chris k

In An X-Plane 10 Release Long Long ago....... A Heinous crime was committed against a small body of water in Australia. Now, through the Magic of Alpha Channels; Ladies and Gentlemen! I present to you.... Botany Bay! Phew..! That was some serious cutting. Reminds me why I hate using the magic eraser on water. Never works right, and always needs some manual touchups.... - CK.

Ok, Very very weird. The GeoTIFF is 50% transparent upon download. When I remove the Alpha, it shows white underneath (as expected) - which is why it looks nasty. I did do a direct 1:1 conversion into .PNG (keeping the alpha) using OSX Preview, and it looks nasty then in X-Plane, as both the ortho and the X-Plane standard imagery is showing through. So.. not necessarily a GeoTIFF problem - it's more of a USGS data-has-a-50%-alpha-channel-through-it-which-is-messing-up-the-final-imagery. Second shot - I tried the seamless server, and indeed it's the exact same imagery.. Alpha and everything... So no change from the National vs Seamless Server (same 1.0m imagery downloaded - however, Seamless gives me a nice option to cut the TIFFs into smaller chunks (roughly 1k by 2k). So, this time I used GraphicConverter (OSX), and did a "remove alpha channel'. Worked perfectly. Saved as .PNG then converted 3 times into 1024x2048 and loaded into X-Plane. Muuuuuuch better now. So, if you want, send me your .TIFF or .PNG w/Alpha, and I can remove it. If not, check around for a different image editor than GIMP to remove the Alpha and re-save in PNG w/no Alpha. - CK.

Cool.! Never new they updated their natioal viewer (was using the seamless server). This seems to have that data but in a better way of downloading. Dloading now... will try it out and see what I can do. - CK.

Ding Ding Ding! Dhruv wins for the most precise/insightful answer. (followed closely by MikeHotel, as I think he was being coy), then Hampster. It is indeed XPJets' "Greater Auckland 2.0" Scenery (NZAA) in X-Plane 10 with the following updates: - v7 ENV converted to v9/10 DSF Files (XP10 does not support v7 ENV Scenery anymore - required conversion to load). - v700 OBJ converted to v850 OBJ format. - Updated with v10 apt.dat - 2003-2004 Orthophotos from Koordiates/LINZ at 2.5m Resolution, with alpha channel/water removed. (as ENV-based orthos do not get convered into .POLs automatically, I quickly slipped a new GeoTIFF based one underneath) - And MikeHotel's Freeworld airways jets removed off the tarmac =) Basically, I got annoyed last night that the NZAA scenery didnt work in XP10... so 1 hour later, Voila! Hamster - All credit goes to the XPJets Team (Dhruv/Reuben/Alex/etc.) for the objects and layout. I am simply the updater/converter/re-organizer/assembler here. =) - CK. XPJets Team - Pls advise if you want a copy of this (in WED 1.2b1 XML and DSF format). This will naturally *NOT* be distributed anywhere outside my own house.

Yeah. Some kind of weird alpha channel going on. ZIP it up and email it to me. I'll see if I can normalize it for you. - CK.

Took about an hour to fix..... - CK.

Whoa. Looks like it has an Alpha channel (transparency) that Gimp can't figure out. Can you try a different editor? (i.e. just a viewer than can save into a different format?) - CK.

Thanks Doctor! Tom - Yeah, it's pretty cool to see what happens when like-minded people get together. (Hope you've shown the rest of the LR gang this thread. =)...) Hoping that the new Airport submission system for WED 1.2 will allow this kind of cooperation on a global scale. Any sneak peeks/insights into how that's coming along? (I gave a rather large diatribe about global co-operation on the .org a few days ago...) - CK.

As a workaround I loaded the resulting DSF file into WED, then using tkyler's amazing "Hold Down the ALT Key and It Changes Everything In One Fell Swoop" you trick in WED 1.2 1. Import the OSM2XP generated DSF using the "File -> Import DSF" function 2. Select every object in the scenery on the right hand side pane (Cmd-A/CtrlA) 3. Holding [ALT], change the first object from '6-Insane' to someting more appropriate - All the objects then change with it. 4. Export Scenery Pack. Voila.! - CK.

