I've downloaded and installed the FSGenesis freeware terrain. So far, it looks pretty good to me. But I read in another post that these files are different from the files you can purchase from FSGenesis, and that they are not as good. Is this true? What is the difference?I am considering purchasing FSGenesis Landclass data. Is it worth purchasing for NE USA? I fly mostly in the Boston - Maine area. Does it redo where lakes are and so on? If it does it and does it accurately this would definately make me buy it.Is there better landclass for this area (Nashua, NH - KASH) than FSGenesis from somebody else?Thank you,Thomas

Hi Thomas<<<>>>>>>>>>Not true, unless you have downloaded a beta version or something. FSGenesis does not release different standards of work, only different resolutions of mesh. That might be where confusion arises.<<<>>>>>>>Landclass rearranges autogen and texture mapping, it does not usually modify or 'fix' lakes to my knowledge. Work of that kind, as done by the likes of Holger Sandmann, requires a different approach.<<<<>>>Not that i know of. Raymond Taburet has done a detailed improvement for the Boston area itself though, with modified shorelines, landclass, scenery enhancements, etc. which is also payware. You can find it at fsfreeware.com. There are also a number of freeware scenery enhancements for ME and MA.Mark "Dark Moment" Beaumonthttp://www.swiremariners.com/newlogo.jpg

I assume you must be able to download from USGS a mask of bodies of water for most of the US, and if so, that MA/NH would be something they would have done.Is there a way to use this data to redo the lakes, etc? What files would be involved and what choices of tools would I have?Thank you,Thomas

Hi Thomas,>Is there better landclass for this area (Nashua, NH - KASH) than >FSGenesis from somebody else?Here is an alternative I prefer (not my work), although I have only looked at the Beta version of the FSGenesis landclass data for the area. It doesn't seem to be available elsewhere today and the author permits redistribution so I'll make it available from my site. It covers most of the New England, NY, NJ area.www.fs-traveler.com/cgi-bin/lc_ne.zipSteve

SteveHaving checked this out, I find it to be the work by Michael Ouellette which I used successfully in FS2002. But, it is for FS2002, not FS2004. Have you used it successfully in FS2004? I ask because I know that a number of FS2002 landclass files cause problems in FS2004 (such as Ray Taburet's UK landclass, for example).Mark "Dark Moment" BeaumontP.S. Furthermore (you knowing more about these things than I!) can I just bung this into my landclass folder in addition to the FSGenesis installation? FSGenesis is a single country-wide file, as you'll know; will they clash, or simply work together?http://www.swiremariners.com/newlogo.jpg

Hi Mark,Good questions. I've been using Michael's landclass data in FS2004 since it was released and haven't noticed any problems. Just to be safe, I just ran the sim for a few minutes with and without the landclass layer active and saw no immediate problems. It does seem OK to use.I'm afraid I can't shed any light on how the sim determines landclass precedence when files for the same area are in the same folder. Given all the issues with landclass data in general, it sounds a bit risky. If you decide to try it, let us know how it works out. Mesh precedence for files of the same LOD in the same folder is determined by filename (z*.* has precedence over a*.*). This might be worth testing with landclass data as well, forcing Michael's data to sort berore, then after, the FSGenesis data. I don't know what other criteria the sim might use. Steve

>I assume you must be able to download from USGS a mask of>bodies of water for most of the US, and if so, that MA/NH>would be something they would have done.>>Is there a way to use this data to redo the lakes, etc? What>files would be involved and what choices of tools would I>have?In general, yes, for the US there are files which provide more accurate positioning of terrain features. The problem tends to be that many of these sources use raster images, and it is necessary to use manual or auto means of edge detection to generate vectors which are necessary for creating the scenery bgl files. (An alternative is to use photo-real images and replace the default landclass with custom tiles for each geo area. This method is used in some areas by MS and the custom terrain SDK provides info on how to do this. Don't forget that you need seasonal variation and night as well for NE US. Also if you want autogen objects on your terrain that can be an issue.)A secondary problem is that default water bodies in the sim have set altitudes, and the default files (hydro poly HP*.bgl) need to be edited as these altitudes cannot be excluded by the available exclusion methods. To avoid possible problems, it probably is a good idea to replace the water bodies in an entire HP file, which covers a fairly large area and hence, work. Note that this problem also affects airport terrain flatten files FL*.bgl.For more info, visit the AVSIM scenery design forum, you will many tips on tools and methodology, also links to some good FAQs or tutorials in the libraries.scott s..

I guess I was imagining that USGS at some point looked at all water in US or portions of US, and that their data is layered, and you could download the "water" layer. But perhaps this isn't so.Think I'll look into the photoreal aspect, though my gut tells me this is more work than I have time to do, but if I can do it within a 30-50mi radius around KASH, it might be worth it.Thanks,Thomas

Well, Steve, I tested it simply by sticking it in the folder I have reserved for all landclass (SCENERY/LANDCLASS/SCENERY) and leaving Justin's single file open under SCENERY/ where it had always been. The new landclass overruled Justin's in Long Island, alright.However, albeit that it would probably look great in Maine, it certainly doesn't on Long Island, which I know well. Just doesn't look right overall. So out it comes for me, and I'll stick with Justin's personally.Thought I'd report my findings, anyway.Mark "Dark Moment" Beaumonthttp://www.swiremariners.com/newlogo.jpg

For NH, take a look here:http://edc.usgs.gov/geodata/dlg_large/states/NH.htmlNote that the USGS DLG data are in USGS SDTS format and are projected. You will probably want to translate it into some other format for which there are free tools availiable to reproject it to geo (lat/long) and perhaps also change datum from NAD27 to WGS84 or NAD83 that is needed for FS. I have not worked with SDTS data myself, but have used vector data in ESRI shapefile format within a free tool, forest GIS AKA fGIS. Doing a quick google, I found an sdts to shp converter and an sdts to dxf converter here:http://software.geocomm.com/translators/sdts/Here also is a source for some ortho data (DOQs)http://www.granit.sr.unh.edu/cgi-bin/load_...data/index.htmlI have been playing with sbuilder 2.01 and autoasm 0.75 for importing vector data into a tool which can produce .bgl files.scott s..