pretty well in the Antilles. First check how it matches deep AFS2 water and adjust if necessary.

This technique works without masks.

Enjoy !

Cheers

Antoine

Thanks Antoine for the (very) fast answer

Now i'm heading out for work, but later today, or tomorrow, i will try both options, to see wich i like the best

Quote from nickhod

Bing or Google must have changed something because AeroScenery used to write transparency where it detected a "no image" square.

I'll aim to improve that for version 1.0

I've noticed a change in Bing and Google too. I've always used the "painting-in-the-sea" method to deal with coastlines and have always set GeoConvert to reject masked tiles. Up until quite recently this worked fine, but now I find that that I'm not getting any geoconverted tiles if they include any "no image" regions - even though I've coloured those regions in. (I assume GeoConvert wants to produce a mask, so I'm not getting any tile at all since I'm rejecting masked ones.)

I'm a bit puzzled as to why this is happening. Is the PNG storing some info about the "no-image" region even though I've painted it over? I must admit my knowledge of images and GIMP is not that great.

The old method with FSET was to save the BMPs as TIFs after processing. I find that saving as a TIF doesn't work with AeroScenery, so I save the PNGs as PNGs - i.e. I overwrite them. Is this the right thing to do? (Even if I revert to FSET and save as TIFs I still get the same problem BTW.)

Quote from nickhod

Instead of saving a separate mask image you can:

1) Open up the "stitched" PNG file that Aeroscenery generates

2) Use the eraser tool or selection tool then delete, to remove all the "no image" squares from the PNG, so that part of the image is transparent. Ideally giving you a nice smoothly curved shoreline.

3) Save the image, keeping it as a PNG

4) Enable "use masks" in the GeoConvert options

Bing or Google must have changed something because AeroScenery used to write transparency where it detected a "no image" square.

I'll aim to improve that for version 1.0

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Hi

Thank you, i will try that.

But in the actions in Aeroscenery, i will run first 'Download image tiles', 'Stitch image tiles' and 'Generate AID/TMC files, then edit the stitched image, and only then run the 'Run Geoconvert' action?

Once again, thank you for the help, and thank you even more for AeroScenery

Quote from NFelix

(...) i will run first 'Download image tiles', 'Stitch image tiles' and 'Generate AID/TMC files, then edit the stitched image, and only then run the 'Run Geoconvert' action?

Whatever the tools you use, that's pretty much the process flow I'd recommend.

Getting the source images is one thing, but the real job in ground texture scenery making is reworking your source images in order to get the desired result after geoconverting.

Cheers

Antoine

Quote from Trespassers

Whatever the tools you use, that's pretty much the process flow I'd recommend.

Getting the source images is one thing, but the real job in ground texture scenery making is reworking your source images in order to get the desired result after geoconverting.

Cheers

Antoine

I will try all the methods, and see wich one i find the easiest. It's always nice to have more than one option

Anyway, thanks guys for being so helpful

Hi Nick,

Just to confirm I have been using your Aero Scenery for many months and in Google the water mask works OK however it has never worked in Bing.

Cheers Michael.

à NFelix

je viens d'achever ce jour la Corse ... et avec son important littoral je peux assurer que c'est une "galère".

Ceux qui se sont développés à l'intérieur des terres sont bien chanceux comme disent nos amis Canadiens!

J'utilise la méthode sans masque, bien meilleurs résultats mais très astreignant.

Sur les images "cousues" (et surtout sur les "Raw"), j'utilise le lasso pour détourer les hauts-fonds, Ctrl + X pour rendre la zone capturée transparente, donc autour de les hauts-fonds et étendre vers les bords de l'image jusqu'au cadre. This is is a transparent time view from the high-fonds and the look of the surface blanche, sans image.

Ensuite, avec la "Baguette magique", capturer les seules surfaces restantes, littoral + hauts-fonds ... Copier ... et coller sur une image de mer totalement couverte (image complète de 8192 x 8192 pixels).

Les bords de mer sont traités de façon "lamentable" autant par Google que par Bing, IGN.

Maintenant, je m'attaque à la végétation, les aéroports (FSCloudPort, vous pouvez oublier, c'est nul).

J'ai acheté LFKB Bastia-Poretta pour FSX, si une bonne âme connaissait un moyen de réutiliser, je rêvais un peu, c'est gratuit.

Bon courage à NFelix.

Help ! le logiciel modifie le texte à notre insu ce qui est insupportable ! le texte devient parfois illisible, des mots disparaissent ...

la traduction devrait être désactivée sur le texte en cours de frappe.

SVP modérateur, faites quelque chose.

... correction à mon texte ci-dessus ... bien lire ... (et surtout pas sur les images Raw")