XP Scenery Generator [WIP]

[tonywob]

Here are a few pictures taken in Nürnberg, Germany using alpha 4 (not yet released). The Germans really know how to map, and most of Germany looks this good (and it's improving everyday).

 

 

I'm not sure what this building is, but it's using OSM 3D. There is still some work to do on texturing, and it's hit and miss, some look really good, some need some work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've also added some advanced options to configure heights of buildings. I enabled height restrictions, but strangely enough there are no longer any highrise blocks around. I actually like this, but I'm not sure if it's realistic or not. The blocks only show up if there is height information (or maybe there is a bug I need to fix).

 

 

 

 

[tonywob]

A quick correction, that unknown building in the first shot is actually this one (I just discovered roofs can have negative heights, so I implemented it and regenerated). Now it looks correct

 

[Colin S]

Time to start fixing Vancouver... I can't wait for this to go public! You are awesome at this stuff  

[PilotBalu]

That's a fantastic work Tony! The shots flying over Nuremberg look "real", I haven't discovered anything wrong.  

 

German people are quite good in OSM, but French are even better. You have to test Paris, that is the biggest dsf file (+48+002) in the whole world und surely it has very interesting buildings, this would be a hard test for your tool.

[Souf]

Time to start fixing Vancouver... I can't wait for this to go public! You are awesome at this stuff

+1

[tonywob]

Thank you PilotBalu.

 

France is also one of my favourites, but without regional buildings it doesn't look too much like France (yet). I did try Calais (as I have the photoscenery installed and it's one of my favourite regions in FSX using FranceVFR), and it's very well populated, but the data is imported data and lacks lots of information which make the German stuff shine, e.g. Height tags, colours and even building types. Also, the landclass information I presume was imported from corine, as it's very low resolution, e.g. Residential areas swallow up several towns and aren't actually divided up into industrial and commercial zones.  This means most buildings come out as residential, and there isn't a nice separation like there is elsewhere.

 

I also remember Paris, even with OSM2XP was an absolute killer on framerates, but I'll happily give it a try, if my poor computer can handle it

 

Time to start fixing Vancouver... I can't wait for this to go public! You are awesome at this stuff  

 

Thank you Colin. I'll release alpha 4 to everyone over the weekend.

[tonywob]

Basic blog is up (http://world2xplane.com). The software will also be hosted here.

 

The DNS might not be live for everyone yet, and go easy on me, I'm not very good at web-development

[Souf]

Basic blog is up (http://world2xplane.com). The software will also be hosted here.

 

Awesome!!!

[alpilotx]

Added to my blog-roll link list (on my website)!

[tonywob]

Thank you so much, I've just added you in as well :-)

[tonywob]

Alpha 4 is now available for download from the website http://www.world2xplane.com

[SRBorick]

Tony, 

Outstanding job! 

I hope as a community that we are not underestimating the potential this little tool that you've developed has and it's ability to change the way we see the scenery in X-Plane forever! As a recent convert to X-Plane, from years of MS, I have little doubt that I'm looking at the future of flight simulation scenery.

Being new to the X-Plane community I hope that those of you who have been around for awhile  are spreading the news of this development through every X-Plane forum available. If there was a proverbial "flag pole" for us to gather around, World2XPlane is it.

 

Tony, and anyone else that is using Tony's tool...can you please provide the scenery that you are developing. For myself, I don't care about any flaws you perfectionist might think that they have...they are certainly better than anything I've seen thus far. 

 

Tony...I'm dropping you a PM, please check your inbox.

[wim1976]

I am doing my best spreading the word. I have mentioned it already several times on www,simflight.nl. The last posting was here: http://www.simflight.nl/2014/03/07/world2xplane/. Maybe you don't understand everything, thats not strange because the language is Dutch my friend. To me this is one of the important tools for getting X-Plane on a higher level. So thumbs up for this marvelous project.

Edited March 7, 2014 by wim1976

[tonywob]

Being new to the X-Plane community I hope that those of you who have been around for awhile  are spreading the news of this development through every X-Plane forum available. If there was a proverbial "flag pole" for us to gather around, World2XPlane is it.

 

Exposure is exactly what this project needs to grow, especially the 3D objects library. The more users we have contributing and using the scenery, the better. World2Xplane is only one part of the equation, we also need lots more regional 3D buildings, OSM mapping and artwork for this to work. If you can spread the word and get people involved, then please do so. In the long run, this is for the benefit of everyone who uses X-Plane and wants to see something more than US scenery across the world. A community crowd-sourcing effort is the only way we are going to fix the scenery in X-Plane.

 

I'm adding articles to the blog on how to begin mapping in OSM. I will also add some basic tutorials on creating 3D models for the library over the next few days when I get some time.

