New to X-Plane

[JonRD463 146]

Yeah, that video might turn some people off based on some of the visuals without some knowledge of what's going on there. OSM2XP is great for bringing in real world buildings, or at least 3D objects that are the same shape as the footprint of the real world building as defined in Open Streetmap, but the models themselves are pretty plain. I haven't the foggiest idea how that's done, so I'm loathe to criticize it considering what it adds to X-Plane. Paired up with good orthophotos, the results range from "hey, that's kinda cool" to "WHOA!"

 

For someone who doesn't know about OSM, I can see how the video above may not be that impressive.

[LHookins 3,102]

Yeah, that video might turn some people off based on some of the visuals

 

I'm not turned off at all. Besides, the only thing it needs is some custom textures for those buildings, and someone will eventually provide those. The buildings look good enough to me.

 

Hook

[BimmerCop 332]

Yeah, that video might turn some people off based on some of the visuals without some knowledge of what's going on there. OSM2XP is great for bringing in real world buildings, or at least 3D objects that are the same shape as the footprint of the real world building as defined in Open Streetmap, but the models themselves are pretty plain. I haven't the foggiest idea how that's done, so I'm loathe to criticize it considering what it adds to X-Plane. Paired up with good orthophotos, the results range from "hey, that's kinda cool" to "WHOA!"

 

For someone who doesn't know about OSM, I can see how the video above may not be that impressive.

 

Speaking of OSM2XP, I went to their site and there is a link called Global Scenery where they have all US States covered. Do I just install those files or do I still need to manually access the map and download the area I want?

 

As for Orthophotos, have you tried G2XPL? It works GREAT!!! Only issue I have with it is that it will pause your flight while it loads new scenery. You can uncheck the pause XP option but it still interferes with XP by switching you out into the DOS window it uses when generating textures. Unlike TileProxy for FSX where it downloads and updates textures seamlessly and on the fly.

[JonRD463 146]

No, no, don't misunderstand, Hook. I'm talking about the average person who isn't keeping up with all the more indepth stuff with X-Plane, such as OSM2XP, and who come into the forum with their FSX yardstick held firmly in hand.

 

Efrain- For OSM2XP, what I do is first go to Openstreetmap and see if the area I want to bring into X-Plane has any building data. Once I find that, I then go to http://download.geofabrik.de/openstreetmap/ and navigate to the state or country I want to convert, then download the corresponding .pbf file. and convert it. Conversion can take anywhere from 20 minutes to 3 hours, depending on how much data is available, and the size of the .pbf file.

 

I'm pretty sure there are ways to define your own area within OSM to download as a .pbf, but I've never tried it.

 

As for G2XPL, oh yeah! Love it! The only issue with it lies not with the program itself, but the data available. Shade, hue, saturation, and contrast differences between adjacent sections of the terrain can kill the effect, unfortunately. :(

[BimmerCop 332]

No, no, don't misunderstand, Hook. I'm talking about the average person who isn't keeping up with all the more indepth stuff with X-Plane, such as OSM2XP, and who come into the forum with their FSX yardstick held firmly in hand.

 

Efrain- For OSM2XP, what I do is first go to Openstreetmap and see if the area I want to bring into X-Plane has any building data. Once I find that, I then go to http://download.geof.../openstreetmap/ and navigate to the state or country I want to convert, then download the corresponding .pbf file. and convert it. Conversion can take anywhere from 20 minutes to 3 hours, depending on how much data is available, and the size of the .pbf file.

 

I'm pretty sure there are ways to define your own area within OSM to download as a .pbf, but I've never tried it.

 

As for G2XPL, oh yeah! Love it! The only issue with it lies not with the program itself, but the data available. Shade, hue, saturation, and contrast differences between adjacent sections of the terrain can kill the effect, unfortunately. :(

 

Jon, so what are those files in the Global Scenery section for?

 

And yes, I agree on the map thing but the immersion factor of flying above orthos is excellent. If I can just get it to update seamlessly...

[LHookins 3,102]

I'm talking about the average person who isn't keeping up with all the more indepth stuff with X-Plane, such as OSM2XP,

 

I *am* that average person, Jon. This is the first I've heard of OSM2XP.

 

The above descriptions aren't that helpful. How about a brief intro into what it brings to XP and how a new user might benefit? Something short and simple, enough to get me started before I try researching it online.

 

Hook

[JonRD463 146]

Jon, so what are those files in the Global Scenery section for?

 

And yes, I agree on the map thing but the immersion factor of flying above orthos is excellent. If I can just get it to update seamlessly...

 

Those look like older .pbf's Bennie downloaded a couple of years ago. The files on the Geofabrik site are updated daily.

[BimmerCop 332]

Those look like older .pbf's Bennie downloaded a couple of years ago. The files on the Geofabrik site are updated daily.

 

That'll work! hahah Thanks, will try your link out... Do everything that OSM2XP generate appear over G2XPL generated orthos?

[JonRD463 146]

I *am* that average person, Jon. This is the first I've heard of OSM2XP.

 

The above descriptions aren't that helpful. How about a brief intro into what it brings to XP and how a new user might benefit? Something short and simple, enough to get me started before I try researching it online.

 

Hook

 

Sure, I'd be happy to, any if anyone else feels I might be misrepresenting things, I invite you to correct me. I don't know a lot of the deep, "under the hood" details, but I'm glad to share what I know.

