XP Scenery Generator [WIP]

[Shaunus82]

These screenshots are looking fantastic Tony and very realistic looking scenery. I have not had a chance yet to try v6 yet, but will be taking a look at it today. I absolutely love that texturing for the old runway. Is there any any chance I could use that same texture for some of my Cornish Airfields, such as Davidstow Aerodrome which has runways almost exactly the same as this.

 

I know what the config-hd.xml and config.xml do, but I just need to know what the config-forests-med.xml does in w2xp v6. Which is the best one for me to use?

 

I wish I could generate a bit more interest in getting people to contribute more to OSM in Cornwall.

Edited October 4, 2014 by Shaunus82

[tonywob]

absolutely love that texturing for the old runway. Is there any any chance I could use that same texture for some of my Cornish Airfields, such as Davidstow Aerodrome which has runways almost exactly the same as this.

Yes of course, take what you like if it helps (I'll upload the field to xplane.org). The runway texture looks good close up but a bit strange from a distance, I think possibly it repeats too much, so I think a few variations are needed to make it look really nice. I'll ask the airfield manager if he can snap me a few more sections of the runway and parking areas so I can make some more varied textures.

 

I know what the config-hd.xml and config.xml do, but I just need to know what the config-forests-med.xml does in w2xp v6. Which is the best one for me to use?

config-forests-med.xml is for Mediterrean style forests and is only applied when generating that area. You can ignore it. config-hd.xml is the one I use and includes high-definition items for low-and-slow flying and denser trees. The config.xml file is for slightly less demanding scenery (e.g. It removes things like tractors, lowers density of trees, etc). The above shots are all done using config-hd.xml, and this generally works best.

 

 

 

I wish I could generate a bit more interest in getting people to contribute more to OSM in Cornwall.

 

I know, it's a pity that only a few areas in the UK are well-mapped and have active communities, however there is a good side to it (believe it or not); When doing maps for World2XPlane I always prefer a blank canvas, because I find people will upload anything to OSM and then not bother to maintain it or even align it or fix it when better sources become available. When I mapped the town I now live in in Poland, the roads were a complete mess, there were tracks running through houses, and streams and rivers completely misaligned. When I started editing it, I had to inevitably edit these tracks so they didn't run through the houses, which annoyed the original author who claimed they were far more accurate than the aerial imagery. A few weeks later, somebody decided to import a load of forests from some datasource but didn't take the effort to fix conflicts, so forests were all doubled up, and again it was a huge mess, that I simply gave up in my area.

 

Of course the same is very much the case in the UK (but with a much less-active community), when mapping agricultaral areas I find it a real pain aligning tracks and drains (often tagged as rivers or streams) which can be really badly aligned, running through houses. I find I can work quicker on a mostly blank canvas, and don't run the risk of annoying others :-)

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 4, 2014 by tonywob

[Shaunus82]

OMG !!! Tony this is absolutely amazing. I cannot believe the transformation. I was completely STUNNED !! when I first went to St Just Airport and almost never recognized it. It is just looking so much more realistic now that all of those trees are gone. I love the new heathland/moorland scenery and don't think that much needs to be changed there.

 

Here is a screenshot of St Just I also visited my home town of St Columb to see the scenery I have been working on for the new EGHQ - Newquay Airport and was again BLOWN AWAY !! It is so much better in v6. There are a couple of issues I noticed with one of the tree models only showing half of it's textures and some buildings that are not quite right, but these are things that are easily fixed. I will make a list of anything I find and we can talk through these when you get back from holiday.

 

I will have a look at the Pocklington runway/taxiway textures and see if there is anything I can do. I think you may need a larger texture, so that it is not repeating so much. It is very difficult to avoid tiling in textures. Some of the new walls I made have got a bit of tiling in but it is not too bad.

 

You have a very valid point about the OSM mapping in Cornwall. Because OpenStreetMaps is such a public utility, there are bound to be instances where people clash in the way that they interpret the data and in the different overlays that people use, so maybe it is good that not too many are mapping down here. I have had to rectify a lot of other peoples mistakes and mis-interpretations, and as you said, it is actually far easier to start on a clean slate.

