XP Scenery Generator [WIP]

[tonywob]

OK thanks. It's almost certainly using more than 3, so looks like a bug. Thanks for reporting

[HiFlyer]

Do these buildings support emissive textures for night lighting? I've never used then in X-plane yet, so I'm not sure.

[tonywob]

Not sure what you mean? If you mean HDR lighting then no, that would absolutely kill performance completely.

[cptcaptain]

Tony, i tried it again with a rather smaller region (California) set cores to 2 and it worked just fine.

[HiFlyer]

I

 

Not sure what you mean? If you mean HDR lighting then no, that would absolutely kill performance completely.

 

I meant do the windows light up at night, essentially.

[tonywob]

I meant do the windows light up at night, essentially.

 

Some have night textures and others don't (The majority do). 

 

Tony, i tried it again with a rather smaller region (California) set cores to 2 and it worked just fine

 

Thanks for the info. You are, however, the second person now to report the problem shown in your log with W2XP using all cores irrespective of the setting and then crashing. So the mystery continues, I've been unable to reproduce it so far unfortunately. 

[crisk73]

Hi tony, I'm trying the new 0.7.1 US sceneries released by Simheaven and in Boston for example I have fluctuating pieces of buildings I previously didn't have with beta 6.0 hd. Is it just me or you're aware of the problem? Thank you!

[tonywob]

Any chance you could find one of the flickering buildings for me inside OpenStreetMap, and then I can check. I'm aware of the problem and it seems to be due to something in the data, but I'd thought it had mostly been fixed.

[crisk73]

Sure! Here are some.

JFK FO Building https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=19/42.36114/-71.06000

State Street https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=19/42.35925/-71.05638

Prudential building https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=19/42.34716/-71.08247

Cheers

Cristiano

[tonywob]

Thanks Chistiano for taking the effort to find the buildings :-), I'll see if I can work out what's causing the flickering. 

[nikaslan]

Hi Tony,

 

I am trying to make w2xp work but have serious trouble with smart exclusions as you can see in the following screenshots. This is SBGL (Rio de Janeiro) area. I have downloaded the "w2xp_South-America_osm-ag.7z" and installed it but the autogen is generating trees inside the w2xp buildings and on the airport taxiways. Shouldn't the autogen be excluded by osm buildings?

 

I tried to keep things as simple as possible. In fact I uninstalled and re-downloaded XP 10.35 (Steam), and on clean XP10.35 I installed only the 3 required libraries along with world-models and the w2xp_South-America_osm-ag. No plugins, no nothing. This is what I got.

 

Now, I even disabled some of the default scenery. Here is what XP loads:

 

I found the following scenery packages (prioritized in this order):
  0 Custom Scenery/world-models/
  1 Custom Scenery/w2xp_South-America_osm-ag/
  2 Custom Scenery/ff_library/
  3 Custom Scenery/OpenSceneryX/
  4 Custom Scenery/R2_Library/
  5 Global Scenery/Bug Fixes/
  6 Global Scenery/Extra Islands/
  7 Global Scenery/Recuts 1030/
  8 Global Scenery/X-Plane 10 Global Scenery/
  9 Resources/default scenery/1000 autogen/
 10 Resources/default scenery/1000 decals/
 11 Resources/default scenery/1000 forests/
 12 Resources/default scenery/1000 roads/
 13 Resources/default scenery/1000 urban terrain/
 14 Resources/default scenery/1000 world terrain/
 15 Resources/default scenery/700 roads/
 16 Resources/default scenery/900 beaches/
 17 Resources/default scenery/900 europe objects/
 18 Resources/default scenery/900 forests/
 19 Resources/default scenery/900 roads/
 20 Resources/default scenery/900 us objects/
 21 Resources/default scenery/900 world object placeholders/
 22 Resources/default scenery/airport decals/
 23 Resources/default scenery/airport scenery/
 24 Resources/default scenery/default apt dat/
 25 Resources/default scenery/default atc/
 26 Resources/default scenery/sim objects/

 

The same thing happens with UK Pro scenery. Trees inside buildings, even on runways. What am I doing wrong and getting this messed scenery?
 

EDIT: These trees must be w2xp autogen, because disabling w2xp also disables the trees in these positions. So the problem has to be not the exclusions but w2xp autogen...

Edited April 16, 2015 by nikaslan

[tonywob]

The same thing happens with UK Pro scenery. Trees inside buildings, even on runways. What am I doing wrong and getting this messed scenery?

