Seasons in Aerofly FS 2 - A bit of brain storming

flightxtreme · September 19, 2018 at 1:26 PM

I know, there is only one season in AFFS 2. This is ok, especially because there are no choice of Ortho downloads, currently you can get normally only one season.

Now, FSET is producing for FSX with some picture manipulations different kind of source bitmaps to offer seasons and night textures.

So I thought, is there a concept to easily switch between the texture sets?

Well, there is one, and only one very interesting entry in the main.mcf file, one that possibly a lot of us already use: extra_user_folder

So what I try to do now is:

Having for each season one extra_user_folder destination, putting all season specific files in there. All the season independent files getting straight to the normal Addon folder C:\Users\[username]\Documents\Aerofly FS 2\scenery

I can even use different physical hard drives, so the argument the size will be much too much for one dive is not really an argument.

After compiling the sources for each season I only need to change the entry in extra_user_folder.

I will try this with the Bavaria scenery.

This content switch could also be a solution, if the loading time will get too long. If you know, you will not fly from continent to another, you can split the addons by continent. Then just switch the extra_user_folder to the continent you want to fly and only the parts you really need will be scanned during the sim start. But this is only a guess since there can be different loading times if Aerofly finds new files, I just don't know how aerofly handle this. This is just a guess.

Any comments?

(Of cause a disclaimer: Any manual change in the main.mcf can lead to a corrupt mcf and any configuration could be gone afterwards. So make a backup and please, be very careful what you are doing. Don't blame IPACS or me if it goes wrong. )

Trespassers · September 19, 2018 at 1:50 PM

hi Flightxtreme,

The problem with seasons in AFS2 is all the rest : runways, cultivation buildings and vegetation... everything must be manually painted for snow, but yes, it's technically feasible and by switching to seasons-specific user_defined folders in main.mcf it should work.

Regarding seasons in FSET, the only really interesting one is Hardwinter (and, to some extent Fall may be nice too depending on the place, but not always worth the extra amount of GB).

There's some adjustment needed to get a satisfactory Hardwinter with the routine, no big deal, I can give you some hints if you're interested.

Spring and Winter are unfortunately quite useless, were only implemented to fill voids in FS2004. Even then, replacement seasons.bgl forcing either Summer or Hardwinter allowed to get rid of them. Work was hence stopped for those seasons.

Cheers

Antoine

flightxtreme · September 19, 2018 at 2:37 PM

Trespassers "There's some adjustment needed to get a satisfactory Hardwinter with the routine, no big deal, I can give you some hints if you're interested."

Sure, I am interested.

You are right about "the rest" beside of the Ortho textures. But it is a try. Also cultivation needs to be changed for the roof textures, I guess.

Concerning cultivation I really looking forward for any update to give us much more flexibility here. Would be a big help.

Rune-ENHD · September 21, 2018 at 10:48 PM

Brainstorming.... (i'm in) I am also quite interested in Seasons(and weather and mesh +water), living in Norway, the changes from seasons are quite different from each other
I am starting to think only photoreal-scenery will be a bit difficult, how about some automated program routine that will draw and match "a photo" and convert it into (a texture which looks like the photo??) then IPACS could sell those textures to us, and presto, we will have world coverage with nice textures

We will then have sharper ground textures, but it should be possible to project them still as the photoreal goundcover does right now, and performance would be kept up like now ??
There are so many smart people in this community and on the IPACS TEAM , that it could/should be a possiblility/opportunity ??

basically what I'm trying to decribe is "handpainted textures based on exact photos", but with highly automated tools to control it, instead of manually trying to paint it in photoshop, "which would take years".... ?

flightxtreme · September 22, 2018 at 8:50 AM

What you have in mind is a kind of landclass system. AFFS 2 has no system like this so we need to have ortho pictures - real one or painted - for this.

Rune-ENHD · September 22, 2018 at 10:09 PM

Hi, yep I think you misunderstood, "or that I did not word myself correctly (English is not my first language(Norwegian is)"
Yes the "ortho picture" as a painted picture derived from "the real photo", "BUT computer painted(from a advanced algorithm/programming by IPACS (but just on the developer side... the users we get "the ready made" textures.... from IPACS)"

Then it should be able to show "sharper" than some orthophotos ? and It would then be possible to fake colours (winter/Autumn/summer) when it is a "texture-picture"? I might be wrong though, but there are limitations to this way AFS2 does it right now.. I think.. worldwide coverage and seasons support are the two that crosses my mind..

Well sort of "true earth" (painted) picture from the orthos-picture... but computer generated not (hand painted, as that would literally take years..) I hope that does make sense ?
as you said this was brain storming, that is not always too easy to put into words...

Trespassers · September 23, 2018 at 12:44 AM

Quote from flightxtreme

Trespassers "There's some adjustment needed to get a satisfactory Hardwinter with the routine, no big deal, I can give you some hints if you're interested."

Sure, I am interested.

First of all, here are pictures from a quick tests I did in medium resolution back in July 17. At that time there were still a lot of bugs in the Geoconverter tool.

