XP Scenery Generator [WIP]

[Shaunus82]

Any objects that I design for autogen purposes would be very basic "box with roof" type models. Church buildings would have to have a bit more detail obviously to show things like buttresses, towers etc, but I would make sure that they are low poly models.

 

The types of industrial buildings I was thinking of are quite simple oblong buildings with sloped roofs. No fancy shapes, or anything like that.

 

One thing I would like to know is, if I design these buildings and put them into the library. How do I make sure that these buildings are chosen and not some other random model. I have actually used some of the buildings from the library in my Lands End scenery, but these were placed using WED. The problem is, that you are limited in WED by the size of the ortho-image to how far out you can place any buildings. My next scenery package is going to be EGHQ Newquay Airport, which is my home airport. I live just 2 miles away, so I'm going to be super-critical of each and every building in this scenery and I want every building to look as close to the real thing as possible.

 

With regards to the hedge fac, I have spoken to marginal and presently awaiting his response.

Edited September 28, 2014 by Shaunus82

[tonywob]

Church buildings would have to have a bit more detail obviously to show things like buttresses, towers etc

 

This is will great, as there will not be hundreds of them appearing in every town. Some people go to extremes when mapping some objects though, such as adding the cross in full 3D glory.

 

 

 

One thing I would like to know is, if I design these buildings and put them into the library. How do I make sure that these buildings are chosen and not some other random model.

 

If the building footprint matches your model inside OSM then it will be chosen, however there is no guarantee you'll get the exact model (Especially if it finds several the same size). Generally, World2XPlane isn't designed to do this, and is meant for producing large scale scenery. If you need that level of control then you'll either have to place the buildings manually inside WED, or force World2XPlane to assign a particular object based on its ID inside OSM, e.g, You could say "When you see way #323453424 (Which you can get from JOSM), place old-stone-house.obj". To  make this easier for you, I'll add in a simple CSV file which lists the way ID and the model to use and bypasses the best-fit. However, the size will still have to be similar inside OSM for the object to be rotated and fitted properly. People have asked for similar ways of adding landmarks, and it's a fairly trivial feature to add.

 

 

 

The problem is, that you are limited in WED by the size of the ortho-image to how far out you can place any buildings

 

Completely off-topic, can anyone tell me how to get an orthoimage into WED, I'm trying to add a missing airstrip in Yorkshire, but I don't know how to get google imagery or Bing into WED (for reference only).

 

I'll send you and some other testers v0.6.0 in the next few days (Although the fill-in-the-gaps autogen I was talking about isn't working too well, so it's disabled). I've got a very busy month in October, so I'm not going to get much done, and so I might release this earlier as a pre-beta.

Edited September 29, 2014 by tonywob

[Shaunus82]

Download Noni Map View Here and you can use it to generate an area surrounding your airport. It is quite similar to using OpenStreetMap, as you have a slippy map and you drag a selection box around your airport to select the area. It gives you the lat/lon co-ordinates you need and you can download in many different formats and sizes. Read through the WED manual on how to position the map There is a section in chapter three on using Overlay Images as references. There is a tutorial somewhere, but can't remember where I saw it, but It's really easy once you've done it.

 

I may have to try using Overlay Editor to place objects that are outside of the airport. I have never used it before, but what I have seen of it, seems quite straightforward.

 

Marginal has sent me the hedge fac model with some instructions on how to do it. Looks quite complicated, but I'm gonna give it a try today. Hopefully it will work out.

Edited September 29, 2014 by Shaunus82

[Fabio Pittol]

I managed to get orthophoto on WED using SASPlanet, I downloaded the image there and kinda like Shaunus said, exported with a kml file with lat/long of the rectangle.

 

If you need I can detail the process

[tonywob]

Thanks for the info guys, will save me some hassle. Presumably I just enter the bounding rectangle coordinates into WED to align the image it downloads.

[Shaunus82]

Tony, When you download an image using Noni View, it will also download a notepad file with co-ordinates. The co-ordinates that you have to enter into WED will look like this:

 

MMPLL,1,-5.041823,50.452763

MMPLL,2,-4.931960,50.452763

MMPLL,3,-4.931960,50.420072

MMPLL,4,-5.041823,50.420072

 

You then enter the co-ordinates starting with the Top Left Corner 1. Top Right Corner 2. Bottom Right Corner 3. Bottom Left Corner 4.

