Another HD Mesh Scenery v3 preview - where I am ? :-)

[alpilotx]

Look at these screenshots, and "guess" where these were taken

 

 

 

 

You can see a lot more screenshots here (the regions name is in the link):

• https://picasaweb.google.com/101666907909842492197/PREVIEWAustraliaHDMeshSceneryV3?authuser=0&feat=directlink

And yes, I know, that I have told for a long time, that I will not do this region because of the lack of good landclass data. But here I prove, that I never stop researching and experimenting. This time it is not based on one dataset but is a mixture of 3 (and a tiny bit of a fourth) major datasets where non of them would have worked on its own ... but when mixed in the right way (its the "special soup") then it can work quite well.

 

By the way: as I already announced in the Canada preview video post, I will now soon - really soon (in a few days) - start with the final data compilation for HD Mesh Scenery v3. This means especially, that the next OSM data pull is imminent ... The same is true for the airport data which will be used in the scenery generation (it has either already be pulled or will happen in the next days too).

 

From then on, it will take approximately 6-8 weeks to complete the HD Mesh Scenery v3 creation, preparation, testing, packaging etc. (of course, only if nothing bad happens!).

 

 

[nol]

Uluru Australia!?

Olga mountains...

[nol]

Ayers Rock

[alpilotx]

Yep ... Australia it is indeed ....

[belimi]

At last some more realistic, more accurate textures for downunder in X-Plane. Very exciting!

[alpilotx]

At last some more realistic, more accurate textures for downunder in X-Plane. Very exciting!

No, the HD Mesh series has never(!!) created / added new textures ... it just - more-or-less completely - redefines the way the default textures are deployed (usually trough its much much higher mesh density it can use them more effectively, more accurately, put them in the right place, have greater variation etc. ...).

[Colin S]

Are you saying that if we think something should be added we should head to OSM RIGHT NOW and do that?  

 

Thanks for all your work

[alpilotx]

Are you saying that if we think something should be added we should head to OSM RIGHT NOW and do that?

 

Thanks for all your work

Well, what I want to say is, that you should have done that since weeks (months) ... because anything you add now is nothing I can guarantee will make it to my data pull. I think, I will start that download - depends on some other stuff I want to finish first - in the coming few days (2-7 days ... ). And usually you have at least a day of "offset" from your edit until it shows up in daily exports (which I download at a given point in time). 

 

But this should never stop you from improving OSM, as there are hundreds of others who profit from improvements (we X-Plane devs/users make up only a fraction of them)

[belimi]

OK thanks for the clarification.

So does it also increase the accuracy of default autogen such as buildings? As an example, XP currently puts many high-rise buildings in suburban Melbourne and Sydney where (realistically and accurately) there should be mostly residential houses and shops.

Edited October 7, 2014 by belimi

[Colin S]

But this should never stop you from improving OSM, as there are hundreds of others who profit from improvements (we X-Plane devs/users make up only a fraction of them)

 

Trust me, being in university it is my number one source of procrastination. Thanks for the clarification, too! Cheers and you are amazing.

Free cookies if I ever bump into you on the street.

[alpilotx]

OK thanks for the clarification.

So does it also increase the accuracy of default autogen such as buildings? As an example, XP currently puts many high-rise buildings in suburban Melbourne and Sydney where (realistically and accurately) there should be mostly residential houses and shops.

Well, autogen is ... well .. a complicated story. But it does only "indirectly" profit from OSM updates (when it comes to cities, projects like world2xplane are the big winners with good OSM data).

 

Urban environments in the default Global Scenery (and equally in HD Mesh) are derived from two main factors (and a lot of other, more subtle ones): the landclass information and the road / railroad grid in cities. The combination of these two (and all the other minor factors) generates the different urban zones (areas / lines / points) which then get filled with 3d artwork on the fly by X-Plane (depending on the autogen definitions which fit the devised zones).

Now this approach can never win all you hearts ... the biggest problem being (I wrote about this every now or then) the fact, that there is NO reliable, globlally available, high resolution (yes, at this level we need it quite detailed), consistent urban density information of the planet (and when I deal with Global Scenery or HD Mesh, I need large area coverages of data ... not city-by-city). Period.  ... And without such urban density data, its often a complicated process to derive something halfway acceptable information to make cities look halfway plausible. But of course, as its often an approximation (sometimes I have halfway good data, which can depict urban density halfway accurately ... other times I need to "make it up"  completely algorithmically ... which also often "fails") it is also often just a remote approximation which doesn't gets the real look of the cities right (high-rise pop up where they shouldn't ... and residentials come in where the high-risers should be) ... Usually I try to do my best to optimize this, but the autogen approach will always remain an approximation.

 

Still ... at the moment it seems that with my new data, and the lots of newer (HD) setting the scenery rather "faults" on the "more residential look" side ... so, you should not see bad high-risers anymore :-) The best combination seems to be, to add the fantastic Sydney city scenery from ISDG .... combined with my new HD Mesh it looks quite .... uhm ... good.