I have a couple questions regarding making photoreal scenery using fsearthtiles...

 

First, If I generate bgl's that overlap each other, does that cause any kind of issue in FSX? Is it a performance issue? Will it cause crashes? Or, is FSX smart enough to just figure it out?

 

Second, I'm trying to make photoreal scenery for whole countries, so large areas. Anyone out there that has done this that can suggest a good method to keep track of what you've already completed?

 

Also, how do you deal with shorelines? I'd like to stick to the Lat/Lon grid to make keeping track easier but if I select areas that include tiles that are too far off shore and thus, no images available, then fsearthtiles can't complete that area as it just keeps trying to get those tiles for the areas way off shore. Do you have to "trace" the shorelines in small areas or what?

 

Thanks.

1.) I haven't seen any overlap issues myself. You might want to try creating two overlapping areas first and validating you'll have no issues.

 

2.) Use lat/long coordinates to create your work areas. Perhaps work on 1/2 a square degree at a time? When I did a little photoreal creation, I printed out a Google Earth map of the area I was working in with a lat/long grid, and boxed out the sections I had created.

 

3.) Shorelines are a challenge in all photoreal work. I worked around it by bringing my 1/2 square degree chunks down close to the shore, then doing smaller project areas at the shoreline to prevent problems.

With the new version (1.03) when you import a KML file that has a polygon defined called area and it will only download tiles that fall within it. Any tiles outside this area will replaced with a fake tile of uniform color, this speeds up processing along coastlines.

 

I have overlapped bgl files before and not had any issues that I have noticed. I do this as I tend to color correct my scenery and the overlapped bitmaps make this easier in photoshop.

 

There are a couple of other tricks you can do to exclude areas, been a while since I looked at the source code so you'll have to read the notes.

With the new version (1.03) when you import a KML file that has a polygon defined called area and it will only download tiles that fall within it. Any tiles outside this area will replaced with a fake tile of uniform color, this speeds up processing along coastlines.

 

Interesting...I remember reading something about an area kml file but I thought that was just for water masks(which I haven't tried to do yet either). I didn't realize that would define your download area. I will get out the doc again and see if I can figure out the process. That would really help with the shorelines. Right now, if I define an area that has tiles too far offshore, I get a timeout error and the project fails.

 

There are a couple of other tricks you can do to exclude areas, been a while since I looked at the source code so you'll have to read the notes.

 

If you wouldn't mind sharing the other tricks, I'd love to hear them.

 

Thanks for taking the time to help out - I appreciate it.