 

Your map should then be perfectly aligned if you have typed everything correctly.

[tonywob]

Great Shaun, thanks for the info. I only want to add a basic runway and some small buildings and then upload it to the airport gateway. There are a couple I've found which are missing (mostly privately owned clubs)

[Shaunus82]

I have managed to download a large orthomap from noni view which extends right out to encompass the town of St Columb where I live, so I should be able to place any buildings in this area now using WED.

 

EDIT: After working all day on making a new hedge fac, I have finally cracked how to do it. I have used the same textures for this new hedge but have adjusted the model a bit and have tried it out on an area of sloping ground at St Just airport.

 

I cannot see any signs of it going into the ground, or up in the air , or "stepping" in any way, it just follows the contours. the ground that I have tested it on is not that steep though, but was the steepest part of the airport scenery that I could test it on.

 

take a look at the screenshot here

 

I have attached the new hedge model for you to try out. I can now make some additional hedges with different textures and was planning on a couple of different "privet" style hedges that I have textures for on the same png

Country_Hedgerow_01.rar

Edited September 29, 2014 by Shaunus82

[qdavweb]

Do my eyes deceive me - beaches and mudflats in 0.6.0 ?

[tonywob]

I have attached the new hedge model for you to try out. I can now make some additional hedges with different textures and was planning on a couple of different "privet" style hedges that I have textures for on the same png

 

Thanks Shaun, that fixes the issue and looks good.

 

so I should be able to place any buildings in this area now using WED.

 

Are you going to build the entire town in WED? (I have complete respect if you manage to do that without going insane )

 

Do my eyes deceive me - beaches and mudflats in 0.6.0 ?

 

Yes indeed there are , looks much more realistic. If it's tagged in OSM then it will be added to the scenery.

[Shaunus82]

Hi Tony,

 

I have made a few more hedge models and turned them into fac's, I'm now working on some walls. "Dry Stone Walls", "Cornish Stone Walls". I will wait until everything is finished and send you some screenshots.

 

As for modeling the whole of St Columb. Well, I'm "mad", but not that "mad". I will probably just do a few of the larger more prominent buildings such as the industrial units on the South side of St Columb. These are the buildings that are closest to the rwy approach of EGHQ. I will let w2xp do the rest.

 

I have been out taking photo's to day, so have some material to work with now.

 

I have found that WED does not like orthomap images that are too large, so I may try using Overlay Editor for placing objects. Never tried it before, but it looks straightforward.

[tonywob]

Thanks Shaun, I look forward to seeing your work. It's great seeing someone working on UK airfields in such detail as yourself.

 

I'm now working on some walls. "Dry Stone Walls", "Cornish Stone Walls".

 

These would look fantastic along roads I think, especially in Cornwall, Yorkshire etc..

 

I've had a look into the file you sent me and .fac v10 is actually quite simple once you've seen an example. Once 0.6.0 is out and I'm back from my holiday I'm going to have a go at making some fancy industrial v10 facades. I already have a good collection of building bits, so if I can get these working inside a facade, then it will massively simplify the world-models library and improve industrial, supermarket, commercial and European city centres a lot.  I already also have a large collection of textures from Caruso waiting to be turned into v10 facades. However, I don't think we can use facades for normal houses, as I'm not sure how a slanted roof would work too easily.

 

P.S. I'd really love for someone to come along and help out with all these facades and objects, so if you have free time and enjoy that sort of thing, please please come along and help out.

 

I have found that WED does not like orthomap images that are too large, so I may try using Overlay Editor for placing objects. Never tried it before, but it looks straightforward.

 

OverlayEditor is good, and I prefer it much more to WED. OverlayEditor allows you to have Bing imagery like JOSM so it's really simple. It has its quirks and can be unstable at times, but I much prefer it than WED. I've created 2 missing airports in WED (Pocklington and Eddsfield in Yorkshire), and then used OverlayEditor to add the buildings and some static planes. I'll dump them on the .org when I can, as they contain custom terminal buildings from photographs which can't be uploaded to XP Gateway.

[AngeloM]

P.S. I'd really love for someone to come along and help out with all these facades and objects, so if you have free time and enjoy that sort of thing, please please come along and help out.

