Posts by Spit40

Quote from Gooseno1

I have tried every setting in GIMP and I still get this jagged edge.

Well wouldn't you know. My latest test gave me the same problem - very blocky edges where alpha layer masks coastline. Config was:

1. Some FSET with coastline
2. Some of the tiles converted to TIFF, with alpha and 100% hardness eraser with hard edge
3. Converted with default TMC that had Level 9 [write_images_with_mask][true] and other levels [write_images_with_mask][false]

Next I'm going to reconvert with all layers set to [write_images_with_mask][true] and switch on images_raw to see what that reveals.

UPDATE: I set it to true and converted again. I've solved the problem of blurry scenery at low altitude, but the blocky edges are just like yours still. I think I see why though. With no feathering/blending then a 1pix/metre resolution mask will produce this kind of jaggyness. I was converting down to level 13 but will try 14 now to see if that improves things. However I don't really see a solution until IPACS enable smooth edge alpha layers to allow the FSET scenery to blend smoothly with the high level background. The other option would be to draw your own smooth coast so that the FSET scenery was smoothly blended at the coast with a border colour that matches the IPACS default water. More trouble than its worth I think. Let's put up with jaggy coastline until IPACS develop the tools further.

We really need a way to capture best practice when this is done. I'm sure plenty in the forum have done this right but I don't know where to find out. I'm all for learning new stuff and discovering/sharing new techniques but I hate reinventing the wheel.

Kloot - I have yet to crack this myself. Those are chunky pixels at the edge though. I don't know how that could happen unless the Gimp eraser tool was very square and blocky, instead of round.

Thanks Jim

Quote from Rodeo

...

Currently semi transparent alpha layers are not supported by geoconvert. You have to use the 100 percent setting.

Rodeo

Well on investigation it seems my Gimp delete shape was 100% hardness but I found after really zooming in that I was still getting feathered edges and therefore semitransparent pixels. After a lot of head scratching I found I needed to set "hard edge". I think the Gimp version used for the tutorial might be different to the latest download. One more for the checklist.

You need to click this image to see where it is ticked.

Quote from Rodeo

Hi Phil,

a mask is being generated in 2 cases:

You did an alpha layer.

The aerofly tile system is cut by your conversion frame.

I suppose with alpha layers you have to set the mask creation to true.

Currently semi transparent alpha layers are not supported by geoconvert. You have to use the 100 percent setting.

Rodeo

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Great thanks. Apparently 50% of people in the UK live near the coast so making masks via alpha layers is going to be the norm.

Update: Just re converted with original BMPs and all is well, so it must have been a subtle feather on the Gimp masking tool. Others must get caught out by this. Perhaps a troubleshooting FAQ would be helpful where all these little learnings could be captured.

Thanks Rodeo. I'll try that raw output to see what it shows me. Just one more thing please. Is a "mask" when you put an alpha layer around the coast to clear empty scenery?

Sorry 2 things. Is there still a problem when the alpha layer has semi transparent pixels? I'm wondering if part of the problem is my transparent brush might not have been 100% hardness so left some edge feathering.

Quote from Asheroo

Where's tonywob at? His UK scenery for X-Plane is really great.

As for ortho-imagery, UK is mostly not too bad, just the occasional cloud and season-difference. It's a shame it's too expensive for Orbx, and especially a shame for Norway. That's the downside to photoreal scenery. Ah well, P3D is still here.

Strange how JV calls it a ridiculous amount of money. Maybe we can persuade him to kickstarter it !

I'm new to flightsim with FS2. Do you think we can be more optimistic then about 3rd party UK scenery?

John Venema has made it pretty clear that photoreal scenery of the UK is prohibitively expensive and that we won't be getting UK scenery from Orbx (and therefore presumably from anyone) for a good loooong while. So, it looks like us UK folk need to roll our own. With that in mind could I encourage IPACS to give a final push to making Goeconvert as simple, automated and bullet proof as possible? The focus seems to have shifted to cultivation but we're now dependent on this tool/process. I'm reasonably progressed on the learning curve but others are behind. Please:

1. Include the Geconvert helper as part of a best practice workflow, or write your own if you don't want to be dependent on a 3rd party
2. Max out the error reporting in simple language so we don't need to guess and test as to why certain areas come out blurry or have other problems
3. When the time is right facilitate the sharing of cultivation files and 3d scenery elements

One other thought is that if we're now dependent on Geoconvert then a smaller simple download that includes all of what is needed and none of what isn't would be useful for people who need to get into this for the first time.

If you can't give us UK scenery please make it easier for us to make our own. The folks in Norway are in the same boat.

Thank you... and thank you for Colorado and tireless debugging and everything else you're doing during your 29 hour days.

