Hello everybody!
After a three month development break I opened PyCharm and ArcGIS again yesterday and started to continue!
In these three months a lot has happened, so here is a little statement from my side:
1. The data basis has changed somewhat.
Especially the remote sensing data, which I use for the placement of the trees. The accuracy has increased to about 10 m/px, which allows me to place the trees much, much more accurately.
As always, there is also a flip side to the medal:
And in the end, these are two essential points, namely
i. the resolution of the output data is 10 times higher (which means that the data are 10 times as large!), which increases the computing time on my side to create the autogen. Therefore I have to optimize the scripts here first of all in such a way that redundant data blocks do not have a big influence on the performance and the total calculation time is reduced.
ii. despite the higher spatial accuracy, the quality of the data has not improved, i.e. there are still the same problems with the differentiation between rocks, uncovered areas and settlement and infrastructure areas. Here I continue to work on identifying settlement areas more precisely, in particular, in order to place buildings there in a targeted manner.
2. The release of the MSFS 2020.
The probably most important innovation in flight simulation in this decade has of course left its mark on me.
For my part, I would like to say that until there is a useable airliner for MSFS 2020, I will continue to use P3Dv5 as my main sim. Therefore I will continue - at least until then - to create my sceneries for P3Dv5.
Even if I do not like the satellite images of Bing in MSFS in some places, I will therefore - at least for the next 1-2 years - not create my sceneries for MSFS 2020. This has a few reasons, namely:
i) Probably the most important reason - it is simply not necessary. You just don't need photo sceneries with autogen anymore, MSFS 2020 does all that on its own. And
ii) It is not even possible - for the moment. The SDK doesn't give much away in terms of photo-scenery creation, and even less in terms of autogen creation. It is possible to create photo sceneries for relatively small areas, but at the latest when adding trees, it ends.
Should these things be included in the SDK at some point, and should it still be necessary, I will rethink it.
3. So, and now to the more pleasant news!
After I (almost) finished Africa, I therefore spread out both to the east and to the southwest.
I have made new autogen packages available, namely South Africa, Iraq, the Kingdom of Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
I have also updated my map here, maybe some of you will be surprised.
4. Updating old sceneries
While I'm working on more new sceneries, I haven't forgotten the old ones either, of course. A few weeks ago Nigeria has already received a completely new autogen. I also want to recreate the Senegal and Gambia.
So, the whole statement in one sentence:
I will not develop for MSFS 2020 for the time being, but will continue to develop new sceneries for the P3Dv5 with the new data, like the newly released autogen packages!
That's all for now!
Therefore: All the best and stay healthy in these strange times!
Matthias