i have 24 topics of Sim Savvy 50cm America in AVSIM Screen Shots Forum.

Latest: Vicksburg Mississippi

 

HLJAMES

Just curious - at the risk of sounding a bit selfish here -

 

For those of us who have supported Sim Savvy, how is creating content for a separate company (i.e. not yours) related to your company? Is it really good news, or does it just simply mean that there's going to be another product available for purchase through another company?

 

You said "However, my sales were not sufficient to justify my continuation of the project. But that has changed." - but if it doesn't relate to your project, it hasn't really changed, has it?

 

I am trying to figure out, after having purchased your product, how your customers are affected/supported, if at all.

 

Thanks,

Andrew

Just curious - at the risk of sounding a bit selfish here -

 

For those of us who have supported Sim Savvy, how is creating content for a separate company (i.e. not yours) related to your company? Is it really good news, or does it just simply mean that there's going to be another product available for purchase through another company?

 

You said "However, my sales were not sufficient to justify my continuation of the project. But that has changed." - but if it doesn't relate to your project, it hasn't really changed, has it?

 

I am trying to figure out, after having purchased your product, how your customers are affected/supported, if at all.

 

Thanks,

Andrew

 

That was the point I was trying to make.

My income from sales does not allow me to work my product full time.

I do plan on making an income with this next effort.

I already have a partner and we are commited to providing quality water masking & night scenery for the sim community.

You will continue to get support from Sim Savvy but no improvements to the product are planned at this time.

The water masking technique mentioned above and customer help is a viable option and has been discussed in the past.

However, organizing such an effort can be time consuming and frustrating when people fail to deliver.

Well, I'm really enjoying the photoscenery, and can only imagine the number of hours it took to get it to its current state.

 

I'd just request (as would probably all users!) that if there is a viable way for current owners to incorporate water masking that we're made aware of it. I realize that you may be "blocked" from incorporating any efforts into Massive Scenery due to whatever agreement you may have, though.

 

As far as night lighting goes, I really doubt hand-painting is going to achieve what you're looking for in a timely way; I'd recommend this being done procedurally (at least at the street level) starting through a vector reference to streets and land features such as can be found on openstreetmap.org.

We do want and need that process very much Petraeus. I can post it on my website if you like.

 

 

Larry

 

OK - I'll aim for some time next week.

Well, I'm really enjoying the photoscenery, and can only imagine the number of hours it took to get it to its current state.

 

I'd just request (as would probably all users!) that if there is a viable way for current owners to incorporate water masking that we're made aware of it. I realize that you may be "blocked" from incorporating any efforts into Massive Scenery due to whatever agreement you may have, though.

 

As far as night lighting goes, I really doubt hand-painting is going to achieve what you're looking for in a timely way; I'd recommend this being done procedurally (at least at the street level) starting through a vector reference to streets and land features such as can be found on openstreetmap.org.

 

Thank you. You said the M word.

It's OK. I have signed a contract to produce scenery for MegaScenery and finish the continental US for them. Their previous producer is no longer interested in the project. As mentioned, I have a competent partner now and that will prove to be the difference between the quality of my current product and MegaScenery.

 

MegaScenery has made it clear that I can continue my product but it is a gray area. Working on their product will improve my abilities to improve my own product. Adding a watermask to Sim Savvy involves re-doing the product entirely. My current product took 5 computers 6 months 24/7 to complete. So you see the customer effort mentioned above is the best option at this time. It looks like Petraeus will give us a start.

 

Finally, regarding the night scenery, thank you.

That's exactly what we're going to do.

Please also consider adding some autogen trees and buildings back in for us helicopter pilots

Hi Larry,

 

Glad to hear from you once again. I too really enjoy being able to fly over USA (lower 48) states using your scenery. For me, SimSavy add on is, the most important add-on I have for FSX.

Keep up the effort!

Jim

 

 

Thank you. You said the M word.

It's OK. I have signed a contract to produce scenery for MegaScenery and finish the continental US for them. Their previous producer is no longer interested in the project.

 

Interesting news. Does this mean that some of the horrible areas of MSE will also get an update after your done? I bought some of the Miami area tiles a few years ago and they were horrible colors and had clouds on the ground. I would love to see a redo of those areas.

Interesting news. Does this mean that some of the horrible areas of MSE will also get an update after your done? I bought some of the Miami area tiles a few years ago and they were horrible colors and had clouds on the ground. I would love to see a redo of those areas.

 

Of course, it always gets better as long as we keep trying.

Perhaps someday you can open your window look out and wave and see yourself doing that on the simulator :)

For now I would settle for a great watermask and blend.

