Photo scenery questions

JonPatch · Post by **JonPatch** » Wed May 25, 2005 3:43 am

Folks,

I'm experimenting with using SBuilder for photo scenery. I note the following, as I test on 6 LOD13 squares.

- I was able input and calibrate my map OK
- on 2 of the 6 squares when I had clicked "photo" and clicked on the LOD squares, it seemed to work and I got a lovely green crosshatch
- on 4 of the 6 squares I got the message, "There is no photo map under this tile" yet I can see it there

Here's what I see. Luis, note that the image failed to upload to your image server, despite several attempts, it timed out. So I've loaded it on my own site.

My mesh will be provided elsewhere, but do I also need a mesh file? If so, what format?

I tried compiling without the mesh file, and the compile went ok, and .bmps were created. But there were only big spikes in FS9 when I looked.

Jon

Check out my addons: www.jonpatch.ca/flightsim

Luis Sa · Post by **Luis Sa** » Wed May 25, 2005 5:21 am

Hi John.

It seems that your bitmap does not fully covers the 6 Areas. It looks as it is a bit shifted to SE. The problem is with the North and West borders. You need to recalibrate it. Press F3 to display the grid and then ZOOM to the maximum on the NW corner. I guess that the bitmap does not extend outside. At least its borders should be equal to the LOD13 grid.

Please try VTP in first place. In order to go to high res, you need to be prepared for some experimentation. And either you place an overall flatten such that the textured polygons are flat and do not need to follow the mesh, or,

or, you need to generate the mesh or your scenery will be mesh specific. In order to overcome this you can play with the "Make flatten" polygons on the mesh window. In all cases you need to supply SBuilder a "mesh bitmap". Otherwise SB has no way to know the altitude.

Regards, Luis,

JonPatch · Post by **JonPatch** » Wed May 25, 2005 5:33 am

Hi Luis,

Thanks for the reply. I will recalibrate.

Note that the VTP and map are off because this is just an experiment and they are very approximate. No worries there.

I don't need hi-res, I want 4.7m/pixel. How can I ensure I get that resolution?

I'm still not clear what format the "mesh bitmap" should be in. Is that BSQ?

Jon

Check out my addons: www.jonpatch.ca/flightsim

JonPatch · Post by **JonPatch** » Wed May 25, 2005 5:36 am

Note also as soon as I click on "mesh" my image calibration is gone, and it is distorted.

I can't undo this, and have to reload my saved version.

Jon

UPDATE: So the calibration fixed that problem, thank you.

For fun, I put an LWM flatten over the whole area, disabled the lines, and compiled. SBuilder crashed, and the MS error dialog box came up.

So to be clear: do I need a mesh in .bmp format? If not and I can just flatten, why does that crash? If so, how do I create a .bmp mesh?

Check out my addons: www.jonpatch.ca/flightsim

Luis Sa · Post by **Luis Sa** » Wed May 25, 2005 2:58 pm

Hi Jon,

You do not need a mesh bitmap! Sorry for my previous tip, but I thought that you were going to use high res. If you are going to use VTP photo scenery, then it gets placed over the existing mesh automatically.

In order to generate VTP photo only, just keep the high res boxes unchecked in the BGL compilation window.

Regards, Luis

JonPatch · Post by **JonPatch** » Wed May 25, 2005 11:15 pm

Ok, thanks. Unfortunately when I try to compile, SBUilder crashes.

Should I send you the file?

Jon

Check out my addons: www.jonpatch.ca/flightsim

Luis Sa · Post by **Luis Sa** » Thu May 26, 2005 4:51 am

Hi,

Please send me the project that crashes SBuilder.

Luis

JonPatch · Post by **JonPatch** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 10:17 am

Hi Luis,

Thanks for pointing out that the image must cover a signicant area outside of the LOD13 cell to prevent crashing.

Another question: by changing layer number, can I change the relative position of the photoscenery? For example, I used the default, layer 5, and noted the photoscenery was a lower priority than the water mask (although it seemed to be on top of one lake). How do I (or what layer number do I use to) make the photoscenery a higher priority than the water mask? I want to use the alpha channel to blend from the photo shoreline into the FS9 water texture.

Jon

Check out my addons: www.jonpatch.ca/flightsim

Luis Sa · Post by **Luis Sa** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 8:26 pm

<blockquote id="quote">citação:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Mensagem original de JonPatch
 Hi Luis,

Thanks for pointing out that the image must cover a signicant area outside of the LOD13 cell to prevent crashing.

