Posts by crispy136

    Will have to delay the template release a bit. Arno has released some changes in scenProc for the CreateAF2Buildings command to handle the various building height possibilities. Anyone updating to a version after 01/09/2019 will need to change their CreateAF2Building lines as existing scripts won't work. Unfortunately as a result of the scenProc changes, my recently completed version 7 template won't work, requiring a minor redesign. I had already catered for the various height scenarios in version 7, so will also need to modify that to fit in with the new command lines. Anyone downloading the latest scenProc version will get this change.

    I asked Arno to change scenProc to allow it to deliver 3d objects via a scenProc script, and I think this is now also active in the latest scenProc version. As part of that change, scenProc will now generate linked TSC and TOC files as an output in place of the TOC only output. You will no longer need to manually reference the TOC file in the an airport TSC file, or create a TSC file yourself. I am planning a relatively minor version 8 update of the template to start to incorporate 3d objects like radio towers, water towers, wind turbines etc into the template. XREF objects require different handling so haven't been implemented for scenProc at this stage. However you can still use many XREF objects by getting them from Fscloudport, and just copying them across to each folder holding your TSC/TOC files. This does require some duplication of 3d object files, but they are pretty small anyway.

    The latest scenProc updates won't change the outcome of the version 7 template though, with all features listed in the changelog still delivered. In the meantime here are some further screen shots of what you can expect. All Version 6 vs version 7 screen shots were generated using the same OSM source file for both.

    Version 6 skipped a lot of buildings as it didn't have the ability to process them. Version 7 does, so we not only get more buildings but they are also more detailed.

    There are user assignable standard heights for building categories where no level/height recorded in OSM. This is a shot of the local hospital complex, most of which had no level/height info in OSM. The height setting I nominate only affected hospital buildings and not other buildings. Users can set the building category heights to suit their part of the world.

    Circular buildings. Shown here with a university in the background which also used specific level/height values solely set up for universities.

    An example of the effect of the new construction method on shopping centres/malls. Not only a more accurate shape but more surrounding buildings have been included.

    Circular storage tanks. In version 6 screen shot on the left, many tanks were identified as houses or other buildings. The new template will generate circular storage and buildings from 10m diameter to 200m diameter. The only downside is you are limited to the building textures available in Aerofly.

    Silos on the left, petroleum tanks on the right, and few complex buildings in the middle. All generated by scenProc.

    Communication towers with stacked lighting. Here 4 TV towers along with a smaller communication tower.

    Power line towers shown in the lower left & right, with a few different types of communication towers in the background. While the power lines aren't created, you can see them clearly in the textures, so looks pretty good anyway.

    Fixed a problem where trees appeared in water areas, where the water area was inside an area populated with trees.

    I managed to improve on the ferry terminal as there was a bit missing at the top and now scenProc renders the building more accurately. Its only autogen after all so will never match purpose built scenery. And we limited to the shapes and textures that Aerofly allows.

    I decided to see what happens when you don't skip the more complex (exotic?) buildings and was surprised with the result. scenProc's method is to replicate the larger buildings out of smaller rectangular buildings, so you are limited to shapes that this can achieve. The screenshot below compares the buildings in OSM against the actual result in Aerofly and shows what scenProc is really able to achieve. These are buildings near Birmingham in the UK and I deliberately hadn't installed any textures so I could see the buildings without the background clutter from the textures. The ones circled in green are the success stories. The one circled in red was simply too complex, but at least it created something. The new template is able to render a variety of building shapes including some really complex shapes like the one in green number 4.

    It isn't perfect and can't render any quite simple buildings with any sort of triangular shape, but this is a limitation of Aerofly rather than scenProc. Stadiums also usually look pretty dreadful. But the ones it gets right add something to the experience in Aerofly.

