HiI got Fset working and downloading perfect,but i still have the problem with the water mask.The Fset user guide is very confusing.It only says draw the lines and name them and save them like this and that,but nothing about how to draw the lines in ex. inkscape...I have tried making KML files using Google Earth and saved them with Coast and deepwater names but still i get this:maybe fset does not see it even it is saved as areakml.kml in work folder....(see att. under)When i try to use the "inkscape" it does not do anything.Can someone please explain how to draw the coast lines and deep-waterlines in detail?(which pencil do i use to draw and how save them and so on)Thanks

HiI got Fset working and downloading perfect,but i still have the problem with the water mask.The Fset user guide is very confusing.It only says draw the lines and name them and save them like this and that,but nothing about how to draw the lines in ex. inkscape...I have tried making KML files using Google Earth and saved them with Coast and deepwater names but still i get this:maybe fset does not see it even it is saved as areakml.kml in work folder....(see att. under)When i try to use the "inkscape" it does not do anything.Can someone please explain how to draw the coast lines and deep-waterlines in detail?(which pencil do i use to draw and how save them and so on)Thanks

IIRC, the tool needed to be 2 pixels wide to work well. And, if there are sectional joins, you have to make sure those lines overlap. I prefer Photoshop myself. It's what I use to create both water masks and blend areas. If I have an opportunity soon, I'll see if I still have Inkscape installed (I'm away from my computer for the next day or two). Maybe it can be used in a similar manner.Rich

Hi Rich and thank you for your reply.Since you mentioned the Photoshop i was in store and got me one "Adobe Photoshop CS5"Meanwhile i will read the manual and make myself better known with the cs5 software.I don't know which program will be easiest to deal with.(Cs5 or Inkscape).But as Always appreciate your guidance

Hi Rich and thank you for your reply.Since you mentioned the Photoshop i was in store and got me one "Adobe Photoshop CS5"Meanwhile i will read the manual and make myself better known with the cs5 software.I don't know which program will be easiest to deal with.(Cs5 or Inkscape).But as Always appreciate your guidance

I have Photoshop CS3. Assuming the work area looks the same, open the scenery BMP in Photoshop. Select Layer/New/Layer from the menu at the top. Select the "Brush" tool from the tool menu on the left and right-click. From the context menu, select "Pencil Tool". Set the diameter and shape you want from the menu in the top left corner and make the foreground color "black" (hover your mouse over the two color boxes you see toward the bottom of the tool bar on the left and you'll see which is foreground and which is background. If the two boxes are already black and white, click the curved arrow to switch their positions, if you need to.Now zoom in on your image and trace the shoreline from one edge of the image to the other. When done, select the Gradient Tool from the tool bar on the left and right click. From the context menu, select "Paint Bucket Tool". Hover it over the ocean area and click. The entire area should fill in with black. Next delete the background layer and "flatten" the layer you have left. That will fill the non-black area in with white. Save the resulting black/ white image as a TIFF file. That's your watermask.You'll next have to make some changes to a text file but I'm late for work and will have to pass that info on later.Photoshop has a steep learning curve but the results are well worth the effort. My instructions sound easy but I'm sure you'll need to dig into the manual to figure out how to make some of what I'm taking about happen. There are more advanced ways of using the program to create a water mask and blend mask that look more natural but that's more than I can pass on in a short note. You can see what you can do with it in some of my scenery. If you search the file library here at AVSIM for "Rich Sorochak", my Kauai scenery should pop up. The download is broken up into five files. That scenery will give you a good example of where this program can take you. The results will be much more satisfying that what you can produce with Inkscape.Rich

