That's why I asked IPACS to document how to merge generic objects into an XREF library. This is no rocket science, we just need the IPACS-specific process flow and syntax, but IPACS never replied, not even stating they don't want to share that information...
I asked a similar thing and got no response. I think that not helping the community with creating extra content is a missed opportunity.
Here is the TSC spacing IPACS used in the South Florida DLC.
Thanks, great information. I never purchased South Florida. The only issue is that in my testing the size value has no impact on the 3d objects. iPacs insists that it does, but the reality is it doesn't.
The spacing seems to indicate we are on the right track with cultivation though. But I'm sure we are doing something not quite right due to the problems encountered with 3d objects, and draw distances.
Chris,
please try to use as many xref objects a possible (instead of regular 3D models).
You probably know, that you can use ANY object which is within the xref_... catalogs (just ommit _virtual from the naming).
i.e. xref_usa_airport
example in ObjectGen:
<!-- VOR-->
<nodeConfiguration>
<selectionCondition expression=" ($man_made == 'vor')"/>
<defaultModel>
<staticModel name=""/>
</defaultModel>
<modelMap>
<xrefMapEntry expression="($man_made == 'vor')" name="vor2"/>
</modelMap>
</nodeConfiguration>resulting in the TOC as
<[xref][element][0]
<[string8][name][vor2]>
<[vector3_float64][position][-80.55960595876 27.96141440568 0]>
<[float32][direction][16.13529]>
>please try to use as many xref objects a possible (instead of regular 3D models).
Thanks Thomas, Was planning to do this when if they become available in scenProc. But the majority of XREF objects are airport related rather than general scenery related. I haven't looked at OSM data for airports yet, but thought I might be able to do something to enhance airports without the need for a lot of work in Fscloudport. The VOR you suggested will be easy I think. Other than airport objects, you are limited to vehicles, houses, factories and storage tanks and 1 weather tower. A pretty limited list. I may be able to use XREF factories to mix them in with cultivation buildings to give us a bit of building variety. XREF houses are much better than any houses cultivation can produce, so that's another possibility. The storage tanks are limited in size, and mixing them with larger cultivation generated tanks will look a bit odd. Not sure what to do with cars, as I didn't like them placed on roads, but perhaps there is scope for using them in parking lots, although getting the alignment right will be difficult.
Tom,
If I know the exact coordinates for a VOR antenna, can I place it as a XREF object directly in a tsc file?
Yes, of cause. You can directly use my TOC code example section with your coordinates.
The only issue is that in my testing the size value has no impact on the 3d objects
I disagree as I did some testing with the Miami City Skyline, which is one massive tmb object that's a 10-mile long string of buildings. The DLC has SIZE=50000 (~31 miles) for the Miami Skyline TSC file. If you completely exit out of AF2, and start from a location outside of this 31 mile radius, you won't see the downtown skyline until you fly inside this radius.
So IPACS gets you into the cockpit for that first flight as quick as possible by 1) only loading the nearby TSC files into memory, and 2) keeping the SIZE values small. However, to avoid major landmarks from "popping" into view, they increase the SIZE value significantly.
If you change locations several times during the same session, I believe those additional TSC files are loaded / added into memory and the previous TSC files remain in memory. I'm not sure what happens once your memory is full - I'm guessing some of the data gets cached into storage (SSD / HDD).
I reinstalled your v7 then redid some of my local area cultivations hoping to see the new towers, but, I guess you have not added the new realistic tall towers to the file. The towers are properly located but still the stacked buildings.
A few challenges I ran into when using the OSM data for radio towers:
1) multiple radio stations on the same tower result in 2 OSM entries with the same lat/lon - this can be due to the station broadcasting on both AM & FM or ownership has changed over the years so you could have 3 entries for 3 different owners for the same tower (= TOC tower might not show/flicker, or multiple 3D tower objects)
2) OSM data is stale so a tower entry exists but the tower was removed or was wiped out by a hurricane
3) there's no height data for the OSM towers, you can guess based on some of the tower description attributes (-AM taller than -FM but some don't have this detail) random is risky because some short towers are near airports so creating a random tall one looks out-of-place. When I manually place them I use vfrmap.com to get the location and height of current towers.
4) tower lighting is also height dependent (short towers = steady red, tall = flashing once every 2 sec) and you don't want all the lights flashing in sync (only close towers should flash together)
Good insight, Ken. I am slowly making a list of local towers here in the woods of Mississippi. When google street view has the tower I snap a screenshot.
Do we have a collection of tmb files for cell towers any place? Maybe a half dozen should cover 95% of the installations.
Jake posted some towers on flight-sim.org last year and I included them in my South Florida TL Add-on and towerProcTL tool ...
https://flight-sim.org/filebase/index…ter-towers-etc/
Thanks Ken, I have those. None look like the cell towers around here.
Jake posted some towers on flight-sim.org last year and I included them in my South Florida TL Add-on and towerProcTL tool ...
https://flight-sim.org/filebase/index…ter-towers-etc/
#125 and #126 are tall cell towers typically found in rural areas - I don't have any smaller ones that you would find in bigger city neighborhoods.
I don't have any smaller ones that you would find in bigger city neighborhoods.
Can you send a picture with height information of what you need?
Maybe I can do one.
Thanks Ken, I have those. None look like the cell towers
Can you send a picture with height information of what you need?
Maybe I can do one.
Thanks Tom, I will work up some photos and maybe we can make a composite that will fit several sites.
If you completely exit out of AF2, and start from a location outside of this 31 mile radius, you won't see the downtown skyline until you fly inside this radius.
That fits in with what iPacs said, and also seems logical. And iPacs insisted that they had tested this with their scenery. And you say you have confirmed this, with their scenery. I don't have Florida so can't make any comment on how it might perform. But this is definitely not the case with Fscloudport airports, or TSC files I have created with 3d objects using scenProc.
YBSU (Sunshine Coast) is a Fscloudport airport with a size value of 5000 in the TSC, and has no cultivation. In the screenshot below you can just make out the buildings of the airport from 20nm, then runway and buildings are clearer at 14nm. The last screenshot is the 14nm view with the airport TSC deleted, to show it is not the underlying textures that are rendering the airport and its buildings. I had started my journey some 200km distant.
20nm and the airport is just starting to be large enough to reach a couple of pixels on my screen.
14nm and you can clearly see the runway and airport buildings
And lastly the same 14nm with the airport TSC deleted. Airport is not visible so the underlying textures are no giving the appearance the airport is visible.
I reinstalled your v7 then redid some of my local area cultivations hoping to see the new towers, but, I guess you have not added the new realistic tall towers to the file. The towers are properly located but still the stacked buildings.
Yep that is right. The 3d objects will only be delivered with version 8 of the template. I was just showing some screen shots to see what people thought about the longer loading times vs result.
A few challenges I ran into when using the OSM data for radio towers:
Inconsistent OSM data will always be a problem and historical information is also an issue.
I wasn't able to get towers in close proximity to each other to flash together. As TV towers are often close to each other I used less flash timing variation for those towers.
That won't be a problem, variation is what's important - when I first lighted a bunch of radio towers and they all flashed together, it was very unrealistic and very annoying.
Hello Chris,
there is a syntax error in the floor selection of alternative european houses which is causin zero floors.
I found, that it should be:
not |1;2