Alll depends on the Syststem/Driver/Card combination. Yes, a MacPro w/a 5870 will outperform a Dell Latitude Laptop with an Intel GMA Chip. Yes, a PC tower with a GTX 580 will outperform a Macbook with an nVidia 9400M Chip. in a 1:1 scenario, the PC's are generally quicker due to better driver optimization on the PC side of things, given the same hardware. However, due to bugs in some drivers the OSX drivers may be quicker. As mentioned by Warmbrak -> Download the Demo to see how it stacks up on your system. - CK.

YSSY Airport BETA 0.3 Build Jun 10, 2012 Credits: (lots of people have generously donated their time and objects so far!) - SimmoW (Photoshopped Tiles) - Ropeless (Many Photoshopped Tiles, Concrete Gables from YSCN - Thanks to the Doctor!) - GaryBKK (Various Shipping Containers, Container Crane) - Sethesus (Checkered Huts, Electrical Junction Boxes, YSSY Tower) - HenryT (Checkered Huts) - Nickster (Radio Mast, Radar Ball, Red shipping containers, dumpsters, diggers, bollards) - Skyflyer (HungryJacks, Billboards, McDonalds, etc..) - Laminar for the LOWI XP9 Buildings (Dunno if I can redistribute this? - tkyler pls advise) - Nerarmap.com for the Orthophotography Imagery at 15cm resolution (free redistribution and derivation for noncommercial use) Beta 0.3 changes/additions/fixes: Big Stuff: - Large VRAM Optimization by cutting down many DDSs (1k x 1k) in areas which didn't require hi-res. Should reduce the VRAM usage considerably, and boost FPS. - Various Tiles successfully Photoshopped, removing aircraft Images on them (Big Thanks to Dr. Ropeless, and SimmoW!) Coming along nicely Boys! Keep it up! Minor Changes: - More Trees/Edging of forests. Let me know if the liberal use of the 3D tree.obj is severely negatively impacting your FPS on this. - More Fencing in various locations, incl. edge lighting and pathway lighting (XP10 lighting/Use HDR for this) - Lined up more taxiways and markings, fixed various signs. - Removal of some buildings north of the airport which didn't work where they were. - Fixing/Detail of Heliport area. Again, advise if the heavy use of the 3D tree.obj if this is negatively impacting FPS. - Additional Cars in southern parking lots, lighting. - Moved Harbour Bridge closer to where it needs to be (not yet aligned, but in the right area now) Still needs texturing. File: Depreciated - See 0.4 Later in this Thread Size: 240,265,381 Bytes (Note the large decrease in the filesize due to DDS Optimizations) - CK.

Awesome work guys. Already have now done the DDS conversion and will have a Beta 0.3 up soon. Yeah - thought 12-11 would be easy. =) Some other should-be-easy-ones (for other lurkers who may or may not want to pitch in on some simple ones): 6-5 also only has 1 acft on it. 7-8 / 8-8 have two aircraft, no jetways, above concrete. 8-6 has 1 small acft on it. - CK.

D'oh! You could ask pretty-pretty-please to Benedict/Pierre.... =) - CK.

Hi Tom. 1. Always try to get the most "zoom level" (best resolution/lowest to the ground) you can. I would be trying to download the BEST zoom-level at 2048x2048 pixel tiles if possible. It looks like you have indeed done that from what I can read on the above window. (Zoom=19, huge pixel area, cut tiles to 2048x2048 size, hehe 1395 Mbytes of data. That's about right for an area this size). You can always then 'down-sample' the resolution at a later time if it's too big. (i.e. it's always much better to take a hi-res image, and then reduce it to a lower resolution, as you'll preserve some fine detail w/proper smoothing/dithering during the conversion process) 2. In terms of contrast/sharpness/colour correction, use Gimp or Photoshop. If you're on MacOSX, Use GfxConverter to do a batch job (to change all the tiles to the same settings at the same time). I have no idea in term of 'sharpness' from that site you're using. All I can suggest is that the lower the latitude, the better the resolution should become (up to a point.. i.e. to the point of the original orthoimagery they used to take the original picture). It's the quality of the original map that dictates/decides how sharp the imagery can become. Good Luck! - CK.

