Ground2K - Very Nice!

[nudata 10]

Attached are 2 shots of Salt Lake showing the salt flats I am "trying" to create from Terraserver black & white images. FS2002's rendition of this area was very poor. I had used Terrascene & Terrabuilder to create a more real-to-life scenery but Terrascene's lack of texture blending put me off.There are several adjusting items involved here - Landclass, Coastline, Landfill, Lake Shore, Elevation, Excludes. There were some anomolies in doing the coastline (some remain). A LOD13 square may have to be filled with a Landclass although it is not touching a Coastline.Although not shown, positioning roads (and excluding old roads) makes them appear in proper relationship to the elevation mesh. I am using 75 meter mesh in this area from FSGenesis and the "corrected roads" (from Terraserver) fall almost perfectly in valleys. Where they run too close to a hillside and look odd, a slight correction with Ground2k's mesh tool fixes that. The same thing applies to rivers. I have begun "tuning" the Monogehela River near Pittsburgh (Monongehela and Allegheny form the Ohio). The serious issue here is that the original FS2002 river's flattened river bed remains after you exclude and landfill it. Have not found a way to remove the flattened area. I have to use Ground2k's mesh tool to apply some elevations.I wanted to publically say thanks to Christian Fumey for the program. It really does EVERYTHING within the limits of FS2002. I would like to see an interface be created to allow USGS digital, or other demographic sources, to be used to draw roads, waterways, coasts, and elevations. This would eliminate a lot of mouse clicks!Dick

[Hornit 3]

That looks fantastic, please upload this when you are done! This is a huge improvement!!! Thanks! I have flown over that area many a time on the way into SLC and it looks just like that! Too bad the lake is drying up now though, you can walk all the way over to the island now it seems.Hornit

[Guest]

Hi Dick,How far up the Mon (south) are you going to go? Are you trying to do the point (Mt Washington) and the rest of the overgrown speed bumps to the Duquesne (PA) area, or just how big of a chunk are you trying to chew on? I was born and raised in the TC valley and still walk with a limp because of running around the hills. Al

[nudata 10]

South to the state line for now. Haven't done any locks yet. Using FSGenesis 38 meter mesh and FSGenesis Landclass.Terrain elevations are quite accurate but landclass seems to lack many towns and vilages. Mt. Washington seems "locked" by FS2002. All trees and not a cliff. Needs landclass and elevation adjustment. At least the Parkway stops at the tunnel and picks up on the other side. That one is easy. But have not made a serious effort at it since I have been learning all of the goodies in the program. Matching the new river path to the old is a pain. Left original in downtown Pittsburgh since any change to the river then requires that all of the original stuff that is there to be adjusted. Stopped near Homestead and picked up FS river.Dick

[Guest]

I agree. Great tool. Please Christian add a file import format that allows us to work with ground2k completely via the command line and import or command files.Matthew.

[Guest]

Yeah, it seems like a fairly good tool, however, I can't even get any bgls exported that function at all. The documentation doesn't give any throrough instructions for exporting properly. I tagged the export button in the program, but when I go to install the bgls, nothing appears... Could there possibly be something I am doing wrong? Also, (what I am trying to do) does anyone know the correct procedure for making a new grass area around an airport specifically? Any help or suggestions is much appreciated.. :)Allan

[nudata 10]

Make sure any exclude bgl loads first otherwise you erase your own work.Dick

[Guest]

Hi Dick,Thanks for the reply. How do I make sure that it loads first? Is there some sort of order to export things?Allan

[Guest]

its ordered by filename. name ur exclude aaaardvark.bgl, and it'll load before bbbbravobob.B

[nudata 10]

I use seperate scenery folders which is another way using the scenery library manager in FS2002. You do not have to know VTP coding to take advantage of th Ground2k. I have been working on a large area correcting lakes, roads, etc. with only learning curve erors. One thing you need to watch-out for is crossing the origon and source when you draw a polygon. If it is very complex an accidental cross over either at the start/end or within the drawing is an error. Remember the Join will auto-draw a straight line between the start and end points and this cannot cross any part of the polygon.Dick

[Guest]

Hi Dick,Well, I tried that, but no luck still... Would you be willing to take a look at my file and see if you might see anything wrong that I did? I've went over everything so far, and can't seem to get it right still. I export, then load everything into the scenery directory, but when I go into FS, I don't see any of what I should be seeing. It's getting to be pretty frustrating for me to say the least. Once again, I thank you for your reply. :)Allan

[nudata 10]

I assume from your message that you can actually locate the BGL(s) that are created bt=y Ground2k. You should see them with number extensions (_x) as decrribed in the docs. The file specification as to where Ground2K places them is not critical. You can specify anywhere and later place them into a scenery folder yourself.One other possibility is that you are not providing the correct lat/lon extents for your background image. I personally use a Terraserver image which allows me to get good lat/lon at the NW and SE corners. The input format for the USA is Nnn:nn:nn.nnnn Wnnn:nn:nn.nnnn. It is not necessary to have the target lat/lon points exactly at the corner but at least in the NW and SE quadrants. If the BGLs are corretly produced and in a proper scenery folder construct then the lat/lon is the only other explanation ot you are not "selecting" the scenery in the FS2002 scenery library manager.Dick

[Guest]

Hi Dick,I did properly locate them, and installed into a scenery directory. In fact, the ground where I should see the new polygons is rather rough, so I know something is happening, but I'm definitely not getting the results I had expected to get.I also made definite sure that the lat/lon were indeed correct. I'm using high resolution aerial photos for my project pasted on top of an FS screenshot showing the LOD cells.Also, I thought I should bring this up... The BGL file size is very small. Do you think I am just not drawing the polygons right? Allan