Below is the SDK sample blendmask and below that is mine and finally the results

I'm looking for help again

 

 

 

 

This is how mine looks for the screen shot I posted earlier. Note that I've shown it as an overlay on the photo image with the blend mask set to about 80% visible so you can see where it's drawn in relation to the actual shoreline. I just draw it little back from the shore, then use a gaussian blur to fade it from black to white. The actual blend mask fades from black to white. The corresponding water mask does run to the edge of the water. In this case, it's a small photo scenery, so I've done something similar around the edge to blend it into the surrounding default scenery.

Also, in your example, I would leave out the grey area and just blur the edge of the black. You might even hold the black some so the boat and pier are not in the blended area. They don't look bad if they're in the full white area of the blend mask.

If you want to use my home area as your test bed, you will be able to show folks some tremendous improvements in what they see while flying over the beach or water in this area.

 

Obviously I don't have access to the SimSavvy source files, but this is what I get when I create a water mask file and drop it into the Alabama/Scenery folder.

 

Before:

 

 

 

After:

 

 

 

The basic process involved, which assumes a familiarity with FS Earth Tiles and an image program such as Photoshop, is:

 

- Using FSET, create one or more area files for the region in question

 

- Load the files into PS or whatever, select all land and fill with white, select all water and fill with an appropriate water colour.

 

- Save the files as .bmp's

 

- Then, using the same files, select the water and fill with black

 

- Save the files as tif's, adding something to the filename ( for example 'w') to identify them as water masks

 

- Then, using the same files, select the land and fill with black, select the water and fill with white

 

- Save the files as tif's, this time adding something to the filename (for example 'b') to identify them as blend masks.

 

- Edit the corresponding AreaFSXMasksInfo.inf to use these three sources (one bmp and two tif's), and specify that these masks will cover LOD 5 to 15.i.e. LOD = 5, 15

[see example AreaFSXMasksInfo at end of post.]

 

Compile the AreaFSXMasksInfo with ResampleFSXSP2, and drop the resulting .bgl into the appropriate SimSavvy Scenery folder.

 

Start FSX and fly over all that lovely water!

 

[Destination]

DestDir = C:\fset\Addon Scenery\FSEarthTiles\scenery

DestBaseFileName = Area_Lp3_SnapLatLong_N030280000_N030080000_W089090000_W088240000

BuildSeasons = 0

UseSourceDimensions = 1

CompressionQuality = 85

LOD = 5,15

 

[source]

Type = MultiSource

NumberOfSources = 3

 

[source1]

Type = BMP

Layer = Imagery

SourceDir = C:\work

SourceFile = Area_Lp3_SnapLatLong_N030280000_N030080000_W089090000_W088240000.bmp

Lon = -89.1500473022461 ;for top left and bottom right is: -88.3999443054199

Lat = 30.4666757583618 ;for top left and bottom right is: 30.1333093643188

NumOfCellsPerLine = 13109 ;Pixel is not used in FSX

NumOfLines = 7768 ;Pixel is not used in FSX

CellXdimensionDeg = 5.7220458984375E-05

CellYdimensionDeg = 4.29153442382813E-05

PixelIsPoint = 0

SamplingMethod = Point

Channel_BlendMask = 2.0 ;red channel, (note:green channel is the grey-info)

Channel_LandWaterMask = 3.0 ;blue channel

 

[source2]

Type = TIFF

Layer = None

SourceDir = C:\work

SourceFile = Area_Lp3_SnapLatLong_N030280000_N030080000_W089090000_W088240000b.tif

Lon = -89.1500473022461 ;for top left and bottom right is: -88.3999443054199

Lat = 30.4666757583618 ;for top left and bottom right is: 30.1333093643188

NumOfCellsPerLine = 13109 ;Pixel is not used in FSX

NumOfLines = 7768 ;Pixel is not used in FSX

CellXdimensionDeg = 5.7220458984375E-05

CellYdimensionDeg = 4.29153442382813E-05

PixelIsPoint = 0

SamplingMethod = Point

 

[source3]

Type = TIFF

Layer = None

SourceDir = C:\work

SourceFile = Area_Lp3_SnapLatLong_N030280000_N030080000_W089090000_W088240000w.tif

Lon = -89.1500473022461 ;for top left and bottom right is: -88.3999443054199

Lat = 30.4666757583618 ;for top left and bottom right is: 30.1333093643188

NumOfCellsPerLine = 13109 ;Pixel is not used in FSX

NumOfLines = 7768 ;Pixel is not used in FSX

CellXdimensionDeg = 5.7220458984375E-05

CellYdimensionDeg = 4.29153442382813E-05

PixelIsPoint = 0

SamplingMethod = Point

Obviously I don't have access to the SimSavvy source files, but this is what I get when I create a water mask file and drop it into the Alabama/Scenery folder.

 

Before:

 

 

 

After:

 

 

 

 

Wow. Very impressive. Thank you so much for doing this work. How large is the completed bgl file?

 

Ray

Wow. Very impressive. Thank you so much for doing this work. How large is the completed bgl file?

 

For that area of 40 X 20 miles, or a 40 mile stretch of coastline, 45 MB.