    I was initially trying to fix a major shopping centre near home. When I fixed that I decided to see what else scenProc could achieve. My method was just to tackle one building at a time, until I came up with a set of scenProc script lines that rendered the building correctly. Then moved onto the next one while trying not to break the 1st one, and so on. I started first with buildings in my home town of Brisbane, Australia, then moved on to New Orleans and Birmingham. I always use these 3 areas to test my updates as they seem to cover a wide variety of building shapes.

    There is one building shape I haven't shown, but am saving that for the release.

    Thanks goes to Arno for developing, distributing and supporting scenProc, and allowing Aerofly scenery creation to get this far. And all for free. Woo Hoo !!


    As present Fscloudport and other methods that use 3d models accessed via a TSC file, require that the 3 models be copied into the folder where the TSC is located (or a subfolder of that folder). This means we are replicating the same 3d models into multiple locations. Not very efficient.

    So is it possible to place 3d models in a common folder and let Aerofly know where to find them, so that any TSC file could access them?

    Is that "feature" due to your changes in your new template file or is it due to the latest version of scenProc ?

    All features in the version 7 update are currently working with scenProc functions of the current release (14/7/19). I managed work around the scenProc bug, but this needed many more lines of script. So the bugfix doesn't allow or stop anything happening, but having it will allow me to reduce the number of lines of script required. Once Arno has released the latest update to scenProc, I can change the script lines, finish my testing and release the template.

    Have a template update to version 7 getting closer to completion. In the final fine tuning stage. Also waiting on a scenProc update to made available that includes a fix for a bug I identified.

    One of the big changes was a performance improvement. New Orleans dropped from over 2 hours in ver6 to just over 10 minutes in ver7, in spite of adding a fair amount of content. Other less detailed areas saw a 50% drop in processing time. The scenProc script is much more detailed and increases from under 200 lines in ver6 to over 600 lines in ver7.

    Version 7 will deliver also some improved structure construction methods and a number of other improvements. Here is a little sample showing one of the building enhancements, showing a ferry terminal in New Orleans.

    Yep, turned out to be a steam issue. You just need to reinstall the game and then steam looks for existing installed files rather than downloading again. The only problem I encountered is that the total Aerofly install exceeded the free space on the SSD where it was installed, so Steam refused to proceed any further as it compares the game DLC with free space available. Steam isn't smart enough to check for existing files before checking for free HDD space. The solution was to turn off all DLC for the game, then try to install Aerofly again. This worked as the game then didn't exceed the free HDD space and steam reinstalled the game. I then turned on the DLC one by one and steam again found the existing files as luckily no single DLC exceeded the free HDD space. Lucky save.

    Just wondered if there has been a major update to Aerofly. Today when I tried to start Aerofly, steam wanted to install it and it is currently showing in my steam library as not installed. All the files in the main Aerofly folder are missing, but all the subfolders are present and have files and total about 143GB. All my other steam games are OK, I haven't uninstalled anything in steam recently and Aerofly was working fine yesterday.

    Hi Nick,

    One other thing I noted is that the airports don't reliably display. The log shows the error:-

    2019-08-07 14:42:37 (INFO) AeroScenery v1.1.1 Started

    2019-08-07 14:42:38 (ERROR) Error scraping FSCloudPort airports"

    Regards, Chris

    Hi Nick

    Looks like you have been hard at work on AeroScenery. Some really great enhancements. Thanks. Loved that ability to alter the brightness and contrast, and install and delete files so easily. The extra map tile selection sizes give greater flexibility. Lots of extra features, so I'll eventually update my instruction manual to reflect the new options and operations.

    Have been doing some testing using the updated AeroScenery and have a couple of comments.

    1. Install Scenery (selection button above map window). This works well and the only enhancement I would like to see is the ability to select multiple map tiles, which would then all have their scenery installed once the "Install Scenery" button is clicked. I tend to process scenery tiles in batches of areas around airports or towns, so multiple selections are the default.

