Best software for making FSX photoreal scenery?

[sidh 29]

Hello everyone,

 

I have been using FS Earth tiles to make scneries for ASIA... but so far it din't seem that appealing though it was worth trying..

I would like to know which is best tool for creating FSX photoreal sceneries keeping in mind that I am new to this as well as I want to make for ASIA in high resolution

 

 

Thanks in advance :)

[sidh 29]

I also want to know how do you deal with ares that have low coverage? As i see white tiles around them when using FS earthTiles..

[JYD 0]

sidh- Are you using FSX? If so this is going to be easy.

 

You added me as friend- thanx.

 

OK- I'm a retired school teacher. it took me months to figure out how to do this, reading others' help files. I wis people knew ow to teach.... they don't. After I learned I saw how easy this is. Step by step instructions... I did this with two other guys and they learned in minutes!!!

 

Here goes- (btw find me on skype and I can make this easier yet. - Open Skype- add contact- type in jyarddog. If that doesn't do it- pm me here. bob )

 

1. my FSX active scenery is open and running.

2. open SBX

3.get sat image

4. background shows up in SBX

5. add map from background

6. do not compile map yet. minimize SBX window

7. from work folder take bmp to paint program and do a blend mask

8. save this blend mask as same file name but with _B.tif

9. Back in SBX select all maps - compile

10. I get photo01.bgl rename as I wish. (I usually call it photo_sceneryariportname.bgl

11. Place this bgl in scenery, shut down FSX and restart and go see.

Often this works. Sometimes it does not. Please help

I go back to work folder and check inf file. All looks proper two sources, same file name tif is correct with _B.tif. This is of course called photo.inf

[anthony31 63]

The best tool is resample. You will need to have the FSX SDK installed on your system (with all the latest patches):

 

This guide shows how to make PR scenery

 

http://aussiex.org/forum/index.php?/topic/74-ozx-guides-10-making-scenery-for-country-airstrips/

 

There are other guides in the AVSIM file library

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Since we are mentioning tutorials, here is another, available in the Avsim library :lol:

 

Make photo-real ground textures in Flight Simulator X

http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=fsxsd&DLID=140539

 

Best regards.

Luis

[sidh 29]

Thank you for help guys... I will have a look at all these.. I will need a bit of reading and work :)

Thanks again!

[GHD 21]

No tool will help if there are no high-res textures available.

[1mikel151 71]

I also want to know how do you deal with ares that have low coverage? As i see white tiles around them when using FS earthTiles..

 

Not much you can do other than try a different sat imagery provider or purchase data which many times will have much better coverage/resolution.

FSEarthtiles is great for large areas, SBuilderX for smaller ones, both use the same sat imagery providers.

[sidh 29]

Not much you can do other than try a different sat imagery provider or purchase data which many times will have much better coverage/resolution.

FSEarthtiles is great for large areas, SBuilderX for smaller ones, both use the same sat imagery providers.

 

I don't know of anyone selling ariels at this time.. Can you refer me some websites & will the method be different with those ariels?

[kjb 0]

There are several commercial sources. One is http://www.digitalglobe.com/.

 

They are not cheap. If you're going to use USGS NAIP, one solution is called Global Mapper. It runs about $400, but it can download large areas simply by entering the coordinates. You can also look at the coordinates for an airport and tell Global Mapper to download an area centered on those coordinates. Once you have Global Mapper, the NAIP imagery can be downloaded with no charge. Also, Global Mapper can convert to the correct projection for FS.

[sidh 29]

There are several commercial sources. One is http://www.digitalglobe.com/.

 

They are not cheap. If you're going to use USGS NAIP, one solution is called Global Mapper. It runs about $400, but it can download large areas simply by entering the coordinates. You can also look at the coordinates for an airport and tell Global Mapper to download an area centered on those coordinates. Once you have Global Mapper, the NAIP imagery can be downloaded with no charge. Also, Global Mapper can convert to the correct projection for FS.

There are several commercial sources. One is http://www.digitalglobe.com/.

 

They are not cheap. If you're going to use USGS NAIP, one solution is called Global Mapper. It runs about $400, but it can download large areas simply by entering the coordinates. You can also look at the coordinates for an airport and tell Global Mapper to download an area centered on those coordinates. Once you have Global Mapper, the NAIP imagery can be downloaded with no charge. Also, Global Mapper can convert to the correct projection for FS.

 

Thanks for the link!

Is Global Mapper covering whole world? And the data I purchase how will i use it with FSX?

[kjb 0]

Global Mapper doesn't have the data, instead it's setup to link to servers and download free or commercial data. For instance, I use the USGS server to grab aerial images for the US. If I had the time and disk space, I could download all of the NAIP images for the whole country at no charge.

 

There are several ways to set it up to do a large download. One way is to just give it the coordinates. Another way is to give it one location, then set it to download an area from there, say 30 miles. That would result in a 60 mile x 60 mile square. There are also options for exporting the image. It can divide the image into columns and rows if the file size is too large. As it saves the images, it can be set to export with the correct projection as a geotiff file. It can also save a small .TFW file that contains the information for each tile.

 

Once you have the geotiff file(s), it's a simple matter of writing an .INF file (a text file) then dragging and dropping the .INF file on resample. If you want to go beyond the image as downloaded, it can create a file that will let edited images be resaved as a geotiff. So, if you decided to do water, night and some color correction to the original geotiff, the files can be worked on in another program (Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, etc) and saved. They'll lose the geotiff information, but if you have Global Mapper export a .TFW file, it can reload those edited images and then export them as a new geotiff so the .INF file will work.

 

It does make working on large photo sceneries a lot easier.

[sidh 29]

Do u have Global Mapper access all over the world? Can you please confirm about Indian scenery coverage?

Thanks very much for all that info... I tried that stuff with tiff files with help of Mr.Robert through skype .

[kjb 0]

I'm not having any luck finding a server for India.