W2XP and autogen and ortho4xp HELP

[ginoc1 4]

I have Ortho4XP photoscenery of my home area which looks great.  I also used Ortho4xp to create overlays based off HDMeshv3.  Then I used World2XP to create overlays for my ortho4xp tile using the config-hd.xml file which worked great BUT no autogen trees or houses...only OSM buildings and items.  These are all correctly ordered in scenerypacks.ini.  THEN I ENABLED SMART EXCLUSIONS and re-ran W2XP...now i have autogen trees BUT - they don't quite match the terrain in many areas (dense trees over an orthophoto school building/parking lot for example).  The other issue I have is autogen trees on top of w2xp generated buildings which kinda ruins immersion.  So a) is the a way to get better OSM that matches my ortho4xp tiles better and b) is there a setting or a trick to getting rid of autogen trees on top of w2xp buildings WITHOUT sacrificing all autogen trees???

Thanks in advance!

Gino

[turnandbank 243]

I have been doing large areas around the places I frequently fly and am familiar with using the same process.  I spent many hours (weeks actually) learning and experimenting with modifications to the W2XP config files. If you lower the number of buildings that trigger a smart exclusion down to 2 or 3 you can improve the situation somewhat. Using 1 works even better for resolving trees showing through buildings, but it also results in some pretty large gaps in the residential autogen.

No solution is 100% perfect as errors, holes and differences in the data mean a fully automated approach to generating scenery will leave a lot to be desired. My solution is using Overlay Editor to create a scenery area containing the necessary exclusions to block misplaced residential areas (objects) and trees (forests) as needed. Place this scenery above both Ortho4XP and W2XP int the .ini file. This is a time intensive process, but the end result is very realistic.  

One thing that took me a long time to figure out, is that the residential autogen also generates trees between and adjacent to the houses. Since X-Plane places residential autogen in many non-residential areas, sometimes in or near industrial and commercial areas, you have to use object exclusions to prevent the included trees from showing through the adjacent buildings created by W2XP. I was pulling my hair out trying to prevent them with forest exclusions.  Of course some situations do require forest exclusions as well, since the forest placements in X-plane are approximate at best.  

Rather than using HDMeshv2 I would use the default X-Plane Global Scenery to create the overlay for Ortho4XP as it has more recent and up to date OSM data. Be sure to use the updater to update the scenery first though.

Hope that helps.

Martin

[ginoc1 4]

Great thoughts Martin thank you!  I have no idea how to use Overlay Editor but i've been learning each of these tools one by one so I guess that's next.  I will also try 2-3 buildings per cell setting.  In your 3rd paragraph...using object exclusions...do I do that from within w2xp or overlay editor?  No clue where to start there...

Funny on the OrthoXP overlays for me...if I use default scenery which is updated already...my dsf file is like 3Mb for that tile and I get trees populating large landfills and rock quarries but if I use the HDMeshV3 overlay...it's aroudn 13Mb and I don't get nearly as many trees in those areas...not sure if I'm doing something wrong or if that's just the way it is.  Your thoughts?

Appreciate your help!

Gino