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akriesman

Terrascene and FS2002

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Hi all.Spent the afternoon playing with Terrascene 2.1...What a fun program! It can be used with FS2002. The only drawback is the textures, and I can derive a batch file that should import FS2002 textures to the terrascene system.The result is not photoreal, but it is ready for CUSTOM processing. I got to the point where I could process an LOD8 Cell in about 45 minutes... from internet download to flying the scenery! 1024 custom textures!The detail of roads, streams, lakes, city streets! I can easily navigate my home area, spotting familiar roads, streams, streets. The crude pic below shows it's output using solid colors, and no alpha. Tomorrow, I'll work on the textures, and then I'll make a batch file to add the alpha ( using Elrond's texture converter and Martin Wright's DLLs ). Seasons should be no problem. Night texturing may take some tweaking.The slices, as they exist could be used as a basis for LWM watermasking templates, and as templates for VTP method2 polys and lines...each slice is an LOD13 Area!I'm amazed more of us aren't using this in the US, where data is easily obtainable. Perhaps Jim or Elrond could tell us about the availability of data in Canada, and perhaps there are sucessful users from other global areas.Dick

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Shapefile data is world wide and is usually free from most governments. Canada has bountiful data but not near the quality of the U.S.Terrascene works, and looks better the higher the mesh resolution.The trouble is, only the U.S. has the quality of DEM needed for it to shine.Yes, Terrascene is a beautiful program and I was honoured that Todd and Jak allowed me to beta it and help in it's developement.Our, very very very soon to be released scenery is all Terrascene stiched with aerials.http://members.rogers.com/jkanold/jimlogo.gifhttp://members.rogers.com/jkanold/flyurl.gif

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This would definitely seem to be the way to go, Dick, given the immense obstacles to custom textures.How does the output blend in with the surrounding textures? In fact, is the output blended like any other default texture?Best regards.Luis

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Hi Luis.I'm just getting used to the interface of Terrascene.Right now, I'm considering using it as a template for VTP Method2 polygons... it's landclass placement is great ( at least for my area ). It accurately places small patches of wooded land right where they actually exist! And the road layout... and city streets!As far as building a CUSTOM set of textures, I think if we use a set of textures derived from FS2002, then it should blend in perfectly. In fact, we Could have sets for each season. And Terrascene allows you to add customised groupings. Say you're doing a Carribean scenery, you could set up texture sets for all the seasons & night, and compile identical sets for each season, and use exactly the textures you want from a master set.Jim and Elrond are the guys with experience, here.I really do like this program. I set my "bounds" to just a fraction beyond an LOD8 area, and it worked like a charm! I think this will be very workable if you're going to use the slices as VTP2 templates, or if you want to use FS2002 derived textures.I can easily find my old fishing spots with Terrascene derived textures, and my street is clearly in the right spot. I can fly west from Delavan to Janesville, and easily find a street where I once lived in that city ( 60,000 people ).With the default scenery, you can get disorientated easily on a small local flight. With the placement of roads, water and wooded areas, it's easy to VFR a Terrascened area.Dick

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Here is Thunder Bay, ON, Canada done in Terrascene for FS2002http://members.rogers.com/kanold2/tbay103.jpgAnd, here is how Terrascene blends with FS2002 default textures.http://members.rogers.com/kanold2/tbay102.jpgRemember, this is with Canadaian data, which is not up to the U.S. data.http://members.rogers.com/jkanold/jimlogo.gifhttp://members.rogers.com/jkanold/flyurl.gif

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Guest Richard Hill

Jim;I tried to send you an e-mail but it came back. I have used TreeaScene from day one, but sadly have lost interest in Fly!. Will you be making any documentation for using TerraScene to make scenery for FS2002? Any help in the propcess and steps involved would be greatly appreciated. I am new to FS2002 however was a loyal user up to FS2000, using Airport & Scenery Designer. If you wish to e-mail anything, please feel free to do so. richardlhll@wmconnect.com.

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Where does one obtain this program? I found their websight but the link there leads to an Atlanta scenery in the Avsim Forum.

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Guest Richard Hill

Dick;Any tips, steps involved or suggestions would be fantastic.richardlhll@wmconnect.com

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Hi all.Download Terrascene 2.1 Full download.Also, we should read the posts at the Fly! Devlopers forum, before we bombard anybody with questions.Terrascene is integrated with FlyII, but can easily be used to generate a psuedo-photoreal... much like Microsoft's Oshgosh scenery.I'm just now learning the ropes, so I'm not a good source for information, yet.The program downloads information from the internet to provide land usage info, lines of various types, accurate water info, and compiles a TGA image of the area you specify. That TGA can be converted to a 24-bit bitmap image, and run through resample to produce CUSTOM textures, and a bgl.It seems an LOD8 size is a nice compromise between size and speed of use. LOD8 will cover 1024 groundtiles as 32x32 LOD13 Areas.The only drawback is the lack of textures. It needs the Fly2 program to build a texture set ( reasonably priced at Office Depot ).... but you can supply your own texture sets, and save the references to them. That allows us to convert FS2002 textures to JPEGS for use with the program. The texture set is the problem, but we can build one that will blend nicely with default textures.We can build sets for each season and night, as well as sets for different global areas.Jim has assured me data is available outside the US and Canada, so we need to scour the Fly! Devlopers forum for more info.That's all I know for now.Dick

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That link leads to a page that says 0 pages found. Thanks your responding but do you have another link?Regards,John

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I've been using TerraScene like crazy lately - funny you should post!I have been converting the default FS2002 textures, by hand, for use with TerraScene. The results are more than acceptable, but a few problems are known from times past.I use TerraBUILDER Lite (of the forum fame) to import the scenery - damn easy!Of course, I could use TerraScene as a color-source for landclass, but I haven't seen a good tutorial on that yet, so I haven't figured it out. Drawbacks - * TerraScene is HARD CODED to process textures at 7.5m/pix. I am using the FS2002 textures as my base, and I cannot take advantage of their higher 4.8 m/pix resolution. TerraScene makes the resultant file 7.5 m/pix no matter what the source or settings. You can attempt to adjust the settings, but it will always process at 7.5. This creates very blocky textures, especially at low altitudes. My screenshot below needed to be taken high up because lower altitudes do not look good, or AS good as standard FS2002 texturing. * TerraScene cannot support AutoGen placement, as one would imagine. While the scenery is nice looking, it is fairly lifeless without AutoGen.Advantages and Potential - * Water mask creation is a SNAP.* Summed up in a screenshot... Highways, roads, clearing, neighborhoods... consider it landclass+

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Guest Lobaeux4

Wow!! That would be phenomenal if Autogen would be able to be used over this.Lobaeux

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