Blending airports into custom terrain

[JRobinson]

...that does ok in rural areas (despite some polygons disappearing and reappearing, depending on where I am looking)

That's a problem I've run into just making veg polys with the annotator so I don't think it has anything to do with scenproc. I believe smaller polys are less susceptible to disappearing and reappearing though so if the feature detection creates smaller polys than those you ended up with from the USGS woodlands data that may alleviate it somewhat. I think they'll still disappear and reappear but just not massive amounts of trees all at once.

I usually us veg rectangles rather than polys as they don't seem to have that problem. Don't know if there's an option for rectangles in scenproc, I haven't seen where there is. It takes days, maybe even weeks, to do rectangles on even a relatively small photoreal with the annotator so that'd be out of the question on a project as large as yours.

 

[GaryGB]

Hi again:

I have not allocated time to work with ScenProc to any extent with processing source data to create Autogen annnotations using either Polygons or Rectangles (aka "squares"), but IIRC, Arno had implemented script functions to use either AGN Vegetation annotation object type based on derivations from either the built-in ScenProc detection engine, or via inter-conversion of ex: OSM *.SHP source data.

Single autogen trees not visible in FSX

Hi everyone, After creating with SCENPROC larger areas of autogen vegetation, I intended to add some lines of code to perform the same for small groups or even single "especial" trees. All pertaining vegetation data for my photoreal sceneries being managed with QGIS. Initially, the location of...

www.fsdeveloper.com

I'm on the road ATM with a mere I-Pad to work with, so I'll find some more specific links later, but these Google query results might point to a few threads on the current sub-topic under discussion here:

Google Search

www.google.com

BTW: For areas which merit a more detailed Autogen annotation with individual trees of specified types closer to IRL, that functions like a unique BGLComp-type placement but which is actually placed via the Autogen rendering methods (IIRC P3D now requires custom 3D objects to have used Draw Call Batching for Materials in order to display as Autogen ?), Jim demonstrated an innovative technique to do this:

Installing custom autogen configuration

Hi Folks Gary - Previous versions of NPP displayed the BOM character. NPP now suppresses its display through applied styles, (Encoding Menu). Look in a hex-editor, its still present. IIRC, deleting the BOM, then attempting loading into FSX caused the file's processing to fail. Thanks Paul...

www.fsdeveloper.com

PS: Thanks for all your work with this, Jim.

GaryGB

 

[GHD]

I can confirm that vegetation polygons are rubbish.

 

[crushnik]

extract all the airport bounds from the default CVXxxxx.bgls in the local area with CvxExtractor, import them into SBuilderX (I can't imagine how FSGenesis did this without CvxExtractor, there was no such thing in those days!)

I thought I couldn't mess this one up; it seemed too simple. I made a 16-sided star and have extracted the airport boundary shapefiles I need to burn holes in my mesh where the original airports don't stick out like cliffs and canyons. But I can't figure out how to import my star and scale it in such a way that I can create large, medium, and small "bubbles" like you did. I keep ending up with this massive star:

I'll owe someone a beer if they can tell me what airport that is inside my wonky star shape. But know that I don't know the correct answer myself, despite the fact that it's my project. Good luck.

 

[JRobinson]

What I did at that point was click out a polygon with a point on each "ray" of the star, then I did "smooth" in SBX at 50m which introduced a bunch of points and made it circular rather than 16-sided. Then I select that circle in polygon mode, do Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V and the cursor turns into "place", so left click wherever you want to place a copy of that particular circle.

EDIT: This is the "star" I did for KFTG in Colorado:

To figure out which airport you're working on select a point either in the circle or the AB poly itself, do "properties" which will give you the Lat/Lon. Make a flight plan in LittleNavMap between two airports in the general proximity, click on the line between the two and drag it out wherever it feels good to do so which will create a "user waypoint", then in LNM right click the user waypoint and do "edit flight plan position", paste the coords from SBuilder and the waypoint will move roughly to the airport in question. I wouldn't worry about it too much though, just make a "hole" wherever there's an airport background (AB flatten) an it'll all work out.

PS: Don't do Colorado or New Mexico because I already have an "airport_holes.shp" for both of those states and you can use it if you want. For that matter the mesh is done too so you can have that as well. Think I might do Wyoming next, but only the part that's not covered by FTX CRM because that already has LOD12 mesh and airport elevation corrections have already been done. Maybe Arizona, not sure, I'm gonna do a few flights before I start in on another state.

Jim

 

[crushnik]

Don't do Colorado or New Mexico because I already have an "airport_holes.shp" for both of those states and you can use it if you want. For that matter the mesh is done too so you can have that as well. Think I might do Wyoming next, but only the part that's not covered by FTX CRM because that already has LOD12 mesh and airport elevation corrections have already been done. Maybe Arizona, not sure, I'm gonna do a few flights before I start in on another state.

