Posts by Ian C

  • Geoconvert sharing idea

    Quote from KJKsimmer

    Geo-conversion is addictive!

    I wish there was good imagery for the Scottish highlands, but not with available sources. So, I looked at the Mach Loop in Wales, and it's not the best either...

    Having said that, I have a massive swath of the Canadian prairies done, and having lived on those prairies for a decade, flying over them this way almost assures my FSX days are over.

    - Kenneth

    Hi Kenneth

    I work on the assumption that VirtualEarth quality is the same as Google Earth - i.e. where one's good, the other's also good - but not sure if that's true? Anyway, based on that assumption you're right, the Scottish Highlands aren't great. Parts of Wales are pretty good though (NW and mid). The area where I grew up - Cheshire, Lancashire and the mid Pennines is some of the best in the UK - again based on the Google Earth assumption.

    I have the impression that the Canadian scenery deteriorates rapidly if you go more than a few hundred mikes north of the US border. Have you found that? I'd love to geoconvert some of the remoter parts of Canada if the scenery was good enough.

    Ian

  • Geoconvert sharing idea

    Quote from Jetjockey10

    Is this insane resolution for VR flying or just to make it as real as it gets? 8|

    Regards,

    Ray

    Hi Ray

    I always fly in VR - and low and slow (Cessna or glider) - so high res is very important to me. Ideally I'd just float around in a hot air balloon! It troubles me slightly that there's probably not a lot of difference between the results from levels 14 & 15 - but it makes a massive difference to the storage required! Where the source scenery is poorer I may go down to level 14 - but I'm not sure I'd want to geoconvert those areas anyway.

    Ian

  • Geoconvert sharing idea

    Spit40

    Hi Phil

    I've turned Geoconvert into a production line and it's now become pretty straightforward. However, as you say, the coastline is the really time-consuming part. I've gone down the route of colouring in the white bits rather than masking them. I find it easier, but I guess it would cause problems with sharing. It also means that I won't see any future improvements made to the Aerofly sea, unless I'm a long way offshore. (I make sure "my" sea extends at least 30 miles out from the coast.)

    I'm currently doing southern England at max resolution (0.25 m & level 15). I've done 50 GB so far, and I would estimate that an area comprising Kent to Cornwall east-west and Thames Valley to the coast north-south will be about 200 GB. I may move on to Wales (200 GB ish) or possibly NE France (again probably a 200 GB chunk).

    Ian

  • Starting a flight with your aeroplane on the ground (!)

    I've created a fair bit of my own scenery now and, although I haven't created any airports, most of the real life airports are clearly visible when I select "Location" because the runways stand out from the surrounding pattern of scenery. My question is this: is it possible to place my aeroplane at ground level on one of these airports or, indeed, at any location on the map? Mostly, when I try to do it, the lowest I can get is a few hundred feet above the ground. There seems to be some kind of lower limit on the altitude slider. The only time it works is if I am already at ground level in another location.

  • Video tutorial: cultivation

    Spit40 Hi Phil

    Yes - I'm doing the UK. I was definitely going to move on to the OS data - but I just thought I'd do a quick trial with OSM to familiarise myself with what's needed. I didn't even know to begin with that I needed an airport in place - so there's a bit to learn.

    Thanks for the tip about the exclusions too.

    Another thing I was going to ask - perhaps you would know. Are the trees generic conifers or is there an option to choose deciduous, which would be more appropriate for most parts of the UK?

    Ian

  • Video tutorial: cultivation

    Hi again Rodeo

    I understand that the TSC file relates to an airport. Does that mean that I should already have created an airport within the area I am trying to cultivate? Or is the airport just a dummy (like the runway)? I assume the cultivation won't work without the TSC file? I'm a bit confused.

  • Video tutorial: cultivation

    Hi Rodeo

    Many thanks for the video. I've just started my first attempt at cultivation and I have a couple of questions:

    1. I don't want to exclude any area so ..... does the exclude.kml file have to relate to an area inside the area selected in OSM? My exclude.kml is one I downloaded from the forum for somewhere else in the world.

    2. You say that the building_textures folder is in your airport design package. Is this to be found in the "Downloads" section of this forum? I have the "Scenery Workshop" and the "Hawaii Airports" but I can't find it in either of those.

  • Creating a TMD file for a hot air balloon

    antigoon Good question. It's true that the real physical situation is "lighter than air" but the mathematical situation is merely vertical velocity/acceleration. I guess this would also be needed for helicopters? However it could be that, since there are no helicopters yet, those lines of code are absent from the current aircraft TMD files?

    Actually it's also just occurred to me that, even with the current crop of aircraft, there must be something in the code modelling "lift" - and this lift must be related to the throttle setting (and the speed etc). In the balloon it only needs to depend on the throttle/burner setting and duration, and how much time has elapsed since the last burn. Maybe the lift code could be adapted? With the balloon the "throttle" could be treated as binary (i.e. either on or off) - so maybe that could simplify things a bit?

    I've rather ignored the horizontal motion (horizontal velocity = wind velocity) because it looks a lot simpler. But is it? I'm not sure. I guess there must be something in the current code that models the sideways push of the wind. Maybe it could just be beefed up a bit for the balloon?

  • Creating a TMD file for a hot air balloon

    My aim is to make a hot air balloon that will work in Aerofly. First the bad news: I have no previous experience of 3D modelling or games development. Now the good news: my background is in physics (as an academic subject though - not in the gaming sense) and I have a willingness to learn new things.

    As stated in the Wiki there are 2 major stages to such a project: (1) creating the 3D model and importing it into Aerofly; (2) creating the aircraft description.

    Regarding stage #1 above, I've played around with the trial versions of 3DS Max and AC3D, and quickly come to the conclusion that I have a lot to learn! However ultimately I feel that this stage is do-able so, rather than spending a lot of time creating the perfect model and then finding myself stymied at stage #2, I've decided to model the balloon as a simple cube and proceed immediately to stage #2.

    For stage #2 the first thing I did was to copy and paste everything from the Sopwith Camel folder and delete all the obvious things - the compressed textures, sound files, etc. As far as I can see the only thing I'm left with that will cause me any trouble is the TMD file. I have in mind a very simple physics model for my cube/balloon ..... (a) constant horizontal velocity equal to the velocity of the wind, and (b) vertical acceleration (up or down) which is a function of the time the burner has been on and also the interval between "burns". My plan is to assign the gas burner to "throttle" and change its effect from the horizontal (x-y) plane to the vertical (z) axis. Looking through the contents of the Camel's TMD file I get the impression that I could probably delete/ignore 95% of it - but what is the 5% that I need to keep, and how do I translate from my mathematical model to the code used in the file? Is it even realistic of me to expect to be able to do this without being a professional developer? This is where I need some help. I expect there to be a lot of fiddling around and trial and error - but I just need some kind of pointer(s) to set me off in the right direction.