I'm at work now and realized that, I think, we are talking about two different things. I think you said "water mask" which is actually adding water reflections to the photoscenery. But you also will need a blend mask which is what the deep water/coastline business is all about.I only have a few minutes now but... Essentially you go about making the two in the same way as described above. The trick in the blend mask is to make the blended area random. For that you will need to work with the brush menu and, if you can't find something that gives the effects you want, go online and find some that will work for you. I tried a few hundred before I found some that produced an effect I liked. In both the water mask and the blend mask, white allows the photoscenery to show in all it's glory. In a water mask, however, you are only dealing with black and white. Black is the water reflection. It's all or none.The blend mask, however deals with black and white and the shades of grey in between. White is the photoscenery and black is FSX scenery. FSET makes a uniform transition, no matter how much you play with the settings. In Photoshop you can completely randomize it by using black, white, and a layer for each.In it's simplest form, make a layer for white and a layer for black. Make sure the color (black or white) on those layers overlap. Then delete the photoscenery BMP, flatten what's left (the flattening will give you shades of grey where they overlapped), and save it as a TIFF.More, if you need it, later.Rich

Hi Richwords can not describe how grateful I am for Your guidance.with your explanation above, I'll get this done, Guaranteed.Thank You

Hi Richwords can not describe how grateful I am for Your guidance.with your explanation above, I'll get this done, Guaranteed.Thank You

You're quite welcome. Let me know when you have your first set of masks done. I'll have you send me some information. You'll need to alter the appropriate INF file(s) in order to compile the masks into the BGL. How many sections are you dealing with, anyway? The area in the images at the top of this thread doesn't look very large. So, hopefully, not many.Rich

Hi Richafter having gone through the CS5's entire user-manual and some practices first,I followed your guidance and got the most satisfactory result(for a rookie that is..).Regarding to make changes in "AREA.INFO",BGL to TIFF,wasn't necessary since editing:[source]Type = Custom TO this[source]Layer = ImageryType = tiff made RESAMPLERFSXSP2.EXE not starting at all.Maybe There is something i am doing wrong? .I have downloaded 336Gb of data until now.The file i have posted before is a test-bgl just made for avsim forum.Again i would like to send my gratitude for your efforts.Thank You

...made RESAMPLERFSXSP2.EXE not starting at all.Maybe There is something i am doing wrong?...

In my experience, the only time the resampler won't run is when there's an error in the INF file. First check to make sure the directories and file names are correct in the INF. If that's not the problem, then post what you have in the INF and I'll see if I can spot the problem.Rich

The RED is what i have changed in AreaFSInfo_Lp1_SnapOff_N069430460_N069372969_E018533786_E019013495:[Destination]DestDir = E:\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\Addon Scenery\FSEarthTiles\sceneryDestBaseFileName = Area_Lp4_SnapOff_N059230257_N058445235_E016180557_E017372748BuildSeasons = 0UseSourceDimensions = 1CompressionQuality = 100LOD = Auto,13[source]Layer = ImageryType = tiffSourceFile = Area_Lp4_SnapOff_N059230257_N058445235_E016180557_E017372748.tifLon = 16.3015365600586 ;for top left and bottom right is: 17.6243019104004Lat = 59.3840646743774 ;for top left and bottom right is: 58.7478446960449NumOfCellsPerLine = 23117 ;Pixel is not used in FSXNumOfLines = 14825 ;Pixel is not used in FSXCellXdimensionDeg = 5.7220458984375E-05CellYdimensionDeg = 4.29153442382813E-05PixelIsPoint = 0SamplingMethod = Point--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------AreaFSXMasksInfo_Lp1_SnapOff_N069430460_N069372969_E018533786_E019013495:[Destination]DestDir = E:\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\Addon Scenery\FSEarthTiles\sceneryDestBaseFileName = Area_Lp1_SnapOff_N069430460_N069372969_E018533786_E019013495BuildSeasons = 0UseSourceDimensions = 1CompressionQuality = 100[source]Type = MultiSourceNumberOfSources = 2[source1]Type = BMPLayer = ImagerySourceDir = F:\FSEARTHTILES\workSourceFile = Area_Lp1_SnapOff_N069430460_N069372969_E018533786_E019013495.bmpLon = 18.893837928772 ;for top left and bottom right is: 19.0263891220093Lat = 69.7179508209229 ;for top left and bottom right is: 69.6249103546143NumOfCellsPerLine = 9266 ;Pixel is not used in FSXNumOfLines = 8672 ;Pixel is not used in FSXCellXdimensionDeg = 1.43051147460938E-05CellYdimensionDeg = 1.07288360595703E-05PixelIsPoint = 0SamplingMethod = PointChannel_BlendMask = 2.0 ;red channel, (note:green channel is the grey-info)Channel_LandWaterMask = 2.2 ;blue channel[source2]Type = BMPLayer = NoneSourceDir = F:\FSEARTHTILES\workSourceFile = AreaMask_Lp1_SnapOff_N069430460_N069372969_E018533786_E019013495.bmpLon = 18.893837928772 ;for top left and bottom right is: 19.0263891220093Lat = 69.7179508209229 ;for top left and bottom right is: 69.6249103546143NumOfCellsPerLine = 9266 ;Pixel is not used in FSXNumOfLines = 8672 ;Pixel is not used in FSXCellXdimensionDeg = 1.43051147460938E-05CellYdimensionDeg = 1.07288360595703E-05PixelIsPoint = 0SamplingMethod = Point

