Rhumba"s Mesh Is Up

Maskrider,

Rhumba's scenery layers are explained in my Rhumba ETO scenery guide. The relevant portion will explain how the layers work together.
 
So where are the coast lines? When I make LWM scenery the coastlines are usually a separate bgl. Right now I don't have any- I got rid of all the CFS2 bgls that were drawing coastlines that don't fit with Rhumba's new mesh and land poly outlines. Seems to my uneducated mind that there should be some coastline (VTP1 poly) bgls regardless of how I have things stacked up in my scenery library.;) Its ok with me if there aren't any. I can always make them for specific locals. But I have a sneaking suspicion that Rhumba has probably included some somewhere.

Where do I get your Rhumba ETO guide?
 
Hi Chris.

There are a few mesh packages in the Library. They cover LOD5, LOD7 and LOD8.

The LOD5 and LOD7 are worldwide mesh sets. The LOD8 is for the Pacific Theatre only. I would recommend making a new CFS2 copy, and replacing the stock mesh completely... and see how you like it. Earlier threads have covered this.

The reason for this is that some stock mesh for CFS2 was done at LOD9, and the sources were suspicious... some mesh even being grossly misplaced. Also, we don't need LOD9 in the sim, as it doesn't add much, and consumes framerates and disk space.

The LOD8 mesh is trimmed for sea-level... so it shouldn't need a lot of flattens... also saving framerates.

The watermasks can completely replace the stock masks, but will override them if placed in their own folder.

The VTP1 lines ( beaches, streams and roads ) are not done for any of these masks.

The masks and lines need to be redone on an LOD5-sized basis to detail the CFS2 world... just like FS2004 or FSX. And that also requires an intensive use of Ground2K to do the lines. A single LOD5-sized mask plus lines could take a few weeks... multiplied by the size of the world, and it would take decades. For just the Pacific theatre, it would take years for a single developer. We just don't have the right tools, so VTP1s end up hand-drawn.

...so, I recommend tossing out the default VTP1 BGLs if the new masking is used.

As I wrote, the best thing is to remake watermasking, and lines on an LOD5 basis. That is what Sander de Cocq did for Europe... but Sander used FS2004 images for his data in his process. The FS2004 data suffers the same type of misplacements in the sim. My data used SRTM data and masking from various sources, so it fits more realistically. But the masking is rough-hewn, and should be considered as such... covering the world better than the defaults, but not quite as detailed or accurate as we'd like.

Truthfully, we need a tool to convert saved SBuilder ( or SBuilderX ) files to a format that can be compiled to our LWM1 and VTP1 BGLs. That would solve almost all problems. We can convert FS2004 LWM2 assembly files to LWM1 assembly files with Edgar Knobloch's utility, but there is no conversion for VTP2 lines to VTP1. VTP1 lines are an old problem that Sander was working on just before he stopped his CFS2 involvement. Even the Ground2K compilation was a bit rough.

I have asked the old Aces members if they could make the tool available that they used for CFS2 lines and water, but there hasn't been a response. I suspect that tool may be lost. It probably was a GIS tool addon or plugin.... but even the coding of such a plugin would help solve the coding mystery.

EDITED:

Rami's above example shows why more than beaches are needed... the LWM masking needs refinement ( hand-drawn over satellite images ) before the beaches are added. I suggested LOD5 sized, but LOD8 sized could work as well for an airfield package. The LOD8 mesh should still work for such hand-drawn BGLs, as it is based on SRTM data, which is masked for sea-level by LandSat7 imagery.

The only advantage of the rough masking I made here is that it will better blend to detailed hand-drawn masks and shores than the default BGLs at a mid-distance from the airfields. I am stating that position-corrected airfields and target areas also still need detailed LWM and VTP1 BGLs created using Ground2K and satellite or aerial imagery.



Dick
 
Hi Dick. Well, that is a lot to chew on- as always. Yes, the task is huge. I have an ongoing project where I have been attempting to redo the entire island of Luzon using the version2 SWBD that matches up perfectly with a luzon mesh that JP made for me. Its is beautiful but it is a heck of a lot of detailed work. Then you add to the fact that the areas immediately around Manila Harbor Harbor, Corregodor, Sangley Point and Cavite, etc. all require their own separate detailed treatment- it gets a bit daunting.

So their is no way to open up one of these "project" files, click on the land poly outlines and change it over to a VTP1 shoreline, eh? Too bad.

I must confess that my knowledge of the LOD5, LOD8, LOD9, etc. vernacular and details is a bit on the fuizzy side but I think I get that the higher the number the highr the data sample size and bigger the files sizes and so on. So I guess what you are saying is that if I want to use your mesh and masks I will need to do my own shorelines on a location by location basis. It seems that it is always something! Hehe.

Hmmm. So,

BTW, you mentioned Sander. Is he ever planning to get his website going agasin? I tried to start AutoCaost the other day and it couldn't check itself out via his website so it didn't open.

Thanks for all the feed back. I shall mull things over.

