Cultivation template file for scenProc

  • Have a template update to version 7 getting closer to completion. In the final fine tuning stage. Also waiting on a scenProc update to made available that includes a fix for a bug I identified.

    One of the big changes was a performance improvement. New Orleans dropped from over 2 hours in ver6 to just over 10 minutes in ver7, in spite of adding a fair amount of content. Other less detailed areas saw a 50% drop in processing time. The scenProc script is much more detailed and increases from under 200 lines in ver6 to over 600 lines in ver7.

    Version 7 will deliver also some improved structure construction methods and a number of other improvements. Here is a little sample showing one of the building enhancements, showing a ferry terminal in New Orleans.

    Thanks, Chris

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

    Edited once, last by crispy136 (August 27, 2019 at 10:22 AM).

  • Hello Chris,

    Thanks a lot for your work on scenProc template files !

    Version 7 will deliver also some improved structure construction methods and a number of other improvements. Here is a little sample showing one of the building enhancements, showing a ferry terminal in New Orleans.

    This is very interesting.

    Is that "feature" due to your changes in your new template file or is it due to the latest version of scenProc ?

    In that another thread I am currently discussing the possibility of having "generic buildings", ie. buildings that correspond roughly to the real footprint (well the footprint which is defined in OSM) and with the correct height/floors of course.

  • Is that "feature" due to your changes in your new template file or is it due to the latest version of scenProc ?

    All features in the version 7 update are currently working with scenProc functions of the current release (14/7/19). I managed work around the scenProc bug, but this needed many more lines of script. So the bugfix doesn't allow or stop anything happening, but having it will allow me to reduce the number of lines of script required. Once Arno has released the latest update to scenProc, I can change the script lines, finish my testing and release the template.

    Thanks, Chris

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

  • Sorry Chris but I'm not sure to understand very well as I don't know which bug you're talking about. But in fact my questions was about the "new feature" that we can see of your last screenshot in NewOrleans.

    Normally scenProc is unable to generate buildings if the footprint is exotic and not rectangular. That's why there is the FAREARAT>0.7 condition in order to skip non rectangular buildings.

    But in your screenshot I'm glad to see you've managed to handle a non rectangular building with 3 rectangular "sub buildings". It's not as pretty as "generic buildings" (like in X-Plane / W2XP, sorry for the comparison) but it's much better than nothing, or than an unique rectangular building !

  • I managed to improve on the ferry terminal as there was a bit missing at the top and now scenProc renders the building more accurately. Its only autogen after all so will never match purpose built scenery. And we limited to the shapes and textures that Aerofly allows.

    I decided to see what happens when you don't skip the more complex (exotic?) buildings and was surprised with the result. scenProc's method is to replicate the larger buildings out of smaller rectangular buildings, so you are limited to shapes that this can achieve. The screenshot below compares the buildings in OSM against the actual result in Aerofly and shows what scenProc is really able to achieve. These are buildings near Birmingham in the UK and I deliberately hadn't installed any textures so I could see the buildings without the background clutter from the textures. The ones circled in green are the success stories. The one circled in red was simply too complex, but at least it created something. The new template is able to render a variety of building shapes including some really complex shapes like the one in green number 4.

    It isn't perfect and can't render any quite simple buildings with any sort of triangular shape, but this is a limitation of Aerofly rather than scenProc. Stadiums also usually look pretty dreadful. But the ones it gets right add something to the experience in Aerofly.

    I was initially trying to fix a major shopping centre near home. When I fixed that I decided to see what else scenProc could achieve. My method was just to tackle one building at a time, until I came up with a set of scenProc script lines that rendered the building correctly. Then moved onto the next one while trying not to break the 1st one, and so on. I started first with buildings in my home town of Brisbane, Australia, then moved on to New Orleans and Birmingham. I always use these 3 areas to test my updates as they seem to cover a wide variety of building shapes.

    There is one building shape I haven't shown, but am saving that for the release.

    Thanks goes to Arno for developing, distributing and supporting scenProc, and allowing Aerofly scenery creation to get this far. And all for free. Woo Hoo !!


    Thanks, Chris

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

  • In that another thread I am currently discussing the possibility of having "generic buildings", ie. buildings that correspond roughly to the real footprint (well the footprint which is defined in OSM) and with the correct height/floors of course.

    The new template will address building heights to some extent.

    Thanks, Chris

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

  • crispy136

    Hello Chris,

    could you integrate this please in your upcoming script?

    If there is a lake in a park or wood or forest, your script is placing trees into the area defind as natural='water'.

    Could you please exclude any water area from placing auto trees into it?

