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top-down view

C

Capn_Geoff

Messages
76
I'm not sure where to post this, so I'll try here.

I have an "add-on", if you will, for FS9. Actually it is a completely independant program, and I need a top-down view of the world displayed. The view can be panned and zoomed in and out. I currently use the ETOPO5 database by NGDC and I see that there is now a ETOPO2 available which is nice, but I would prefer to use the FS world view, if possible, since the application is used in conjucnction with FS. The advantage of the ETOPO maps is that they are very easy to plot and they have underwater land elevation data, but the disadvantage is that the resolution is 2 NM at the equator

So my question is (and yes, I do have and have *lightly* read the *FS9* terrain sdk) can anyone point me to information on how to generate a top-down view from outside of FS... that is creating the view from scratch?

Alternatively is there a higher resolution map of the *world* than the ETOPO2 ?
 
Hi,

I googled a bit on the ETOPO5 and it seems to be digital elevation data, is that correct? In that case I think you could also try the SRTM dataset. It is free and has a quite good resolution (about 90 meters). This is also the data used in FS for most parts of the world btw.

I am not sure if I understand your question about rendering the FS world. Do you want to read the mesh terrain data from FS and then render it in your own engine?
 
Yes, the ETOPO5 is Data elevation. There is now an ETOPO2 so, I'll be using that instead.

I guess I'm a bit confused on the mesh terrain. I thought that was an add-on feature (I'm totally ignorant when it comes to this in FS) as I haven't been able to find inside the fs directory structure anything that would indicate how the world is put together. I understand the layering of textures and objects, just don't where to look for the mesh and thence how to read it.

On the GUI I'm building I want to offer a variety of views - polar, ETOPO, FS, and a simple vector map. It would be nice to use the FS data as that would sync in well with FS, and I'll probably also offer something similar for X-Plane using X-Plane's data as well.

You mention the SRTM of which I was unaware. If M$ used it as the basis for FS, they must have pared the data dramatically to get it from 1 DVD down to what, 1 CD?
 
In FS the elevation data is stored in the BGL files, but it not very easy to read it out again. The data is stored in a way that makes it easier for the scenery engine to process it. So I think it would be easier for you to get the source data from the internet and process it yourself.

The other features of the FS terrain, like the landclass and vector data are also stored in BGL files and the scenery engine puts all this information together when rendering the terrain.
 
Thank you so much. I was wondering about the BGLs. It just did not seem that's where the actual Data Elevation Data would be stored. I'm more interested in coloring the data points based on elevation than putting textures on them. And actually getting the raw data will make other tasks like finding the Altitude above ground of an object much easier.

Again, thanks for your time and explanation.
 
Hi,

it is precisely as Arno explained. Excellent tool for the study of the fs sceneries is the TmfViewer from SDK, in FSX here is visible for example the border between SRTM and Not-SRTM areas in Scandinavia

http://www.volny.cz/stoje/scen/fsx_srtm2.gif

or the waterclass

http://www.volny.cz/stoje/scen/fsx_water.gif

Is it possible that the Etopo bathymetry was used as one from the components for the global waterclass? The SRTM were not used in the original FS9, but they are available for FS9 in different addons. In the FSX they were widely used, but I don’t know for what area precisely. The demXXYY.bgls have about 1.2 GB, but it is including the Not-SRTM areas.

Cheers

Vlada Stoje
 
Same problem here,

we're looking to code a little flight planner and we wanted to display the map from the FS sceneries but I haven't found how to read the vector data sceneries files.
 
David - I've used the ETOPO5 "database" and it is easy to program. I presume the same will hold true for the ETOPO2 and the SRTM. They are simply altitude arranged by cell east to west and north to south. Altitude (at least for the ETOPOs can be in short ints (16 bit) or float. short ints worked great for me.

I've been told time and again that there is no way to determine AGL of an AI object. However, with access to the SRTM, then it should be very easy to determine. While I'm not working on an AI flight "planner", I can see where with the SRTM it would be easy to give AI aircraft realistic paths and not have the aircraft fly through a mountain.

The only problem I see with the SRTM is it's $60. Kind of hard to swallow when one is doing stuff for free, but I'm going to spring for it unless someone comes up with an easy answer for a top-down viewer. I wonder how the M$ GPS does it ?!?
 
In fact we just want to be able to draw a map with the FS navdata, airports (this is ok with bglAnalyseX)...

So we just wanted to get the coastlines, maybe the roads and rivers from the FSX files (cvx....bgl). Maybe we'll try to find another source of data to draw our maps then but we don't really need to have "heightmaps" so I don't think that SRTM datas will be very useful for our project
 
I agree that using the FS data would be better for displaying the scenery/airports, etc.. But I haven't seen anywhere (so far) a simple way to do it. Would have been nice to have a routine - say - draw_top_down_view(lat, lon); provided by M$. If only there was one available.

If I do happen to find something I'll post here. Like somany other things there has to be a way...
 
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