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Sesquashtoo

Passing through a tile generating frenzy,...seems new data compiling...

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I've been in a 35 tile generating session over the past day and a half, with 8 tiles to go, as I type, at z17/19 2 KM's around airports, and am reading the script generating logs. Quite a few have a 'updating new data', that some others did not display.  Just a possible head's-up that perhaps the Bi(ng) service has some new data input at its disposal, while compiling and generating its Ortho Tiles.

Just a personal comment...;

 "I have never seen XP (anything) come alive, or for any matter, truly, ANY other sim platform, other than AeroFly 2, look so, TRULY---so real life, in flying over at anything above 3,500 feet (and still looks, quite frankly good to the ground!) all the way, yep...all the way to the high FL's...so real-to-life, as the XP 11,now covered by my Ortho4XP z17/19 tile generations. Most of my generations from Bi(ng), have been captured in the Fall season, so I have just simply beautiful forest cover in all the Autumn colors, especially around the Finger Lakes Region of New York, and most all of the beautiful state of Pennsylvania.

My overlays are being generated with XP11's default, and recently updated (through updating) data.

I have the room for storage and generation, and am so loving the effect of the Ortho visual conversion, to heighten realism in ground covered, that I am converting entire states for my enjoyment.

Frankly...XP11 is blowing away anything else for visuals, if tiles have been generated for where you leave the numbers...and float down to them someplace else!  You ARE flying from, TRULY...flying from your departure airport, to your destination in XP10/11, with Ortho4XP tiles below you.  Breathtaking they are!

Most, highly recommended to install, as well as the time needed for generation at whatever z-level you choose.  Most highly recommended for real-life 'convincing', flight simulation."

 

Post Edit: Just also wanted to say, that whilst you are generating tiles, you don't have an 'either/or' scenario. You can work on business, word pro, spread-sheet, or cruise the forums in your favorite browser, BUT, I would not recommend movie streaming, or YouTube, as it might corrupt your generating data stream, or worse, cause a crash/time-out. Browser and work function is just fine, as I am doing both during all my generating sessions.  You can also set 'Turn off Computer' when in a generating long-term session, if you so choose. I do set that...and walk away with the monitor and sound turned completely off. It works...on one overnight session, in the morning the computer was dark, and upon starting for the day's work, had all my tiles compiled.  The only FLY in the ointment, is if W10 downloads an update, AND then re-starts your system, only this will interrupt your marathon, and you only have to re-highlight in Batch Rendering, the tiles that are not compiled, because of that computer shut down and re-start W10 update.  Just a FYI.

Cheers!

Ses

Edited by Sesquashtoo
typo,and a missing, comma, lol

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Mitch, I have been looking at some videos and it looks pretty easy. Some have said that using USA2 for the source was best for consistency as far as seasons, but not sure of all the differences. I saw one video that the gentleman said you need Python but others have not mentioned that. Differences of opinion sometimes clouds the waters when just learning. Think I will give it a try though.  Any hints now that you have got all this under your belt?

Bob

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39 minutes ago, N1G said:

Mitch, I have been looking at some videos and it looks pretty easy. Some have said that using USA2 for the source was best for consistency as far as seasons, but not sure of all the differences. I saw one video that the gentleman said you need Python but others have not mentioned that. Differences of opinion sometimes clouds the waters when just learning. Think I will give it a try though.  Any hints now that you have got all this under your belt?

Bob

Hi Bob, the significant hints and tips through trial and error, pretty much are all in the Addon Scenery Forum, if you are looking for what I contributed to the Forum.  BI(ng) has given me the best all-round z17/z19 experience....clear, crisp, continuity of color, tile to tile, etc. You will get Python 3.5, if you download the latest version for Ortho4XP, which is v1.20b. Just read the installation notes, and you'll be up and running in no time. Moderate learning curve.  The real power of this program, is in the Global.cfg file.  Lots of power, but turned off, in default.

This was an earlier thread, when I was still wet behind the ears, lol  No longer...  have to date, surpassed 2 TB's of tile creation....all at z17/z19.  I'm going to use Flight Level X 'fill' between high zoom factor, detailed tiles, with z16...across the entire North American continent, as I'd be FL180 or higher, and detail doesn't much matter at that height. On those flights, between my favorite routes, both the departure, and arrival airports will be created with z17, with a 5 miles out from airport boundaries, done at z19.  It's been a real 'high', shooting the numbers at z19...especially at KORD! 

For my VFR, to VFR, flight route, ALL done between departure and arrival at z17/z19, then my z19 boundary layer, is at 2 KM's out.

This is pretty much, now Bob, my 'baked-in Ortho4XP 'methodology', for all my ortho generating.

Here is the direct link to the Drop-Box, for the Dev's latest effort, either stable, or as offered as Beta run:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cjjwu92mausoh04/AACt-QzgMRwKDL392K_Ux3cPa?dl=0

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Thanks Mitch. One more for you (maybe more later):biggrin: 

So 19 around airports and 17 everywhere else?

Bob

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Sorry Mitch, I just found your thread. 

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30 minutes ago, N1G said:

Thanks Mitch. One more for you (maybe more later):biggrin: 

So 19 around airports and 17 everywhere else?

Bob

Yeppers...that's the 'one-two' knockout punch!  Be warned, Bob..once you view one of those tiles...and you shoot the approach in a cockpit that has good under-wing views, you will be done like dinner...totally corrupted..and can never go back to default. Start saving your money for 4-6 TB My Books!  LOLOLOLOL 

z17/z19 looks sharp and great, right up to even 12,000 AGL! BTW, at over 7,500, up to infinity, it totally looks real world...you can't tell the difference!

