Tutorial for creating 2 airports with scenery & cultivation between them???

  • Let's say I have all of Ohio downloaded at a Google map level of 17. Can I do the entire state at 9-12 one day and do 13 & 14 the next? Or split the between a few workstations or do I have to do 1 panel at a time 9-14?

  • Patrick,

    I do not know what Google Map level 17 is. The normal high def scenery download is download level 1 (1m), maybe download level 0 (.5m/pix) for small airport areas and very seldom do we use download level -1 (.25m/pix). Any large area will probably choke the system if you are using either download level 0 or -1. These are usually reserved for very small areas like an airport or smaller, not a city or open areas. This will require a very high capacity cpu.

    If it is a download level 1 (1m) then I would be familiar with that level. I doubt you can do an entire state at one time without crashing the system. That sounds like about 10x normal to me.

    But, with GeoConverter you can process level 9 - 12 one day and 13 and 14 another day. Just make sure you adjust your tmc file to only process the levels that you desire at that time. I would group them as level 9 - 13 for one job and level 14 alone. Level 14 is the larger job by far. Just mix all the results into the same folder when completed. Level 15 might be considered as 'insane' for a statewide level.

    Maybe Jeff or Rodeo can step in and advise you.

    I made an approximation using FSET for an area the size of the state of Ohio using download level 1 (1m/pix) and the area count is 306. My largest job ever was 30 areas so 10x is a good guess. This would result in 1,725,000 tiles. Just for kicks I changed the download level to 2 (2m/pix) and the area count is 81 or 3x a normal large scenery area.

    Regards,

    Ray

    I found this AFS2 resolution chart.

    Regards,

    Ray

  • Ray & Jeff, thanks for the guidance - it's helping me develop my plan of attack.

    Jeff, with the new graphics engine and cultivation, how many cultivation files do you recommend for a large metroplex area like DFW? Just 1 tied to the DFW airport or 1 tied to a Dallas airport and 1 tied to a Fort Worth airport?

  • Is Nick's AeroScenery tool an easier way for beginners to generate scenery? I noticed in that thread that a few people are starting to use it with some success.

    I have not used Nick’s new AeroScenery yet so I am no help there.

    Regards,

    Ray

  • His tool makes it extremely simple to generate new scenery. The slowest part is the GeoConvert process.

    In a nutshell:

    0. Open the settings and set your paths in AeroScenery & download the Aerofly SDK with the button in the app.

    1. find your spot on the map (on the right), click on the map and a blue square appears. Want to deselect it? Double click on it.

    2. Specify which map to use (on the left now): Google or Bing from a drop down box

    3. select the resolution (like 1-20, 17 is what I have been using) on the slider of the images you will be downloading

    4. the panel below that asks what you want to do, download, stitch, make the TMC files, run geoconvert, etc

    5. I select all the squares on the map I want and I check all the boxes besides "run geoconvert"

    6. Go to bed

    7. Wake up in the morning and all the blue squares are now orange meaning they've downloaded the images.

    8. Select one square (back to blue from orange) and now just run one square at a time with only GeoConvert checked and select the 9-15 levels you want. I usually do 9-14 and each block takes about 2.5 hours I think. I don them one square at a time because GeoConvert crashes sometimes and if you do 5 at once, you don't know which bombed. And one will bomb. Probably 2. I pray they make GeoConvert opensource.

    When the square is orange, you can select "view images folder" above the map and it will take you to the directory its using to work. Find the folder with ".ttc" files (I think thats the extension...I am doing this from memory) with a folder ending in "_TTC"

    Copy these files to your "/scenery/images" folder.

    So now you have the ground images. But what about airports and cultivation (aka: trees and buildings)

    Airports: Now go over to FSCloudport and download the airports you want for that area and extract them into the /scenery/places/<Airport ID> folder.

    Cultivation: If you are feeling really sassy, go to OpenStreetmap.org, find the area around the airports you download and export it and save it as "map.osm". Download scenproc & use the scenproc script available at the wiki page from Rodeo. Edit the script in 2 places, the import path (near the top and point it to the "map.osm" file) and the export path (at the bottom and should be like "/scenery/places/<Airport ID>/map.tmb" ) to reflect your situation. Edit the Airport file and change the "cultivation" entry to point to [map] no extension. I also edited the script to look in addition to "forest" to also look for "park", "wood" and "tree_line" too and plot trees from them too. I can provide my script if someone wants it. I cant get it to read "building:level" though from commercial buildings to make skyscrapers accurate. Maybe if someone has figured that part out and would like to share, that would be greaaaat.

    It would be soooo cool if aersofly could run scenproc on its own the first time you load in new scenery to at lease place trees, buildings and houses. But it doesn't =( But it has amazing everything else, so I wont complain and I will just wait for Nick to automate that process next and add it to a checkbox in AeroScenery! Hint! Hint!

    Rodeo has a great video on all of this here: Video tutorial: cultivation

    I am going to edit this in about an hour or 2 with all the most accurate extensions, paths, folder names, etc. Just wanted to give people a general help file explaining what it took me a few days to work out the best process for me.

