Accurate alinement of background image in Ground2K

[Guest mtom]

Hi there. Has anyone got any tips on accurately fitting top-down-view screen shots so that new land class is placed accurately in the sim environment? My grid-gen cells do not match. They are out of scale and of the wrong coordinates. I

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi Matthew.Why not use LWMViewer? It can export a bitmap and info that is perfect for G2K or G2K4.http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID...04sd&DLID=41170For FS2002, you may need to hunt a bit to get the right BGLs, but in FS9 just slew and import them.Dick

[Guest jimkeir]

Hi.Is there a regular scheme for the filenames in FS2002? I should be able to add it fairly easily, and fall back to that if FS2004 isn't installed.I can't test myself because I don't have FS2002.Regards,Jim Keir.

[Guest lgordonj]

I

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Hello Matthew,Dick neglects to mention his excellent CellGrid utility.As stated in the guide to Ground2K, just lay down the grid, take a screen shot and crop exactly to the boundaries of the Areas desired.Then, using another of Dick Ludowise's excellent programs, LandCalc, (or the earlier TDFCalc) slew over the northwest and southeast corners of the selected Areas and get the coordinates for Ground2K4.This will guarantee precise and accurate terrain modification.Best regards.Luis

[Holger 0]

Hi Jim:unfortunately, we haven't been able to fully decode the FS2002 naming convention: http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...ing_type=searchThe work-around for utilities like LWMViewer would be either to directly scan the FS2002 .bgl headers or to utilize a pre-compiled list of .bgl boundaries, like Steve Greenwood's FSTflatten does. In fact, Steve's FSTflatten package includes BGLheader.exe for collecting header information, which you might be able to use with LWMViewer: http://www.fs-traveler.com/flatten.shtml Cheers, Holger

[Guest mtom]

Thanks for all the input guys.I'll go off and have a tinker and see what I can apply, and get back to you with any follow up queries. Thanks again.Cheers,Matthew.

[Guest orobian]

>Hello Matthew,>>Dick neglects to mention his excellent CellGrid utility.>>As stated in the guide to Ground2K, just lay down the grid,>take a screen shot and crop exactly to the boundaries of the>Areas desired.>>Then, using another of Dick Ludowise's excellent programs,>LandCalc, (or the earlier TDFCalc) slew over the northwest and>southeast corners of the selected Areas and get the>coordinates for Ground2K4.>>This will guarantee precise and accurate terrain>modification.>>Best regards.>>LuisFirst of all, hello everyone, I'm new in the forum. I'm sorry for bumping this old thread but it's about a big doubt I have and I thought that woulb be better to continue an existing thread than starting a new one.Luis, the thing that challenges me is this: What's the scale of the screenshot I have to take in FS for making it match the map/bitmap I use in G2K4 for remodelling rivers and roads? These are my very fist steps in the scenery design world and I know that my questions will sound stupid, but still I can't figure this out.I read that there is a website where I can get terrain data to use in G2K4 after a "projection" (I wonder if and when I'll be able to to that... :) ) and I assume that projection, from which I'll get my G2K4 bitmap, will have a certain scale. So, at what distance from ground I have to take the FS screenshot for matching it with my projection? Sorry for being so complicated,I'm a newbie.

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Hello whatever your name is,Welcome to the forum and thanks for joining us.There is no particular scale required for screenshots. As long as you know the coordinates of your image, the scale does not matter at all.If you are thinking of overlaying a map on a screenshot, then you will have to find some way of making it fit. If your map has coordinates, then simply find the corresponding points on the screenshot of FS and align to them (by enlarging or reducing, as needed.)Or just use your map alone. This works as well.Please do not hesitate to ask in case of any confusion.Best regards.Luis

[scott967 62]

My understanding is a 2-point calibration is sufficient for FS9 design purposes.Try adding to FS9.cfg in section /MAIN/DISPLAY_FRACTIONAL_MINUTES=0This will cause FS9 to display degree/min/sec format. Note that if you leave this in, your saved flight plans and flights will also save this format, and some 3rd party tools like flight planners might not understand it.Maps and aerial shots work great, but search the archives on "projection" to get insight on what you have to do to use a map as a design background.scott s..

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi orobian.There is no need for a screenshot from the sim. LWMViewer, from Jim Keir, will give you the ability to save a bitmap of LWM and VTP polys and lines. This means water, streams, roads, rails are all mapped to the correct projection and georeferenced ( you can save a bitmap that will have a matching txt file containing the coordinates for G2k4 ). A screenshot would be inferior to this bitmap.As far as maps, or aerial photos, they need to be in the correct projection, as you have read. Ground2K4 requires images as geographic projection using the WGS84 datum... this is also true of mesh and photoreal design.Many images are not of this projection, but there are means to reproject these images. If your image or map isn't geographic projection, you need to find out just what projection it is, and then reproject it to geographic.A search of AVSIM should reveal a freeware method of reprojection... try reprojection and freeware as keywords. Such as:http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...20484&mode=fullImages for an area as small as an airport most probably do not need reprojection, as the deformity of using the wrong projection is slight. For an area of more than 2x2 kilometers, the deformity may be unacceptable.If all this seems a bit complicated... well it is. We don't have an easy means of freeware reprojection for images. Several commercial programs will do the job, but the cost is generally from $200 ( US ) and up for those programs.The design team from Microsoft released the LWM and VTP SDK info only after Christian Stock had discovered it's basic format, and I published a design paper on it here at AVSIM. ( They actually released them the very next day! )They were perhaps reluctant to release the info until the FS designers had achieved the "maturity" to use such info. Programs such as Ground2K, CoastlineMaker and SBuilder are now available to help create such scenery without knowing all the nuts and bolts... but we still need good images and data, in the correct projection, to get results with the accuracy we can now expect.Dick

[Guest orobian]

Luis, Scott, Dick, your infos are very precious, thank you! Although the task seems a little bit complicated, at least about reprojections, I'll make every effort and having hints from you I'm sure will bring my area (Valtellina - northern Italy)in FS as it is. Thank you!Oh, Luis, please excuse me, I did forget to put my name in the signature. Here I am