New freeware meshes of Alps and Himalayas

[Cruachan 705]

Hi N,"I'm getting really high frames rates - as much as 2x what I normally get (80fps!!!). #####? Not what I expected! Normally photoreal scenery runs like a dog. I did not expect it to run better than the default!"......as the included readme stated, Holger left out the autogen, seasonal textures and flattened water bodies. I suspect your improved performance (and mine) is attributable to the absence of autogen and possibly also due to the fact that the photoreal textures are relatively low resolution.Looks great, nevertheless! :)Mike

[Holger 0]

Hi there,interesting observation! Never checked whether my frames actually went up (I have them locked at 30 anyway).The low res of the textures wouldn't make a difference because the resample tools compile them at the standard ~5-m res anyway. More likely it's the absence of autogen though the default textures in that area (mostly rock and ice) aren't exactly autogen rich either.The textures are probably less likely to get blurry because the area is fairly limited, compared to most commercial photoreal add-ons (which also tend to add their own autogen and other 3D objects). There's "only" 2500 texture tiles in my scenery that need to get loaded into the sim; something like the MegaScenery products would have tens of thousands.Cheers, Holger

[jetlag 65]

Hi Holger,Thanks a million for another great contribution to the community!Referring to your quote below, I would like to confirm that you do mean the order as seen in the scenery library window - not scenery.cfg; i.e. Italy must have the HIGHEST priority and Germany the lowest. I may be thick but I have been misusing your Columbia Gorge for days before realising I had the reversed sequence! I hope this confusing feature will be fixed in FSX!Thanks again,Phil============================================Germany - Frank Bart - http://www.germany-vfr.de/Landscape/LScape...lass_Update.htm Austria - Frank Barth - austrialc.zip (Avsim) Switzerland - Ernst Bosshard - ebch3tot.zip (Avsim) France - Arnaud Clere - http://www.francesim.com/Articles.aspx?C=2...Enr=1243&Cpt=-1 or http://arnaud.clere.free.fr/wikini/wakka.p...LandclassFrance Italy - "Landpack" - http://www.aliditalia.com/itlndpkdownload.html Each of these I placed in a separate add-on folder and the order of entries in the scenery library is the same as listed above. Thus, the Germany landclass is at the top of the group and the Italy landclass at the bottom. I do that because some packages overlap each other and I wanted to ensure that the more accurate (as far as I can tell) version overwrites the less accurate.

[Holger 0]

Hi Phil,you're very welcome.I posted a screenshot of my scenery library landclass entries in this thread: http://forums.simflight.com/viewtopic.php?p=301021#301021Hope that helps.Cheers, Holger

[jetlag 65]

It does help. Thanks!In future, I'll check that other site before asking silly questions. Your other tip is great too, I had always thought this was a devious plot by Billy to boost his mouse replacement sales!Cheers,Phil

[Guest Dan G Martin]

Hi there Holger I am simply speechless when flying over your Himalayamesh with your satellite ground textures please see atached photos. Your work on this is fantastic. I live on Vancouver Island and would love to get my hands on both the mesh data and a source for the textures as well. Any way like I've said I am truly blown away by your work!!. Dan Martin Team Flight Ontario

[N562Z 4]

I've got the Alps files and I'm downloading the Himilayas as we speak. For anyone who likes to visit places like Innsbruck and Khatmandu, these files are a must. Thanks Holger!http://www.graphics-free.com/animations/tr...ges/plane_6.gifAlex ChristoffN562ZBaltimore, MD

[Guest Dasher7]

Hi folksSo, how many of you use Einar Aarvik's Nepal 2 scenery? I do, and noticed that Syanboche was nearly buried in rock. I'll probably spend some more time in the Himalayas tonight and gather a to-do-list in rel. to the new mesh. I've contacted Einar to let him know about the files and asked him if he was planning a fix. Until I know more, please jot down your notes here and I'll try to do some quick flattens.-dasher7

[Holger 0]

Hi Dan,if you want to try the same approach for Vancouver Island then download the elevation data here - http://www.geobase.ca/ - (the 1:50,000 data are much better than what I had for Everest) and the Landsat ETM+ imagery here: http://glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/index.shtml.To prepare the Landsat image for resample.exe I downloaded bands 1, 2, 3, and 8, extracted the same rectangular area from each, then used Photoshop to first combine 1 (blue), 2 (green), and (3) red, then doubled the resolution to match the 15-m band 8, then blended in band 8 to provide the additional detail. Before saving the image as 24-bit bmp for resample I tripled the resolution to 5 meters because resample doesn't do a very good job with the interpolation.Let me know if you have any further questions. In my opinion, the Everest textures work because of the size of the mountains and the lack of vegetation (and settlements). I once did similar photoreal textures for parts of the Rockies but never uploaded them because the lack of autogen just looks odd and it takes a huge amount of work to add autogen manually.Cheers, Holger

[Guest Dan G Martin]

Hi there Holger I might try the area around mount Waddington first as that area has higher elevations (around 4000 meters) and lots of glaciers and ice fields as well so autogen won't be as much of a "problem" I've just got to find the time to do it. I am busy working on Pearson International and other goodies with my buddies at Flight Ontario , plus I've got some paying CGI work to do as well. But I just HAVE to try after see the results of your work!. Cheers, Dan