[tonywob]

Here is a screenshot of St Just I also visited my home town of St Columb to see the scenery I have been working on for the new EGHQ - Newquay Airport and was again BLOWN AWAY

 

 

Fantastic, looks really good. For the minor issues, yes, please do make a note and we'll get through them when I get back from holiday. Your screenshots remind me of many childhood holidays spent in Cornwall, and I'm very glad someone is concentrating on the area and doing such a good job :-)

 

 

 

I will have a look at the Pocklington runway/taxiway textures and see if there is anything I can do

 

I can send you just the texture. It looks great when sat on the runway, but higher up it looks a little strange, and not sure how to deal with this without having lots of different .pol files to cover the runway.

 

 

 

You have a very valid point about the OSM mapping in Cornwall. Because OpenStreetMaps is such a public utility, there are bound to be instances where people clash in the way that they interpret the data and in the different overlays that people use, so maybe it is good that not too many are mapping down here.

 

I know OSM isn't designed for X-Plane, but sometimes when I'm editing, I know how something should work and look good and I know when certain data that won't work too well. The problem is I can't modify the data, because not only World2XPlane uses the data, but I'm sure other applications use it, and for very different reasons. When mapping, here are a few tips that really improve "and help" world2xplane generate scenery and in my opinion is good simply for mapping data:

 

• Please don't attach landuse=* tags to roads. The bing aerial image is now detailed enough that this isn't necessary and not only improves the map, but means there is less work for World2XPlane to do, and it's more accurate. It's also extremely awkard when mappers need to adjust/realign roads as the landclass is glued to the road.
• Be mindful of how you tag roads. A road going to a farm isn't an unclassified road, but a "service or track" road. For connections from main roads to farms and factories, please tag these as service/track roads and not primary/seconday/unclassified roads, unless they really are graded as such.
• When tagging fields/farmland, here are some simple rules which will really improve the scenery and also are useful for hikers using the map:
  • Trace each field when mapping farmland and meadows. Don't trace huge areas of farmland with many fields grouped together, as this not only doesn't show field boundaries, but also doesn't show on the map where one field ends and the next begins. This not only helps W2XP know where to place hedges, but it also helps topographic maps render correct field boundaries and produce useful hiking/cycling maps.
  • landuse=farmland is generally where something grows, e.g. corn/rape seed oil. landuse=meadow is generally where cattle graze. This is not set in stone, since field usage can change per season, but when mapping for scenery, it determines which types of field cattle is placed on and for scenery renderers, the type of field texture used.
  • If you go on a walk and record you route, please take the effort to the align your route. In the UK there are 2 layers you can use, Bing and OS Opendata. In Poland, you can check geoportal.pl, Germany geoportal.de. Please align your route to fields, woodland and buildings after you upload the GPX track. GPS is nice, but it can have errors up to several meters. This not only produces an inaccurate map, but means that fields, woodland and buildings in X-Plane aren't cut unneccesarily because a path passes through them.
• For buildings:
  • Tag all buildings with the correct tags. If a building is a house, then tag is as building=house. If a building is a walmart supermarket then tag it as building=supermartket;name=Walmart. Every single bit of a data added is used to not only render the map but also generate scenery.
  • Please only tag the school building as amenity=school. The entire school grounds, such as fields should be tagged seperately.
  • Please don't tag an entire village, industrial estate or farm as building=yes, this has happened everywhere and produces horrible scenery and ugly maps. 
  • If somehow you know the height, color or material or a building then please tag it. If you house it 2 stories and made of brick then please tag it as "building=house;building:levels=2;building:material=brick". The more information the better
• For roads:
  • The more you know about the road the better. Tag how many lanes it has, if it has streetlights, if it's oneway, and even where the stop-signs or give-way signs are. All this helps, not only in OSM scenery, but in GPS apps.
  • Read the country rules for the classification or roads before tagging. e.g.  A trunk road is different in the UK to what a trunk road is in Germany. At some point these will all be used.

 

 

I will write a blog article at some point on how best map areas in OSM, but for some good examples,  please check areas such as Berlin Germany, North-West Wales/East Yorkshire/Birmingham in the UK, Warszawa/Poznań in Poland and nearly all of the Netherlands.