 

I could have some free time but I'm totally not good with graphics, if someone is willing to explain me how to work with facades and objects (both procedures and programs to use) I could try to do something, but no promises at all I'm sorry.

[tonywob]

I could have some free time but I'm totally not good with graphics

 

Same here, I'm not good with graphics at all which is why we really need someone who knows all this stuff and has some free time to create some high quality facades and objects for the library. 

[Shaunus82]

Hi Tony,

 

Sounds like a step in the right direction with doing industrial/commercial fac's, but at the moment I only really know about how to do line fac's such as walls, hedges etc. I don't really know how buildings fac's work, but I'm sure I will learn this at some point. have you spoken to marginal about doing fac buildings with slanted roofs. It would be absolutely fantastic if that were possible, as most industrial units that I have seen all have slanted roofs.

 

Sounds like I will definitely be using Overlay Editor for placing all of my external objects, and keep WED for just the airport stuff.

 

I have one question which is related to a problem I have with w2xp, and my new EGHC lands End scenery.

 

One of the negative comments that was made when I released the scenery was the over abundance of trees in the area. In reality, most of the scenery in that area is field systems which are surrounded by walls hedges and there is a lot of gorse, heathland and moorland, but very few trees. I know that w2xp places trees along roads and around field systems which is why my scenery is showing so many trees. I have actually got used to it now and quite like it as it looks much better than the real scenery, but the fact is. It is not realistic, and I really want my sceneries to look as much like the real thing as possible. Is there any way that something can be one to stop trees being placed along roads/around fields etc?

[tonywob]

It would be absolutely fantastic if that were possible, as most industrial units that I have seen all have slanted roofs.

 

I believe it is possible to some degree, but would require quite a complicated facade to cover all the wall sizes possible.

 

Is there any way that something can be one to stop trees being placed along roads/around fields etc?

 

Yes, you can just go into the config file (i.e. resources/config.xml or resources/config-hd.xml) and remove the rule for landuse=farm for surrounding it with trees. However, in v0.6.0 there are no longer trees, just small shrubs which looks much more real. Trees do make the scenery look nice, but it's well over-the-top and not realistic, the small shrubs looks much better and does not overpower the scenery and I found looks quite realistic.

 

v0.6.0 also has new rules to place heather on moorland and some small brown/woody shrubs on heathland. I'll send you the beta probably tomorrow with the changes so you can try yourself and configure the config file. 

[Shaunus82]

Fantastic Tony. I'm not sure if you realize how excited I'am about this. This is something that I could only dream about years ago when I was using Microsoft Flight Sim, and now it is a reality. The generation of scenery for heathland/moorland was for me, one of the things most lacking in w2xp, as Cornwall has a lot of it, and I have tagged a lot of these areas in OSM, so it is going to be really exciting to see these areas come to life.

 

I have added a couple more screenshots to the EGHC Land's End Flickr Album of the new wall fac: DryStoneWall_03_2m

 

I'm making a 1.5m Dry Stone Wall today with a lighter colour stone.

 

I'm really looking forward to trying out v6 of w2xp.

Edited October 3, 2014 by Shaunus82

[tonywob]

Amazing work Shaun, you've really captured the Cornish countryside there, really looking forward to trying this.

 

The generation of scenery for heathland/moorland was for me, one of the things most lacking in w2xp, as Cornwall has a lot of it

 

Let me know if it looks good for you or not when I send you the release, this is initial work on these types of areas so it will certainly need some configuring and improving for the artwork, e.g. X-Plane's random placement of plants might not work too well, as heather tends to grow in large clumps and not just scattered around like shrubs.

 

Also, I noticed someone has recently mapped the Isles of Scilly in high detail, and I generated the area and had a fly around, it looks quite good (but could certainly do with more appropriate building artwork to improve the town and harbour area). Small flights from Lands End to Scilly should become much more interesting :smile:

[AngeloM]

I have added a couple more screenshots to the EGHC Land's End Flickr Album of the new wall fac: DryStoneWall_03_2m

Wow.

Simply wow.

No other words.

[Shaunus82]

Amazing work Shaun, you've really captured the Cornish countryside there, really looking forward to trying this.

