Terrascene2 freezes

[flyfisher 0]

Downloaded files from ArcExplorer to TS data files folder and tried to terrascene them, following the manual instructions given for Hong Kong. The area is that around Gisborne airport NZ. After I clicked the finish button (just before one starts the render process) the program froze.I note that NZ does not appear in the Terrascene map, does this mean I am unable to terrascene any of NZ or have I done something wrong?NZ is one of the world's most beautiful countries and because of it's small size makes it ideal for VFR with FlyII.:-beerchug

[Guest Colins2]

HiTS2 will produce scenery for NZ :-)I can't explain your freeze except for if the Java runtime isn't properly installed.CheersColin

[RandallR 444]

NZ will be rendered if you can supply data - it just doesn't show on the map.As far as your freeze is concerned, what are the CPU and RAM amounts for your system? What is your setting for Max segment size in the Render Options window? What is your setting for Max Heap Size in the TerraScene2.lax file (lax.nl.java.option.java.heap.size.max=)?

[flyfisher 0]

Randall,CPU 1.6 gigHz with 384 meg RAM.The Max Heap Size in the TS2.lax file is 128m.I have now done 9 quarter tiles around Jackson Hole extending up to West Yellowstone with what I feel are excellent results.When I try to do around NZGS TS2 just freezes after clicking finish on the Modify Snow and Shading Paramete... window before the render screen can be opened.Thanks for your help.

[RandallR 444]

I'm very sorry it took me this long to get back to you - I lost track of this thread somehow!First of all, this is probably not causing your problem, but for better rendering performance with your machine, I would raise your Max Heap Size to 360m - also, try raising your Max segment size in the Render Options window above 2500 (if you haven't already). Try 4000 - if it locks up, back it off by 500-pixel increments.As far as this situation with NZ is concerned, is this the first time you've used shapefiles? If you used DCW files, did you zoom all the way in on the browser before downloading? Did you map the shapefile attributes?

[flyfisher 0]

Randall,Thanks for your reply.I downloaded a set of files from Arc Explorer to the TS2 datafiles folder. I then clicked on the start a new project button and was able to go as far as the window for step 5. At that point it just freezes once the finish button is pressed. See my last post.The manual doesn't correlate exactly with the screens one sees with FlyII and so although I followed the instructions given for Hong Kong as best I could I may have done something wrong.As I have stated I have done 9 quarter tiles around Jackson Hole with good results and so I'm a little reluctant to adjust settings at this stage.If you are able to 'talk' me through the process that may help.Thanks,Ian

[Guest Colins2]

Ian,Just a thought.Do you have the 'One image per Globe Tile' box ticked on the render page?This causes TS2 to freeze on my machine - at least it used to, so I haven't used that option in ages,Colin

[RandallR 444]

Ian,I'm going to run a test on the area your working on this evening, just to see if there's something special about that area that causes problems or requires a unique approach.Do I understand correctly that you haven't even been able to create the project yet - that this error is occurring while using the create project wizard?

[flyfisher 0]

Randall,Yes. I get to the 5th step of the wizard and then it freezes when I click 'finish' after requesting no snow to be created.I can only assume that I have the correct files from Arc Explorer.Would it cause problems if I had downloaded data for an area larger or samller than the 10 miles around the airport that I entered into the wizard at step 3?Thanks,Ian

[flyfisher 0]

Colin,Unfortunately it freezes immediately after clicking finish at step 5 of the wizard and so I don't even get to the render instructions.Ian

[Guest Colins2]

IanTerraScene doesn't need any data at all!A strange statement maybe, but it's the way it works.If you want to do a standard render of a tile in the US, you simply create the project and set your options then press render.TerraScene downloads the data it wants.For the ROTW, TS doesn't know where to get the data from.You still create the project in exactly the same way, but you have to supply the data manually.Which wizard are you talking about?Is it the shapefile mapping wizard or the project creation wizard?As for the coverage of data, it doesn't matter at all.TerraScene will use what you give it.If there is no data then it will put in your selected background texture.Which tile / area are you trying to render?Colin

