Continuing north of the Myrtle Beach, SC area, I have finished the next global tile in this sequence - it should be uploaded by Tuesday morning. The Wilmington tile includes a portion of the Atlantic coastline, extending from Topsoil Beach in the NE south to North Myrtle Beach and Grand Strand.Over Wilmington Intl:

http://forums.avsim.com/user_files/12326.jpg

Other shots in the following links:1. Over Bald Head Island2. Vectoring for the ILS Rwy 35 approach on a hazy, cloudy day3. Inbound on the ILS - passing north of Carolina Beach4. Final into Wilmington

Randall:The work you are doing is fantastic.I'm wanting to download all your work, and I'm wandering which scenery I should go with first. I'll need one with very explicit instructions. The reason I ask is I have been waiting until I got my new computer before downloading your work. Do you recommend any specific secenery to start with? I'd appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks for making Fly II even better by all the work you've done so far.Phil

Hi Phil,I certainly appreciate the comments, but the person you need to be thanking is Todd Klaus - the genius who invented TerraScene. I think once you start using TerraScene, you'll appreciate the beauty (and ease) of general use of the program. Using the program to create scenery outside of the USA or making augmented scenery (which is the case with my uploaded projects) certainly takes some time and a little study, but basic scenery-making is fairly straight-forward.You may have already done some of the following, but here's what I would recommend:1. Be sure your Fly!II installation is upgraded fully to v2402. Download and install TerraScene and make certain it is upgraded to version 2.1. Follow Todd's installation instructions very carefully - TerraScene will need to extract the very textures it will use to render your scenery from your Fly!II installation. I also highly recommend Todd's TextureEnhancer program - this will enrich your default Fly!II textures to the same color depth as TerraScene - the regular color-depth is actually a little flat.3. This step is just a hint. If you run into any difficulty running either TerraScene or TextureEnhancer and you are using WinXP, you may have to update or install Java Runtime, as these are Java programs. Todd includes a link to the Java site in the documentation that comes with TextureEnhancer - if you have any problems with this, drop me a line.4. Give TerraScene all of your resources when you are rendering scenery. One of the most important things you need to do before using TS is to optimize it for your system. Outside of a powerful processor, the amount of available RAM can make a huge difference in its performance. I have 512MB - TS runs very well with that, but I will be taking it up to 1GB for even better results. Some people miss this in the documentation - you need to edit the TerraScene2.lax file to use your RAM properly. Open the file in a text editor and change only the following line:lax.nl.java.option.java.heap.size.max=490mThis sets the maximum heap size for TS to use in your system in MB. Todd recommends about 20MB less than the physical memory of your system. The example above is the setting I use with my 512MB. Set yours accordingly.When you render, the Maximum Segment Size on the Render Options window in TerraScene controls the amount of images (small portions of the main image) that TS will use. The larger you can set this, the less image parts will be produced, shortening scenery production time. The default is 2500, which is a safe setting for most computers and was designed with 128 MB computers in mind. I run mine at 4000 for most scenery. Be very careful here - some of my sceneries require this to be set to 2500! If I don't specify this with the package, then feel free to increase the size for better performance.Lastly, turn off or shut down all other programs so that TS can have your computer all to itself (background programs, screen savers, anti-virus programs, messengers, etc. -shut them all down and let TS rip.5. All of my scenery packs contain a Readme file that gives step-by-step instruction. Just follow them 1,2,3 and you should have no problems. A hint: all packs have all of the TS files in folders that match where they should go in TerraScene - the fastest way to copy them over properly would be to simply select all of the folders at once (projects, output, data-files, etc.) and paste them into the root directory of TerraScene. You will get a warning about over-writing files, but that's due to the identical folder names - go ahead and you will have everything in place with one step.6. Follow the Readme for preparing the render process (checking the right options) and working with the data directory of Fly!II (important). Be careful when you do this - not all packs are the same - the options I list are sometimes different between packs. When you render and slice, even a powerful computer will take several hours to make each scenery. Plan accordingly for the time when your computer will not be available. I sometimes start a project rendering just before I go to bed - the new scenery is waiting for me when I get up. :-)7. After each project is finished, you will need to delete (or remove) all of the image files and data-files from TS and rename the data folder in Fly!II per the enclosed instructions before you can proceed with a new project.It would be difficult for me to recommend any one scenery to start with. Some of Ohio would probably be uninteresting to people who do not live in this area - parts of it would be enjoyable for anyone. I'm going to give you several recommendations:From the Ohio project:Get Marblehead and Toledo to start with - you really need to have both of them so you get the continuous Lake Erie area. Ashtabula to the east and Detroit to the NW connect to each end of those tiles, giving you Lake Erie from Detroit to Erie, PA, including (in rougher detail) portions of southern Canada.Standalones:Duluth and Tampa make nice stand-alone tiles. Ashtabula is also pretty good on its own.From the Carolinas project:I would recommend a couple of 2-tile combinations to start with: Brunswick + Hilton Head or Charleston + Myrtle Beach.I hope this is helpful - give me a shout if you have any concerns.

