Fine tuning terrain

[hobofat]

Greetings,

I'm working on a little project and having a lot of difficulty coming up with a method to do what I want.  Not sure if it's even possible, but I thought at least I should give it a go.  First, let me explain that I am used to working with MSFS, so my terminology might not be absolutely correct.  Second, I am taking time to carefully read the documentation that comes with XP Tools, etc. and asking this now after I've been stumped for awhile.

I'm trying to create an airstrip in Papua New Guinea that sits atop a narrow ridge.  Unfortunately, the 90m SRTM mesh data that X-Plane 9 utilizes isn't high enough resolution, and the area where the strip sits (while not flat) is a mound, and not a ridge.  Manually editing the SRTM .hgt file (with a 16-bit editor) doesn't really allow me to create the ridge because at 90m pixel, I need more finite control.  Another thought I had is that the new beta MeshTool supposedly allows up to 10m resolution terrain data.  It might be possible to roughly create the terrain at 10m/pixel manually in the elevation data, but once again this method is extremely difficult, time consuming, and hard to keep checking your work in the sim.

Is there any other possible method I might gain more finite control to manipulate the mesh terrain?  I see that somebody has managed to import SRTM .hgt files into Blender, but that it has too many triangles or some such.  Maybe it would be possible to isolate just the small portion I am working on, manipulate it to my liking (would be terrain the size of a narrow bush airfield) and then somehow work that back into the .dsf (which is the output of MeshTool converting the elevation data into a poly mesh) in place of the terrain it would cover?

I love the sloped runways in X-Plane, but it really is only as effective as the underlying mesh.

[dan]

I'm afraid you're out of luck, unless you've got access to a higher resolution elevation dataset.

At the moment there's no editor that allows us to edit the .dsf tiles or the source SRTM data for that matter. The only way is to edit the height points by hand, but that's not a simple task in its own. LR says they won't release tools that will allow you to make such edits, and unless 3rd parties come up with something we won't see an editor anytime soon.

However, I've read that you can convert the SRTM data into graphic files (GeoTiff ?? or something else I can't remember), and then hand-edit it in a Photoshop or something similar, but this isn't any easier nor a good solution if you ask me. You will have to do some googling on your own if you choose this path, and you will probably need a windows machine as there are no tools available for the Mac if you need to convert the data into graphic files...

Not much of a help, but this is the reality for scenery designers atm.

[hobofat]

I'm afraid you're out of luck, unless you've got access to a higher resolution elevation dataset.

At the moment there's no editor that allows us to edit the .dsf tiles or the source SRTM data for that matter. The only way is to edit the height points by hand, but that's not a simple task in its own. LR says they won't release tools that will allow you to make such edits, and unless 3rd parties come up with something we won't see an editor anytime soon.

However, I've read that you can convert the SRTM data into graphic files (GeoTiff ?? or something else I can't remember), and then hand-edit it in a Photoshop or something similar, but this isn't any easier nor a good solution if you ask me. You will have to do some googling on your own if you choose this path, and you will probably need a windows machine as there are no tools available for the Mac if you need to convert the data into graphic files...

Not much of a help, but this is the reality for scenery designers atm.

Thanks for the response.  That's pretty much what I figured.  I still might go the hand-editing route, as the area I'll need to hand edit is quite small.  If I upsample to 10m/pixel I may be able to create a reasonable result of much more realistic terrain for my bush mountain strip.  This tool allows you to work on a per pixel basis much easier than photoshopping:

http://www.daylongraphics.com/products/leveller/index.php

I just need to make sure I can export into a format that MeshTool can read.  Does meshtool only work with .hgt files?

[dan]

MeshTool version 2.0 supports both SRTM DEMs (.hgt) and GeoTiff 16-bit (.tif).

You might want to look at a new dataset from NASA and METI called ASTER (read this thread: http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?showtopic=39186&hl=). You won't be able to distribute your work due to legal terms but for personal use it should be OK. How accurate the data is compared to SRTM is yet to be determined, but my initial tests with the data are not that promising.

Anyway, good luck! Please let us know how it all turns out and if you come up with a usable solution for the rest of us

[hobofat]

MeshTool version 2.0 supports both SRTM DEMs (.hgt) and GeoTiff 16-bit (.tif).

You might want to look at a new dataset from NASA and METI called ASTER (read this thread: http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?showtopic=39186&hl=). You won't be able to distribute your work due to legal terms but for personal use it should be OK. How accurate the data is compared to SRTM is yet to be determined, but my initial tests with the data are not that promising.

Anyway, good luck! Please let us know how it all turns out and if you come up with a usable solution for the rest of us

I've been following this for some time.  I've read the legal terms and it should be ok for distribution as long as the data is cited, it is basically the same terms as the SRTM data.