Rami said:
My guide: http://www.sim-outhouse.com/downloads/download.php?lloc=downloads&FileID=13950

Here's what your Solomons - Henderson looks like now...call out the Seabees!
Click to expand...

Yeah, that was one of the first paces I went and looked. They all pretty much look like that.
 
New Tools

It occurs to me that perhaps Martin Wright should be asked to help with these tool requests... if only because of his legendary programming skills...?

SC
:kilroy:
 
rhumbaflappy said:
the best thing is to remake watermasking, and lines on an LOD5 basis
Click to expand...

Hi again, Dick. Sometimes, as indicated earlier I get a bit confused when talking about LODs. LODs describes the area we are working with, correct? So, that a larger LOD means we are working with a larger area? I guess I never think of things that way as I have always used G2K to make LWM scenery that is relatively small in area. I make it as big as I need to in order to make what I want. I never usual deal with things that are very large.

It seems that with mesh we are dealing no only with the level of sampling (the number of arc seconds or whatever) but also the area. Therefore your LOD8 mesh comes in chunks bigger than say LOD5. Is that right or do I have it backwards.

No need to reply- unless I am so out to lunch as to require immediate attention. I am just thinking out loud trying to get my brain back into a scenery making frame of reference. :d

Thanks,
Chris
 
LOD8-size is smaller than LOD5-size.

( The correct Microsoft terminology would be QMID rather than LOD, and QMID is a offset in it's numbering... )

QMID10 = LOD8.

The LOD8-size is the way the world is sub-divided for LWM and VTP code. It is also refered to as a cell in the SDK documentation. The LOD8 borders are red lines in Ground2K.

LOD5-size is the size of a landclass file, and is how the bgl files are sized in FS2004 and FSX. So it also becomes an easy way to split up the earth. There are 64 LOD8s within an LOD5.

The SDKs for flight simulator give the breakdowns of the sizes.

Chech out:

http://webpages.charter.net/ludowr/

There are some terrain tools, including the latest TDFmacros for use in G2K, and VTP1Fix, and LEC, which is an LOD extents calculator... so you know the lat-long boundries of the terrain divisions.

Also TCalc2004, and the FDSConnection module to connect it to CFS2... gives some info about the current plane position in CFS2. FDSConnection works like FSUIPC ( our version of FSUIPC is also at that website ).

Ground2K chokes if the background image is too big. My system seems to support about 7000x7000 pixels... so if you want to draw on an LOD8 sized background, you need to shrink the image to that size.

I see someone left a CFS2Autocoast zip on that website... hmmm.

Dick
 
Thank you Dick,

So, I am "so out to lunch as to require immediate attention".Hehe.

Yep, those LOD8 red lines. Those are the ones that cause G2K to always split up the LC and WC sca files.

Thanks for the links and the tips. I know it isn't the first time you've tried to refresh my memory. BTW was it you that wrote that early on tutorial/white paper about LWM scenery? If so, is it available somewhere?

Interesting about Autocoast still being available. Tsk. Tsk.

Speaking of Autocoast, if you ever feel so inclined go to my Album and check out the screen shot of Chrtistmas Island. If it hadn't been for Autocoast I would have needed to hand draw every one of those little interior "lakes". As it was, Autocoast got them draw OK but got the lake shores reversed. So I had to go back and change that. But at least I didn't need to draw them. Autocoast was great for projects like that.
I very fine idea.
 
cfs2_eurw_LC_su_BETA4.zip
SC_Eurw_FeaturePack.zip
cfs2_eurw_Global_Excludes.zip
cfs2_eurw_textures.zip
cfs2_eurw_flattens.zip

I'm going through Rami's ETO tutorial and can't find these files.

I'm interested in the pacific as well, are there necessary files that go with the new mesh?

Are older airport scenery and missions still compatible?
 
Sander's site is down, I can send you the files, but it's 132MB.

What older scenery and missions are you referring to?
 
PTO flattens, yes. Which version of Maskrider's Solomons are you referring to?

And yes, you CAN do without Sander's files...but some of my updated campaigns and Achim's bases may be displaced or in the water.
 
BTW all the most recent versions of my scenry- what I have loaded in my game- can be found by following the "downloads" link on my website. Check the links in my signature.
 
Tobob,

I can send you Sander's scenery files. Send me a PM with your e-mail.
 
Speaking of Files...

Before Sander's page came down, I had copied all the files to recreate most of England, the French coast, and North Africa.

Just out of curiosity, I decided to have a peek in the files to compare info with Rami's Tute... and discovered that two ZIP files are corrupt.

cfs2_eurw_flattens.zip
cfs2_eurw_Global_Excludes.zip

These appear to be crucial to the performance of his compilation - is S-O-H making any attempts to post SdC's files here for download ?

Thanx
SC
:kilroy:
 
MaskRider said:
BTW all the most recent versions of my scenry- what I have loaded in my game- can be found by following the "downloads" link on my website. Check the links in my signature.
Click to expand...


I'm not seeing the links in your signature?????

edit: forget it, I had to set signatures on in my preferences.
 
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