Hi Robert:
As you are now exploring advanced aspects of terrain scenery, you may wish to review the tutorials below, if you haven't done so already.
IMHO, the best photo-real imagery creation / Autogen annotation scenery tutorials for starters is these (2) by Luis Feliz-Tirado:
Make photo-real ground textures
File Description:
It is very easy to create your very own high-resolution, custom (photo-real) ground textures. This document explains the concepts and techniques and illustrates the use of SBuilderX with which you can quickly and easily download aerial images and make this type of scenery. So, why hesitate? Make Flight Simulator scenery as real as it gets! Very sorry - no support of any kind is offered. Please do not write. For any questions, please post in the Avsim Scenery Design Forum.
Filename: make_photo-real_ground_textures_in_fs_x.zip
License: Freeware
Added: 21st November 2009, 23:20:06
Downloads: 17714
Author: Luis Feliz-Tirado
Size: 2143kb
https://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=fsxsd&DLID=140539
Using the Autogen Annotator
File Description:
The Autogen Annotator is a powerful tool for modifying the autogen of default ground textures or adding autogen to custom (photo-real) ground. This document illustrates the use of the tool, and includes a pictorial guide to all autogen object types. Very sorry - no support of any kind is offered. Please do not write. For any questions, please post in the Avsim Scenery Design Forum.
Filename: using_the_autogen_annotator_264833.zip
License: Freeware
Added: 21st November 2009, 16:18:51
Downloads: 4220
Author: Luis Feliz-Tirado
Size: 8930kb
https://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=fsxsd&DLID=140537
You are likely to also encounter these topics at some point as well:
Terrain Design
File Description:
Terrain Design for Flight Simulator X
This simple illustrated document explains the basic concepts in Flight Simulator X terrain, and how to change them using SBuilder for FS X. Make new water bodies, roads, vehicle traffic, airport flattens, remove autogen, add more detail - anybody can do it easily and quickly.
My most sincere apologies - I am unable, for lack of free time, to offer support of any kind. For questions or problems, please post in the Avsim scenery design forum.
Filename: terrain_design_for_flight_simulator_x.zip
License: Freeware
Added: 14th December 2009, 13:29:15
Downloads: 16648
Author: Luis Feliz-Tirado
Size: 3991kb
https://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=fsxsd&DLID=141643
Some pertinent Autogen
gotcha's, and a link to one of Luis Feliz-Tirado's 'unofficial' tutorials on
Vector Autogen: "
Fun With Lines":
https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/t...cally-the-ag_telephonepole.444845/post-818260
Also, a discussion on options for semi-automated scanning of imagery to create Autogen annotations:
https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/detectfeatures-and-rectangular-vegetation.430935/
Your above
Land / Water Mask as a
*.JPG shows you have correctly used pure
Black (RGB 0,0,0) to allow display of '
hydro' attributes.
Your above
Blend Mask as a
*.JPG shows you have correctly used pure
Black (RGB 0,0,0) for
transparency to allow display of 'hydro'- or 'land' attributes
ONLY from Land Class terrain texture layers
underlying your custom satellite imagery photo-real Land Class.
All other areas in pure White (RGB 255,255,255) will allow display of
ONLY your custom satellite imagery photo-real Land Class.
NOTE: To gradually 'Blend' from from Land Class terrain texture layers
underlying into your custom satellite imagery photo-real Land Class, rather than using pure White (RGB 255,255,255), one may instead utilize a '
gradient' of gray-scale steps between 'near-White' (RGB 254,254,254) and 'near-Black' (RGB 1,1,1) to enable
variable transparency.
Generally speaking, Land Class terrain texture layers (with Autogen annotations, if any)
underlying your custom satellite imagery photo-real Land Class textures will begin to show through to the top ...when "
darker" gray-scale values less than (RGB 128,128,128) are used.
Generally speaking, Land Class terrain texture layers
underlying your custom satellite imagery photo-real Land Class textures will begin to show through to the top (with
NO Autogen annotations) ...when "lighter" gray-scale values greater than (RGB 128,128,128) are used.
However, as
increasingly "lighter" gray-scale values greater than (RGB 128,128,128) are used, it will cause the Land Class
underlying your custom satellite imagery photo-real Land Class textures ...to
fade out, as the top custom photo-real imagery layer predominates.
As Luis Feliz-Tirado (aka "LFT") states in his tutorial linked above:
"
Blend Mask
This is new to FS X - it will gradually fade out the custom texture so as to give better transitions to the default ground. The Blend Mask is a grayscale image, where pure white displays the custom textures and pure black is full transparency (and will display the underlying ground - or water!) All gray values in between will represent varying levels of transparency where the custom textures blend with the default ground.
You can use the Blend Mask to transition between custom land textures and default ground, or you can also use it to fade from your custom water to the default water.
The Blend Mask can be an additional channel in the TIFF or TarGA original image, or you can create a separate image and indicate this in the inf file."
PS: I see that Holger posted above as I was composing this reply.
IIUC, the less complex method he describes above would eliminate the option to display a Water Class texture 'color' underneath the areas of your lakes; some developers find this an acceptable visual result in FS / P3D, especially with '
shore-less' inland water bodies.
FYI: To show a Water Class texture 'color' in the area of your lakes, would require you to have a CVX vector Water class texture 'color' polygon underneath the image of the lakes; this may- or may not- already be present in default Land Class terrain textures.
IIRC, use of a
non-Pure Black gray-scale value somewhere between 'near-White' (RGB 254,254,254) and 'near-Black' (RGB 1,1,1) to enable
variable transparency in your Blend Mask for the area of your lakes, would display
both the satellite image with the Water Class 'color'.
AFAIK, you will otherwise only have a 'Hydro' attribute superimposed on top of your imagery for each lake, and you may find it more difficult in FS / P3D to see the 'Hydro' attribute except at certain angles of view relative to the Sun direction via the "specular" hydro attribute.
Regarding flattens for the lakes (if needed), these would be CVX vector Airport Boundary (Background) polygons with a flatten-only GUID:
{47d48287-3ade-4fc5-8bec-b6b36901e612} Flatten (ONLY)
https://www.prepar3d.com/SDKv4/sdk/world/terrain/terrain_overview.html#The Shp2Vec Tool
https://www.prepar3d.com/SDKv4/sdk/world/terrain/vector_shape_properties_guids.html
CVX vector terrain-type polygons can be created in
ex: ADE, SBuilderX, or other FSX / P3D compatible scenery utilities.
I hope this info will also prove helpful to the learning process.
If you have further issues with the above display anomalies, please feel free to post the text from your SDK Resample
*.INF file here.
GaryGB
