Dragging background image

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ananda
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Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2009 8:48 pm

Dragging background image

Post by ananda » Sun May 23, 2010 10:16 am

Making photo tiles from background images is incredibly easy, however, dragging the background image so that the tiles butt against each other isn't.

Image

Might it be possible to add keyboard shortcuts to move the image left/right/up/down by exactly the image size?

George
George

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luisfeliztirado
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Location: Santo Domingo

Re: Dragging background image

Post by luisfeliztirado » Mon May 24, 2010 12:14 pm

Hello George,

All tiles are geo-referenced, that is, they are placed in the precise geographical location where they should be located. So, they should not be moved at all, or else the resulting custom textures will not be in the correct place.

Why are you trying to move them around? The image server function should download all contiguous tiles within the workspace - if there are blank areas, you should re-set the server function (go to Preferences and click OK) so that it can try downloading them again.

Best regards.
Luis

ananda
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Re: Dragging background image

Post by ananda » Mon May 24, 2010 12:50 pm

luisfeliztirado wrote:Hello George,

All tiles are geo-referenced, that is, they are placed in the precise geographical location where they should be located. So, they should not be moved at all, or else the resulting custom textures will not be in the correct place.
I understand that Luis, I am not moving the tiles.

I am creating the photo textures using the background displayed. I then need to drag the background such that it is positioned over the next up/down/left/right tile. Unfortunately it is not possible to drag the background precisely so I end up with either a small gap or an overlap.

Overlaps are not so much of a problem since I combine all of the infs and use UseSourceDimensions = 1.

However, it is very wasteful when there is a small gap and the only way to renove it is to drag the background to cover it.

It would be much easier if the background image could be moved such that it is positioned at the next tile (right/left/up/down).

This is the background display in SBX

Image


As you can see, not all of the background area is visible.

This is the position of that tile in TmfViewer after compiling.

Image
George

ananda
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Re: Dragging background image

Post by ananda » Mon May 24, 2010 1:36 pm

Hi Luis,

This is probably a better picture to illustrate the problem, The dark bands are where the individually compiled tiles overlap.

Image
George

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luisfeliztirado
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Re: Dragging background image

Post by luisfeliztirado » Tue May 25, 2010 1:16 am

Very sorry, George, for misunderstanding the problem. I see exactly what you mean now. I think that you are right and it would be nice to have some way to get to the precise point or tile that one wishes.

Normally, the workspace is 1792 x 1280 pixels in size, I think, and if your monitor can handle at least that resolution, then you should be able to see the entire background by maximizing SBuilderX. However, you are right and it is difficult to get exactly what one wants.

Please note that there is the GetTiles tool that Luis includes in the package and that will download all tiles within the coordinates that you specify without even having to launch SBuilderX. Perhaps this is a way to get around the problem.

Incredible pictures of Logan, by the way.

Best regards.
Luis

Mojave
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Re: Dragging background image

Post by Mojave » Tue May 25, 2010 2:14 am

I might be missing something, but I'll give this explanation in hopes it answers your question.

I use the QMID grid to help me find the next area of map that I want to process. As Luis mentioned, the workspace is 1792 x 1280 and I use the full space. With a grid over it, you can see just what the boundaries are for the current workspace. Once you have added map/compiled to BGL, you can "move" left, right, up or down to find the next area of the map you want. You simply do a little math within the grid. You should never have overlapping areas of the map. They will line up perfectly.

The "move" or drag process is basically recentering on the next area of the map you want to process.

ananda
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Re: Dragging background image

Post by ananda » Tue May 25, 2010 9:16 am

Hi Luis,

I hadn't realised the existence of GetTiles. Can one specify a particular zoom level?

BTW. I had 408 BMPs of Logan. Without blendmasks, the combined resampled bgl is about 300MB.



Mojave,

I have two monitors each of 1280x1024. Even if I open SBX across both screens I wouldn't have the required height to see the full image.

I don't understand your reasoning regarding the QMid grid. As far as I can see, SBX doesn't use the grid to position the background. Here is one tile positioned on a QMid18 grid.

Image
George

ananda
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Re: Dragging background image

Post by ananda » Tue May 25, 2010 10:12 am

Unfortunately GetTiles has a maximum zoom level of 14 :cry:
George

Mojave
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Re: Dragging background image

Post by Mojave » Tue May 25, 2010 10:45 am

Why are you getting individual tiles instead of a workspace full of them all at one time? Maybe you're trying to do something different than I think.

I zoom into level 13, then add a map at level 16 (which equates to 1.19m/pixel) - that process downloads hundreds of contiguous tiles all at once. If you want a smaller area, just zoom into say level 14 or 15, then add your map and a smaller number of tiles will be downloaded. This is why the QMID grid is important, because it lets you see what group of tiles you have made a map from and then you can move in another direction to get another map of tiles.

ananda
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Re: Dragging background image

Post by ananda » Tue May 25, 2010 10:51 am

I am not creating a map, and certainly not at zoom 16, I am creating individual tiles at zoom 19. However, it would be useful if one could create multiple tiles at zoom 19.

Using Add Map from Background doesn't really help since one can easily end up with huge bmps.

It is very simple to create bgls at zoom 16 using Maps2Bgl.
George

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luisfeliztirado
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Re: Dragging background image

Post by luisfeliztirado » Tue May 25, 2010 12:11 pm

It is very strange, George, I cannot get beyond zoom level 17 with GetTiles:
gettiles.JPG

First, I think we have to change the coordinates before the zoom level activates completely, but I don't know why I am limited to level 17. Somebody else might know better than me.

Best regards.
Luis

ananda
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Re: Dragging background image

Post by ananda » Tue May 25, 2010 12:34 pm

luisfeliztirado wrote:It is very strange, George, I cannot get beyond zoom level 17 with GetTiles:
Hmm, I can get only to Zoom 14 in either GE or VE, Luis.

Ah, I see, the zoom level is dependent on the area defined. Smaller areas allow for greater zoom.
George

Mojave
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Re: Dragging background image

Post by Mojave » Wed May 26, 2010 2:11 am

ananda wrote:I am not creating a map, and certainly not at zoom 16, I am creating individual tiles at zoom 19. However, it would be useful if one could create multiple tiles at zoom 19.

Using Add Map from Background doesn't really help since one can easily end up with huge bmps.

It is very simple to create bgls at zoom 16 using Maps2Bgl.
What *is* it you are trying to do?

It's true you do end up with relatively big bmps, half a gig is what I get, but you get all the tiles and they are all lined up properly. I just did Lindbergh Field at zoom 19 - I think that equates to 15cm/pixel resolution! This creates multiple tiles at zoom 19 - why do you want individual tiles?

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