help with Photo Scenery Maker

[Guest geognut]

Hi,I'm using Photo Scenery Maker (PSM) version 1.2.1. Your aerial photographs or satellite images must be 24-bit (true color) bitmap files. If you have a large number of source images, it's best to mosaic them all into a single bitmap. The size does not matter. PSM will slice your single image into several 256-pixel x 256-pixel images for you, and compile everything into a BGL file that flight simulator can read. Under the Options menu option, find your FS2000 SDK /Terrain directory. Also be sure you have Imagetool.exe on your computer, and browse to the directory where that is located.Following are steps that worked for me:1.Open PSM, select File -> New. Under the "Bitmaps" tab, uncheck the "support seasons" box and import your bitmap file in the "Summer" window. Under the "Output" tab, select the output folder and base file name. Leave the Bitmap boundary information as-is. At this point, *don't* enter anything in the "Coordinates" tab.2. Your image will be displayed. Select Calibration --> 2 Point Calibration. You must know the latitude and longitude of at least two points in the image. I use the far upper left and lower right corners of my images, for the best geographic fit. Click on one point and enter the latitude and longitude in *decimal* format. Repeat for the other point. You should see your image sliced into several 256x256 squares.3. Select Scenery Generation and click "Run Whole Process." A black command-line window will appear for a few seconds, followed by a window showing your 256x256 images being processed. Click "Done." The BGL file will then be created.4. Navigate to the output directory you specified in Step 1, and you will see a "scenery" folder with a BGL file, and a "texture" folder with several 256x256 bitmap images. From there, you import the scenery into flight simulator, exit, and then restart.Cheers,"geognut"

[Guest geognut]

Hi,Thanks for your comments. I thought it looked pretty good too, but then after further research I realized there are some copyright restrictions on the aerial photos and how I use them, so I'll have to change my approach and possibly even the imagery. So I can't guarantee that I'll be able to produce scenery like I originally hoped.but at least I know how to make Photo Scenery Maker work successfully, and it's always fun to experiment!"geognut"

[Guest NewYork]

Hi GREAT GEOGNUT!! ;-)))Thanks a lot to help me (us)!I'm very sorry, but I have another question: the source of my images give me them in the follow format: example X=435846.9 Y=4521092.8I suppose that this format is not the decimal format. Do you know which format is it? Do you know if there is a conversion tool to get a conversion from the actual format to the decimal one?Thank you very much.Waiting..;-)))

[Guest geognut]

Hi,X=435846.9 and Y=4521092.8 are Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) projection coordinates in meters. You must know the UTM Zone number that your source images are in. Then you can try www.topozone.com , click on "View Maps", "UTM Coords" and enter your UTM coordinates. A map will display; then you can ask it to switch to decimal degrees.There are many other tools out there that you can find with a simple Google search. Or, does the program you use for your source imagery allow you to convert UTM coordinates to decimal degrees?cheers,geognut

[Guest NewYork]

Hi Geognut,I found everything you talked me about, but in topozone web site I got out any map; I thing that the reason is that I don't know the UTM zone number. I'm working about a zone located in Italy, may be you can help me still or advice me where I can looking for it.Thanks a lot!!

[Guest NewYork]

WOW, I got it!!!My first scenery (a parto of it) got out, finally.Anyway looking at your pic linked in a previuos post, it looks more clear and sharp; my scenery, flying it down, looks like a "mosaic". Do you manipulate your images befor use them in Photo Scenery Maker (maybe about trasparency or something else)??Thanks!! ;-)))

[Guest cool_britainnia]

hey guys where to you get this photo scenery maker from? Is it freeware?Cheers

[Guest geognut]

Congratulations on getting it to work. I didn't manipulate my images any further when I was experimenting. I used aerial photography at approximately 4-m resolution, which explains why the images were clear and sharp.

[Guest geognut]

Hi,I found my copy here on avsim by searching for "photo" in the FS2004 Scenery Design file library. It's the 5th item in the results.cheers,