So, Terrascene...work or not?

[Guest chezz]

Hi TV,I sent you an email. I'n doing some terrascene of California apparently data is not available for download anymore. I am interested with those USGS data in the disc I live in LongBeach CA.Thanks.chris_CA

[RandallR 444]

TV,I would certainly cover your costs and beyond to get the disk set again. I'll be in touch with you on that.Again, for all of you that are monitoring this - unless I'm mistaken, these files will not give you scenery-rendering capability! They are the high-res elevation files that the USGS dumped first. They are important for getting the shadows that give scenery in the US from USGS data its beautiful 3D appearance. These are hosted on wingswithwires and hopefully, are still available. If not we'll need help from TV or others that may have the elevation data. TV, if I'm wrong and those disks include everything (I don't see how they could) then let me know - I'm guessing they're the 7.5 DEMs.In the meantime, I believe you can still download the USGS land-use and other files necessary for scenery rendering manually. It is a pain-staking process, but I'm still able to access the data

[boshar 6]

When I make a test render and select only the daytime image & watermask. Leave the relief shading & snow unchecked I can terrascene without any problem the files are downloaded as needed (I'm doing a test render aroun San Diego). That leads me to think that we 'only' mis the 7.5 DEMS.Would it be possible to construct 7.5 DEMS using the freely available STRM data?Harry

[RandallR 444]

Interesting - if that's the case, then maybe we can contact Todd Klaus about what's going on with wingswithwires. There may be an issue with their server that they were not aware of.Also, if the USGS access is still working for the other files, then TV's copy set of the 7.5 DEMs is all we need. I just wonder how long this data will really be available, as access was to be closed back in May...

[Avcomware 1]

Hi, Randal and everyone.Here is what it is on each CD, see pic below. I also found Frank

[RandallR 444]

Good grief! It looks like he had everything on those discs (why oh why does my wife get carried away with cleaning!)I now recall that he somehow squeezed all of the data onto the 10 discs but didn't include Alaska. I know I can manually download the available Alaskan files - don't know about the 7.5 DEMs though.

[Frank Racis 0]

I haven't used Fly in a long time but I still stick my head in here every now and then.I've got no problem with anyone sharing the CD's. It was all free stuff to begin with.I looked in my CD pile, and I've also got a 13-CD set I made for myself that fills in a few holes in the original set (Verizon was having some issues when I made the first set). No Alaska in this set either, though.If someone wants to make copies of these for the group, I'd be willing to throw them all on a few DVD's and send out one copy.I've also got the original TS2 HITW textures (think I'm a bit of a packrat?). I know Jak stopped distributing them, but the license seems to say it's OK to redistribute them as long as they're with the original Terrascene release. If it's not going to start a copyright debate, I could throw these on the DVD as well.-Frank

[Avcomware 1]

Hi, Frank.I am glad to see that you are still around. I was just going to send a copy to Randall, burning it as I write. Your DVD idea sounds great, I would not mind getting one from you. I will send you a private Email with my address. I will see what Randall, and the others want to do, I think you guys are about the same area, East coast?Your effort is much appreciated, I used that data a lot, to Terrascene my area, around CA. I hope others will read this message, Dondo and Chris etc. Thanks again, TV

[Guest chezz]

Frank,Thanks for the offer, I can make DVD copies. Please e-mail me for details.thankschris_CA

[RandallR 444]

Hi Frank,Thanks for checking in! It appears that your being a packrat is fortuitous, considering what's been happening behind the doors at the USGS.I could certainly handle DVDs, and esily make copies as far as that goes. However, as my work schedule is currently extremely heavy, I couldn't be a dependable factory for such work for a few months. I was working with TV on getting a new copy of your original set when you checked in - I'll see what he thinks.

[Guest Colins2]

Harry,No-one seems to have answered your last question.Yes, it would be possible but there is probably little point in it.If you are going to go to the trouble of extracting and repackaging the srtm dem data then you may as well just make a file that TerraScene will understand.I have some utilities that I've written that will do this for SRTM30 data GTOPO30 data (same thing) or GLOBE data. I could probably expand this to handle the 1 and 3 metre data.I'll take a look.CheersColin

[Guest chezz]

Hi All,I tried to do a terrascene of KPSP tonight and it still works when you unchecked the relief shading in the render option. Question, is it necessary to delete the "Data" generated or not and what will be the consequences? I noticed long time ago when I deleted the data I get a raw data not found when I'm in FLY2 in some certain areas.thanks.chris_CAhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/137979.jpg

[boshar 6]

I think this could still be usefull (even with the CD's available) if this data can be used for terrascene outside the US.It would also give users with highspeed internet connections the option to just download the freely available data and the utility. Could be quicker.Greetings,Harry

[Dondo 0]

I can make DVD copies for others as well. I'm a little lost on where this thread is though. What exactly is on the CD/DVD? Is it EVERYTHING TS2 needs to create scenery, or just the elevation for shading and TS pulls the landclass etc from the USGS site?Regardless, I'd be happy to send DVD/shipping costs to anyone that wants it and also just as happy to help burn/distribute the CD/DVD.Anyone can contact me at:pieterm@myway.comDondo

[RandallR 444]

Chris,1. Before you ever slice the scenery, you should have a new "clean" data directory. If you have anything in the data directory, move it to a temporary safe location, leaving data empty. If you don't do this, TS files generated for making scenery may mix in with your regular files, leaving quite a mess. It then makes it difficult, in some cases, to properly clean up the temp TS files without damaging other items.2. Yes, you should delete all of the data, once you have created the PODs and placed them in the scenery folder. Then simply move all of your regular data files back in.It's great to know that you can still get the USGS files for scenery-slicing. It appears that the only thing not available right now is the 7.5 DEMs. That's better than nothing, but the difference in quality made by relief-shading is astounding - I would prefer not to make US scenery without it, since we can still obtain the data from Frank's discs.