Orthophoto Rendering Problem

[Colin S]

Hey guys... I consider myself pretty good with orthophotos, but I have a bit of problem: They won't appear in the distance. I'm working on the entire southern end of the Hawaiian Islands (yes, in a group, so it will actually get done eventually, potentially one being released this week some time).

 

While flying over Kahoolawe, I noticed that the orthophotos on Lanai were not showing up off in the distance. Is there some way to force them to still render despite their distance? Flying over that chain would be AMAZING will orthos rendering. Also, when I get to the Big Island of Hawaii, I'm worried that it will be so large that some areas will render while others wont. 

 

Pointers? Suggestions? I'm all ears.

 

Thanks everyone!

[Sethesus]

Have you set the LOAD_CENTER?  Chris uses the LOAD_CENTER attribution for our orthos, which allows an ortho to decrease in resolution as you fly farther away from it.

 

LOAD_CENTER

X-PLANE 92): This command estabishes that this texture will be used at a certain location, specified by the lat/lon taken to be the texture's center. By also specifying the textures size (in pixels) and approximate terrain size when placed (in meters), X-Plane will load the texture with variable resolution based on the general distance from the user to the texture. As the user flies, X-plane will periodically reload the texture.

LOAD_CENTER affects loading of the base texture and night texture if it exists. A texture that uses LOAD_CENTER should only be referenced once by one art resource per DSF tile. For optimal performance, the texture should be in DDS format, so that reloads at lower resolution are fast.

LOAD_CENTER LOAD_CENTER 42.70321 -72.34234 4000 1024

 

http://scenery.x-plane.com/library.php?doc=polspec.php

Edited November 30, 2014 by Sethesus

[Colin S]

Thanks so much - every day I learn a new thing about orthophotos... 

 

By terrain size, I assume it means side length? 4000 square metres just doesn't seem very big. 

[chris k]

That's the length of 1 side. ( 4km in this case ). Rather large. . And yes, it's all about VRAM conservation.

I donk know if it will solve your particular use case, though. POLs should render as far away as the DSF is rendered (ie 25km for now in Xplane until Ben decides to increase the number of DSF tiles loaded and/or the render distance. )

Edited November 30, 2014 by chris k

[Colin S]

One more question... All my images include water AND land. And when I apply a decal, even if it is 100% transparent over the water, the decal shows up. Is there any way to avoid this? It's weird having gravel floating around.