 

I can explain the trees over the airports, and that's because in most cases World2XPlane doesn't know an airport is there and so just creates trees. The authors of the airports should be creating exclusion zones as well, and most don't for some reason (which will break compatiblity with other addons and future updates). You can create an exclusion zone yourself in WED and it's pretty straight forward. For GB Pro 0.2 which I'm working on, I'm going to use an external data source for airports, so hopefully this won't happen.

 

I'm not sure though what's happening in the other screenshots, have you tried the version without smart-exclusions? It seems like the exclusions just aren't working or something else is going on. It looks like you've installed them correctly.

[nikaslan]

I can explain the trees over the airports, and that's because in most cases World2XPlane doesn't know an airport is there and so just creates trees. The authors of the airports should be creating exclusion zones as well, and most don't for some reason (which will break compatiblity with other addons and future updates).

 

I assume this is the case for the default airports too, then.

 

It seems like the exclusions just aren't working or something else is going on.

 

Exactly! It is very strange for this to be happening only to my system... It was the reason I re-downloaded XP10 but was very dissapointed when I got the same result all over again.

The same thing happens with the OSM scenery as with UK pro. Using the default scenery on max settings is all great, no messed autogen at all.

Is there something system-related (Windows 64-bit) that could affect w2xp smart exclusions? System locale, or something like that?

Edited April 16, 2015 by nikaslan

[tonywob]

Is there something system-related (Windows 64-bit) that could affect w2xp smart exclusions? System locale, or something like that?

 

No not at all, the scenery should look the same for everyone. I'll give the area a try later myself and see what's going on. Smart exclusions aren't perfect (As exclusion zones are rectangular), but I've never seen it this messed up.

 

I assume this is the case for the default airports too, then.

 

Yes unfortunately, none of the default airports have any exclusions at all.

[nikaslan]

Which files are controlling smart exclusions in the final downloaded x2xp scenery? I would like to check it too, if you don't mind.

[crisk73]

Smart exclusions are set in the config file of w2xp application, you cannot control them after the scenery is generated.

Edited April 16, 2015 by crisk73

[nikaslan]

Checking the Log.txt I found the following error:

 

0:00:03.710 I/SCN: DSF load time: 1353499 for file Global Scenery/X-Plane 10 Global Scenery/Earth nav data/-30-050/-23-045.dsf (179106 tris)
0:00:03.710 I/SCN: Failed to find resource 'test/AGtrees_test.for' (parent = 'Resources/default scenery/airport scenery/Common_Elements/Misc_Buildings/' at 'Resources/default scenery/airport scenery/Common_Elements/Misc_Buildings/test/AGtrees_test.for'
0:00:03.710 I/SCN: Failed to find resource 'test/AGtrees_test.for' (parent = 'Resources/default scenery/airport scenery/Common_Elements/Misc_Buildings/' at 'Resources/default scenery/airport scenery/custom objects/test/AGtrees_test.for'
0:00:03.710 I/SCN: Failed to find resource 'test/AGtrees_test.for' (parent = 'Resources/default scenery/airport scenery/Common_Elements/Misc_Buildings/' at 'Resources/default scenery/airport scenery/Common_Elements/Misc_Buildings/test/AGtrees_test.for'
0:00:03.710 I/SCN: Failed to find resource 'test/AGtrees_test.for' (parent = 'Resources/default scenery/airport scenery/Common_Elements/Misc_Buildings/' at 'Resources/default scenery/airport scenery/custom objects/test/AGtrees_test.for'
 

Does it ring any bell?

[nikaslan]

Ok, I updated windows, changed system locale, disabled overclocking, the result is the same: messed w2xp tree autogen even on a clean XP10 install.

I almost stopped flying XP10 because of this, until I disabled w2xp altogether...

 

...and loaded a flight at CYBD (Bella Coola) at early morning, which reminded me the great awesomeness of the XP10's default scenery coupled with HD mesh and RTH...!!!

 

Goodbye cities, hello bush!

Edited April 21, 2015 by nikaslan

[nikaslan]

Ok, I couldn't resist and did some testing at Reykjavik, Iceland, which has a small OSM pbf file, ideal for testing/rebuilding.

Trees at "Treehugger", objects at "Extreme", roads at "Tons".

Here are the results on my system:

 

1. This is vanilla default X-Plane scenery

 

2. This is alpilotx's HD mesh v3

 

3. This is HD mesh plus Simheaven's w2xp scenery. It seems like it's built with no exclusions at all (?)

 

4. And here it is with no underlying HD mesh. Simheaven's w2xp scenery only

 

5. Here is my build of Iceland with smart exclusions enabled on top of HD mesh (config-hd.xml was used, no roads created)

 

And a Google Earth image of the area:

 

What's your opinion on the results?