 

 

 

 

Let me know if it looks good for you or not when I send you the release, this is initial work on these types of areas so it will certainly need some configuring and improving for the artwork, e.g. X-Plane's random placement of plants might not work too well, as heather tends to grow in large clumps and not just scattered around like shrubs.

 

Also, I noticed someone has recently mapped the Isles of Scilly in high detail, and I generated the area and had a fly around, it looks quite good (but could certainly do with more appropriate building artwork to improve the town and harbour area). Small flights from Lands End to Scilly should become much more interesting :smile:

I will help you with any feedback, so we can get the Heathland/Moorland looking as good as possible.

 

I was quite amazed when I first went to the Scillies and seen all of the OSM data that was present there, but I had to do quite a bit of work re-tagging a lot of areas. the person who did all of the OSM did quite a good job but there were a lot of areas that were tagged as scrub, and this was placing a large number of small trees around the airport which was actually blocking the approach to the runways and totally unrealistic. I re-tagged these areas as heathland and just generally tidied up a few things, but yes, it does need a lot more work and I will get around to doing that at some point in the future, as well as improving the airport.

 

 

Wow.

Simply wow.

No other words.

Thanks for your kind comments, There is much more to come yet.

Edited October 3, 2014 by Shaunus82

[AngeloM]

Same here, I'm not good with graphics at all which is why we really need someone who knows all this stuff and has some free time to create some high quality facades and objects for the library. 

 

 

Thanks for your kind comments, There is much more to come yet.

 

What Tony said is absolutely wisely, sometimes the good will is not enough to obtain certain goals and in this specific case you must know how to work with graphic, someone can't simply improvising.

[Shaunus82]

Yes I do know Graphic Design, and I will help Tony with anything, but I also want to develop scenery and airports in my local area which at the moment is very sparse and needs a massive amount of work doing to it.

[tonywob]

Yes I do know Graphic Design, and I will help Tony with anything, but I also want to develop scenery and airports in my local area which at the moment is very sparse and needs a massive amount of work doing to it.

 

Nice scenery without decent airports to land at is a big no no in my book, and the work you're doing is really stunning, so please keep it up and you already are helping :-).

 

I'm currently doing my first World2XPlane/World-Models airport as well in the UK, I'll post some pictures shortly. The current airport in X-Plane is just a rectangular piece of grass.

[Caruso]

Yes I do know Graphic Design, and I will help Tony with anything, but I also want to develop scenery and airports in my local area which at the moment is very sparse and needs a massive amount of work doing to it.

 

Never mind. You are already helping!

And I mean hey - these hedges and walls are a very useful and good looking tool for our sceneries

 

I am no good in Graphic Design either. It takes me ages to have the tiniest thing done... But I am good in copywriting, if this helps somewhere.

In the meanwhile I'll try to get sceenery designers to donate some of their generic buildings and objetcs to the library.

[tonywob]

Here are some shots of my work-in-progress first World2XPlane airfield. The field is XPOK (Pocklington), which is home of the Wolds Gliding Club. The airfield is a former RAF base, and I chose to model it because of the surroundings and because the default airfield in X-Plane is just a grassy blob which ruins the World2XPlane scenery:

 

I've modelled the club house and hangars in high detail based on photos kindly sent by the airfield manager. I've also tried to texture the very weathered old concrete runway, but it still needs some texturing work

 

The parking/taxi way texture needs a bit of work also.

 

The surrounding buildings and trees have all been placed with World2XPlane and fit perfectly with the airfield. I also added some objects in the airfield such as gliders, caravans, parked cars and glider trailers (with the club's logo on them). 

 

The textures for the taxiway and parking area really do need some work, and this is generally where my artistic abilities fall over ;-)

Taking off, the nearby town of Pocklington is completely mapped by World2XPlane, and looks very similar to the real town.

 

The surrounding countryside is miles of rolling chalk hills, with small villages and farms throughout. Each village, farm, field, obstacle are all again generated from OSM data using World2XPlane.

 

Another small town really well mapped. 

 

The area is a joy to fly around which is why I'm wanting to fill out some other airfields in the area. Additionally, OSM contributors are very active at the moment in the area, and things are improving. It would be amazing if we could have all of the UK covered in this detail (Maybe in a few years time :-))