    Please find an example here

    ( (c) members of openstreetmap.org)

    Here: natural='water' within

    leisure=park

    or

    landuse="forest"

    natural="wood"

    natural="scrub"

    natural="wetland"


    Unwanted trees in water area:

  • Have updated the changelog on the 1st page with full details of the version 7 template. Just having to hold off the release as Arno is making some changes to scenProc that may require some updates to the template.

    Thanks, Chris

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

  • Will have to delay the template release a bit. Arno has released some changes in scenProc for the CreateAF2Buildings command to handle the various building height possibilities. Anyone updating to a version after 01/09/2019 will need to change their CreateAF2Building lines as existing scripts won't work. Unfortunately as a result of the scenProc changes, my recently completed version 7 template won't work, requiring a minor redesign. I had already catered for the various height scenarios in version 7, so will also need to modify that to fit in with the new command lines. Anyone downloading the latest scenProc version will get this change.

    I asked Arno to change scenProc to allow it to deliver 3d objects via a scenProc script, and I think this is now also active in the latest scenProc version. As part of that change, scenProc will now generate linked TSC and TOC files as an output in place of the TOC only output. You will no longer need to manually reference the TOC file in the an airport TSC file, or create a TSC file yourself. I am planning a relatively minor version 8 update of the template to start to incorporate 3d objects like radio towers, water towers, wind turbines etc into the template. XREF objects require different handling so haven't been implemented for scenProc at this stage. However you can still use many XREF objects by getting them from Fscloudport, and just copying them across to each folder holding your TSC/TOC files. This does require some duplication of 3d object files, but they are pretty small anyway.

    The latest scenProc updates won't change the outcome of the version 7 template though, with all features listed in the changelog still delivered. In the meantime here are some further screen shots of what you can expect. All Version 6 vs version 7 screen shots were generated using the same OSM source file for both.

    Version 6 skipped a lot of buildings as it didn't have the ability to process them. Version 7 does, so we not only get more buildings but they are also more detailed.

    There are user assignable standard heights for building categories where no level/height recorded in OSM. This is a shot of the local hospital complex, most of which had no level/height info in OSM. The height setting I nominate only affected hospital buildings and not other buildings. Users can set the building category heights to suit their part of the world.

    Circular buildings. Shown here with a university in the background which also used specific level/height values solely set up for universities.

    An example of the effect of the new construction method on shopping centres/malls. Not only a more accurate shape but more surrounding buildings have been included.

    Circular storage tanks. In version 6 screen shot on the left, many tanks were identified as houses or other buildings. The new template will generate circular storage and buildings from 10m diameter to 200m diameter. The only downside is you are limited to the building textures available in Aerofly.

    Silos on the left, petroleum tanks on the right, and few complex buildings in the middle. All generated by scenProc.

    Communication towers with stacked lighting. Here 4 TV towers along with a smaller communication tower.

    Power line towers shown in the lower left & right, with a few different types of communication towers in the background. While the power lines aren't created, you can see them clearly in the textures, so looks pretty good anyway.

    Fixed a problem where trees appeared in water areas, where the water area was inside an area populated with trees.

  • Fascinating and mesmerizing at the same time Chris!

    Thank you for your great work and for showing here on the pictures what it will be possible in the future.

    Yes, it's worth waiting for!

    Is it also possible to remove trees from the highways?


    Jakob

    Edited once, last by Jak61 (September 2, 2019 at 9:40 AM).

  • Is it also possible to remove trees from the highways?

    I should be able to remove them. While roads look wide in OSM they are only stored as a line, so I'll need to do something different to that used to remove trees from water. I can get the script to look for trees within a set distance of any road and remove them. I used this sort of command successfully in the filler template I created to create houses without OSM data. I'll add it to the to do list.

    Incredibly work, thank you, pity about the delay but worth waiting for.

    Thanks IZOJUB. Hopefully just a short wait. Am testing the change now.

    Thanks, Chris

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

  • Chris, I am excited to see that tanks and towers will be included along with much better buildings. Those oversized rectangles for shopping malls were barely better than nothing.

    Tom’s tank farms and massive cultivation’s and Ken’s towers and trees and Jake’s and Michael’s buildings add so much to the 3D scenery. Rodeo’s, Ryan’s and Phil’s custom airports were were the final attraction for our recent scenery projects.

    I wonder if something could done to populate large parking lots using ScenProc by adding some sort of organized rows of parked cars for large commercial centers. Tom’s 3D parked cars in the Turkey Creek and Apollo50 packs are absolutely outstanding additions.

    Your new ver 7 should make many of those things available to a much larger area. Thanks for your creative contributions.