Edited May 15, 2015 by nikaslan

[tonywob]

What's your opinion on the results?

 

Thanks for the screenshots and comparisons. I think it looks good and recognisable from Google Earth, but it could really do with some regional buildings (The European style set looks out of place here, but then again so does X-Plane's default autogen).

 

Now, all we need is some ground textures ;-)

[tonywob]

Development Update

 

I've received one or two emails recently asking me what's going on with W2XP, and when is the next version out :-), so here's an update of what I'm currently working on and I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts about this.

 

One of the problems with W2XP's approach to scenery is the lack of regional artwork and the sheer huge number of objects required to give a region a unique look (Cities being virtually impossible). The solution to this problem I believe is to simply stop trying to find any old random building to fit in a building footprint, and instead use whatever data is available to create autogen (Using roads, existing buildings, landclass, etc).

This gives the following advantages over the current approach:

- Less artwork required to give a region a unique look.

- Less requirement on detailed data. It will work with patchy data, as well as detailed data. Using whatever information it can and filling in the gaps.

- Future support for remapping ground textures for those who don't use photoscenery

- No need to recompile an entire scenery when new artwork is added.

- Faster loading times and better FPS in cities.

- Buildings that follow angled roads and face the road correctly.

- Much more realistic looking villages (No more lego brick facades ruining the appearance)

- Farms, industrial areas etc will work as before if the building data is available, as these generally look good using facades.

- No need for smart exclusions.

Of course, it has some disadvantages

- Buildings won't fit exactly to the footprint on the ground, it will be very much an approximation. If you know an area very well and are looking for your house, you maybe disappointed.

- If the data is bad, e.g. Someone has tagged a primary road stretching for many KMs as a residential road (this happens a lot), then there will be houses along this road where there aren't in real life. This can be solved somewhat by using third-party data (e.g. For Europe we have the corine landclass data, Norway has the kartverket data, etc..).

 

Here are some screenshots taken around Spain, Germany and the Czech Republic showing how the buildings change.

Central European Region

German Villages

European Cities

Spanish Villages

 

All models used have varied LOD information. Up close (if you fancy a drive around or low-and-slow in a heli), the buildings will be detailed. Further away, all the detail is not rendered to make it perform better. 

Because of the way the scenery works, it's possible to swap out individual blocks/buildings to regional varieties. e.g. Once some buildings for Norway are available, these can replace some of the generic European buildings. Additionally, in order to give cities some uniqueness, buildings over a certain size (or height) will still be rendered the old way.

 

There are some other tricks it does, e.g.

 

- It looks for names or areas/roads in cities/towns such as "Old Town/Altstadt/Stary Rynek" and will switch the building styles accordingly. Historic city centre areas will look historic.

- It will use population tags if available to determine how big a city/town is and will adjust the size of the centre accordingly.

[AngeloM]

My hat off to you, great work as usual!

[Jakob Ludwig]

Holy Moly... Now we are moving towards a fantastic scenery generator. Very well thought approach on this..

[mtaxp]

Impressive!

 

If I may suggest a thing in term of ground texture..

Default ground textures are actually really nice (really , open then in photoshop IMO they are great) , but what I don't like is how they are placed.

HD MESH makes it much better , however regions like Germany should have much more green textures.

So I think you can use default art work but with your own placing.

Edited May 16, 2015 by mtaxp

[tonywob]

The default ground textures can be remapped to other textures per region by using the library system in X-Plane, in theory anyone with some photoshop ability could redo some of the textures for Germany. Others have already done this such as XHT Labs and MaxxXP, but nobody has attempted to do it on a large scale.

 

With the default mesh, it does match up the ground to the objects on top somewhat (e.g. Forests, etc). Residential areas do have their own textures, but it's that grey gravel type texture. It's also possible to decompile a DSF mesh, change the textures it uses at the mesh level (or overlay new ones), etc, this is what G2XPL does (although that's a simplification).

 

What I think is needed are annotated textures (AKA Orbx), i.e. Textures which have objects placed on them to fit the textures such as trees, barns, etc.. But this isn't supported by X-Plane yet, although it's possible to do if you rebuild a DSF mesh yourself and have control over the ST coordinates of each triangle placed and have a large collection of artwork to give some variety. It could also be done with .pol files, but these are really slow when used over large areas.