TerraScene for FS2K2 Will we ever see it or something Simular?

[Guest Richard Hill]

I have about 5GB of TerraScene near photo quality scenery using TerraScene default textures, but sadly no REGEN. I have tried Ground2K but I am at a loss with this one as I can not understand the LWM construction. I just wonder if anyone is working on a program that will use DEM, Land Use and or Shape Data files. I do know someone had mentioned trying but was having trouble getting FS2K2 to understand Shape File Data. I hope someone will post some news on a program of this type in the near future, or Ground2K for example become more user friendly.Richard;

[Guest]

dont know what "regen" is, so I must assume you want to see your terrascene draped over the mesh. Just export your terrascene data as a targa image. Convert the targa to a bmp.Using the terrain sdk, create an *.inf file. I have written extensively on this, as have others. Search the archeives, this stuff was discussed over a year ago in detail. Search on "resample" or "tmf" or my name.Then run the sdk tool "resample.exe" on the inf file. Run tmf2bgl on the resulting tmf file, and put the resulting bgl in scenery and bmps in texture. Finally convert the bmps to dxt1...and your flying over terrascene.Bob Bernstein

[Guest Richard Hill]

Bob;I have Terrascene converted to FS2K2, maby I should have said I have NO Autogen texture. I am pleased with the results even though the large size, I just wish I had the autogenerated trees and buildings.Richard;

[arno 1]

You should be able to add autogen to your scenery if you made it with resample. With the annotator tool you can specify the type of autogen on each texture (of course this can be a lot of work if you have a lot of textures).

[nudata 10]

Take a look at the most recent Terrabuilder messages on the Autogen issue over photoreal.I found that clarity of the BMP file as converted from TGA was not good. I then tried Photoshop 7 to do the conversion and that improved. A little sharpening while you are at it helps(suggested by another poster in TB forum). Calculating the INF files is a pain. Terrabuilder does this dirty owrk. I have most of the USGS data for the USA on file. However, I just cannot accept the lack of blending by Terrascene. Texture-to-texture borders are just sharp demarcations without the blending we have become accustomed to in FS2002. This was ok in FLY! since we did not have anythiong better at the time. But now it doesn't look good to see a farm end so abruptly at a city border.I was thinking about Autogen while I was typing. It is a very daunting task to hand Autogen hundreds of textures. However, you can use FS2002 textures in Terrascene. I have them and they look fine but no Autogen. However, if you copied the AGN (autogen description file) file for each used FS2002 texture to your new texture folder that had Terrascene applied FS2002 textures, you would then simply rename the AGN to the new texture name. Still tedious but less so than Autogening each texture cell.If someone figured how to better blend between Terrascene textures we would have a nice tool to place roads, coasts, and rivers according to USGS data and not the imagination of Microsoft.Dick KLBEDick

[Guest Richard Hill]

Arno;I know all about the Annotator, but I have tens of thousands of BMP's that would need changed and one can only place rectangular areas, not to mention city, road and water areas.Richard;

[Guest Richard Hill]

Dick;Arno left me a message about using the Annotator and I mentioned to him that I had tens of thousdands of BMP's thst would need editing.Could you send me a copy of one of your *.TSP files so I could see some examples you use. Also could you send me a sample of an autogen description file. I have found that Photoshop is the only program that will work with large files, even with over 768MB of ram PaintShop Pro will not load them. I have over 56 1/4 tiles of my State of West Virginia and sourrounding area, in many cases there might be farmland bordering many small cities.I have to do some editing placing new roads/highways not in data files and one Lake in the state that even Shape files do not display right, but overall I am rather pleased.I used TerraBuilder to build most of my scenery, but I don't remember the INF file.Also you could send me a small text file of your steps? One can only hope that someone will develope more user friendly tools that will allow one to use USGS data. richardlhll@wmconnect.comRichard L Hill;

[nudata 10]

Attached is a TSP file for a small area around the Arnold Palmer Airport West of Pittsburgh.The AGN files are in SceneryDB/World/Texture. Their format is a mystery.I follow the steps outlined in the Terrabuilder help file - latest version. I run Terrascene with a max segment size of 6000. I have 512mb of memory & 1ghz. The TGA file from Terrascene is converted to BMP by Photoshop 7. I used to use a program by Frank Racis that did the conversion but the BMP quality is not as good as Photoshop. I have done Terrascene 1/4 tiles successfully. In the case of both Terrabuilder and Terrascene I followed standard processes. I have had problems with Terrabuilder executing the internal script file that operates the series of FS200/2 programs needed to create the BGL and textures. In that case I use the small BAT flie that follows. The needed files BMP and INF (from Terrabuilder before it quits sometimes) are in the same folder as the BAT file.The more I think about Terrascene the primary use for it, in my view, is roads, and water items. I have moved to Ground2K to integrate proper roads, coastlines, lakes, and rivers into selected areas. Terraserver is my source for data. I have a significant amount of photo coverage of Western Pa., San Francisco area, and Salt Lake City. The greatest problem is the inability of programs to force FS2002 to allow underlying mesh to govern old river beds, and shorelines. Seems that there is a mysterious lock on the elevation of these areas..BAT file===============mkdir kslcSamplemkdir kslcSampleScenerymkdir kslcSampleTextureresample.exe kslc.infimagetool.exe -terrainphoto *su.bmptmf2bgl.exe kslc.tmf kslc.bglcopy *.mip kslcSampletexture*.bmpcopy kslc.bgl kslcSampleScenerydel *.mipdel *su.bmpDick

[Guest Richard Hill]

Dick;Thanks for the rapid response, I will do some checking of the textures. Is their a program that will decompress the *.agn and *.bmp's, I want to check them out.Again thanks for the reply!Richard;

[nudata 10]

AGNs are not really compressed. They are descriptions of what items to place at specific coordinates in machine readable format which I believe remains secret.The Autogen program (SDK) displays the compressed texture for you to allow the placement of items in certain texture BMPs. It will show the current AGN state of autogen items. Thus in that context it is "decompressing" the AGN file.I would like to add that the use of Autogen to populate 5gb of FS2002 custom textures is a lifetime task. I believe that most people have come to the conclusion that Terrascene may be good for local areas. The same holds true for photos that are used in TB. It is possible to cover the entire USA with Terraserver images using TB but again no Autogen. I really cannot think of a way to automatically apply autogen items automatically unless there is a digital representation somewhere (which has not been revealed) of the texture so the autogen can be auto-mapped to the texture - treeline example. As to the Terraserver images they are in black & gray. However the shading variations are too extreme to allow one to automatically color them by making guesses about gray to color relationships. Dick KLBE

[arno 1]

You can view the textures with ImageTool, that program can read the DXT formats that FS uses. For the autogen I agree with the previous reply, this is not compressed and it can be viewed with Annotator.