Progress on Phoenix area photoreal scenery

[Guest artmartin]

Now that my autogen creation program is a bit more stable, I've been able to get back to my true mission of working on the photoreal scenery project of the Phoenix, Arizona area. I really have gone hog-wild in the amount of photoreal tiles I've laid down so I'm paying the price now of having to add autogen buildings and objects to all of it. My program has really sped up that process though and each day I add tons of autogen to the project. For those familiar with the Phoenix area, here's what's covered: Western edge - The full White Tank Mountain RangeSouthern edge - A great deal of the Estrella Mountain Range on the West, all of South Mountain, Ahwatukee, most of Chandler extending out to the start of the Superstitions.Eastern edge - Scenery extends out now all the way to Saguaro Lake. Have photos out past that to the east but they're black and white so I haven't gone past Saguaro.Northern edge - Scenery goes as far North as the beginning of Bartlett Lake on the Eastern side and contains all of Lake Pleasant on the western part.Everything between those boundaries is filled in with wonderful photoreal tiles. My guess is it represents thousands of square miles.Here's some recent screenshots:Art Martinhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/113830.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/113831.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/113832.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/113833.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/113834.jpg

[Team_P3DSpacePort 6]

Absolutely stunning!!! Are these 4.78 LOD 13 tiles? The buildings add soo much to the scenery! Keep up the great work!Misho

[Guest artmartin]

Misho, yes they are LOD 13 tiles. I got the aerial photos from the Maricopa County GIS website. The photos are incredibly detailed, probably down to about a meter resolution and they're taken some time during the winter around noon so the shadows are long and to the north, giving great detail. When I apply them to the mountainous regions, the north sides of the mountains are in wonderful shadow. I used Elrond Elvish's Resample Tools for the project since I never knew the resolution details about the files and it was extemely difficult to pin down the corner extents of the images I was creating. I'm having trouble keeping on track to finish the autogen cause everytime I go into FS to see what I just created I end up flying around for an hour. My big dilemna, once I finish the autogen is whether I should create the textures for the other seasons and light maps tiles. It will add to the size of the project immensely and really, Phoenix doesn't change much during the seasons. The lights of the autogen buildings do a pretty good job of defining the landscape at night although it primarily shows up close to your position. The lightmap tiles would create such a wonderful view at nights. Thanks for replying. Art

[Team_P3DSpacePort 6]

Did you let resample resize them or did you do it in a PhotoShop/PSP prior to processing? I would highly recommend doing it in PS/PSP because resample does a terrible job of resizing.Re: the corner extents, TerraBuilder has a feature that will let you pick two landmarks on the photo scenery, enter their geographical coordinates, and bingo, you'll have precise extents. Very useful. You can then pick road intersections or anything else that is clearly identifiable on the imagery and look up the coordinates in one of those digital maps that let you plan trips - they usually have precise coordinates of where your cursor location is. "Streets and Trips" for example...Seasons: I don't think I would bother with it...if Phoenix doesn't change that much. Night map is a different story...Misho

[ibanez737 2]

Looks great! I'm curious about your autogen program; are you planning on releasing it? How does it work?-Scott

[Guest artmartin]

Misho, Resample did a wonderful job on the resizing although I found a few images I built were too big for it to handle so I used an external program. Resample said it was using a Lancoz filter which I believe to be very advanced. I sure couldn't see any real degradation from what I could do externally. I think the version I have was the last released by Elvish. It's listed as a beta and says in the docs that there was an upgrade to the resizing algorithm. I know that your program will allow placement now with other than corner extents. I just haven't had time to learn another system. Went with what I knew. As to the question about my autogen program, it's currently just about out of beta. Nobody else seems to be finding bugs but I still do from time to time and there were some last minute addons based feedback from the beta testers. Latest version is 1.0.35 and it's located at http://www.vfraddons.co.uk/artseditor_view.php. Art

[timest 472]

Art:I have been viewing this forum for just this reason :) Your project is STUNNING. It's turning out beautiful. I cannot wait till you complete this project. It doesn't matter if you go payware on this, I will be in line. Thanks so much for your contribution to Phoenix.Tim

[Guest artmartin]

Tim, good to hear from you again. I've kinda spaced out on creating the Autogen program so it's nice to be working on the scenery again. Now if I can just resist the flying around instead of building autogen, I might get it done.Art