Randall;Thanks for all the info you passed on to me. It will be very helpful. I do have 1gig of memeroy. I live in central Pennsylvania near Williamsport,Pa. (made known nationally by the Little League World series).I am interested in your Ohio secenery first. It's people like you,todd and a number of others that keep my interest in Fly II. Your talents are geatly appreciated.Phil

Phil,In that case, you may want to get the Akron and Parkersburg tiles, as they each contain part of the very western edge of PA. The Akron area even includes KPIT (though just barely).If you have a broadband connection, some of the tiles (just a very few) were also uploaded completely rendered and are in the 70-90MB area. Marblehead is one of those. If you don't have broadband, then the project packs are the way to go - as most finished global tiles averages 390MB, the packs are the only way I can upload TS projects in most cases. A program like Download Accelerator is very handy, downloading large files much faster, even if you have broadband.With 1GB of memory, you might want to try a heap size of 980m. If it locks up or causes any problems, then lower the amount.

Hi Randall, Hate to bother you, but when getting the Tiger Census data files, which does one need to do the Land use and such? I am wanting to update Montana, Maine and Georgia. And, is the DEM elevations working now, or best to leave it out? Many thanks!Best,Ken Wood :-sun1

Hi Ken,First of all, Todd made an arrangement with Wings with Wires some time ago to host the DEM files that the USGS dumped, and it has worked well. The new download access was built into the TS 2.1 update so, by all means, choose the DEM data as part of your build - you'll get accurate elevations and 3D shading for your textures.As far as Tiger Census data is concerned, they really don't have a true land-use category - you'll need the standard USGS data to do that for you. However, they have some great data from the 2000 Census that allows you to augment or update "details". For instance:Landmark Polygons - These will add some new details to your images, as they go a little "finer" than the general landuse data of USGS. A lot of the landmarks are rivers, lakes, and streams - you can ignore those, as you will build them from other data. The details I like to add are parks, golf courses, transportations areas (airport boundaries really look much better), college campuses, etc.Lines - Roads - I don't use all of the street types, as they would just be a duplication of the fine USGS data you already have, but I do add freeways, bypasses, loops, highways, parkways, etc.. These are more dramatic lines and would ususally include new highways that were added since the older data was referenced.Water Polygons - Skipping streams and rivers, I add all of the lakes and reservoirs. There are a lot of new ones in some areas.You could also add railroads, picking up new rail lines. I don't use this as there just aren't that many new rail systems being built. Urban areas is another - this would give you city outlines that might include new neighborhoods, etc. I have only used this where usgs data was missing entirely, such as in Tampa. If you mix this with USGS otherwise, you can end up with a jumble of competing textures on top of each other.

Hi Randall, Thanks so much for the info! Now - one last thing I need to ask. You say you use only certain parts, so would I be correct in assuming that you open the .dbf file and modify that by deleting what you don't want? Take the Water Polygons as example, would I delete the rivers, streams and stuff, leaving only the Lakes and Reservoirs in the file? I've not been able to really find any kind of a tutorial on using this feature in such a manner as you describe. Again, many, many thanks for sharing your expertise on this matter! I want to try to offer TS Packs for Oklahoma, Maine and Montana down the road.Best and Cheers!Ken Wood :-sun1

Ken,>You say you use only certain parts, so would I be>correct in assuming that you open the .dbf file and modify>that by deleting what you don't want?No you wouldn't edit the file. All of this is built into TerraScene, as described in one of the most complete tutorials ever written for a freeware program - the tutorial that comes with TS. Take another look at the sections that describe the use of shapefiles - I believe there was an example with Hong Kong and another with British Columbia.Copy the shapefile data files into the Manually-added folder, then, using the Digital Maps window, add each file set to your project. TerraScene will ask which portions are to be mapped (and to what texture). Only the items you map will end up in your scenery - the rest will be ignored.

