[Released] Orthophotos for NRW

Paradoxagi · July 9, 2022 at 5:44 PM

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RELEASED:

FlyAgi Orthophoto NRW (FlyAgi.de)

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Hello.

I have started to create some orthophotos for NRW in Germany based on freely available open data from here:

Digitale Orthophotos

As I'm not experienced creating stuff for Aerofly FS I think it's best to check with the community if I'm doing this right before I really get started. My workflow is currently looking like this:

Set up the WMS server in Qgis
Choose a region using a polygon
Download a (Geo)Tiff file from that region
Edit Tiff file in Gimp (so far color correction only)
Reexport Tiff file
Process the image with Geoconvert

This all works fine technically but the Geoncomvert process is pretty slow (the Tiff is 1.6 GB in size, uncompressed), especially for the level 14 resolution, this takes about 2 hours to finish - is this normal behaviour or did I feed Geonconvert with bad input? Is there anything I can do to optimize the process and speed things up?

Further, I chose to use a weak 120cm per pixel resolution for the raw image for now just for testing but this looks surprisingly good in the simulator, in fact it looks better than most of my 60cm per pixel images in X-Plane do so I would like to know if this resolution is good enough for the whole project? I don't have much experience with AFS 2 or AFS 4 so I don't know what is considered a high quality orthophoto by the community, I suspect my X-Plane standards probably can't keep up here because the imagery in AFS seems to look much more high res than is other simulators.

Regarding the Geoconvert process I found in the documentation that level 15 should be roughly 50cm per pixel resolution so I came up the following resolutions for other levels:

Level 15 ---> 50cm/pixel

Level 14 --->100cm/pixel

Level 13 ---> 200cm/pixel

Level 12 ---> 400cm/pixel

and so on. Is that correct?

I'm asking this because I found the level 13 images looked still pretty good in the simulator, much better than I would expect from a resolution of 2m per pixel.

Finally I have some screenshots to share and also a download if anyone is interested to see how my results look in the simulator. The scenery ~~currently~~ covers ~~the City of Dortmund~~ all of NRW and the colors are corrected to somewhat match the colors of the surrounding lower resolution textures from the Europe DLC.

FlyAgi Orthophoto NRW - FlyAgi.de

I would really appreciate some feedback regarding this project:

Do you like the coloring? If I make it more green it will get a greenish tint like in MSFS and also it won't be as seamless with the surrounding lower resolution scenery.
The current scenery is 120cm per pixel and only rendered up to level 14 - is this good enough?
Is there any interrest at all?

And, to the experienced designers, some more questions:

Am I doing this right?
Can I optimize the workflow somehow?

Thanks to everyone,

Agi

J.Schweigler · July 12, 2022 at 12:00 PM

Hi Agi,

"Do you like the coloring? If I make it more green it will get a greenish tint like in MSFS and also it won't be as seamless with the surrounding lower resolution scenery."

- - The colours are very good in my opinion!

"The current scenery is 120cm per pixel and only rendered up to level 14 - is this good enough?"

- - This already looks very nice! Although higher is always better there is a certain point where it makes no sense anymore.

"Is there any interrest at all?"

- - There certainly is!

Bests, Joe

Paradoxagi · July 12, 2022 at 12:23 PM

Hi Joe,

and thanks for your feedback.

I have worked a lot on the project and think I have now a usable workflow to get the stuff done. After trying different color styles I think the colors as seen on the screens are fine, it's bright and colorful, slightly warm and is matching the vegetation colors closely, my other attempts making everything greener did not do that well.

As for the resolution, I now go for downloading 100cm per pixel imagery and do everything up to level 14 and then add airport areas and other areas of special interest at full level 15 resolution. I think this is the best compromise regarding my workflow and getting the stuff done in time, so I can do everything step by step and I can further optimize coloring later on here and there.

Greetings,

Agi

J.Schweigler · July 12, 2022 at 4:03 PM

Sounds good. Looking very forward to your work!

Joe

VFRPilot · July 26, 2022 at 1:14 PM

Vielen Dank für Deine Arbeit Agi - ich freue mich schon sehr auf mehr . Ich habe gerade auch mal Dortmund getestet. Für mich ist die Auflösung sehr gut und ausreichend und auch die Farbgebung gefällt mit sehr gut.

MartinM · July 26, 2022 at 1:43 PM

First off - Thank you very much for the valueable contribution

There is certainly an interest, for me not exactly in Germany, but yes for sure, for some other areas.

Paradoxagi · July 26, 2022 at 3:41 PM

Thank you very much.

I think I will have a first full coverage version ready to share soon.

Jetjockey10 · July 26, 2022 at 4:15 PM

Quote from FlyAgi

Thank you very much.
I think I will have a first full coverage version ready to share soon.

Looking forward to some new scenery with an airport. Thanks.

Paradoxagi · July 26, 2022 at 4:28 PM

Well... there won't be any airports for now.

kai503 · July 26, 2022 at 4:50 PM

Quote from Jetjockey10

Looking forward to some new scenery with an airport. Thanks.

Hi Ray,

There are several airports included in the Europe DLC for this area.

Kai

Jetjockey10 · July 26, 2022 at 6:54 PM

Quote from FlyAgi

Well... there won't be any airports for now.

I misread your post. You only stated . . . "and add airport areas," (not necessarily with airports.)

Regards,

Ray

Paradoxagi · July 26, 2022 at 7:14 PM

Oh... okay.

Schnuffelduffel · July 27, 2022 at 3:23 PM

Hi FlyAgi, bevor Du Sachen doppelst machst: Ich habe NRW bereits fertig restauriert auf FlightSim.org. Bei mir steht auch noch das komplette Deutschland auf dem Programm.

Hi FlyAgi, before you do things twice: I have already finished restoring NRW on FlightSim.org. ( Or at least a certain part of it )

( with Duesseldorf in 1m/pixel )

Paradoxagi · July 27, 2022 at 4:06 PM

Are you kidding me?

I'm almost through the process so I will finish the last few tiles and then release it anyway.

VFRPilot · July 27, 2022 at 8:12 PM

Da Agi auch eine andere Luftbildquelle verwendet, freue ich mich auch auf die Szenerie von Agi. Danke schon mal für die Fertigstellung, Agi. Ich finde es interessant, die beiden Addons dann zu vergleichen.

Schnuffelduffel · July 28, 2022 at 8:40 AM

Quote from FlyAgi

I'm almost through the process so I will finish the last few tiles and then release it anyway.

Do, what you think!

Einträge von „Schnuffelduffel“ suchen - Flight-Sim.org

PS: Das ist eine ÄLTERE Arbeit von mir. Heute würde ich vieles anders machen!

PS: This is an OLDER work of mine. Today I would do many things differently!

Paradoxagi · July 28, 2022 at 11:56 AM

Of course I do.

This is my very first work including the very first orthophoto I ever made for a simulator:

Aerosoft Dortmund XP

It's your turn.

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Schnuffelduffel · July 28, 2022 at 5:17 PM

Please fill out yor profile.

Paradoxagi · July 28, 2022 at 5:20 PM

I don't understand... what is wrong with my profile? And why does it matter?

Schnuffelduffel · July 28, 2022 at 5:23 PM

Who are you, where do you live ... etc.

I want to know who I'm talking to.