    Edited once, last by pkaser: Think found all the edits (July 14, 2018 at 1:13 AM).

  • Thanks for all this! I kinda muddled my way through it. I downloaded, using AeroScenery, most of northern ohio, from toledo to cleveland to mansfield, and there were 5 tiles across and 3 tiles down, and each tile was 16000 images, which aeroscenery download them all, stitches them together, generates the TMC file, and then will run GeoConvert.

  • Ray, did you use VE or Google for all your Texas scenery downloads? I've been using the AeroScenery tool to do Google scenery downloads but the Texas scenery looks mostly brown. I may have to try the Bing option.

    My short-term focus has been to:

    1) use FSCloudPort to create airports to unzip to the \places\ folder

    2) run AeroScenery at zoom 17 (~2M res) for the square (level 9 size) that includes that airport and then convert it to level 9-12 ttf files for the \images\(square name) folder - this is decent resolution at an altitude of +3000 feet and takes about an hour per square to process

    3) then create cultivation files for each square (next on the to-do list)

    When AeroScenery gets updated to do smaller squares, I'll go back at zoom 18 and create level 13 & 14 ttf files for those airports so things look better at low altitude.

  • Ken,

    I used a mix of VE and Google. Google seems to have more updates recently but, you just have to look at both and choose or mix. I am redoing Florida getting ready for the new SF DLC and Google is the choice there. I have gotten use to the 1m dl but the 2m remains a good start. I did a 4m 4 block area for Southern Germany and North Austria over the weekend and it came in at 8.5 GB. Ouch.

    You can always make a large lower res area to connect all those boxes.

    Regards,

    Ray

  • This AeroScenery tool is great! I did most of northern ohio this weekend. Used FSCloudPort.com (another amazing tool! Thanks Spit40!) to create all the airports, too. Easy peazy. Waiting on GeoConvert is the weak link at this point. Super slow at level 14. Now if he could implement the ability to generate cultivation with scenproc, it would be perfect! A one stop shop!

    Also, Nick & Spit40, can we donate to your causes financially? At least throw you $20 or $30 for your efforts?

  • Ken, much of what Ray stated here, if you have two airports with a large distance between them, study your geoconverted area map and use OSM (OpenStreetMap) to split the cultivation areas between them. Once you do this and have your TOC files used for cultivation just define one to each airport TSC. Also be sure to increase the parameter 'size' to cover the those cultivation areas. The 'size' parameter is a square distance root in meters.

    The way that our new graphics engine works it should handle much larger cultivation areas with ease now.

    Jeff, on your "Also be sure to increase the parameter 'size' to cover the those cultivation areas. The 'size' parameter is a square distance root in meters." ... if I'm doing cultivation for a 9-level size tile, what's the correct 'size' value I should enter? 50000?

  • I also edited the script to look in addition to "forest" to also look for "park", "wood" and "tree_line" too and plot trees from them too. I can provide my script if someone wants it.

    PK, I'd like to try your modified scenproc script - please attach it if possible or post it on the shared flightsim site.

  • Give me an hour or two and I will...

    # AeroFly FS 2 scenProc script

    # with function to filter out objects on airport

    # Author of scenProc Arno Gerretsen

    # Script amended, modified and enhanced by Rodeo

    # --------------------------------------------------------

    #

    # Load OpenStreetMap data of the area to work on

    # Load highway, landuse and building to save memory

    #ImportOGR|d:\construction\KBKL\OSM\map.osm|*|highway;landuse;building|NOREPROJ

    ImportOGR|d:\construction\kpcw\OSM\map.osm|*|*|NOREPROJ

    #

    #

    # Create AF2 buildings for polygons that are almost rectanguar

    # Make longer buildings industrial with a flat roof

    #CreateAF2Building|building="commercial"|levels|flat|industrial

    CreateAF2Building|building="*" And FAREARAT>0.7 And FLENGTH < 14|1|flat|industrial

    CreateAF2Building|building="*" And FAREARAT>0.7 And FLENGTH >= 14 And FLENGTH < 28|1|gable|residential

    CreateAF2Building|building="*" And FAREARAT>0.7 And FLENGTH >= 28|3|flat|industrial


    #

    # Load Shapefile that will be excluded from processing

    #ImportOGR|d:\construction\KPCW\OSM\exclude.kml|*|*|NOREPROJ

    #

    # Split the features into a grid of 0.25 x 0.25 degrees

    # Do not split buildings, but filter them into the right grid cells

    # SplitGrid|0.25|*|building="*"

    #

    # Lights

    # Place point features for the lights along roads

    PlacePointsAlongLine|highway="motorway"|SINGLE|45;55|6;6|25|String;point|plight|hdg

    PlacePointsAlongLine|highway="primary"|SINGLE|45;55|6;6|25|String;point|plight|hdg