Give this a try instead. I've added some notes in red. You can delete them from the file.Not sure if you plan to keep FSET's filenames. I abbreviate and alter mine to make it easier to keep track of things. You might want to start the Blendmask TIFF's name with BlendMask to read: BlendMask_N059230257_N058445235_E016180557_E017372748.tif. And do the same thing with the WaterMask. There's nothing magical about the name as long as the file name and its name in the INF file are the same so that the Resampler can retrieve it when it needs it. Altering the names to something that makes sense will allow you to keep your sanity in long term.

[Destination]DestDir = E:\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\Addon Scenery\FSEarthTiles\sceneryDestBaseFileName = Area_Lp4_SnapOff_N059230257_N058445235_E016180557_E017372748BuildSeasons = 0UseSourceDimensions = 1CompressionQuality = 100 ; dropping this to 80, creates a much smaller BGL without much loss in quality. I have to be about 100 feet above the scenery and "paused" to see the difference.LOD = Auto,13 ;not sure you need this line. I've never used it and never had a problem[source]Type = MultiSourceNumberOfSources = 3 ; Summer BMP and 2 TIFFs, one for the BlendMask, one for the WaterMask. If you want a night texture as well, you would change the "3" to "4".[source1]Season = SummerVariation = March,April,May,June,July,August,September,October,November,December,January,FebruaryType = BMPLayer = ImagerySourceDir = F:\FSEARTHTILES\workSourceFile = Area_Lp1_SnapOff_N069430460_N069372969_E018533786_E019013495.bmpLon = 18.893837928772 ;for top left and bottom right is: 19.0263891220093Lat = 69.7179508209229 ;for top left and bottom right is: 69.6249103546143NumOfCellsPerLine = 9266 ;Pixel is not used in FSXNumOfLines = 8672 ;Pixel is not used in FSXCellXdimensionDeg = 1.43051147460938E-05CellYdimensionDeg = 1.07288360595703E-05PixelIsPoint = 0SamplingMethod = PointChannel_BlendMask = 2.2 ;red channel, (note:green channel is the grey-info) The first number in 2.2 represents the source #. Eg Source2Channel_LandWaterMask = 3.0 ;blue channel The first number in 3.0 represents the source #. Eg Source3[source2] ; this would be your BlendMask created with PhotoshopType = TIFFLayer = NoneSourceDir = F:\FSEARTHTILES\workSourceFile = Area_Lp4_SnapOff_N059230257_N058445235_E016180557_E017372748.tifLon = 16.3015365600586 ;for top left and bottom right is: 17.6243019104004Lat = 59.3840646743774 ;for top left and bottom right is: 58.7478446960449NumOfCellsPerLine = 23117 ;Pixel is not used in FSXNumOfLines = 14825 ;Pixel is not used in FSXCellXdimensionDeg = 5.7220458984375E-05CellYdimensionDeg = 4.29153442382813E-05PixelIsPoint = 0SamplingMethod = Point[source3] ; this would be your WaterMask created with PhotoshopType = TIFFLayer = NoneSourceDir = F:\FSEARTHTILES\workSourceFile = Area_Lp4_SnapOff_N059230257_N058445235_E016180557_E017372748.tif ; this would have to have a different name than Source2Lon = 16.3015365600586 ;for top left and bottom right is: 17.6243019104004Lat = 59.3840646743774 ;for top left and bottom right is: 58.7478446960449NumOfCellsPerLine = 23117 ;Pixel is not used in FSXNumOfLines = 14825 ;Pixel is not used in FSXCellXdimensionDeg = 5.7220458984375E-05CellYdimensionDeg = 4.29153442382813E-05PixelIsPoint = 0SamplingMethod = Point