 

I am doing my best spreading the word. I have mentioned it already several times on www,simflight.nl.

 

Very much appreciated. I've noticed a lot of hits to the site from this site already, so you have done a great job 

 

I would like to post this over at x-plane.org, but firstly my IP address is blocked, and secondly, any mention of x-pilot.com will probably result in a ban. Such division the community is precisely what we don't need 

[JohnMAXX]

Tony, 

Outstanding job! 

I hope as a community that we are not underestimating the potential this little tool that you've developed has and it's ability to change the way we see the scenery in X-Plane forever! As a recent convert to X-Plane, from years of MS, I have little doubt that I'm looking at the future of flight simulation scenery.

Being new to the X-Plane community I hope that those of you who have been around for awhile  are spreading the news of this development through every X-Plane forum available. If there was a proverbial "flag pole" for us to gather around, World2XPlane is it.

 

Tony, and anyone else that is using Tony's tool...can you please provide the scenery that you are developing. For myself, I don't care about any flaws you perfectionist might think that they have...they are certainly better than anything I've seen thus far. 

 

Tony...I'm dropping you a PM, please check your inbox.

 

 

I am doing my small part, I too really enjoy Tony's work and think it will help extend X=plane into the future.  Here is a small blurb on my "Good Stuff" blog...

 

 

http://maxx-xp.com/?page_id=77

 

 

I agree I think more people should do the same, if you don't have a site place a link in your forum signature

[tonywob]

Thank you John

 

I've posted a link back to your site also. Skymaxx Pro has been used in almost all of my screenshots, and has become one of my essential addons for X-Plane, as well as a great tool for posting eye-candy screenshots. 

[JohnMAXX]

Thank you John

 

I've posted a link back to your site also. Skymaxx Pro has been used in almost all of my screenshots, and has become one of my essential addons for X-Plane, as well as a great tool for posting eye-candy screenshots. 

 

 

I really enjoy this kind of participation from developers......

 

Totally makes the X-Plane platform a more enjoyable place to work  

[Souf]

Totally makes the X-Plane platform a more enjoyable place to work

 

Absolutely!!! 

[tonywob]

I have a small article posted over at aerosoft news http://asn-xp.aerosoft.com/?p=8512. I've also contacted xsimreviews.com, if anyone has any other suggestions for sites them please let me know.

 

BTW, Does anyone know what's happened to avsim.com? It's been dead for a few days now. I had a few people I was in touch with there, for whom unfortunately I don't have their email addresses.

[SouthPawPaul]

They had a HDD failure on their primary Raid array. Apparently they need to replace all 6 disks in the array. That means sourcing, buying and having them delivered. Then getting someone to fit them and restore the array. They hinted that this wouldn't be just a few days work. It may however hint at why it's been slow for some users and the raid array was constantly trying recover a failing disk.

Edited March 8, 2014 by SouthPawPaul

[tonywob]

Thanks, that would explain it. I've had lots of problems with performance on that site recently, and was become frustrating at times to use. I hope they resolve the problem, as there is a large friendly FSX community over there (just waiting to become X-Plane converts)

[Wycliffe Barrett]

@tonywob

 

just spent the past 30mins crash reading about this exciting new development. very well done as a 3rd party freeware airport dev this tool is going to be so very useful. I noticed in my crash reading that you mentioned a GUI, did anyone offer help on that front. Unfortunately i am not a coder so cant offer help in that way but will if I find the time today put up a quick review on xpane reviews.com.

 

Congratulations on a magnificent new development.

 

I'll be downloading the software this weekend and having a go with it. 

 

Wycliffe 

[tonywob]

Thank you for having a look at the site. It will indeed be very useful for third-party freeware airport developers as they can quickly populate surrounding villages or towns with buildings and trees (including their own models). I'm guessing it's also much easier to add buildings into OSM than it is to use WED, and then everyone benefits from it, not just flight simmers.

 

It does have a very basic GUI, which just lets you tick a few boxes and click Start. It serves the purpose, but what would be nice would be a proper GUI for editing rules, obtaining areas, etc.. Nobody has offered to help yet, and it's lower on the list of priorities. The alpha released yesterday has a few problems already reported which I'm working on - Which is why it's still alpha I'm going to stop adding more features now and stablise/refine what we currently have.

[Souf]

I'm trying this very good tool to generate some areas.

 

By the way, is there a quick way to make it process and integrate small houses ?

 

Thanks Tony for this 

[tonywob]

@Souf

 

Thank you for trying out the app. I'm not sure what you mean in regards to processing/intergrating small houses. It already does this (ignoring really small buildings under 3m2), so you shouldn't need to do anything except just run it on an area. You'll also need to check the area you are generating actually contains buildings, many areas in OSM are still empy unfortunately.

 

Let me know how it goes