Trespassers · September 23, 2018 at 12:57 AM

Look for the Hardwinter section of FSEarthMasks.ini, below are my settings :

Code

# ---------- HardWinter  ----------------

HardWinterStreetsConditionOn                      =  Yes    #Tm: Yes
HardWinterStreetConditionGreyToleranceValue       =  31      #Tm: 31
HardWinterStreetConditionRGBSumLargerThanValue    =  256   HardWinterStreetConditionRGBSumLessThanValue      =  508
HardWinterStreetAverageAdditionRandomFactor       =  6.0
HardWinterStreetAverageAdditionRandomOffset       =  -2.0
HardWinterStreetAverageFactor                     =  0.9
HardWinterStreetAverageRedOffset                     =  0
HardWinterStreetAverageGreenOffset             =  0
HardWinterStreetAverageBlueOffset             =  10

HardWinterDarkConditionRGBSumLessThanValue        =  96
HardWinterDarkConditionRGDiffValue                =  22     #Tm: 12
HardWinterDarkConditionRandomLessThanValue        =  0.21
HardWinterDarkRandomFactor                     =  11.0
HardWinterDarkRedOffset                             =  250  #250
HardWinterDarkGreenOffset                     =  253
HardWinterDarkBlueOffset                             =  253
HardWinterVeryDarkStreetFactor                     =  1.47    HardWinterVeryDarkNormalFactor                     =  1.27

HardWinterAlmostWhiteConditionRGBSumLargerEqualThanValue   =  608
HardWinterAlmostWhiteConditionRGBSumLessEqualThanValue     =  752
HardWinterAlmostWhiteRedFactor                              =  1.06
HardWinterAlmostWhiteGreenFactor                              =  1.09
HardWinterAlmostWhiteBlueFactor                              =  1.10

HardWinterRestConditionRGDiffValue          = 10  #Tm: 10
HardWinterRestRedMin                        = 250
HardWinterRestGBOffsetToRed                 = -2
HardWinterRestCondition2RGDiffValue         = 10  #Tm: 10
HardWinterRestForestConditionRGBSumLessThan = 100 #Tm: 240
HardWinterRestForestGreenOffset             = -30
HardWinterRestNonForestGreenLimit           = 250     #250
HardWinterRestNonForestRedOffsetToGreen     = -5
HardWinterRestNonForestBlueOffsetToGreen    = -2
HardWinterRestRestBlueMin                   = 250
HardWinterRestRestRGToBlueOffset            = -4

Display More

There are 2 main parameters to adapt compared to the original settings :

- HardWinterStreetConditionGreyToleranceValue

this is a grey threshold leading to roads getting white or not. The lower the value, the more grey levels get covered with snow.

Default value is 8.

HardWinterStreetConditionGreyToleranceValue = 8, note that most roads disappear with snow, which doesn't fit for instance in Europe.

My setting is HardWinterStreetConditionGreyToleranceValue = 31, note most roads are now cleared of snow.

But that's a question of taste, and you can find your own value...

- HardWinterRestForestConditionRGBSumLessThan

This is a RGB threshold to add more or less contrast to forests. The lower the value, the more snow-covered, but the more features from the ground disappear under snow.

If you set a too high value (as set per default, 240), everything gets red instead of getting covered with snow.

Typically I use values like 100-110 for this parameter, but it may depend quite of lot of the initial colors of your orthophotos.

Example with HardWinterRestForestConditionRGBSumLessThan =40

Example with HardWinterRestForestConditionRGBSumLessThan =120

Example with HardWinterRestForestConditionRGBSumLessThan =150

Example with HardWinterRestForestConditionRGBSumLessThan =240

Now, up to you to make your own winter ground textures, it's really easy.

Cheers

Antoine

flightxtreme · September 23, 2018 at 9:45 AM

Cool, Antoine. I will give it a try.

Just curious: Has anyone tried to add reflection to ortho tiles? Would be a nice effect on lakes if it works like reflections on objects.

Rune-ENHD · September 23, 2018 at 7:11 PM

WOW how cool Antoine!!

There are soo many knowledgeable/experienced developer type people in these forums..

Can you also "fake/change it" to Autumn ??

Trespassers · September 23, 2018 at 9:00 PM

There's a specific setting for each season. The one for Automn works fine although it has limited interest, but go ahead, try it and if you feel like it do some trial and error on the parameters.

These routines were developed by Thomas Mack for Switzerland Pro 2004, so that's pretty old story.

We integrated them 1 to 1 to FSET. Values indicated TM in FSEarthMasks.ini are original settings from Thomas...

Cheers

Antoine

Rune-ENHD · September 23, 2018 at 9:59 PM

ah I see, so it will only work in Switzerland area then I guess ??

but thanks anyway Antoine

I never had Switzerland Pro photoscenery for FSX Also I never used FSET or FS Tile-Proxy.. I have heard about them and read some in the forums many years ago..

I only had Megascenery California and Pacific Northwest(Seattle area) for photoreal scenery. and some small freeware areas in Norway near airports..

BUT I do have it in Aerofly FS 2 though The IPACS version! And I love it!

Kind regards

Rune ENHD

TomB · September 23, 2018 at 10:21 PM

No no, that is not limited to Switzerland.

Trespassers · September 23, 2018 at 11:37 PM

Quote from Rune-ENHD

ah I see, so it will only work in Switzerland area then I guess ??

No, not at all, it works with any orthophoto you like. It's part of FSET.

You choose the place you want to make a scenery for, you choose the seasons you want to generate, you ensure "mask" is on and you click start and there you go...

Cheers

Antoine

Rune-ENHD · September 25, 2018 at 10:05 PM

holy cow...
thanks..