Edited October 4, 2014 by tonywob

[Shaunus82]

This is extremely useful information for tagging areas in OSM. I must admit that I'am guilty of at least one crime on your list. That of tagging individual fields. I have tagged individual fields in a lot of places , but lately have been tagging  large groups of fields. The reason for this is because each individual field that I tag will (in v4 & v5) have trees placed around them, and obviously this was placing too many trees, but now that things have changed dramatically in v6. It think it would actually be more beneficial to tag individual fields, as now only small trees/bushes are placed around the boundary. What I'm not sure about yet(as I have not really checked it) is, what the effect will be when I add hedges around the fields. Will this give me the hedges and the trees/bushes? Do I join the nodes of the fields to the hedge nodes? These are things I have to work out.

 

I also did not know about tagging building colour, or material, although I now always give the building height in levels. I'm also not sure what is meant by aligning your route and GPX tracks that I have never heard of.

 

I do use the OpenStreetMap wiki to get a lot of information that I'm not sure of, but there is so much to learn.

[scotchegg]

The work you guys are doing here is amazing. Are you using photoscenery for the textures? Is the effect very different if you use stock XP textures?

[cptcaptain]

Is this ZL17 Photoscenery from Simheaven? It looks amazing!!!

[tonywob]

What I'm not sure about yet(as I have not really checked it) is, what the effect will be when I add hedges around the fields. Will this give me the hedges and the trees/bushes? Do I join the nodes of the fields to the hedge nodes?

 

You'll get a double up on shrubs if you place barrier=hedge around a field, if you don't join the hedge nodes to the field then depending on the distance, you may end up with 2 lines of shrubs very close to each other but with a visible gap. I'd recommend you tag the field right up to the hedge and visible end of the field (don't join to roads). Attaching one field to the next is also the nicest way to do it and produces the best effect, and this is how maps from Ordnance Survey look. I don't tag the hedges, but I know others do, and it gives you much tighter control. 

 

Not all fields will get shrubs around them, some will get a small wire fence. However, since most fields are joined together, you will always get a doubling up at the joining point of two fields. I want to fix this in future versions so it detects this and doesn't double up. But if you prefer tagging groups of fields together and seperating them with a barrier=hedge, then I don't see anything wrong with that, as it still clearly shows the field boundaries. I do know of people who've edited areas specifically for World2XPlane only to be disappointed that the huge area they tagged as farmland hasn't worked as expected.

 

Also, if a field edge is near to a road or airport, the shrub line is pushed back a little bit by W2XP. This is because X-Plane's roads are much bigger than they are in real-life, and if it follows the placement on OSM exactly, you'll end up with trees and shrubs in the roads.

 

 

Is this ZL17 Photoscenery from Simheaven? It looks amazing!!!

 

I am,yep, I presume Shaun is also doing the same.

 

Are you using photoscenery for the textures? Is the effect very different if you use stock XP textures?

 

I'll post some screenshots later, but with XP stock textures, it looks a little odd as the textures don't match the objects. e.g. X-Plane has its own field boundaries in the textures, whereas OSM data has the real field boundaries. You also get the problem where X-Plane covers a town or village with a green texture, and then with the OSM buildings on top, it looks weird. 

 

World2XPlane is meant for low-and-slow flight and should be used with the highest quality photoscenery you have space for. There is little point installing this type of scenery if you just fly over it at 30,000ft on the default X-Plane scenery. You won't see much apart from the houses from above about 5000ft, but you'lll still be using resources and hitting your framerate.

[tonywob]

I'm also not sure what is meant by aligning your route and GPX tracks that I have never heard of.

 

A GPX track is a route recorded by a GPS device. Many people will go out for a walk and leave the route recording on their phones. People later then upload these recordings (GPX traces) to OpenStreetMap and tag it as a path. This is how most of the roads were originally mapped before OSM had photoimagery and other data sources. The problem with doing this is that these tracks aren't very accurate. You can clearly see how people have left the GPX trace recording whilst they have gone into a shop or to the pub, and the path squiggles across the shops and is often a metre or so of. Some people take the time to correct their routes and maintain them, others don't.