Bob, you set your level of z(zoom) and how far out from your airports you want z19, as a KM rating, in the Global.cfg file. First you set that entry to True, and then you adjust the z rating and KM rating, and you are good to go. When you generate a tile, it will capture all the z19 files it will need to surround your airports, at your KM setting, with z19. Very, very cool, this feature. Was shown to me, myself by another user...and just passing the eye-candy onward. :)

Use NotePad++ for the editing, and then don't forget to press SAVE to lock in the setting changes you made.

BTW, just checked my latest actual size of my Tiles folder...2.4 TB's and climbing...all of the East Coast is locked down, with Tennessee, parts of Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, and will soon have my sights set on the North West (San Francisco and up...)  Coastal sections of British Columbia, Coastal Washington State, and certain parts of Alaska.  Then, will start filling in, on over-night marathons with z16 'back-fill' between high definition tile-to-tile areas, aforementioned.

"Oh..and for Gawd's sake...DON'T show your wife what's contained in one of those tiles, that she can truly identify with...for IF YOU DO,...your yearly simming time, just got cut in half!"

"Yeah...but don't ask..." :blush:

MItch

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Thanks. When your done just put it them all out there in a dropbox and I will download during my not so awake hours :biggrin:

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7 minutes ago, N1G said:

Thanks. When your done just put it them all out there in a dropbox and I will download during my not so awake hours :biggrin:

In your dreams, LOLOLOL

Get ready to feel the hour's burn and pain...but the results, at the end of the road, is simply...amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing! :ampun:

On a serious note, though...make sure you keep one of those 6T My Books, as a BACK-UP to all your generated tiles and yOrtho-Overlay creation.  Every two days, I totally transfer the entire Ortho4XP folder (on my 'generating' W.D. My Book---- onto a 'reserve' My Book, which only will house a back up of all these hours-to-weeks of time, and effort.  Just a suggestion, against accident or corruption loss.

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If you are an airline pilot and not a GA pilot I recommend covering the entire country you are working on in ZL16 then go back to the airports you fly to and run step 3:Build Tile again after you select a custom zoom level of 19 and cover the airport in it.     There is NO difference in quality of ZL16 vs. ZL17 when you are up above 20000 feet and even below that it is not noticeable until you start getting down around 5000.  By that point you should be approaching the airport and ZL19 tiles will start to take over giving you the sharpest possible ground textures you can get during approach.

I now us Complex Masks and Use Masks for Inland checked on.    I set my Masks_Width to 160.     This has so far guaranteed perfect masks across an entire tile.    I was experience missing water tiles in the Great Lakes around Chicago and Buffalo and the like.     Setting Complex Masks to on and Use Masks for Inland to on and changing Masks_Width to 160 has generated perfect masks and fixed my water problems.    It takes Ortho4XP a tad bit longer to run step 2.5: Build Masks but its worth it to avoid water masking problems.

In the end with ZL16 with ZL19 airports, I have the entire US, including Hawaii and Alaska tucked away nicely on a 4TB hard drive.     I am going to need a new hard drive now to do Europe/UK and probably a 3rd to do Australia, Japan and China.

 

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Brian Navy

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Thanks all. I will giver a try. 

Bob

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Just curious, what is the approximate size of all components of a z19 tile?

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45 minutes ago, N1G said:

Just curious, what is the approximate size of all components of a z19 tile?

I can't tell you that...but a combination of a z17 tile with z19 airport surrounds, 2 KM's out, in total is about 8.0 GB's of storage space.  Right now, I have approximately 200 such tiles created and archived.

There is also another factor to your total storage, or even size of the growing Ortho4XP root folder.  All your download files (x.jpg sat photos) are also kept, unless you delete them, but...if you do, you can not quickly regenerate that tile once more..and will have to completely download all elements once more.  Another 'finding' about Ortho4XP is in the complexity of the Mask(s)...in that the more completed tiles that surround the 'target' area, or already created tile that you wish to re-mask...is that in creating a Complex Mask (which you want to do...) if there are other already generated tiles, surrounding it, it will grab all the mask data of about 5 or 6 tiles that are out from it, on the World Map page...and use those to form a very complex and perfectly blended mask that will totally compliment the surrounding brothers and sisters.

Here is the catch...as you start to generate your tiles, you'll of course have one...it finishes, the second Complex Mask sees that tile and uses that information to form and blur its own complex mask. You then have two. On the third tile creation, THAT one sees the other two, and uses ALL of their information to create an even more complex mask for its own tile! 

So...let's say, you now have 40 tiles or so, shoulder-to-shoulder, or in other words, a block of tiles on the World Map Page, for my example of how a Complex Mask gets built with 'borrowed' information besides the requirements to mask within its own tile boundraries... 

What I have been doing is using this effect to my advantage. I will RE-MASK all my tiles (of which I am doing right now in Batch) and each tile is creating a very complex mask, by sniffing out all the tiles around it....for they are there now to do that.  What I get, is a most beautiful scene rendered, seamless rivers, water masks, terrain blending...because the latest re-cut mask has had all the benefit of combining 5-6 tiles information from THEIR masks, into its own re-cut edition.  

As you use this program, more and more, you get to see the adaption angles..and how best to leverage it, to the finest tiles it can render, at any z rating.

Ses

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10-4 on the z19 size. 

You mentioned above the z19 around airports and that there were 2 entries for that. 

Are those entries cover_airports_with_high_rez and below that is cover_zl (distance in km). Just checking because you did not mention the exact entry.

Thanks Bob

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