SRTM Mesh Terrain for FS2004

I meant globally! Sure there is patchwork of mesh aplenty for various parts of the world, albeit the sites hosting them are slowly disappearing if not have already disappeared, but in any case, the likes of AFX tool is regardless essential to generate the relevant mesh flattens, especially for anything more detailed than LOD 9, be it a custom regional mesh package or part of a global mesh pack; for global mesh packages, the available choices are rather limited for FS2004; Abacus and Lago Terramesh were the others I believe, available now only in second-hand shops, and not in any way better than the ones already discussed - plenty of anomalies, errors, and plateaus therein to boot; FSGlobal series have always been the gold standard in global payware mesh for MSFS. Anyhow, regional mesh packages also suffer from the 'plateaus' so there is no side-stepping the issue other than learning to ignore it.

found this of late for the Alpes: https://web.archive.org/web/20100305074523/http://c30s.alpes.gratisim.fr/ by Alain Ragot; a tad more detailed - LOD11 than the Jonathan Ferranti-Holger Sandmann collaboration, as available on avsim / flightsim f/l which was I believe LOD10; download links on Ragot's site potentially not entirely functional; Guy Nemoz's VF-Air http://www.vf-air.com/down.htm has the Alpes Ouest mesh available: http://www.vf-air.com/Altirelief-2.zip Anyhow, using the FSGlobal AFX tool herein would likewise be essential, and absence thereof can be noted by way of the screenshots of the numerous airport plateaus at Nemoz's site

on a further related note, web-archive is useful, but not always...

cheers!
 
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I have CFS2 and I have the SRTM Mesh installed in the scenery library in a number my CFS2 installs. Two scenery packages require the mesh as per their read me files. The packages are xbp Japan. 2006
and eawwii 2006.. I have scenery elevation issues in some of installs but not everywhere. Can the SRTM conflict with other mesh scenery and cause elevation issues? I know it can with other mesh sceneries conflicting. Thanks.
 
Steven KLein said:
I have scenery elevation issues in some of installs but not everywhere. Can the SRTM conflict with other mesh scenery and cause elevation issues? I know it can with other mesh sceneries conflicting. Thanks.
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Indeed mesh conflicts and the concomitant elevation plateaus are a regular occurrence: take the case of an airport/airfield developer who has implemented a custom mesh and flatten for their airport and surrounding vector scenery, but should the end-user have at their end, another larger regional or continental mesh present, then there is the potential for conflict, typically because of a mismatch in the quality/processing of the source datasets, and which show up as plateaus, rivers flowing uphill, cliffs where there should not be any, coastlines out of place, etc.; most often the airport developer designs their airport scenery assuming the user only utilizes the default mesh or a specific one, which they either include or ask the end-user to download

Anyhow, adjusting the priorities of the relevant mesh in the scenery library helps, especially if the custom mesh and the regional/continental mesh are of the same LOD. However, most likely they are not, in which case, the system will try try to load the highest LOD for the relevant area, and accordingly either deactivating the culpable mesh bgl or reducing the Terrain_Max_Vertex_Level in the fs9 cfg file by a notch ought to help; and likewise the equivalent in CFS2; choosing a better base mesh also ought to help

By the way for Japan, for FS2004/FS2002/CFS2: https://www.flightinfo.jp/jtms/files/files.html

note how for the above Japan mesh, there is a LOD8 152m, LOD9 76m, and LOD10 38m mesh: all three should be activated in the scenery library to have an optimal balance of performance and detail

a further note: SRTM is generally the most generic quality of mesh dataset, but if one takes Yohann Baptiste's efforts into perspective, or for that matter that of the famed Holger Sandmann, or the likes of payware FSGenesis by Justin Tyme - another regional/continental mesh for FS2004/X spanning the globe, then one can appreciate the improved mesh quality, resolution, accuracy and reduced anomalies as a result of interpolation with if not exclusive use of better data sets like the USGS National Elevation Dataset (NED) or the Digital Terrain Elevation Dataset (DTED) - point being: in addition to a scenery with or without an associated mesh/flatten, one is usually better off with a good quality base mesh, i.e. something better than SRTM, if only to reduce the degree of 'mesh conflict'

Edit: regardless of the source datasets, the issue of 'plateaus' will persist, from my own experience at least, unless of course, the relevant flattens are implemented; the other mesh errors/inconsistencies/incompatibilities will generally resolve themselves to various degrees depending upon said dataset quality and processing...

Edit 2: to clarify and get to the heart of the matter, perhaps the only way to truly reduce the airport elevation plateau issue globally, as @leuen Bernard so clearly demonstrated is by either choosing a lower LOD mesh akin to that by Rhumba, i.e. LOD7 or in the case of the abovesaid Japan mesh, activating only the LOD8 152m mesh, or else, reducing the likes of Terrain_Max_Vertex_Level in the fs9 cfg and/or its equivalent in CFS2; both choices will reduce the displayed resolution of the mesh - terrain will appear more rounded, with reduced sharpness and detail, but the airports will no longer be on a plateau; with a high res mesh, one has no choice but to use the likes of the AFX elevation tool or manually implement a flatten...all very tedious

cheers!
 
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leuen said:
As long as you use FSX. With FS9 the feature doesn´t work.
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believe this is the original: https://www.flight1.com/products.asp?vid=flt1sf&pid=afxfsx says it is FS2004 compatible, and which means the AFX elevation demo included in FS Global ought to be also FS2004 compatible...

Edit: perhaps OS compatibility issues with respect to FS9?? Win 7 is the recommended OS

Edit 2: perhaps try the demo available from flight1: https://web.archive.org/web/20250910194145/https://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=afxv1 and which can also be downloaded directly from flight1: http://flight1.100megabyte.com/afxdemo.exe

cheers!
 
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55234931439_6f1be17a66_b.jpg


Q.E.D.

Not a demo version, but a full paied.
 
no idea, perhaps then an OS issue?? are you in touch with the developers/flight1??

perhaps also check here: https://www.simforums.com/forums/ under Legacy Products - No Longer Supported> Scenery & Mission Making Tools -> indicates a sub-forum for AFX - albeit, you have to register and login to search for relevant forum threads and/or post and potentially have a fellow simmer respond - so unofficial support perhaps can still be had...

cheers!
 
leuen said:
55234931439_6f1be17a66_b.jpg


Q.E.D.

Not a demo version, but a full paied.
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I do not see the FS2004 in-sim window open and running in the background of your screenshot; instead only your desktop.

Perhaps the WYSIWYG utility only works when you load the sim concurrently with the AFX tool, at least per the contents: https://www.flight1.com/products.asp?vid=flt1sf&pid=afxfsx under the heading 'Flight Simulator Integration', and can ensure that the AFX module that connects to the sim is fully functional and not hindered by any means including by the likes of anti-virus/anti-malware - OS or third party real time protections

cheers!
 
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