 

X-Plane 10 uses the Open Streetmap database format for its roads, railways, and powerlines, and probably other things that I'm not 100% sure of. What ships right now in the program is the state of the world (minus buildings) in OSM a couple of years ago. The program, OSM2XP, allows one to download parts of the Open Streetmap database and import it into X-Plane. Right now, I think it only handles forests and buildings. Being an open source format, Open Streetmap allows users to define buildings by 2D shape of their footprints, along with a height definition, which OSM2XP translates into 3D objects using "facades", which if I'm guessing correctly, is an X-Plane specific term for generic 3D building structure. These facades are textured with a very basic building texture that has the unfortunate washed out look you see in the video. Simmo, of Xsimreviews has made a reworked set of .lit textures for the night lighting of these buildings, which looks really good.

 

Anyway, the end result of importing these buildings is that you're getting actual real world buildings, or at least reasonable facsimilies thereof, placed in their actual locations in X-Plane. With this, you can understand how they work wonderfully with orthophotos.

 

The downside is since OSM relies on crowdsourced additions to the map, there aren't a lot of places that have very many buildings defined. Of note is a lot of Europe, including just about the whole of France. In the US, Boston, many parts of D.C. and a lot of Chicago have good coverage. One person over at the .org has taken upon himself to do as much as Peoria, IL. as he could, and the last time I updated Illinois, it was looking pretty good. Worldwide, however, coverage is spotty at best. That's why I suggested to Efrain to check the main map and see if the areas he's interested in has any building coverage worth looking at.

 

This is a very rough explanation, but I hope it answers your questions. If something seems unclear, please feel free to ask and I'll either try to get my thoughts together more coherantly, or someone else who knows better than I can help fill in the blanks.

 

EDIT---

 

Efrain- Yep. Terrain textures and objects exist seperately from eachother. OSM objects and orthophotos just so happen to play nice with eachother for obvious reasons.

[BimmerCop 332]

 

Sure, I'd be happy to, any if anyone else feels I might be misrepresenting things, I invite you to correct me. I don't know a lot of the deep, "under the hood" details, but I'm glad to share what I know.

 

X-Plane 10 uses the Open Streetmap database format for its roads, railways, and powerlines, and probably other things that I'm not 100% sure of. What ships right now in the program is the state of the world (minus buildings) in OSM a couple of years ago. The program, OSM2XP, allows one to download parts of the Open Streetmap database and import it into X-Plane. Right now, I think it only handles forests and buildings. Being an open source format, Open Streetmap allows users to define buildings by 2D shape of their footprints, along with a height definition, which OSM2XP translates into 3D objects using "facades", which if I'm guessing correctly, is an X-Plane specific term for generic 3D building structure. These facades are textured with a very basic building texture that has the unfortunate washed out look you see in the video. Simmo, of Xsimreviews has made a reworked set of .lit textures for the night lighting of these buildings, which looks really good.

 

Anyway, the end result of importing these buildings is that you're getting actual real world buildings, or at least reasonable facsimilies thereof, placed in their actual locations in X-Plane. With this, you can understand how they work wonderfully with orthophotos.

 

The downside is since OSM relies on crowdsourced additions to the map, there aren't a lot of places that have very many buildings defined. Of note is a lot of Europe, including just about the whole of France. In the US, Boston, many parts of D.C. and a lot of Chicago have good coverage. One person over at the .org has taken upon himself to do as much as Peoria, IL. as he could, and the last time I updated Illinois, it was looking pretty good. Worldwide, however, coverage is spotty at best. That's why I suggested to Efrain to check the main map and see if the areas he's interested in has any building coverage worth looking at.

 

This is a very rough explanation, but I hope it answers your questions. If something seems unclear, please feel free to ask and I'll either try to get my thoughts together more coherantly, or someone else who knows better than I can help fill in the blanks.

 

EDIT---

 

Efrain- Yep. Terrain textures and objects exist seperately from eachother. OSM objects and orthophotos just so happen to play nice with eachother for obvious reasons.

 

Great explanation, Jon. And this is one of the main reasons I even considered XP in the first place, the ability to have autogen and orthophoto terrain play nice with each other. I was flying lately in FSX exclusively with TP but the flattened look was starting to get old on me.

 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[LHookins 3,102]

Thanks, Jon. So this may or may not fix the "entire towns not represented" problem I've seen mentioned depending on the coverage available. Thanks for the explanation.

 

Hook

[JonRD463 146]

I should also mention that the imported data can sometimes have glitches. The last time I converted Illinois, there were these huge multi-mile by multi-mile "buildings" comprised of 2 walls joined at the corner scattered around Chicago. I'm not sure what was going on with those, and now that I think about it, I should convert the latest data and see if they've been removed or fixed to be whatever they're supposed to be.

 

Thanks, Jon. So this may or may not fix the "entire towns not represented" problem I've seen mentioned depending on the coverage available. Thanks for the explanation.

 

Hook

 

Potentially, at least. I wish I had more hours in the day. I'd try to do my part to fill in my local area in OSM.

[BimmerCop 332]

XP 10 + G2XPL + OSM2XP = Drool

 

 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[LHookins 3,102]

Scenery was reasonable and looked good, if a little less varied than I'm used to. The clouds were surprisingly good and the cloud shadows are a good effect. Why did the instrument panel look like it was in monochrome (especially the airspeed indicator), why were his gear down, and why did the control yoke never move? The interior looked good if a bit washed out, but the specular reflection off the wing didn't seem right. The airplane seemed to move well.

 

Overall a very good effect.

 

Hook

[JonRD463 146]

Funny thing about that video... On the one hand, the VC looked static, i.e., lack of yoke and pedal movement, but on the other, you had details like the keychain and mic cord jiggling. Not sure what plane that is. Based on the details, it might have been an older Carenado that wasn't completely tuned for X-Plane. The scenery is the main focus, and it does look pretty good overall, but it also brings OSM2XP's current limitations into sharp relief. It's still a great improvement over the default, though.

 

As for the washed out look, it might be increased gamma settings in XP. I usually tweak my contrast settings in NI if I bump up XP's gamma to try to compensate.