Awesome work guys!! done so far: 5-6 6-6 7-6 7-4 I have got your tiles now ready for the next update. I've also removed the un-touched tiles from the download area, so others dont work on them by mistake =) If someone want s "small" one to work on, I suggest 12-11 (only one small acft image in it on a taxiway / only a small fix needed) - CK.

I assume this is for catching those pesky helicopter mice. - CK.

Was going to say, Larry is going to love you =) - CK.

Hrm - One of your tiles "locked" (top right side) when I looked at your WED project. You will need to unlock the tiles in order to change their coordinates. I was easily able to move your 4 tiles when i tried yesterday (just manually moved them with the "marquee drag" function). I awas also able to move each corner by selecting it with te Vertext tool and manually pasting in the LAT/LONG value for that corner. (after I converted the Degrees + Minutes into Decimal Degrees) Anyways - Here's your project back - I moved the tiles for you.! As mentioned - I also did the math on the enclosed .map files, and converted the Degrees + Hours into Decimal Degrees, then put those values in the corners of the tiles appropriately. Lines up perfectly with the Airport now.! I also imported the APT.DAT for ENAL - so you can use the airport as a reference on top of the ortho scenery. http://206.80.253.13.../ENAL_Vigra.zip You should be good to go, in terms of continuing development! - CK.

Happy B-Day Buddy. Have a Laksa on me.! - CK.

Did that work for you Tom? You need to move your tiles more to the north as described in the thread. Each time you move it (to test), you need to 'export scenery pack' again. - CK.

Woot! Looks great so far, from what I can see on your WED screen! Good Luck. Hope to see it out soon! - CK.

ZIP-ing a PNG Image results in a file that is 34 Kbytes LARGER than the original. The PNGs are already compressed as much as it can be. They use non-lossy compression. (for good reason - else things would be smeared out). - CK.

Thanks Simon! Got your Tile. Looks great! Trampk88 - No additions. Just subtractions. =) Kaphias - Good idea.! Thanks. Makes sense. I can do some re-correction if necessary (GfxConverter is my Pal). I had to do this with the NZCH tiles every now and then as we removed the aircraft images from those ones. Wasn't hard to re-correct. Mainly it was the stored Gamma value that got messed up (resulting in a 'washed out' look upon DDS conversion). A quick fix to the stored Gamma on my end of things fixed that. Thanks to all! Wow. I can't believe the community response. Brings a tear to me eyes. =) Heheh. - CK.

Planes - Yes; absolutely. =) Jetways - Yes (If you could) - Looks kind of silly with a painted jetway on the ground. =) I'll put a real 3D Jetway in it's place. Cars & Trucks - Not Necessary (I'll cover them with vehicles). Trees & Plants - Not Necessary (I'll cover them with real trees/shrubbery). When the LOD culls the 3D Object, I'd still like the 'painted' object to show up this way. Shadows - Not Necessary. Same as above. Edges of Buildings - Not Necessary. Same as Above, plus I have Objects and Facades covering most of the building shadows as well. Light Poles/Other Poles - Not Necessary. Very minor (I can hardly make them out on the originals. =)..) Shipping Containers & Cranes - Yes, if you would. Some of the 40' ft containers don't quite line up. As for RGB Space and Colour: As mentioned, just Inherit whatever is in the native PNG. (I have already colour corrected the tiles and did some other contrast manipulation earlier in the process). Do not change any Gamma Values. Do not add an Alpha Channel. Thanks all! - CK.