[RandallR 444]

Ian,I've never seen this happen in TerraScene before, but the geographic location for Gisborne causes TS to lock solid! I believe it has something to do with TS attempting to move to that location in the map display when you click finish. Even though the NZ area is not represented graphically in TS, that shouldn't have been a problem - there are a number of places in the world where land masses and islands are not displayed in TS, but scenery can be rendered nonetheless. It could be that the entire NZ area can't be set up as a project - that there is some kind of data error which may need to be addressed by Todd Klaus.The freeze nails my system so hard that it's almost impossible to close the program without running a reset on the computer. If I attempt to select the airport and the area around it, it freezes. If I attempt to enter the area with geographic coordinates, it freezes. The only way I've been able to select and save the project is to choose the "Drag a box" option on the map display - as long as I don't preselect the area the wizard takes me back to that display when I click the finish button. Then, I navigated to the NZ area using the map, zoomed into global tile 126,98, selected the tile and saved the project.Using this method you may be able to continue with the assignment of shapefiles, rendering, and slicing. BUT, if you ever close the program before you finish the project, you're wiped! If you restart TS and open the Gisborne area project file, the same thing happens - you freeze solid and it's all over! One way around this may be to use my method (without closing TS) through shapefile assignment and rendering. Then, close TS and edit the images (if needed) in the ouput folder. Then, since you can't reopen the project in TS, delete the original project file from the projects folder, but don't delete anything else. Recreate the project using the same name and save. Then, set your render, slicing, and podding options and see if she finishes.

[flyfisher 0]

Randall,Thanks very much for your help and in some ways I'm glad it wasn't just a stupid newbie error!I might try and have a go with some of the other areas of NZ and see if I have any luck before giving your method a trial.It will be good if Todd is able to shed any thoughts on the problem.Once again thanks very much for your efforts.Ian:-beerchug

[flyfisher 0]

Colin,It occurs if the Create a Project wizard is used at step 5.The tile is 126,097.Any chance it could be because in the scenery editor the tile is 126,97? Does the missing 0 before the 97 make any difference?Randall is clearly baffled, perhaps Todd has the solution?Ian:-hmmm

[Guest Colins2]

Ian,I also have the same problem as both of you.I guess that means that it is a TS2 problem and not an individual one.However, I did manage to generate scenery for Gisborne :)I d/l the data with ArcExplorer and then moved the data to a TS2 subdirectory under the manually-added folder.Then I started TS2 and created a new project by using the drag-box method.(I always use that method, anyway, after a bug that was in a beta version caused numerous crashes. It's habit now.)I found Gisborne to be in tile 126:098 and dragged the box round there.I opened the Project | Options menu and it crashed when I hit the Done button! - Don't do this, it's not necessary anyway.I started over and missed that step. I went straight to the digital maps section and proceeded to add the shapefiles one by one, mapping them as required.Once that was done, I hit the render button and selected only to render a daytime image and not to pod.I didn't try to improve on anything, just more-or-less accepted the default values. The image, therefore, 'could be better'!The render went OK and produced a 798mb tga of the complete tile, just as you would expect. I did select the save project before render and that was OK.The pic shows just the section around Gisborne itself, cropped and jpg'd. The actual tga is much better quality.Not sure where this image will appear, so I'll carry on :)When TS2 maps shapefiles, there are some options missing.The line types are not the full set and it is impossible to map coastline lines, closure lines and some others.TerraShape has a mapping facility which gives you the full set.The code etc. was given to me by Todd when I queried the missing lines. This will give you the same output as USGS DLG data which is hard coded in.TerraShape also has the ability to create the dem files and associated .rat file required by TerraScene.If you want to use this, you must copy the *.tsm files created by TerraShape as well as the trio of shapefile data over to the same folder in the manually-added directory.The same goes for the dem file, you need the *.ras and *.rat file.Please note that I am not trying to plug TerraShape here but it was created as a pre-proccessing tool for TerraScene itself and can do quite a lot before you actually want to render.I didn't use it for this, I was just trying to make TS generate the scenery tile.Hope this info helpsColin