SimTiles Released! (night and winter textures for photosceneries)

[luckyluca]

SimTiles is a program to create night textures and winter textures for x-plane photoreal sceneries.

It supports all x-plane photoreal sceneries for x-plane 8.64+, 9, 10.

It works on windows and linux and mac (using windows emulation).

How to get it

It comes in two versions: Lite (Freeware) and Full (Payware).

First download and install the Lite version and check functionality. The Lite version is the product installation file; there is no other download!

Purchase the license key to unlock the Full features.

SimTiles Lite (Freeware)

The lite version allows unlimited files to be created with a single hardcoded preset and rule and is requires to press the resume button every 50 files.

SimTiles Full (Payware)

The full version adds the following features:

-No Resume button pushing required every 50 files

-Color editing

-Rules editing

-Colors and rules presets management

-Three presets driven by tile elevation (city,hill,mountain)

-Multiple sceneries batch creation

-Output resolution choice (from 512 to 2048pixels)

---Requirements---

You need to have the following in order to use SimTiles:

-one or more photoreal sceneries for x-plane

-windows, Mac*, Linux*

-Imagemagick, an easy to install fantastic freeware opensource tool

*using emulators, windows parallel virtualbox etc.

---Installation---

1) install imagemagick from

http://www.imagemagi...9cqt7q0#windows

2) extract the simtiles zip into a folder

3) make sure you have x-plane with global scenery installed for the required 1x1 degrees scenery

4) execute simTiles.exe

5) under preferences set

Imagemagick root folder (i.e. C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-6.7.3-Q16 )

XPLANE root folder (i.e. D:\X-Plane 9 )

6) if you purchased the full license enter the emailed code to unlock the full version (requires restart)

Edited November 30, 2011 by luckyluca

[Ben Russell]

I take issue with "mandatory donation ware" ......donation is by definition, voluntary.

If you were to release your full unrestricted version under a "pay what you feel like" license and you qualify for donationware.

Releasing a trial, limited version of your application and calling it donation-ware is incorrect English. Sorry.

This is shareware. Demoware. Trialware. etc.

Definitions of  shareware on the Web:

    * software that is available free of charge; may be distributed for evaluation with a fee requested for additional features or a manual etc.

      wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

......all that ranting aside, it looks like an interesting tool. Nice to see you've been able to leverage CUDA.

[luckyluca]

from wikipedia:

Donationware is a licensing model that supplies fully operational software to the user and pleads for an optional donation be paid to the programmer or a third-party beneficiary (usually a non-profit). The amount of the donation may also be stipulated by the author, or it may be left to the discretion of the user, based on individual perceptions of the software's value. Since donationware comes fully operational (i.e. not crippleware) and payment is optional, it is a type of freeware.

The software is fully functional and not limited at all. You just need to press the button again after 50 files and it will continue without limitations.

I'm making this in goodwill but you raise a good point, the description could be misinterpreted; I'll consider changing it to something else,

thank you

I take issue with "mandatory donation ware" ......donation is by definition, voluntary.

If you were to release your full unrestricted version under a "pay what you feel like" license and you qualify for donationware.

Releasing a trial, limited version of your application and calling it donation-ware is incorrect English. Sorry.

This is shareware. Demoware. Trialware. etc.

Definitions of  shareware on the Web:

   * software that is available free of charge; may be distributed for evaluation with a fee requested for additional features or a manual etc.

     wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

......all that ranting aside, it looks like an interesting tool. Nice to see you've been able to leverage CUDA.

[Kesomir]

The full version is available to users who made a donation and has the following advantages:

-Unlimited number of files in a single batch

-Upcoming lighting dependent on elevation

This counts as crippling the software - the feature being that you don't have to click the button.

This is not donationware, it's shareware.

Not a criticism of the product.

[-TheoGregory]

Looks very clever. My one criticism from someone who hasn't used the program (mac user). The overall tone of the night lighting seems to be quite red rather than yellow. Kinda looks like your flying over some Mars volcano terrain. Otherwise, well done. Very good idea! 

[luckyluca]

You should give it a go and verify that it allows unlimited usage with no lacking features (at least for now).

However it is worrying that more than one person is mentioning this so I'll change the description as soon as I can

Thanks for the headsup

L

The full version is available to users who made a donation and has the following advantages:

-Unlimited number of files in a single batch

-Upcoming lighting dependent on elevation

This counts as crippling the software - the feature being that you don't have to click the button.

This is not donationware, it's shareware.

Not a criticism of the product.

