OPEN BETA/COMMUNITY PROJECT: OSM World

[Mariopilot 9]

Hi All!

 

edit:

This is now a freeware project, test it out here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lln7i95ghptng0x/AAAFiCOMMyhQVydgWG0rJkv3a?dl=0

To decrypt, enter "TheHunHunterTexas" (mods, I do not use this passphrase anywhere, but I do not feel lime uploading 250MB again just to remove the password, so if you can, let it be here visible to everyone)

 

also, if you would like to contribute to expand this to worldwide scale, just ring the bell!

 

 

 

I have been working on a big big scenery lately, covering Western Europe with OSM vector data for coastlines, roads, lakes and even some VTP land class (for urbanized areas)...

 

 

The scenery covers all western Europe (the EURW area of FS9) from Portugal to just east of Italy. Resolution is at about 1point/10m, for roads, coastlines, rivers, railroads, power lines and VTP urban area polygons!

 

Here Some screenshots so you know what you are testing!

 

Reykjavik, Iceland

 

Innsbruk, Austria

 

Genova, Italy

 

Note that I have a variety of freeware texture add-ons and a (free) global SRTM mesh...

 

If interested, respond to the topic and you will obtain the dropbox link and the decryption password via PM.

[A320driver 17]

Looks interesting. Would be willing to test it in my flight sim world.

[Mariopilot 9]

A320Driver, thanks a lot!

 

All right,  a PM is on your way! Be sure to follow carefully the instructions on the readme after you download

 

All you have to do is fly around and report serious problems such as crashes, and graphical glitches...

 

what NOT to report:

 

• small discrepancies between coastlines and terrain
• eventual areas where no landclass allows water to fill square areas (very rare)
• climbing water on airports too close to the ocean (airport flattens override water flatterns, for safety)
• no autogen in close proximity to airports (I killed it so that vector autogen from roads does not cross runways and similar)
• rivers and lakes are not flat (it helps a lot having a nice SRTM mesh)

[Luis Hernandez 569]

I'm interested. What should I do apart from being aware of these issues? Since I know nothing of Europe, I can't report any inaccuracies.

[Mariopilot 9]

Dear Luis,

 

No need for you to know European topology here! The beta testing is for major issue finding, e.g. crashes, and bad graphical problems (bad vector files can cause terrain mesh to go insane and look like it came out of the "Lord Of The rings" for instance... astronomical height spikes and sinkholes...

If you find something that looks abnormal you report it here! Just make sure it does not belong to the above list... also i am interested in performance impact!

 

I'll PM you the link if you think you can be useful! all you need to do is fly around Europe and have fun! just plan your normal flight, and be attentive to the scenery!

[gryzli 0]

Hi Mario,

I'm interested to be a tester !

Feel free to contact me.

 

Kind regards,

Bernard.

[Mariopilot 9]

Bernard,

 

No.2 beta tester is you! we still have 18 positions

 

looking forward to hear from you!

[AndyPaul 11]

A similar project has already done what you are attempting, and covers the whole world in OSM terrain, objects, buildings and autogen: OpenVFR (openvfr.freyt.de).

 

What are you going to do different / better that would justify another product on the market? Or: Why should I buy it?

 

By the way, I would be your first customer if you would develop that for FS2004!

[ematheson 19]

A similar project has already done what you are attempting, and covers the whole world in OSM terrain, objects, buildings and autogen: OpenVFR (openvfr.freyt.de).

 

What are you going to do different / better that would justify another product on the market? Or: Why should I buy it?

 

Seems, looking at the OpenVFR site, that what he's doing differently is that he's developing for FS9, not FSX!

[AndyPaul 11]

Seems, looking at the OpenVFR site, that what he's doing differently is that he's developing for FS9, not FSX!

I stand corrected and apologize! I was under the assumption it would be for FSX, I better get my glasses...

 

So, in that case, i am looking forward to the release and, if there is any room left for a Beta Tester, I would like to apply.

 

Cheers,

Andreas

[Mariopilot 9]

Hi Andy!

 

Yes, I have room for more beta testers! and this is for FS-9 exactly, otherwisae I will be competing agains FTX Vector as well (no-go)!

