New G2XPL feature - latest build

[fscottee 10]

 

I've got the latest build and its great.  Couple things I notice...

 

Ttextures are now the same quality as those that are produced by FSEarthtiles (FSX/P3D).  It seems g2xpl tiles always seemed washed out and lacking in contrast and saturation - that's been fixed.  

 

And the new ability to draw out the area you want higher res using Google Earth KML files is a gift from heaven.

 

The way it works is this.  I draw out my area I want at say ZL18 (60 cm).  I then tell g2xpl if I want the remainder of the tile to be Zl15, ZL16, or ZL17. 

 

Saves space and time if needs be. 

[steve310002 1,198]

I just donated to developer. He responded within 30 mins (hats off to him) and sent me the latest beta version. Can't wait to try it. Would be great if there was a way of only keeping the polygon area whilst excluding the rest of the tile and keeping it as standard textures.

[AUA425 130]

hmm and for owners of the old full versions (already donated), is there some update to download or should I write Rob an email ??

 

cheers !!

[steve310002 1,198]

hmm and for owners of the old full versions (already donated), is there some update to download or should I write Rob an email ??

 

cheers !!

You need to email Rob.

[jkallinen 0]

Still in Beta from his discription in the video is why updates have not been emailed out.

[fscottee 10]

I do like the addition of being able to access WMS map services like the USGS site (national map viewer).  FYI these are the same photoscenery used by MegasceneryEarth 2.0 for their FSX scenery.  Now we can have it too, with autogen on top.

[captain420 3,099]

fscotee, do you know what quality or ZL Megascenery earth uses? I mean there latest one? I just got the latest beta of g2xpl and have been using it to create my own orthophoto sceneries and the results haven't been consistent. I tried making sceneries for areas around Korea and Vietnam, and using virtualearth to pull my images from. I'm guessing thats bing maps. I don't know which service provides the best quality. I have been using google in the start and they seem to be the best, at least for coverage in the US, not sure about other countries. However I can only download a certain amount from google before I get an error. So I would have to wait a few days and do it again. This makes it a pain in the butt to create sceneries.

 

Now does the USGS service you mention have any limits on the amount you can download like google? and how is the quality of their textures? I would like to use them the next time I fire up g2xpl. Does it need to be configured or anything?

 

Would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks.

[fscottee 10]

The USGS textures can be viewed here:

 

http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/viewer/

 

On the left, select either "imagery 1 foot" or "imagery 1 meter", and give it a few seconds to load.  The 1 meter imagery is what MSE 2.0 uses.  The 1 foot imagery only covers about 40% of the USA.   I'm not sure what MSE 4x is using.  Hopefully it's more than just USGS since there it limited coverage.

 

I haven't run into a download limits with USGS.  If you start g2xpl while in X-Plane, just select USA as the service and it loads auto automatically.

 

Bing seems to be the most consistent and I don't see any download limits.

[captain420 3,099]

fscottee thanks for the info. I run g2xpl primarily through the command line only. I don't launch it through X-Plane. I looked at my g2xpl.ini file and this is the only entry I found for USGS, but it says its for Scandinavia only.

 

[service5]

active=no

module_config=server=http://isse.cr.usgs.gov|path=/arcgis/services/Orthoimagery/USGS_EROS_Ortho/ImageServer/WMSServer/?REQUEST=GetMap&VERSION=1.1.1&SERVICE=WMS&SRS=EPSG:4326&STYLES=default&FORMAT=image/jpeg&LAYERS=0&BBOX=%lo1,%la1,%lo2,%la2&width=%r&height=%r

resolution=4096

comment=hitta.se, Scandinavia only

map_version=

test_point_long=

test_point_lat=

[fscottee 10]

USGS is only for USA.  The config file is all confused for some reason.  It writes over itself, I thot Robert was going to fix it but its still happening.  Regardless, it still works even though it looks screwy.  The easiest way I found is to go into X-Plane and set up g2xpl, and run it briefly from there.  Exit out and go to the command prompt and restart it by typien g2xpl.  It will start where it left off.

[captain420 3,099]

Thanks for the tips. So I'm guessing ZL17=50cm? Which is what Megasceneryearth 2.0 is?

 

Strange, when using USGS as the service, I get an error after 3 minutes and it quits with this message:

 

G2xpl quits with exit code -21:

 

Even very low resolution textures are not available for requested area when usin

g activated Service(s)

program has been running for 7 min, 39 sec

 

Press any key to close G2xpl window

 

I was trying to create orthos for Austin, Texas area. Any ideas?

[fscottee 10]

ZL17=1 meter, ZL18=50cm.

 

The error you get with USGS is normal because the map service won't allow you to download different resolution tiles.  For instance, if you want to download 50 cm tiles via USGS, and the scenery you are downloading isn't 100% 50cm, then g2xpl would try to download the next best resolution and continue with 1 meter as an example.  USGS won't allow that, you can't switch.  So what it does is download all the 50cm tiles and that's it. 

 

Two option,s you can change the resolution to 1 meter and stick with USGS or keep resolution at 50cm and change the map service to Bing or Google, or something else.  G2xpl will then fill in the rest of the tiles that didn't get downloaded.

 

USGS covers the entire USA with 1 meter, but there are places where the resolution is even less than that.  So you'll still run into that problem occasionally.

[captain420 3,099]

But I have my g2xpl settings to grab ZL17, so thats 1 meter, but I'm still getting that error. I have to rerun it everytime it happens.

 

And just of now I'm getting another error:

 

Launching 20 worker threads & 8 consumer threads

Corrupt JPEG data: premature end of data segment_____________________< 224926

Invalid JPEG file structure: two SOI markers

 

G2xpl quits with exit code -30:

 

Error while decoding jpg data

program has been running for 8 min, 44 sec

 

Press any key to close G2xpl window

[fscottee 10]

USGS isnt entirely 1 meter, so you're probably in an area where it's less resolution. So you'll get the error.

 

You can look in the texture folder it creates to see how many tiles it downloaded.  Simply go into the config file and change the map service to Bing or Google and it will use those map services to download the remainder of the tiles.

 

I've never seen the other error there.  You may want to delete the scenery and start over.

[razalom 19]

Just got this program the other day and having some teething issues (probably just me). Have produced a few things but one thing I am not sure about is if I produce a 1x1 area at ZL17 it is saying about 27GB but after reading around most places say a 1x1 tile should be around 8GB at ZL17.

 

Any ideas?

 

I have used the polygon shape on a few areas and those are fine and come in around 4GB even though the are covered is about 40-50% of the 1x1 tile so not sure why the whole tile is then 5 or 6 times larger.