Randall;First of all, I too want to thank you for your hard work and fantastic terrascene project packs. Even though I am still using old technology (dial-up) for connection, I have been able to d/l all of your project pack files, mostly while I sleep as you suggested.I've already successfully TS'd Tampa, Marblehead, Toledo, Hiltonhead, Charleston and Myrtle. However, I ran into my first snag when trying to TS Wilmington and Brunswick. On the Wilmington project, TS trys to connect with USGS for "...Data/LULC/250K/C/Cape-Fear/Land_use.gz" and similar on Brunswick for a different file which I forgot to write down.None of the other TS project packs so far required a connection to the web. I got the impression that was the idea behind your project packs, so that the end user did not have to d/l files from the web during the TS process, although I could be wrong.Also, I looked into the appropriate folder, in this case, data-filesUSGSLULC250KC which is empty unlike the other three folders ...250KBbeaufort.gz, ...Fflorence.gz and ...Ggeorgetown.gz. Also ...LULC100KC is likewise empty.Obviously I can go ahead and connect to the web before starting the TS process, but I wanted to understand if that was necessary.Thanks for any comments. BTW the east coastline I've TS'd already has never looked better. :-) Robert

Robert,Did TerraScene stop running when it was unable to locate the Cape-Fear data? It should have kept going and simply left a message in the log that it was unable to locate the data.You are correct about 100% of the available data being included in the project packs. The problem with this global tile is there is an error on the USGS site. There is supposed to be a small amount of LULC data for Cape Fear, but it is missing from the USGS - TS is apparently directed to include it, but it is empty. As TS is told to use it, and it cannot find it in my pack, it attempts to connect to the Internet and go get it that way. When it goes there it will give an error message in the log (unable to locate file, or something like that) and go right on with the rendering. The scenery comes out fine.Now the Brunwick message bothers me a little, as I don't recall any similar issue with that data. Were you able to render successfully after connecting to the Internet? If you can find the file name it was looking for, I will research it. If my system dumped the file for some reason I may be able to include it in an update.I should have been thinking a little more carefully following the missing data incident with Wilmington and mentioned that an Internet connection would be necessary - not because anything was really missing, but because the USGS messed up and TS wouldn't know any better. :-)If any more such problems occur with future USGS data downloads, I will include that information in the instructions for the pack, so people will know to provide an Internet connection to satisfy TS. If you don't see any such mention, you can safely assume that an Internet connection is not necessary.

Hi Randall;Thanks for the quick response. I just finished TS the Detroit Globe Tile without a hitch. I wanted to get a response from you re: Internet connection and will probably try Wilmington again tonight.TS would have probably kept running, as you suggest, if I had been online at the time but I wasn't so TS kept giving me a "will try again in 5 secs" or something to that effect. So I just aborted the render process.I will also let you know either tonight or at the latest tomorrow, which file Brunswick was looking for that gave me the same message as Wilmington.Thanks again for your fantastic sceneries.Robert

Randall;The file, or maybe files, TS is looking for on the Brunswick project is "...data/DLG/100K/W/wassaw_sound-e_GA/hydrography" which it then trys to obtain from Internet, but again not being connected, I get the "will retry in 5 seconds" message until I abort.Upon checking the folders & files for Brunswick, I noticed all the other areas under ".../DLG/100K/B...", /F..., /J..., etc. all have hydro and trans subfolders for both "...-e..." as well as "...-w..." except wassaw_sound which only has the "-w".Again this may be a similar situation as the Wilmington project and will probably work when I run TS with an Internet connection. I'll let you know if it doesn't work.ThanksRobert

Thanks Robert!My system maintains a continuous broadband connection to the Internet. When I render a scene and bring down the files, I monitor the file download, watching for errors. The problem is, they come down so fast that I don't even see the error report sometimes. In the case of Wilmington, the error showed early on and I saw it attempt to find it - then it ignored it and went on.I can verify that the wassaw_sound-e folder was never downloaded (it is not in my data backup) - my guess is we have another situation where the USGS site has an empty data slot. Again (obviously), the render went OK without it.

Ok, many thanks Randall. I've been so busy, I didn't give the TS manual/tutorials a good enough read-through. Will go back and take more time on that! As always, your help is greatly appreciated!Many Cheers,Ken Wood :-sun1