 

Plus, this is the funniest beta testing ever, just fly around western Europe and enjoy the scenery (or report any abnormality)!

 

A PM is on yuor way!

 

You are Beta tester #3! still 17 left

[gwillmot 31]

What's the difference between this and Ultimate Terrain Europe?

[Mariopilot 9]

Never had UTE myself, but:

 

I think UTE runs roads, river, coastlines. They of course appear to use high-end data sources from TeleATLAS (that I cannot beat), but I do not think they turned land use polygons into vector land class data for city areas. This may cause road groupings apparently in the middle of nowhere. using this VTP trick, OSM data allows to place urban areas with a resolution of 10m/point. Roads now make sense almost everywhere (OSM is not perfect) and city areas are no longer defined at a meager 1Km*1Km resolution available via Landclass. Nevertheless, the two are comparable products. This one hopefully is compiled from newer data!

You have railroads and powerlines too... Most specially, UTE is $40 worth, this is a low-cost alternative at a projected $10

[AndyPaul 11]

Hi there,

 

here is my first report:

 

Who needs FSX?? ;-) It looks very nice and together with FS9 Evolution textures creates a completely new FS9, FS9.6 one might say. It makes FS9 VFR ready.

 

Performance is very good (even on my Macbook Air), it only takes slightly longer to load than usual.

 

Here are the issues / non-issues, none of it is a dealbreaker:

 

1. Issue: The file EURW_22_Libobj_excl.bgl (In OSM WORLD 1 CORE/SCENERY) excludes all library objects including those of the default airports. Turning it off and leaving the other file activated solves this issue, but I wonder for what do you need to exclude the library objects in the first place? The file does not influence the appearance of addon airports (at least as far as I tested it)

 

2. A base landclass is still required which is no big deal of course as creating a brand new landclass is a time consuming task. For Germany I am using Landscape Germany which is fine. It mixes however the landuse polygons of OSM World with those landclasses defined in the custom landclass file. A possible solution would be, since urban and industrial landclass is no longer required to be in a landclassification file, to provide a basic landclass layer without any urban classification. This would make it incredibly easy to make custom landclass for every country and also making southern Europe finally a bit more dry.

 

Will report back as soon as I did some flights. Thanks for doing this, I was about to start a similar task since I was fed up with the terrain in FS9. OSM World made my day. Maybe I will start a basic landclass file if I get to it. Since it only needs vegetation classification this should go much faster than a complete one.

 

Another tip: Please start with Asia, Australia, North-America and South-America and Africa! ;-)

 

Cheers,

Andreas

[Mariopilot 9]

Andy, right on!

 

I suspect your problem with EURW_22_Libobj_excl.bgl is one of scnery area priority. Since the OSM world 1 core is supposed to go BELOW all scenery areas including the defaule EURW (FS9/scenery/EURW) it will not exclude lib objects there! if you place it on top, SHAZAM! it kills everything! I am including this file because sometimes roads will cross airports, and they bring light poles with them (I have a little add-on that places cars too, so...). These are library objects that can be excluded only using the "All objects" option... Another solution was to exclude VTP scenery instead, and it worked, but you'd have no nice roads right besides the trminals, they will abruptly terminate a few distance away from the airport! please check your library priorities. I instead preferred exclusion rectangles that may also get rid of trees and buildings too close to the runway thresholds (FS9 vegetation is oversized for performance reasons).

 

Go to OSMWorld 1 Core/Docs, there is an image depicting exactly how your library needs to go!

 

Also, I am glad you are testing this with FS9 Evo, As I have been tracking its development closely (and it is breathtaking).

There is a sort of base land class, in the OSM world core too! It makes sure that new areas that extend out to the sea (and therefore end up in the default water class) are instead covered by a mix of two types of forest in a noise pattern (NEVER use vast extents of sam-type class to avoid tiling). I may need to recheck if I covered all inland lakes there... some recent flights indicate I may have not!!

 

Other continents may come if I decide to go over the oerdeal again! tyook almost a year for this one!!! I should have learnced programming to make an auto-converter instead...!! For personal reasons, a Vol.2 will likely be south America. North america gives me goosebumps only imagining the amount of raw data!!