    PlacePointsAlongLine|highway="secondary"|SINGLE|40;40|4;4|20|String;point|slight|hdg

    PlacePointsAlongLine|highway="tertiary"|SINGLE|30;35|4;4|10|String;point|tlight|hdg

    PlacePointsAlongLine|highway="residential"|SINGLE|30;30|4;4|10|String;point|rlight|hdg

    PlacePointsAlongLine|highway="living_street"|SINGLE|30;30|4;4|10|String;point|rlight|hdg

    #

    # Plants

    # Place point features for the plants in forest polygons

    # using spacing of 0.00025 degrees and full randomness

    PlacePointsInPolygon|landuse="forest"|0.00025;0.00025|1.0;1.0

    PlacePointsInPolygon|natural="wood"|0.00025;0.00025|1.0;1.0

    PlacePointsInPolygon|natural="tree_row"|0.0000005;0.00025|1.0;1.0

    PlacePointsInPolygon|leisure="park"|0.00025;0.00025|1.0;1.0

    PlacePointsInPolygon|leisure="nature_reserve"|0.00025;0.00025|1.0;1.0


    #

    # Filter out the buldings, lights and plants

    # that are within the exclude polygons

    #AddAttributeIfInside|building="*"|FROMFILE="exclude.kml"|String;skip|yes

    #AddAttributeIfInside|point="light"|FROMFILE="exclude.kml"|String;skip|yes

    #AddAttributeIfInside|FTYPE="POINT" And landuse="forest"|FROMFILE="exclude.kml"|String;skip|yes

    #UnloadFeatures|skip="yes"

    #

    #

    # Create AF2 plants

    # CreateAF2Plant|landuse="forest"|10;20|broadleaf

    CreateAF2Plant|landuse="forest" And FRAND >= 0.1|8;40|broadleaf

    CreateAF2Plant|landuse="forest" And FRAND < 0.1|10;40|conifer

    CreateAF2Plant|natural="wood" And FRAND >= 0.1|8;40|broadleaf

    CreateAF2Plant|natural="wood" And FRAND < 0.1|10;40|conifer

    CreateAF2Plant|natural="tree_row" And FRAND >= 0.1|8;40|broadleaf

    CreateAF2Plant|leisure="park" And FRAND >= 0.1|8;40|broadleaf

    CreateAF2Plant|leisure="nature_reserve" And FRAND >= 0.1|8;40|conifer

    # Create AF2 lights

    CreateAF2Light|point="plight"|0.9;0.8;0.7|5|0;0;1|10

    CreateAF2Light|point="slight"|0.9;0.7;0.5|3|0;0;1|8

    CreateAF2Light|point="tlight"|0.6;0.6;0.7|3|0;0;1|6

    CreateAF2Light|point="rlight"|0.9;0.6;0.3|3|0;0;1|6

    #

    # Export the AF2 TOC file

    ExportTOC|d:\construction\kpcw\OSM|map

    • Official Post

    Jeff, on your "Also be sure to increase the parameter 'size' to cover the those cultivation areas. The 'size' parameter is a square distance root in meters." ... if I'm doing cultivation for a 9-level size tile, what's the correct 'size' value I should enter? 50000?

    Ken, the size is used to determine in meters how far out from the airport you begin to see cultivation/models that are linked to that tsc of that airport. It has nothing to do with the levels of your orthos.

    IPACS Development Team Member

    I'm just a cook, I don't own the restaurant.
    On behalf of Torsten, Marc, and the rest of the IPACS team, we would all like to thank you for your continued support.

    Regards,

    Jeff

  • @pkaser

    Thank you for your modified script.

    In some areas the OSM maps show manual placed trees as single points. You can catch these with

    CreateAF2Plant|natural="tree"|12;20|broadleaf

    and not to forget, with the latest developer version you can also generate scrub and palm:

    PlacePointsInPolygon|natural="scrub"|0.00015;0.00015|1.0;1.0

    CreateAF2Plant|natural="scrub"|6;14|shrub


    Cheers,

    Thomas

    Cheers, Thomas


  • Ken, the size is used to determine in meters how far out from the airport you begin to see cultivation/models that are linked to that tsc of that airport. It has nothing to do with the levels of your orthos.

    So if I use 1 airport per level-9 sized scenery area which is roughly 50,000m x 50,000m and I download the OSM cultivation file for that same area, then I should increase the SIZE value from the default of 5,000m to at least 25,000m so the cultivation is visible out to the edge of this large square, correct?

    • Official Post

    So if I use 1 airport per level-9 sized scenery area which is roughly 50,000m x 50,000m and I download the OSM cultivation file for that same area, then I should increase the SIZE value from the default of 5,000m to at least 25,000m so the cultivation is visible out to the edge of this large square, correct?

    That should do it :) You can play with the number if it's not exactly how you want it.

    IPACS Development Team Member

    I'm just a cook, I don't own the restaurant.
    On behalf of Torsten, Marc, and the rest of the IPACS team, we would all like to thank you for your continued support.

    Regards,

    Jeff