YSSY Airport BETA 0.2 Build Jun 02, 2012 __________________________________________________________ Requirements: - X-Plane 10 (http://www.x-plane.com/) - OpensceneryX 2.0 (http://opensceneryx.com/) - Texture Compression ENABLED (else you'll blow X-Plane's 3.5Gb RAM Limit) …I haven't optimised the tiles yet, so they use almost 400 Mb all by themselves - A Modern Video card with at last 512Mb VRAM for texture resolution "very high" - A Modern Video card with at last 1Gb VRAM for texture resolution "extreme" You will *want* to run this scenery at "very high" or "extreme" Texture Resolution, or else the effect is lost. __________________________________________________________ Credits: (lots of people have generously donated objects so far!) - GaryBKK (Various Shipping Containers, Container Crane) - Ropeless (Concrete Gables from YSCN - Thanks to the Doctor!) - Sethesus (Checkered Huts, Electrical Junction Boxes, YSSY Tower) - HenryT (Checkered Huts) - Nickster (Radio Mast, Radar Ball, Red shipping containers, dumpsters, diggers, bollards) - Skyflyer (HungryJacks, Billboards, McDonalds, etc..) - Laminar for the LOWI XP9 Buildings (Dunno if I can redistribute this? - tkyler pls advise) - Nerarmap.com for the Orthophotography Imagery at 15cm resolution (free redistribution and derivation for noncommercial use) I highly suggest using Jack's (FlyJSim's) "über-kewl" Asphalt replacement textures found here: http://forums.x-plan...&showfile=16270 __________________________________________________________ Beta 0.2 Changes/Additions/Fixes: - Almost all Taxiways are surfaced and connected! You can taxi on them now. - Taxiway Centrelines begun to be aligned/fixed/optimized. - Runway edge markers starting to be removed (check RWY 07, first and second northern taxi connections/exits - no white lines!). - Taxiway markings begun (T1, B6, Gate Directions, etc), Yellow Warning/Hash Bars on Taxiway Edging - Fixed a series of Gate Positions which conflicted with buildings/jetways. - Most Signs/Glyphs fixed/aligned/properly positioned - Adjusted both Intl. and Domestic Aprons in such a way that AI Aircraft don't drive through buildings now. - Tiles are now at LAYER_GROUP Taxiway +1, meaning they are there under the ortho. - Added New 40-foot containers (GaryBKK) into the shipping yard. - Converted OBJ 700 to OBJ 850 for GaryBKK's containers (so they're visible in WED now and up-to-date for 8.50 OBJ format). - Created a dynamic library for all the container types, (12 different ones or so), so X-Plane now selects containers at random. - Added Container Loader (GaryBKK), Has some nice HDR Lighting on it! - Replaced Wooden Gables with Concrete ones (Dr. Ropeless) along all 3 runway edges (as per reality). Looks much better. - Much more Greenery, Trees, Tree Lines, Parking Lot Trees, etc... - More Fencing (VOR, Radar Station, Container Yard, Const. Areas etc...) - Fixed various XP10 Lighting on the Intl Apron. - Fixed / Aligned numerous taxiway hold markings. - Various taxiway optimisations and use of proper Bezier curves where available. - Taxiway T and most of the Runway 34R/16L is now complete in terms of taxi/Markings/etc… - Removal of duplicated centre line lighting/marks and Beziers where not necessary. - Traced out and added customised Apron Edge Markers (Blue Light on White Cone, as in reality) - Fixed Red Fence Lighting North of RWY 16R __________________________________________________________ Bugs/Todo: LOTS OF BUGS!...too many to mention - but I'm aware of them i.e: - Taxiway Edge Markings and Centrlines are not aligned to the ortho (In progress - Fixing) - Orthos not optimized in any way (2k x 2k DDSs everywhere) - Orthos contain aircraft Images (In Progress - Asked Community for Assistance) - Orthos not Alpha'd for Water - Certain Buildings are simply "stand ins" until I get better objects (i.e. "Delta Hangar", and "USPS Post Office" - should be Australia POST for example) - Glideslope towers and ILSs need alignment from the master database to line up with the scenery (basically, Sydney moved the GS towers slightly over the years.. you can see where they used to be on the orthos) (attached changes-to-navaids.txt has the new locations I need to submit to Robin) __________________________________________________________ File: DEPRECIDATED - SEE LATER IN THREAD FOR UPDATED VERSION File size: 306,760,649 bytes - CK. Edit: Just tested EADT's new x737 BBJ v4.6.0 with it. Lookin' nice! (and LOL.... 7 fps..! Heh - but mind you that was on my Laptop)