Plausible reality - OSM hotspots

[JonRD463 146]

There have been a lot of good, lively discussions on flight modeling over the last week or so, and I thought it might be a good time to bring up scenery. What I'd like for this thread to be is a sort of repository for good OSM places to fly, particularly those areas that benefit from both OSM and orthophotos that work hand in hand. In another thread, I posted a shot of Peoria, IL with both types of scenery loaded, and that's what inspired this thread.

 

I'm going to pick areas that have good OSM coverage and seek out complimentary orthos and post a couple of shots here so others may be inspired to seek these places out and enhance their own X-Plane world. Little by little, there are tools available to turn that plausible world into something looking a little more like reality.

 

I invite any of you who'd be willing to participate to please do so. If you don't already have OSM2XP, a quick Google search will point you in the right direction. As for the means to get photo textures, I'd search around the .org for information regarding G2XPL. I apologize ahead of time, but I will not be able to provide any more information regarding that program. As this thread may become picture heavy, I ask that anyone participating please link their images from a Photobucket or Image Shack account rather than uploading and attaching to individual posts. This will save Avsim from excessive bandwidth.

 

First up, Cincinnati, OH. What I did for this area was download the latest OSM data from Geofabrik, and when I ran it through OSM2XP, I set it to not exclude XP's default autogen. My reasoning is that in many cases, OSM data is populated with buildings in clusters here and there and a lot of empty space in between. For example, a large subdivision may only have a few streets with houses defined in the data so far. So, I figured I'd let XP fill in the blanks. The end result is a little variety. True, there are still high rise slums where there shouldn't be, but overall, I'm sure you'd agree the effect is much better than just the default. Add in a photo ground texture and we may just have something here.

 

 

 

 

A couple of things worth noting here... OSM2XP converts tree and building data only, as far as I know. The effect is really nice, particularly if forests/wooded areas are well defined within OSM, as you can see above. Also, there are ways to customize OSM2XP to use various different kinds of trees or buildings from the OpensceneryX package. I haven't delved that deep into the program yet, but I will eventually. In the meantime, if anyone already has any custom parameters they're willing to share, I'd welcome them. ^_^

[JonRD463 146]

Next up is Boston, MA. The entire state of Massachusetts is well represented in OSM, and I'd say that Boston is the most complete US city on the map at the moment. Not much else to say about it, so I'll let the pictures do the talking:

 

 

 

[PingPong 60]

Those pics are lovely, but I wish you had included the freeware Boston airport converted from George Grimshaw's work

[JonRD463 146]

Those pics are lovely, but I wish you had included the freeware Boston airport converted from George Grimshaw's work

 

Funny you should mention that. I was thinking the exact same thing once I looked at those pictures after posting them. I download scenery on an ad hoc basis depending on where I'm going to fly. Other than showing off the OSM here, I've yet to do my own flights to or from Boston, so I never got around to getting the airport.

[gheeD 62]

http://truscenery.wo...i-orthoscenery/

 

There's a magnificient orthophoto + OSM data for Helsinki (+ whole of Finland, the data isnt that accurate for rest of finland tho, maybe major cities.) to complement Truscenery's amazing Helsinki-Malmi airport.

 

Sorry I don't have any pictures to post, but there's couple on the download page. I formatted my PC when i added a SSD and lost the pictures i had taken whit my old x-plane installation. Only picture of the OSM data i have is of Turku ( City I live in) with the OSM data and a FS9 photoscenery converted for X-plane.

 

 

I also have planned to make some of the finnish cities/ airports with orthophoto and OSM data with the freeware orthophotos provided by finnish government. AFAIK it's the same source Truscenery used for their Helsinki orthophoto

[JonRD463 146]

Greetings, Kim. Thanks for sharing! I haven't purchased the Helsinki airport yet, but I will probably once Beta 20 goes stable. It does look great from what I've seen, and Truescenery definitely deserves the support.

[woweezowee 10]

OSM is nice, but it eats my performance. That's why is stood back and stick to default autogen for now.

[gheeD 62]

Greetings, Kim. Thanks for sharing! I haven't purchased the Helsinki airport yet, but I will probably once Beta 20 goes stable. It does look great from what I've seen, and Truescenery definitely deserves the support.

Definitely. They got lot of projects planned, I heard they have a flying school contract to make multiple Finnish airports in their outstanding quality, I can't be happier. Also after the few finnish airports they are planning to spread to other european countries, but i guess its too early to say yet where. Anyways Tampere-Pirkkala is looking great and it has nice connections to Europe with Ryanair flying there quite frequently, so that is another must-buy for me.

 

Oh and the Helsinki orthophoto definitely doesn't require their airport, it looks great even without it.