[luckyluca]

Looks very clever. My one criticism from someone who hasn't used the program (mac user). The overall tone of the night lighting seems to be quite red rather than yellow. Kinda looks like your flying over some Mars volcano terrain. Otherwise, well done. Very good idea!  

thanks. It shouldn't be too hard to change it

ALso it really depends on the artificial lighting of the city you take into consideration. From the ref pics I took Europe has a pretty pinkish orangish hue

[XPAfrica]

it's really a great idea for a tool, i'll give it a try ASAP!!!

thank you for that

[luckyluca]

Thanks,

After some heavyduty betatesting (thanks to the x-plane.es and x-plane.it users)

I'm proud to announce the release of v1.0RC2

here are some screens from the thead at x-plane.es

http://www.x-plane.es/modules/smf/index.php?topic=4571.msg44389;topicseen#msg44389

[Simmo W]

sounds interesting luca.

what extra storage are we looking at, say for a 150meg area? do the files have clear English instructions? finally, I have Photoshop elements 7 , not cs3. it has nice potential,great work. simon.

[luckyluca]

New version 1.6 lite released! I've updated the first post!

I'm not sure it will work with photoshop elements 7, never tried with anything pre CS3.

In terms of storage, it's roughly 170kb per 512px night textures and 670kb for 1024px.

Also try my latest version 1.6 lite, it's free and you'll quickly be able to assess whether it works for your system.

I'm also planning to depart from photoshop and do the image conversions in python directly, but this will be a long term goal

sounds interesting luca.

what extra storage are we looking at, say for a 150meg area? do the files have clear English instructions? finally, I have Photoshop elements 7 , not cs3. it has nice potential,great work. simon.

[luckyluca]

New version 1.62 released. Check first post for details.

Also, manual now online!

http://www.simultools.com/simulnight/simulnight_manual.html

New version 1.6 lite released! I've updated the first post!

I'm not sure it will work with photoshop elements 7, never tried with anything pre CS3.

In terms of storage, it's roughly 170kb per 512px night textures and 670kb for 1024px.

Also try my latest version 1.6 lite, it's free and you'll quickly be able to assess whether it works for your system.

I'm also planning to depart from photoshop and do the image conversions in python directly, but this will be a long term goal

sounds interesting luca.

what extra storage are we looking at, say for a 150meg area? do the files have clear English instructions? finally, I have Photoshop elements 7 , not cs3. it has nice potential,great work. simon.

[Kesomir]

How well does this work on the UK photo scenery released by rcsimulations/horizon?

[luckyluca]

It should work very well with it (I made my own uk photoreal scenery and night textures look great (perhaps a bit too luminous, but still better than fully black):

How well does this work on the UK photo scenery released by rcsimulations/horizon?

[john82088]

Looks like a great program to use.  Unfortunately, I do not have photoshop. Might have to look at purchasing photoshop though.

Great addition to x-plane for those who have photoshop!

John

[luckyluca]

Simulnight 1.65 released

v1.65

64bit dds loading and saving (should be faster with recent GPU cards)

faster elevation query: reduced queries to 5 per file

optimized loading and saving of elevations

fixed "multiple Sceneries" tab buttons

stronger scenery folder checks (it should fail less often in multiple sceneries mode)

http://www.simultools.com/simulnight.html

[luckyluca]

SimTiles 1.0 open beta released!

this is the successor of simulnight with lots of new features, much faster and no need for photoshop anymore.

Check first post for details

[luckyluca]

SimTiles released! (first post updated).

Here's the youtube promo:

Please check http://simultools.com/

for videos and instructions

Thanks!

Luca

Edited November 30, 2011 by luckyluca

[luckyluca]

Aerosoft Sim news have reviewed SimTiles!

 

Do take a look at their in-depth review here:

http://asn.aerosoft.com/?page_id=19006

[luckyluca]

Simtiles v1.5.01 released!

 

Lots of new features and improvements, most of the routines have been re-written from the ground up, it should now be more reliable, faster and more future proof.

Main new features are the 64bit version, useful for the memory intensive new HD v2 meshes, faster performance after a first one off scenery analysis, and a nice one click change season for all photosceneries installed in your custom scenery.

 

Important, do not go back to previous versions of simTiles after you run v1.5.01

 

SimTiles v1.5.01

-64 bit version
-HD Meshes v2 support
-One click change of season for all sceneries installed and in use.
-Much faster performance (after a one-off scenery analysis)
-Smaller footprint on disk for scenery data
-Lots of bug fixes
-Better printouts of messages
-scenery/tmp folder content obsolete now, automatic removal
-automatic update from 1.2 to 1.5 format (simtiles.dat injection and removal and texture_day to texture_winter rename)
-fix multiple selections folder list bug
-fatal error showing up as dialog box instead of through shell
-plus many more small bugs

 

Please note, due to the limited beta run of v1.5.01, if you encounter any bug don't hesitate to drop us a line, bug fixing is high on our priority list.

Edited December 27, 2013 by luckyluca