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P3D v4 Phoenix Mountains

lionheart

lionheart

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Mountains of Phoenix continues... I am beginning to run out of mountains to map. We have many mountains. I didnt know it would be this many. And in the southern reaches of Phoenix, many huge mountain ranges. Another mountain range yet to do is around the Superstitions by Scottsdale airport and also by Falcon Field and Gateway. Those have yet to be done.

I experimented with Deer Valley (KDVT) and did a local zap of the area instead of just its hills. In FSX its surrounded by desert, where in reality its like a city surrounding the airport. Going to leave it for now. Basically, my scenery is a nav-aid, using local landmarks for visual reference in navigating the city.




ryhefr.JPG

Deer Valley airport.

rtpbhoerf.JPG

Hovering over Deer Valley, looking due East, the Superstitions out near Scottsdale Airport. Scottsdale is just to the right on the horizon.

rtef.JPG

South Mountain and the Gila Bend mountain ranges. I am having a problem with the Gila mountains. They disappear when you get near them. ??

ptoghepto.JPG

This is over Deer Valley looking South West. South Mountain and the Gila Bend mountain ranges are on the left. White Tanks mountain ranges are on the right (both on the far off horizon). On the left, closer, you see the North Mountain preserve, a set of mountains that are along 7th street.

When these mountains were tan (and forest patches and golf courses... ON the mountains...) you couldnt really see them as they blend. No shading, etc. So they were hidden. They are landmarks, so this really makes the sim more useable for VFR flying.

petogr[p.JPG

Looking towards Central Phoenix, Sky Harbor visible on the horizon, why out there. You can see the North Mountain park, the mountains around Camelback mountain and also Squaw Peak mountain.

I found out through Gary GB how to adjust colors on the scenery, so I might redo a couple of these mountains. Camelback looks horrible, and the mountains near Arrowhead are also washed out. I can enhance those in Photoshop.
 
lionheart

lionheart

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Makes me want to make my own Phoenix.. but man, it would need autogen and buildings. What a huge bit of work that would be.

I also would like to do a couple of the airports.

I remember Arno showing off a program years ago that created autogen buildings on scenery. I wonder if that could be done on this Deer Valley area? Something that places building objects on white rectangles for those industrial neighborhoods?
 
G

GaryGB

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lionheart said:
https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/phoenix-mountains.442981/post-802080


South Mountain and the Gila Bend mountain ranges. I am having a problem with the Gila mountains. They disappear when you get near them. ??
Click to expand...

Hi Bill:

This would likely be best discussed in a separate thread within ex: SBuilderX sub-forum, but if this was a case of terrain textures for your custom photo-real aerial imagery disappearing and/or default terrain textures being substituted at farther distances from your custom area, probably the "LOD=x" value in your SDK Resample *.INF file needs to be set to "6,13" so that higher LODs are 'forced' to be created during compilation. ;)

Normally "6,Auto" would be used if you had downloaded aerial imagery at a higher resolution than 4.8 Meters / Pixel, so you likely had downloaded a lower zoom level (resolution) to keep the SBuilderX working set and source file size smaller.


BTW: PTC ('lossy') compression applied by SDK Resample using a *.INF parameter value of "CompressionQuality = 85" reduces BGL size by~40% with little loss of visual quality; use of 'non-lossy' LZW compression in TIFF format source files may reduce BGL file size even further. :idea:


However, your lower resolution custom photo-real aerial imagery source would actually be artificially configured as LOD-13 MIPMAPs to fool the rendering engine into displaying them over the default FSX terrain textures.

[EDITED]

NOTE: The base resolution of the FSX / P3D default land class scenery is already LOD-15 (QMID 17) or ~1.2 Meters / Pixel, so one would typically wish to make custom photo-real aerial imagery using downloaded aerial imagery tiles or other source data imagery files at a Zoom level of 15 or higher (ex: 15 / 16 / 17 / 18).

CAVEAT: Use Zoom levels ex: 18 / 19 / 20 / 21 only if such resolutions are actually available in 'true' optical resolutions, and not just "digitally magnified" at resolutions above Zoom level 17).

[END_EDIT]


FYI: You can see the actual resolution of your compiled custom photo-real aerial imagery BGL using SDK TMFViewer:

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/photoreal-lod-priority-issue.437050/post-740928



A reference table for the terrain grid and resolution is here (I have not yet added a column to correlate 'Zoom' levels with terrain grid quads):

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/flattens.425495/page-2


Feel free to open a thread on fine-tuning your custom photo-real aerial imagery in a separate thread within ex: SBuilderX sub-forum. :)


GaryGB
 
Last edited:
G

GaryGB

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7,450
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lionheart said:
https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/phoenix-mountains.442981/post-802081

Makes me want to make my own Phoenix.. but man, it would need autogen and buildings. What a huge bit of work that would be.

I also would like to do a couple of the airports.

I remember Arno showing off a program years ago that created autogen buildings on scenery. I wonder if that could be done on this Deer Valley area? Something that places building objects on white rectangles for those industrial neighborhoods?
Click to expand...

Perhaps you recall seeing Arno's ScenProc ? ;)

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/forums/scenproc.131/

GaryGB
 
jtanabodee

jtanabodee

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thailand
Looking good.
Do you hate the FSX yellow sand? I think it is too brightly yellow and does not look natural.
 
Heretic

Heretic

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germany
lionheart

lionheart

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10,088
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us-arizona
jtanabodee said:
Looking good.
Do you hate the FSX yellow sand? I think it is too brightly yellow and does not look natural.
Click to expand...

I hate it quite a bit. It blends the mountains into the scenery, except where there are forests and golf courses on half of the mountains. Horrible.
3jgeporige.JPG



Heretic said:
Am I witnessing the beginning of "Lionheart Design - Scenery Division"?
With a few airport sceneries mixed in, you'd probably have yourself a product there - if you can get licensing for the satellite pictures.
Click to expand...

Its a possibility... If I can figure things out. I have so much going on, I need a team. sigh...
 
lionheart

lionheart

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I cannot seem to get Durango area to show up in FSX. Bottom left block of the Colorado scenery.

Anyone hear about an issue on this occurring?



Bill
LHC
 
scotth6

scotth6

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527
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australia
Hi Bill,

Are you talking about the Bluesky Scenery Colorado? It looks like Durango may not be included according to the overview map. The bottom left block shows Gunnison, and Durango looks to be quite a bit further south west.

Cheers,
 
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