I'd love to get my hands on those shapefiles and we could team up on this if you want. In case you don't need the source data, I have USGS 1/3 arc-second BGLs for all the orange locations you can have if that saves you some time. Link is in signature below.

 

[JRobinson]

Hole .shps are attached.

 

[GaryGB]

Hi again:

This work-flow looks quite promising as a practical way to achieve better blending of airport polygons into surrounding terrain when working with large numbers of airports.

Just another idea to consider here.

I'm wondering if it may still prove feasible to further enhance this blending process by use of Don "gadgets" Grovestine's Terrain Scultor Pro (aka "TS Pro") in a batch mode to process ex: SBuilderX Exchange format *.SBX format files, or the actual *.BGL files compiled by SDK SHP2VEC from ESRI *.SHP files output by SBuilderX into the [SBuilderX install path]\Tools\Shapes\ 'work' sub-folder ?

AFAIK, if "star" polygons cited above were Appended into SBuilderX and output into a form Terra Sculptor Pro could subsequently import, and if Terra Sculptor Pro could also import a set of standard blending Node coordinates that define periphery Poly-line vertices, and if sloped Polygon vertices at a visually 'useful' distance surrounding an Airport Boundary Polygon were imported or otherwise defined, Terra Sculptor could automatically 'do-the-slew' to log FS terrain mesh vertex altitudes, and actually create the CVX BGL airport TIN ground surfaces which meet the specific elevations of vertices in the surrounding terrain mesh and the 'central' airport flatten polygon ...to create a blend without any perceptible "edges".

Perhaps Don may implement enhancements to facilitate a 'batch' mode and direct import of *.SHP files ?

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/ts-pro-is-better-now.448344/post-850501


GaryGB

 

[crushnik]

"Do the Slew."

It's fun to say,rhymes, and sounds cool. Based on that logic alone, this has to be the way forward.

 

[crushnik]

But what concerns me is that if you look at my image above of the orange areas (I added all of Kansas this weekend), that's a lot of TIF files to have to re-download and repeat the process all over again. If I learned JRobinson's clever automation process that wouldn't be so bad, but there probably isn't a way to reverse the workflow from BGL into something usable by SBuilder, is there? I seem to remember that you can import object BGL files, but that sounds different than what I am working with.

 

[GaryGB]

Hi Chris:

To explore a bit more this general concept for a proposed work-flow:

Patrick Germain's CvxExtractor can de-compile CVX vector BGLs and output *.SHP or *.BLN files which can be Appended to SBuilderX and/or imported into GIS applications.

FS default CVX BGL airport flatten FLX*.SHP data can be imported into a GIS application along with *.SHP data for the surrounding periphery of "blend" sloped flatten TINs.


Elevation values for the 'Intended' 1/3 Arc Sec. terrain mesh can be applied to Polygon vertices to create a 1-piece replacement ...that provides:

* FS default CVX Airport Boundary central 'flat / level' flattens at their existing elevations

...with:

* 'sloped' flatten peripheral TINs matching elevations of airport central 'flat / level' flattens on inner rings, and elevations of surrounding terrain mesh on outer rings.


That *.SHP data can then be processed via SBuilderX or a batch function in ScenProc (or perhaps Terrain Sculptor Pro ?) ...to generate compiled replacement airport flatten CVX BGL(s).


An example airport blending "sloped flatten" seen in SDK TMFViewer from an end users FTX 'Scotland' scenery package:

[FSX install path]\ORBX\FTX_EU\FTX_AA_EGPB\scenery\cvx_ORBX_EGPB_Flatten_ST.BGL

While technically there is a way to de-compile terrain mesh BGLs, I am not recommending that, and instead propose applying elevations to *.SHP vertices for CVX TIN BGLs.

Triangulated irregular network - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

GaryGB

 

[crushnik]

Hi Chris:
Patrick Germain's CvxExtractor can de-compile CVX vector BGLs and output *.SHP or *.BLN files which can be Appended to SBuilderX and/or imported into GIS applications.

FS default CVX BGL airport flatten FLX*.SHP data can be imported into a GIS application along with *.SHP data for the surrounding periphery of "blend" sloped flatten TINs.

STEP ONE: I do know how to output SHP files from CVXExtractor and have already done so for a 1-degree tile where I badly need to blend at least one airport.
STEP TWO: I'm lost. Where do "TIN" files come from, and what do I do with them? EDIT: I found some reading material in this forum; I realized nothing had been turning up in my searches for "Triangulated Irregular Network," because I had mis-spelled it.

Will this result in another layer that I can just place on top of my existing mesh? If so, that sounds easier than repeating everything I have managed to accomplish so far.

 

[GaryGB]

Hi Chris:

Yes, CVX vector flatten BGLs compiled by SDK SHP2VEC modify MSFS-2Kx / LM-P3D run time display of terrain mesh BGLs compiled by SDK Resample.

GaryGB