Hopefully I haven't missed anything.Rich

Hi After so much struggle i finally almost understood the idea.But i am having problem with the NumberOfSources.The resamplerfsxsp2.exe working but the result is wrong.I have downloaded and created water layer with CS5 and got these files:And some changes in AreaFSXMasksSeasonsInfo: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Destination]DestDir= E:\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\Addon Scenery\FSEarthTiles\sceneryDestBaseFileName = Area_Lm1_SnapOff_N059545294_N059532629_E010443987_E010480247BuildSeasons = 1UseSourceDimensions = 1CompressionQuality = 80 [source1]Season = SummerVariation = March,April,May,June,July,August,September,October,November,December,January,FebruaryType = BMPLayer = ImagerySourceDir = D:\FSEarthTiles\workSourceFile = AreaSummer_Lm1_SnapOff_N059545294_N059532629_E010443987_E010480247.bmpLon = 10.7444071769714 ;for top left and bottom right is: 10.8006906509399Lat = 59.9147075414658 ;for top left and bottom right is: 59.8906347155571NumOfCellsPerLine = 15738 ;Pixel is not used in FSXNumOfLines = 8975 ;Pixel is not used in FSXCellXdimensionDeg = 3.57627868652344E-06CellYdimensionDeg = 2.68220901489258E-06PixelIsPoint = 0SamplingMethod = Point [source2]Type = TiffLayer = ImagerySourceDir = D:\FSEarthTiles\workSourceFile = Area_Lm1_SnapOff_N059545294_N059532629_E010443987_E010480247.tifLon = 10.7444071769714 ;for top left and bottom right is: 10.8006906509399Lat = 59.9147075414658 ;for top left and bottom right is: 59.8906347155571NumOfCellsPerLine = 15738 ;Pixel is not used in FSXNumOfLines = 8975 ;Pixel is not used in FSXCellXdimensionDeg = 3.57627868652344E-06CellYdimensionDeg = 2.68220901489258E-06PixelIsPoint = 0SamplingMethod = Point [source3]Season = LightMapVariation = LightMapType = BMPLayer = ImagerySourceDir = D:\FSEarthTiles\workSourceFile = AreaNight_Lm1_SnapOff_N059545294_N059532629_E010443987_E010480247.bmpLon = 10.7444071769714 ;for top left and bottom right is: 10.8006906509399Lat = 59.9147075414658 ;for top left and bottom right is: 59.8906347155571NumOfCellsPerLine = 15738 ;Pixel is not used in FSXNumOfLines = 8975 ;Pixel is not used in FSXCellXdimensionDeg = 3.57627868652344E-06CellYdimensionDeg = 2.68220901489258E-06PixelIsPoint = 0SamplingMethod = Point--------------------------------------------------------------------Night texture is also sampled and working in fsx but the water still looks like this(Pic).What do i have to edit /change in Info to make this work?Can you please enlighten me some more?Thanks

You missed this line from my previous example. Add this to the end of Source1:

Channel_LandWaterMask = 2.0 ;blue channel The first number in 2.0 represents the source #. Eg Source2