[Shaunus82]

Hi Tony,

 

I have just had a good look at some of the area around St Just and have noticed a problem in the alignment of objects with the photoscenery. This was not so apparent to me when using earlier versions of w2xp, but with a lot of the trees gone now in v6. It is clear that the hedges, tree rows, and other objects are quite a bit out of alignment. I have made an adjustment now to the map offset in JOSM, but I'm not really sure what I'm doing, or what I need to do. I have re-aligned some of the hedges, buildings and other osm data just to the East of St Just airport and will check it again for alignment when the new cornwall-latest.pbf data is available on Geofabric.

 

I should have checked this at the start and may now have made a lot of work for myself re-aligning all of my previous OSM data that I have done so far.

 

And yes, I'm using Simheaven ZL17 photoscenery.

[tonywob]

It is clear that the hedges, tree rows, and other objects are quite a bit out of alignment.

 

Not seen this before, and I built that area earlier to try out and it all looks good to me. Can you give me a specific example I'll have a look, but it's possible it's the rule that trims back hedges when they are close to roads (as mentioned above). Because X-Plane's roads are bigger than the orthophoto roads, World2XPlane has to push boundaries near to roads back a little bit to prevent trees all over the roads, so maybe this is the problem? (The option can be switched off in the config file, but I wouldn't recommend it).

 

I've done the fighting game before with alignment, and it's very hard to be precise, especially on hilly areas because of the parallax effect. I use two layers when mapping in the UK, the OS OpenData and Bing, with the OS OpenData layer set to about 30% transparency. 

Edited October 5, 2014 by tonywob

[tonywob]

Just had a quick look at the small area just North of the airfield

 

 

I can spot a few problems which would cause the out of alignment:

 

1) Your fields aren't mapped upto the hedges bordering the roads, but a little back. So not only will World2XPlane push the hedge back slightly, but the boundary will be off and the bushes will appear to be about 0.50 metres or so away from where they should be.

 

2) The B3306 road is badly aligned. You need to align the road so it goes down the centre line. This is one of the problems I was talking about earlier with badly aligned roads and paths (Although this is tame compared to the some of the areas I've seen). The road being aligned properly is very important to get the scenery looking accurate, as these roads are used internally by World2XPlane when building farmland as well.

 

If you are looking for examples of areas which convert really well to World2XPlane then I've picked out a village here https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/53.9229/-0.7052. If you open this area up in JOSM, you should get an idea.

[Shaunus82]

This image shows the mis-alignment on the photo terrain. It's not that much, but with only having hedges there now, it is very noticeable.

 

The road is not badly aligned because I have actually placed it in that position as it was not lining up correctly with the photo terrain and was going into some parts of the airport car park so it had to be moved further East.

 

This mis-alignment of the map is now turning out to be a serious problem for me because it means now that not only is all of my OSM data wrong, but also both of my airports are now in the wrong place.

 

I have shifted the offset a little further to the East and North in JOSM and have aligned some of the hedges, roads, buildings etc. I will know tomorrow, if the alignment is correct, Then I will just have to start re-positioning everything. Oh well, I suppose it will give me a chance to go through everything and make sure that all of the data is correctly tagged and that the field systems are done properly. It's a major setback for me, but I'm just going to have to be patient and work through it. At least I have found out now before I do any more mapping.

Edited October 5, 2014 by Shaunus82

[tonywob]

You're going to have a hard time getting it absolutely correct because the aerial imagery used might be very slightly misaligned, and it varies quite a bit in small areas. The worst part is that we don't know if it's Bing's aerial imagery in OSM which is misaligned, or the Google imagery used by Simheaven to generate the scenery. Perhaps in this instance you'd prefer the barrier=hedge tag to work the same as the farmland borders and use shrubs instead, as they are slightly thicker and have some randomness to them which is why absolute precision isn't necessary. Let me know if you want this, and I'll send you a new config file to do this.

 

Additionally have you checked the OS OpenData layer?. Although it doesn't have farm boundaries, it has drains which are often barriers for fields. The OS layer seems pretty well-aligned, but again it isn't absolutely perfect. 

