Steve - thanks for the tip about specifying a region in ScenProc - I'll have a look at that. Regarding the version of QGIS - that was the next thing I was going to ask you. I'm using "2.14.21-Essen". There were several available on the download page and I just happened to pick this one.
Posts by Ian C
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Steve - when I save a layer in QGIS my settings are as in the attached image. Sometimes the 3rd save option appears as "project" rather than "default" - but that doesn't seem to make any difference.
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Cropping is something i tried to do for a while but couldn't work out. I think Rodeo is familiar with qgis. Personally i'm trying to take qgis out of the equation and load the shp files straight into scenproc, which arno said would work. Unfortunately i confused things by saying we should use importShp which is not the case. Ian C i thought you got the shp files going straight into scenproc?
Hi Phil - sorry I thought you meant bypass using files other than SHP as mentioned by Steve. Unfortunately I've never managed to bypass QGIS and get the SHP files to go straight into ScenProc - I've always had to use QGIS. If Rodeo has a solution to the QGIS cropping that would be great - or maybe I ought to leave QGIS longer to process TQ (overnight?). It has spat out versions of TQ Building that I've fed into ScenProc, but the latter has either not created any buildings or just stalled for hours - so I assume the TQ Building KML was defective.
Having said that, I've cultivated a dozen other OS squares (more than I have high res scenery for) with fantastic results. It's just that one pesky square.
Cheers Ian
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Hi Steve
Phil's right - it works for me if I just load the 3 shp files into QGIS. I do them separately and save them separately - first "building", then "road" and finally "woodland". I end up with 3 KMLs which I then bring together in ScenProc.
One thing I find about QGIS is that it often takes quite a long time to save the layer if there's a lot of detail in the OS grid square. I always wait until the message "saved" appears at the top of the box where the map is - and that sometimes takes several minutes. (I suppose it's obvious and you may be doing that anyway - but I wasn't when I first used it!) I may be wrong but I think some of my early efforts failed because I wasn't waiting long enough.
Despite repeated efforts I still can't get QGIS to process TQ (the square with London in it). It does the woodland, but the buildings and roads seem to be more than it can handle. If Phil"s reading this maybe he knows a way of cropping the layer to exclude an area. There is some kind of select tool but it just tells me I've selected so many objects or whatever - it doesn't actually crop the OS grid square.
Another thing I find with QGIS is that I'm using Task Manager a lot - either to shut it down or to kill processes that continue to run long after I've closed it. I went straight into Aerofly after using it the other day and couldn't understand at first why it was dropping frames and stuttering like crazy!
Cheers
Ian
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No, it's pretty seamless
OK thanks
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OK - thanks Jeff. So I guess "starting in the air" is the same as flying into a cultivation area from Aerofly's point of view? Wouldn't there have to be a pause while the new cultivation area loads? i.e. Would there be an "hourglass" interval on crossing the boundary?
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Thanks Jeff
So if I place my airport in the centre of a 100 x 100 km square of cultivation I need set my "size" to about 75000 to be sure of reaching all 4 corners.
Suppose I then fly across the boundary into a neighbouring area of cultivation linked to a different airport should I expect to see any cultivation in the neighbouring area? (In practice I have found I do see it - sometimes at least - but I am wondering if that is because Aerofly "remembers" it from a previous session?
In other words, do you have to start from an airport somewhere within a given cultivation area in order to see the cultivation in that area?
Ian
PS I haven't had chance to properly test Kenneth's idea yet - which involves a stripped down dummy "airport".
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Hi Kenneth
What a great idea! I'll try it as soon as I get some free time today - and report back.
Regards
Ian
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I've only just come across this thread. It's puzzled me and I have a couple of questions about it:
1. In the UK I have several 100 x 100 km areas of cultivation linked to one airport within each area. I get the impression from reading this thread that I should only see the cultivation if I actually take off from the particular airport that is linked to the cultivation. Is that right?
2. However I've just carried out a test, and I still see cultivation when I start from another non-linked airport within the cultivation area - or if I cross over the boundary into a neighbouring cultivation area. That doesn't seem to tie in with my understanding of the thread, so I'm a bit confused.
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Hot air balloon, as I've mentioned before - ideally coupled with real winds.
Also a civilian helicopter with a good view downwards would be nice.
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Hi Phil
Ecky thump lad, reet grately what your doing
How about asking the gods if you can post them for everyone to use, must be someway we can do this , no point reinventing the wheel every time. Will try this cultivation lark eventually, when i get some time off from EGGP.... never again
Cultivation for a car park, now that would help
Steve
Hi Steve
Phil has certainly done us all a great service in pioneering this OS cultivation. I've got the trees in place now and it's fantastic. I definitely underestimated the difference cultivation would make, because high res photo scenery is so good on its own - but the cultivation really brings the scenery to life. Interestingly the woodland seems to be the most time-consuming part of the ScenProc process. With just buildings and roads it was about half an hour for a 100 x 100 km square - with woodlands as well it was an hour and a half. But that's still nothing compared with Geoconvert. If the non-industrial buildings can be toned down a bit it will be another improvement leap.