Phil

P.S. I put this in General rather than Geconvert as it needs general visibility

I heard somewhere that Steam VR wasn't quite there for the microsoft solution. Hopefully soon though. Apart from that do you see any improvements to the display quality?

Thanks , i certainly did begin there and had success back when you wrote it, and i'm processing the same FSET tiles as i did then, with the exception that some now have an alpha layer and are TIFs. Let me express myself in a different way.

1. Please explain what 'write_images_with_mask' does and when to set it to true or false?
2. Please explain the importance of snapping

Jeff,

After some time off I'm back to geoconverting, but with the latest version its going wrong. I'm not getting conversion of the full area covered by FSET. I see there are new parameters such as "write_images_with_mask" and I'm reading about "snapping" but its spread across so many discussion threads. Are the changes and new rules explained in one place somewhere?

Phil

I'd better not give up on Geoconverting though....

Posted 12 hours ago

  12 hours ago, tuisong said: Are all the new regions going to be of this quality from now on?

JV No that’s simply not possible. Only where free or affordable satellite imagery is available do photoreal regions become feasible. For example to license the UK it would cost a ridiculous amount of money, same with Norway.

I've just used Geoconvert helper for the first time. I ran it on an area (retrieving original source) I'd previously geoconverted without the helper and which was working fine though I hadn't got round to masking coastline, so this time I masked coastline on some of the BMPs and replaced them with TIFs. The problems I'm getting are

1) Some areas that are within the area of my FSET aren't in the final scenery - I see the original blurry high level, even though the split between blurry and detailed occurs within a single source FSET square

2) When I fly around I see other areas blurry but as I get closer to them they become sharp

Any help gratefully received. Log file attached. I can actually see problem 2 just in the FS2 Location selector as shown in the JPEGs attached. No height change between these two, just a slight shift to the West.

Glad i could help. Jet-Pack (IPACS) has the official Cessna tweaked some of the flight characteristics to match yours? It was that aspect that i liked most about yours.

I agree. I prefer to look at something that is working then evolve it towards what I want and I wouldn't know which AC3D tutorial to start with. So, we're talking about:

1. Geoconvert with FSET for photo scenery - Fine happy with that. Link here for anyone starting from zero. Having said that we could use an easy tutorial in the wiki built around Geoconvert helper. Here's a link to the relevant thread
2. Dave's models for 3D buildings - From here
3. Runway tutorial. I can find stuff about lighting but not any asphalt ?

Quote from Jetjockey10

Using everything at my disposal - freely provided by Rodeo and DaveW - I have created from scratch a private airport to handle my Learjet flights (special custom paint by GAC Savannah). I started with some FSET high definition scenery of my hometown in Mississippi, then used Google Maps to zero in on some potential locations for a 5,000 foot private runway.

I selected a power line right-of-way that was about a mile and a half long and laid a runway down, added a custom decal with the proper markings (using Rodeo's Runway tutorial and some additional help) then added just about everything in DaveW's Objects Library and whatever else I could find.

My next step will be to add Cultivation features like a few housing subdivisions at the end of the runway, light them up for some great night flying and start looking for some large lumps of 3d objects to improve the town. Like some water towers, antennas, gas stations, factories, schools, hotels, casinos, etc.

I am just about as happy as a pig in mud as my mother used to say.

Check it out.

aerofly.com/community/index.php?attachment/6366/

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Ray,

It is time for me to follow in your footsteps and build my local airfield. I am about to buy AC3D. Can you paste some links to the tutorials you used? Everything i find is 3DS Max.

Phil

Are you in the cold and dark Cessna? I had something similar last night, but all was fine when I switched to the official Cessna.

Great news! Mid November. Now come on everybody, let's go easy on them if it slips a week or so. If that happens and we're understanding and don't give them a hard time, then they may start to give us more specific timeframes on a regular basis.

Quote from ussiowa

That said I'd be very happy with full cockpit control with "hands" like leap motion, all buttons functional, radar, maps, and nav stuff enabled, etc.. then EMCON would have to be pilot choice. Also a map available on a tablet, or some kind of notebook. I thought you guys had found a solution with OpenVR or similar.

The OpenVR solution (OpenDesktopVR I think its called) was too clumsy. It was an overlay on the FS2 screen so any mouse click performed on say a Google map would click through to FS2 behind it and cause some random change. I kept opening the doors on the cold'n'dark version of the Cessna !

Also it needs me to run in Steam mode rather than native Oculus mode which at times caused noticeable stutters.

Thanks ussiowa. Well i guess there are a lot of different ways to fly. Maybe i should just switch to one that doesn't need functionality that FS2 currently lacks.