[Murmur 3,941]

Photoscenery of whole Italy:

 

http://www.x-italy.it/

 

This can be integrated with OSM city and roads ( "Addon Scenari: Strade Italiane OSM Città Italiane OSM")

 

 

[JonRD463 146]

A couple more areas, this time smaller locations ideal for GA or commuter hops. I used to just look at the large hub cities to see what was going on with OSM coverage, but this little project has me checking some of the smaller areas. Both of these were found just randomly, and both were pleasant surprises.

 

First up is Raleigh and Durham, NC. Both cities are well covered, including some forest definition. These shots are of Raleigh specifically, and you can expect the same feel from Durham,

 

 

 

 

 

Second, and the one I really got a kick out of, is the ENTIRE GULF COAST of Mississippi. From the shoreline and well into points northward, someone has shown a lot of love for this area in OSM. A tour starting from the Gulfport / Biloxi area (shown in these two pics) and heading west would be very nice flight in a small single.

 

 

[Muskoka 104]

Fantastic looking shots. All this data must be "stored" somewhere. There are so many areas still very much lacking in OpenStreetMap, would be nice to somehow get that "stored" data in OSM (with a mass import), for us users to benefit from. So much of Canada is barren in OSM, and it's just too much work to "edit/ fill" the gaps, I've tried. Ben (OSM2XP) and I were importing some building shapefile data into OSM2XP from another source, but even it was limited, and the building footprints didn't look correct in Xplane, ie. city blocks were just one big building. Then the user has to edit that "big" building into the real world smaller buildings, again, too much work.

 

This does look very nice though, just need it to look like that everywhere, and not 10 years from now.

 

Glen

[laserit 93]

Fantastic looking shots. All this data must be "stored" somewhere. There are so many areas still very much lacking in OpenStreetMap, would be nice to somehow get that "stored" data in OSM (with a mass import), for us users to benefit from. So much of Canada is barren in OSM, and it's just too much work to "edit/ fill" the gaps, I've tried. Ben (OSM2XP) and I were importing some building shapefile data into OSM2XP from another source, but even it was limited, and the building footprints didn't look correct in Xplane, ie. city blocks were just one big building. Then the user has to edit that "big" building into the real world smaller buildings, again, too much work.

 

This does look very nice though, just need it to look like that everywhere, and not 10 years from now.

 

Glen

 

I guess it will require a group effort, Us Canadian X-planer's just gotta get off our butt's :canada-flag: . I'm just starting to play around with osm2xp. Once I get things figured out, I think I'll try a couple small towns, Boston Bar, BC would be a nice beginner size. Osm2xp combined with G2xpl = WOW!

 

Anyone know the best data source of elevation files for X-plane? can my collection of msfs elevation files be converted for x-plane?

[Muskoka 104]

I guess it will require a group effort, Us Canadian X-planer's just gotta get off our butt's :canada-flag: . I'm just starting to play around with osm2xp. Once I get things figured out, I think I'll try a couple small towns, Boston Bar, BC would be a nice beginner size. Osm2xp combined with G2xpl = WOW!

 

Anyone know the best data source of elevation files for X-plane? can my collection of msfs elevation files be converted for x-plane?

 

I admire your enthusiasm, but your eyes are going to be "opened". It is very time consuming, even doing a small town / village. But, by all means, have at it. I've already done hundreds of hours in edits, my efforts equate to a needle in a haystack. I'd rather spend $50 and give it to some 3rd party that's made some scenery. My time is more valuable to me than spending it in OSM editing for the next 5 years.

 

Glen

[JonRD463 146]

All this data must be "stored" somewhere.

 

One look at the Chicago suburbs tells me that's either the case, or there's a group the size of the population of an entire third world country grinding away at OSM adding buildings.

 

This does look very nice though, just need it to look like that everywhere, and not 10 years from now.

 

Glen

 

Things seem to be filling in pretty quickly. I first looked into OSM about 8 months ago, and just in the time since, a lot of areas have come around. From my searching, it seems like some of the biggest contributors to OSM are urban explorers and geocachers. It may fill up sooner than we think.

 

Plus, another benefit of this project is finding areas where the autogen is actually as good or better than the OSM as far as density and placement of appropriate buildings goes. I found that Burlington, VT had a decent amount of OSM, but when I loaded up there in XP default, and added just the photo texture, it looked pretty good.

[alpilotx 505]

You can look at OSM changes here

www.geofabrik.de/gallery/history/index.html

 

Or with this fantastic views:

All features edited in OpenStreetMap over the past 90 days.

All features edited in OpenStreetMap over the past 7 days.

 

... or see all they different "special" views here:

http://www.itoworld.com/map/group/12