[crisk73]

Hi Tony, a quick question about what scenery to use if I want to have W2XP only for my country, but cohabiting with the rest of Europe in the OSM2XP format. I suppose I have to remove from OSM Europe the .dsf files relevant to my country (italy) so that only W2XP will show up without double buildings. But what happens on boundaries? Do holes remain beyond them? If I use the xd scenery (w/o smart exclusions) does the problem remain? Many thanks.

[tonywob]

I suppose I have to remove from OSM Europe the .dsf files relevant to my country (italy) so that only W2XP will show up without double buildings. But what happens on boundaries? Do holes remain beyond them? If I use the xd scenery (w/o smart exclusions) does the problem remain? Many thanks.

 

You shouldn't need to remove anything. All you need to do is download Italy and the .poly file from Geofabrik and use both to generate the scenery, and make sure you install the generated scenery above OSM Europe. The .poly is also available on sites such as geofabrik.de and if you select it on the advanced tab in World2XPlane it will create proper exclusions (you don't need to use smart exclusions) which won't wipe out neighbouring tiles from other countries (It isn't absolutely perfect as exclusions in X-Plane are rectangular only, but for the most part it works well).

[crisk73]

You shouldn't need to remove anything. All you need to do is download Italy and the .poly file from Geofabrik and use both to generate the scenery, and make sure you install the generated scenery above OSM Europe.

Thank you Tony for the explanation, but if I wanted to use the ready-to-use sceneries existing at simheaven.de would they work well with the exclusions so that no building is depicted twice? Anyways I'm gonna do some tests.. Thanks!!

[crisk73]

Tony, I've found the xd sceneries of simheaven.de being ok to be put over OSM Europe (no duplicate objects). Now what parameters should I change to get a OSM-only scenery, ie without xp autogen? I've read the manual but it's not clear to me how to do. Maybe disabling smart exclusions? Thanks again.

[tonywob]

You don't need to do anything. AFAIK, PilotBalu at simheaven used the poly files to generate the 0.5.1 scenery. Just make sure the countries you download are placed above the OSM2XP scenery in your scenery file.

 

If you using W2XP, you should never get buildings twice unless you have specifically removed exclusions from the config file. It might take a little longer to load if you use both, but there shouldn't be conflicts.

[crisk73]

Yes he used the poly files for tiles exclusions, but he states that he also uses smart exclusions so I suppose the scenery below comes out. I would like to generate a osm only scenery and get rid of xp autogen. Ty.

Edited October 21, 2014 by crisk73

[crisk73]

Ok just for info I've made some tests. With the smart exclusions enabled the OSM Europe scenery below become visible and the buildings are doubled (you can also see a flickering effect by moving the view). With smart exclusions disabled (preset setting) I eventually get a OSM-only scenery (no autogen) and no double buildings.

Edited October 21, 2014 by crisk73

[wilkur]

Hi guys, what a fantastic work and what for outstanding images. 

Many thanks for that. 

Best greetings 

Willi

[Glah Salamanthe]

Hello Tony 

 

I just used the data provided by PilotBalu versions 0.6  on SimHeaven (Switzerland among others). 

I see that there is always the mistake of power lines already marked with version 5. 

 

OSM data show no line on the lake, but W2XP data artificially created. 

 

And unfortunately it's impossible to edit with Overlay Editor to correct, even by limiting the work area!

 

Excuse my bad english I am Swiss French .

 

W2XP power line near LSGP (Lake of Geneva)

 

 

OSM power line near LSGP

 

 

 

W2XP power line near LSGN : (Lake of Neuchâtel)

 

 

 

OSM power line near LSGN :

 

How to fix it all ?

 

Thanks

Edited October 28, 2014 by Glah Salamanthe

[tonywob]

Thanks Glah

 

I think the problem is caused by the point just outside the airport where there is a railway bridge crossing over/under the powerline (I guess it confuses World2XPlane), it seems that after this point it does something really strange and is a bug I need to look into it.

[mtaxp]

Hey , I want to ask a technical question when using roads.net.

A while ago I made an edited roads.net that enhances the number of street lights and makes the streets at the night much more lit mainly inside towns , however I didn't manage to make it work only in one location so I replaced the file that is in

1000 roads.

I saw that you said somthing about that , is it now possible to do that?