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Where to start!?

IslandBoy_77

IslandBoy_77

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1
Country
newzealand
Hi All
I've been tinkering around the edges of flight simming for a few years now, but have found it difficult to really get into due to the fairly sub-standard quality of the graphics. When one comes from a first-person shooter background, the quality of graphics even in FSX are not that brilliant ;) That notwithstanding, I am determined to try to get the best out of FSX.
To that end, I've been trying to get a handle on customisation of scenery: both photoreal scenery and 3D objects. The combination of the 2 available for New Zealand is pretty woeful, although it is much better than it used to be (I own fairly good payware for a few areas - but they make up less than 10% of the country). My own area - Napier - has no photoreal scenery, the airport has JUST been released (yet to actually fire it up to see how good it is: it is a freeware project), the mesh / landclass is marginally passable (but only 20m), and the autogen is woeful.
So, what I want to know is this: what are the BEST tools (either payware or freeware) to:
1) Upload /place photoreal scenery. To this end, I am looking at purchasing hi-res imagery from NZ Aerial Mapping - at NZD$40 a tile. Will prob start with 2 or 3 tiles to see how it looks: need 10+ tiles just for the greater Napier / Hastings area.
2) Create 3D objects, primarily buildings, that are either a 90% match to their actual counterparts in the real world (we have several "landmark" buildings of various shapes and sizes in Napier, like the Awatoto Fertiliser Works, the Aquarium of NZ, the Rothman's Building, the A&B Building and the Whirinaki Saw Mill), and some generic house models (at the CORRECT size) that look like NZ-style houses.
3) Fix things like bridges and roads.
4) Place things like trees, signs, traffic lights etc
5) Setup / control the flow of traffic on roads
6) Night lighting

I realise a project of this scale city-wide (even for a small city like Napier that only has 55-60,000 people) is ambitious: I'm not expecting to complete it overnight. I want to start from the airport and environs and work my way out. I'd especially like to be able to render the Napier Port accurately (the current FS2004 freeware model is extremely simplistic).

I've spent a number of hours trolling about the net, but have found there is such a "deluge" of information, that it has become extremely confusing, so decided to just front up and ask.

Any helpful and useful tips, information and pointers gratefully received! :)
 
1. Most NZ aerial images need to be reprojected for FS. There are a few tools around to do this, but Global Mapper is well-worth having. A few years ago when I bought mine they offered early versions at US$200, but from a quick look on their site it's a bit more expensive now. You can easily get away with earlier versions, I use version 5 and I see they are up to 11...

Colour-correction can be done in any graphics software. Good masking tools (for alphas) are very useful for making water masks and blends. I use Picture Publisher, which has been out of production for almost a decade, but I wouldn't give it up for anything.

Once you get the images reprojected, the SDK tool Resample is all you need to build the scenery.

2. GMAX is still the way to go with FSX. I know a lot of developers have shifted to 3D Studio, but at US$3500 I don't see the attraction. GMAX has a huge number of tutorials and resources available.

3. Read the SDK:)

4. The SDK Annotator can be used to place trees and buildings. There's no other choice for annotating aerial images for FSX. For other objects, you can create your own autogen and place it using the Annotator. Fixing the FSX houses for NZ is a major undertaking, but if you manage it, I'd be interested!
 
I'll second Robin's endorsement of global mapper. I bought ver 7, and I find it to be one of the better purchases I've made. Reprojection of data is extremely easy, and the program automatically creates mosaics of geotiffs, you do nothing, and it has nice utilities for export image files.

The sdk tool Resample, a graphics editor, and global mapper is my toolbox for phototerrain.

Of course, Gmax for objects.

Best,
Bob
 
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