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Hello,

May be "significant" is not the right word. The image must be "greater" than the required photo area. If it is "less" than the required photo area, SBuilder detects that and just skips some tiles. If it "equal" then it will crash. I have not corrected this bug, yet.

<blockquote id="quote">citação:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Mensagem original de JonPatch
 

Another question: by changing layer number, can I change the relative position of the photoscenery? For example, I used the default, layer 5, and noted the photoscenery was a lower priority than the water mask (although it seemed to be on top of one lake). How do I (or what layer number do I use to) make the photoscenery a higher priority than the water mask? I want to use the alpha channel to blend from the photo shoreline into the FS9 water texture.

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Yes you should set the VTP number. Please read the initial 2 pages of the SDK:

1, 2 or 3 > the polygons (photos) will cover water but will be covered by land

4, 5, 6 or 7 > the polygons (photos) will cover land but will be covered by water

8, 9 , ... > the polygons (photos) will cover land and water

Luis

JonPatch · Post by **JonPatch** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 12:01 am

Hi Luis, thanks for the info! Which SDK should I be looking at?

Jon

Check out my addons: www.jonpatch.ca/flightsim

Luis Sa · Post by **Luis Sa** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 2:41 am

Hi,

The Terrain Vector SDK (May2004). This is an extract:

Layers and Their Values
Layers define the order in which Flight Simulator applies the textured polygons to the ground and in which phase of the texture building process they are applied.
· Layers 0 to 3 are applied in the water texture layer. These are applied before the water texture is masked into the land texture. These polygons appear only in the water and are clipped by the land portion of a texture.
· Layers 4 to 7 are in the land texture layer. These textures are applied to the land texture before the water texture is masked in. Polygons used at these levels appear on the land texture but are clipped by the water portions. For this reason, airport skirtings and park polygons were placed in layer 4.
· Layers 8 and above (the number of layers is capped at 100) are applied to the texture after the land and water are masked together. Polygons applied at this level appear over both the land and water portions of the texture. Shoreline polygons were placed at level 8 to provide a blending effect between the land and the water

Luis

JonPatch · Post by **JonPatch** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 12:45 am

Thanks, Luis.

Jon

Check out my addons: www.jonpatch.ca/flightsim

JonPatch · Post by **JonPatch** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 11:42 am

Well, I've got my real airphoto now and am doing some testing. I note a couple of things:

1. If I do not select "Make Bitmaps" under "Hi-res Photos" i get no bitmaps, even with "Make Bitmaps" selected under photoscenery. If I select "Make Bitmaps" under "Hi-res" I assume the bitmaps I get are much larger than I really need.

2. As I move away from my scenery, between some LOD13 (but not all) tiles i get rather ugly lines. How can I eliminate this?

3. I have created reference objects at known points in FS9 and use them to calibrate my image. But the image does not appear in the same place in FS9, relative to the object. In other words I place an object in SBuilder at an intersection, but the object does not appear in FS9 at the same place on the photo overlay.

UPDATE: and now mysteriously I get no bitmaps even if i check the hires bitmap option.[:(]

Jon

Check out my addons: www.jonpatch.ca/flightsim

Luis Sa · Post by **Luis Sa** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 5:19 am

Hi,

1 - It is very easy to check what bitmaps are generated. For normal VTP photo scenery they terminate like this : ...132332Su.bmp. For high res they have _1024_su.bmp or _512_su.bmp! Please check this carefully

2 - The gaps is something that you have to live with! I think that is a bug in FS! But if you are doing high res, the photos will fit better. Do they? In fact I have not tested that part very carefully (I will update a new version with support for groung polygons of any resolution!

)

3 - Regarding the decalibration problems, I will wait until you are completely sure! If your are right, then there is a tremendous bug which I have not noticed before!

Luis

JonPatch · Post by **JonPatch** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 8:14 am

Hi Luis,

No bitmaps are generated unless I select hires. And those I can no longer generate. The ones that were generated once end in 1024. SBuilder no longer will generate those. Here is what I select for low-res:

And this worked ONCE to create hi-res bitmaps, but no longer works, even if I delete the texture files:

I agree that we should sort this out before concluding there is a calibration problem.

Jon

Check out my addons: www.jonpatch.ca/flightsim