    2. Install Scenery (in Actions section). Thought this might solve the multiple install issue from 1 above, but I can't figure out how it works. The Install Scenery option in the Actions area only becomes selectable after the GeoConvert process has completed. But having then selected this option (with all other options deselected, since they have already been run) and then clicking start doesn't do anything. So not sure how this is used, as it can't be selected unless the full process has been completed.

    3. Delete files button. Once again this works well and the only enhancement I would like to see is the ability to select multiple tiles, which would then all have their files deleted once the "Delete Files" button is clicked.

    4. Empty images. It is great to have more image sources available. I found the watermarks on Google rendered them useless, while Bing had no watermarks, but as it was much older data often had inconsistent colouring in regional areas, caused by time related imagery, that had to be manually corrected. For Australia at least ArcGIS gives the best of both worlds, with no watermarks and consistent colour quality. The only issue I have with ArcGIS is that missing images downloaded as a default image are not treated as transparencies. It is some time since I last worked on AeroScenery but I thought that this was possible for Bing at least. I seem to recall that you must enable masks in order for the transparencies to work, but had no luck with masks enabled or not. The screenshot only the left is from the raw file (appears the same in Aerofly) and the image on the right an actual downloaded default image used where ArcGIS has no data.

    5 Alignment - you mention that there might be alignment issues with ArcGIS images, but my limited testing indicates ArcGIS images align correctly.

    6. GeoConvert wrapper - This works effectively. The only issue I encountered was that the focus continually changes to the GeoConvert window, meaning you can't use your PC for other stuff while GeoConvert is running, even if your PC has sufficient free resources. I assume this focus change is so that the GeoConvert wrapper can operate and that is fine.

    Regards, Chris

    Yes I am on the latest version of FS2 (i have subscribed to the BETA edition), and I am running it in full screen.

    Finally worked out that the problem was caused by the Microsoft game bar, used for screen shots and video recording. Disabled that and the problem went away.

    Recently purchased a new system with a Nvidia RTX2060 video card. When I reinstalled FS2 I found that the mouse pointer gets stuck over the aircraft selection option in the main screen. This problem is repeated is exactly the same position of the screen when flying any aircraft. The original FS2 pointer stays locked in place on the screen while the Windows pointer appears (slightly smaller) and you have two mouse pointers on the screen. Once you move a cm or 2 off this area, the windows pointer disappears and the FS2 pointer becomes active again. Makes it difficult to select anything in this part of the screen, as when this happens the FS2 clicks don't work. Problem occurs using either open GL and Vulkan and the problem is not repeated in other Steam games . Normal screen captures don't show the double curser so used my tablet to take a picture of the problem.

    Thanks. I initially assigned the prop +- to 2 adjoining buttons on my joystick. Then whe that didnt work also tried assigning to 2 keyboard buttons. I used [] as they didn't appear to be assigned to anything. The only axis I have is the throttle so didn't assign it to any lever.

    About a year ago I logged a problem with the key assignment of prop levels on the Dash 8. You can assign the prop controls to a keyboard key or joystick button and both work with other FS2 prop aircraft like the Baron or King Air but not with the Dash 8. This is an introduced problem as it initially did work on the Dash 8 when it was first released, but was later disabled by an update I assume. When will this be fixed or is there a work around I can use?

    Hi Chris


    Is the Australia terrain mesh tutorial still available? I couldn't find the the link.


    Many thanks


    Ian

    Hi Ian, The tutorial is still available for download. You won't see the download link to the tutorial document unless you are logged in to flight-sim.org. Once you have logged in a blue download box appears in the top right of the screen. Regards, Chris

    i used the one in the link above but there seems to be a problem with the ausralian elevation page see pic

    I got the same error so there does seem to be a problem with the data page at present. In Australia, all Government agencies shut down over the Christmas/New Year period. My guess is that either something has broken and there is no-one to fix it, or they have brought that part of the system down for maintenance since everyone is away. You could log a support request with the website owners, but I expect they won't be back until 8 Jan.