You have to tell the program which source is the water reflection source. I'm not sure if it's critical but I always place the night mask 2nd, the blend mask 3rd, and the reflection mask (LandWaterMask) 4th. I notice that you're not using a blend mask here, though. So, add the change above and try it, if it works great. If not, try changing the order of the night mask and reflection mask. If you do, though, change "2.0" to "3.0". Otherwise it'll be trying to get the reflection information from your night mask.Rich

Oh, for the TIFF files, you might find that you'll have to change: Layer = Imagery to Layer = NoneIt's been a long time since I settled on the formatting I use but I believe I had issues with TIFFs set to: ImageryRich

Oh, for the TIFF files, you might find that you'll have to change: Layer = Imagery to Layer = NoneIt's been a long time since I settled on the formatting I use but I believe I had issues with TIFFs set to: ImageryRich

You made me a very happy man Rich.I also changed the blendmask and water mask in the info as you mentioned earlier and it helped a lot.------------------------------------------------------------------------[Destination]DestDir = E:\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\Addon Scenery\FSEarthTiles\sceneryDestBaseFileName = Area_Lm1_SnapOff_N059545294_N059532629_E010443987_E010480247BuildSeasons = 1UseSourceDimensions = 1CompressionQuality = 80[source]Type = MultiSourceNumberOfSources = 4[source1]Season = SummerVariation = March,April,May,June,July,August,September,October,November,December,January,FebruaryType = BMPLayer = ImagerySourceDir = D:\FSEarthTiles\workSourceFile = AreaSummer_Lm1_SnapOff_N059545294_N059532629_E010443987_E010480247.bmpLon = 10.7444071769714 ;for top left and bottom right is: 10.8006906509399Lat = 59.9147075414658 ;for top left and bottom right is: 59.8906347155571NumOfCellsPerLine = 15738 ;Pixel is not used in FSXNumOfLines = 8975 ;Pixel is not used in FSXCellXdimensionDeg = 3.57627868652344E-06CellYdimensionDeg = 2.68220901489258E-06PixelIsPoint = 0SamplingMethod = PointChannel_BlendMask = 2.2 ;red channel, (note:green channel is the grey-info) The first number in 2.2 represents the source #. Eg Source2Channel_LandWaterMask = 3.0 ;blue channel The first number in 3.0 represents the source #. Eg Source3[source2]Type = TiffLayer = NoneSourceDir = D:\FSEarthTiles\workSourceFile = blendmask.tifLon = 10.7444071769714 ;for top left and bottom right is: 10.8006906509399Lat = 59.9147075414658 ;for top left and bottom right is: 59.8906347155571NumOfCellsPerLine = 15738 ;Pixel is not used in FSXNumOfLines = 8975 ;Pixel is not used in FSXCellXdimensionDeg = 3.57627868652344E-06CellYdimensionDeg = 2.68220901489258E-06PixelIsPoint = 0SamplingMethod = Point[source3]Type = TiffLayer = NoneSourceDir = D:\FSEarthTiles\workSourceFile = watermask.tifLon = 10.7444071769714 ;for top left and bottom right is: 10.8006906509399Lat = 59.9147075414658 ;for top left and bottom right is: 59.8906347155571NumOfCellsPerLine = 15738 ;Pixel is not used in FSXNumOfLines = 8975 ;Pixel is not used in FSXCellXdimensionDeg = 3.57627868652344E-06CellYdimensionDeg = 2.68220901489258E-06PixelIsPoint = 0SamplingMethod = Point[source4]Season = LightMapVariation = LightMapType = BMPLayer = ImagerySourceDir = D:\FSEarthTiles\workSourceFile = AreaNight_Lm1_SnapOff_N059545294_N059532629_E010443987_E010480247.bmpLon = 10.7444071769714 ;for top left and bottom right is: 10.8006906509399Lat = 59.9147075414658 ;for top left and bottom right is: 59.8906347155571NumOfCellsPerLine = 15738 ;Pixel is not used in FSXNumOfLines = 8975 ;Pixel is not used in FSXCellXdimensionDeg = 3.57627868652344E-06CellYdimensionDeg = 2.68220901489258E-06PixelIsPoint = 0SamplingMethod = Point----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Thank you so much