Ian
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Great news Ian. I understand your 'wow'. The trees must be a simple thing. As for the UK buildings i photoshopped the bmp files and reconverted. You can have a copy if you like. I still find they come out very vivid though. FS2 boosts the vibrancy even though i toned down a lot.
Thanks for confirming importogr is the way to go.
Hi Phil - yes, it would be great to have the reconverted UK buildings. I assume they go in the building_textures folder? Do you need an email address from me? I'll send it to you anyway via this site in case you need it.
Ian
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Hi again Phil
Just to let you know that I tried the above and wow - I can see what you mean about the quality of the OS data!
The only thing I found was that ScenProc doesn't seem to like "ImportSHP" - I had to change it back to "ImportOGR" (while keeping the other changes you made in the new version above). Also I must have done something wrong with the Woodland KML file because I didn't get any trees - but I'm fairly confident I'll be able to fix that.
Now I need to study what you have already done to make the buildings more suitable for the UK - the toning down of the red roofs and non-white (maybe reddish brown) walls etc. Generally they need to be more dun coloured and subdued.
But, all in all, I'm more than satisfied with the results so far. Can't wait to see the trees in place too - probably tomorrow, as it's very late.
Cheers
Ian
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Thanks Phil - I'll try the above.
Ian
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I'm very impressed with my first attempt at cultivation, but the data was a bit thin for where I am in the UK, so I looked for alternatives. I found the Ordnance Survey site who offer a free download. I haven't got as far as data into FS2 yet (bit of a learning curve), but thought I'd share work in progress in case others want to contribute. This is where I'm up to:
- Go to the OS Site
- Pick the squares you want data for (ctrl for multiple) - check you're downloading data type:vector download ESRI shape
- Scroll to the bottom and click Continue, enter your details
- A few minutes later you get a download link
- Now you need a GIS. So download and install QGIS
- Now you need to get the OS data into the GIS, so unzip the OS download and follow these instructions
Compared to what I get from OSM this is amazing. Next step is to try and get it into FS2 via ScenProc. I think I need to export to a KML, but once I've done that it would be great to do a more sophisticated mapping job, relying not just on building dimensions to guess at what type of building it is, but to use all this meta data.
Higher level
Zoom in a bit
Metadata
Hi Phil
The link in step 6 "follow these instructions" seems to be broken.
Cheers
Ian
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OK - many thanks once again Rodeo!
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Currently the cultivation is linked to an airport.
So you need:
An airport directory and an airport TSC file.
A dummy runway and a related entry in the TSC or a working runway from AC3D with it's related entries in the TSC.
The cultivation file and a related entry in the TSC.
The building_textures folder in the airport directory.
Rodeo (or anybody who can answer)
I`ve returned to cultivation for a while .....
You say I need a dummy runway and a related entry in the TSC. I have the dummy runway, but what is the "related entry in the TSC"? What code do I use for that?
Many thanks
Ian
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I've just started making my own simple airports (without 3D etc). I'm using the sample TSC file that I downloaded from the forum but, as far as I can see, the sample only allows for one runway. This is the relevant section of code .....
<[list_tmsimulator_runway][runways][]
<[tmsimulator_runway][element][0]
<[vector2_float64][endpoint1][0.1534116 50.8807293]>
<[vector2_float64][endpoint2][0.1585507 50.8827194]>
<[vector2_float64][threshold1][0.1534116 50.8807293]>
<[vector2_float64][threshold2][0.1585507 50.8827194]>
<[float64][width][25]>
<[string8][name1][06]>
<[string8][name2][24]>
<[string8][appltsys1][malsr]>
<[string8][appltsys2][malsr]>
<[string8][papi1][left]>
<[string8][papi2][left]>
<[string8][reil1][none]>
<[string8][reil2][none]>
>
>
Which bit of this do I need to duplicate to get a second runway?
[Sorry - I can't figure out how to indent the lines to make it clearer. My original formating was lost when I posted it.]
Cheers
Ian
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Yes colouring in avoids ugly chunky transitions. I'll tell you the other idea I had in my head at 4am this morning - create a website where people could very easily enter the minimum data points for an airfield - tower, start/end/width runway 1 etc in whatever is easiest to grab (i.e. not long/lat dec but as it comes off mygeoposition) and the page would generate the TSC file. In addition it would store all the TSC files entered so anyone else could download all the TSC files created for a country/region. If I can grab a few hours over Christmas I'll build it - I'm in the website business.
Arno has also given me some ScenProc streamlining tips for Ordnance Survey cultivation data, so if we put all these things together we could really start crowdsourcing some high quality scenery.
Sounds great Phil - I look forward to new developments in the New Year!