Geoconvert unofficial reference guide

    For those about to rock, Geoconvert is the official IPACS SDK tool for Aerofly FS2 photoscenery and elevation mesh making.

    After some trial and error testing with the little documented Geoconvert tool, I wrote a reference guide in order to

    1) remember for the next time and

    2) share my understanding with whoever interested in scenery making for Aerofly FS 2.

    You can download your copy from Flight-Sim.org

    AFS2 SDK Geoconvert tool - basic reference unofficial guide

    Please don't consider this document as an official bible. It's just a compilation of my current understanding. As the case may be, some statements might merely be clumsy shortcuts of a more complex reality.

    Good reading

    Cheers

    Antoine

    Config : i7 6900K - 20MB currently set at 3.20GHz, Cooling Noctua NH-U14S, Motherboard ASUS Rampage V Extreme U3.1, RAM HyperX Savage Black Edition 16GB DDR4 3000 MHz, Graphic Card Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 8GB, Power supply Corsair RM Series 850W, Windows 10 64 bit.

    Antoine,

    I am super impressed with the effort you made to integrate and consolidate information and tools regarding the mechanics of AFS2's world and geoconversion. Outstanding work. Thank you so much for this reference document.

    -- Rich

    Yeah very nice job Antoine, many thanks ! :thumbup:

    This document is more than useful knowing that the Wiki is not quite filled for the moment (that said it would have been even nicer IMHO to have all this valuable content directly in the Wiki itself instead of having it in a separate PDF).

    Quote from Unlikely Spider

    Question - if I create my own .ttc files using this tool, do I need to rename or otherwise modify the ones in the normal install folder? Or does FS2 pick these ones automatically if they exist in the C:\Users\<user>\Documents\Aerofly FS 2\scenery\images folder?

    Geoconvert will automatically name each .ttc file, no need to rename them, nor the existing files.

    If you create a scenery overlapping an existing scenery, then you have to decide which one to display. In case of conflict, you should deactivate the conflicting scenery...

    Config : i7 6900K - 20MB currently set at 3.20GHz, Cooling Noctua NH-U14S, Motherboard ASUS Rampage V Extreme U3.1, RAM HyperX Savage Black Edition 16GB DDR4 3000 MHz, Graphic Card Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 8GB, Power supply Corsair RM Series 850W, Windows 10 64 bit.

    Quote from Trespassers

    Geoconvert will automatically name each .ttc file, no need to rename them, nor the existing files.

    If you create a scenery overlapping an existing scenery, then you have to decide which one to display. In case of conflict, you should deactivate the conflicting scenery...

    I see. How do people go about doing this? I create X number of scenery files in the User folder, but then I have to find the corresponding files in the install folder? If I create scenery files for a specific area in California, which Aerofly likely already has (but at a lower resolution), I have to find the exact overlapping ones? Is there an automated way to do this?

    I have a small question: in TMC files I guess that elements of lists must have an unique index. In your doc it's the case in the TMC sample for geconverting ground textures but it's not the case in the TMC sample for geoconverting elevation data: the indexes of each <[tmcolormap_region][element][x]> are not incremented and always set to 0. Is it normal ? It looks for me like an error.. but apparently it does not bother Geoconvert and there was the same "issue" in the TMC sample of the Qwerty42's tutorial...

    Quote from Unlikely Spider

    I see. How do people go about doing this? I create X number of scenery files in the User folder, but then I have to find the corresponding files in the install folder? If I create scenery files for a specific area in California, which Aerofly likely already has (but at a lower resolution), I have to find the exact overlapping ones? Is there an automated way to do this?

    Apparently Aerofly loads scenery in the following priority, lowest to highest.

    Higher priority scenery will be shown instead of lower priority.

    - Scenery included with Aerofly

    - DLC packs

    - Scenery in user folders

    - Higher resolution scenery is user folders

    Don't quote me on that, just remember someone posting it before.

    AeroScenery - Easily create photoreal scenery for Aerofly

    Quote from Unlikely Spider

    One more question - I was trying to download images of Yosemite, and tried both Google and Bing, but neither matched the existing terrain, and there were harsh squares around it now. How do people merge downloaded tiles with the existing scenery in FS2?

    You don't really, as you don't have the source images for the existing scenery.

    However the Aerofly image source is likely to be USGS, so you could download and blend into that.

    (The coming beta of AeroScenery will support USGS).

    The easiest approach, if you're using AeroScenery, it to just keep downloading squares to cover the area that you want to fly VFR and push the harsh transitions where you don't see them.

    AeroScenery - Easily create photoreal scenery for Aerofly

    Quote from nickhod

    I've added several orthophoto sources in this build.

    Unless there's some complexity that I'm not seeing at the moment, probably 1 - 3 weeks.

    May I remind you of the Locale issue with Shrink TMC grid squares for non-English users?

    https://github.com/nickhod/aeroscenery/issues/7

    I switched the scheme to English on my laptop and Aeroscenery runs fine there with 0.01. However, I can't do this on my (more powerful) main machine as this Locale setting causes issues with, e.g., Excel files I need for work.

    Thanks and kind regards, Michael

    Intel i7-6700K 4.0 GHz / Asus MAXIMUS VIII RANGER / Kingston 32 GB DDR4 / Samsung SSD M.2 500 GB + Samsung SSD 1 TB + Intel SSD 500 GB (AeroflyFS2) + WD HD 6 TB / EVGA GTX 1080Ti 11 GB / LG 34UM95 3440 x 1440 / HP Reverb / Win 10/64

    Thanks Nick, that's good to know. Very happy to see you working on AeroScenery again.:)

    Kind regards, Michael

    Intel i7-6700K 4.0 GHz / Asus MAXIMUS VIII RANGER / Kingston 32 GB DDR4 / Samsung SSD M.2 500 GB + Samsung SSD 1 TB + Intel SSD 500 GB (AeroflyFS2) + WD HD 6 TB / EVGA GTX 1080Ti 11 GB / LG 34UM95 3440 x 1440 / HP Reverb / Win 10/64

    Quote from turman

    I have a small question: in TMC files I guess that elements of lists must have an unique index. In your doc it's the case in the TMC sample for geconverting ground textures but it's not the case in the TMC sample for geoconverting elevation data: the indexes of each <[tmcolormap_region][element][x]> are not incremented and always set to 0. Is it normal ? It looks for me like an error.. but apparently it does not bother Geoconvert and there was the same "issue" in the TMC sample of the Qwerty42's tutorial...

    I've several issues with my mesh build but apparently it doesn't change anything if the elements indexes are unique (incremented) or not (always set to 0) in the TMC file.

    I have to create a separate thread for my issues but right now I have another small question: why the Geoconvert process never finishes ?

    When 100% of the tiles are generated it happens nothing, the CPU usage slows down (from 50% to 25%) and nothing is written in the logs. I need to close manually the Geoconvert window or kill the process. Note that when Geoconvert is launched by AereoScenery I have to close manually the windows too, but at least there is a green message saying the process is well finished.