Any Mesh Gurus Out There?

[falcon409]

I am attempting to compile some data downloaded from the USGS site. Unfortunately it seems that Global Mapper is the "go-to" program to configure the data for use with "resample". However I don't have $500 to drop on a program I might use once every few years, lol. Does anyone fluent in "Mesh" know of any other way to convert the data without Global Mapper?

Thanks

 

[roger-wilco-66]

Depends on what you want to do. I also often used GM for manipulating raster data. A lot of users who don't want to spend money use QGIS as a free alternative. If you need something to just change the data format from whatever to geotiff there are many other options.


Cheers,
Mark

 

[falcon409]

Depends on what you want to do. I also often used GM for manipulating raster data. A lot of users who don't want to spend money use QGIS as a free alternative. If you need something to just change the data format from whatever to geotiff there are many other options.

Cheers,
Mark

Mark I downloaded the data files from the USGS and saved as geotif files. All I wanted to do was load them into Global Mapper and export them as the final file type necessary for the resample program to spit out a bgl. I had gone through all the menu options to ensure it was setup correctly and when I clicked the "OK" button to begin the export it told me my temporary license was no longer valid and to purchase the program. . .sorry not $500 bucks, no way, lol, lol. . .so that's where I am. geotiffs ready to make the last function so I can run resample.

 

[roger-wilco-66]

Assuming that the USGS data needs a workover: Whatever Program you use to set up the geotiff raster data for resampling, you need to make sure to reproject or convert it to:

- Geographic (Lat-Lon) Projection
- WGS84 Datum
- Arc Degrees
- Geo-TIFF

GaryGB (FSDeveloper.com) also suggests that it is better to make sure the data is of 16bit integer type, not 32bit or 64bit floating point. Resample can work with the latter, but the rendering engine of the sim has to chew on the fractional elevation units and can get bogged down by doing so.

There's a nice thread about that on FSDev, although the OP also uses GM.

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/new-terrain.425632/

And here's one on QGIS:

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/mesh-creation-with-qgis.442237/


HTH
Mark

 

[falcon409]

Assuming that the USGS data needs a workover: Whatever Program you use to set up the geotiff raster data for resampling, you need to make sure to reproject or convert it to:

- Geographic (Lat-Lon) Projection
- WGS84 Datum
- Arc Degrees
- Geo-TIFF

GaryGB (FSDeveloper.com) also suggests that it is better to make sure the data is of 16bit integer type, not 32bit or 64bit floating point. Resample can work with the latter, but the rendering engine of the sim has to chew on the fractional elevation units and can get bogged down by doing so.

There's a nice thread about that on FSDev, although the OP also uses GM.

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/new-terrain.425632/

And here's one on QGIS:


https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/mesh-creation-with-qgis.442237/


HTH
Mark

Thank you Mark, I did get the bgl compiled, loaded into the Sim and it made no difference whatsoever, lol. . .oh well, I am now looking at building my own terrain in Sketchup to match what I need. I am beginning to realize that without some serious mesh sculpting skills I will never get the exact appearance I need for this particular scenery (Google "Air-Zermatt") and look at where their Heliport is situated and you'll see what I mean. Building it may be the only way to be certain the land around and below the heliport looks as it should.

 

[roger-wilco-66]

I once made a whole island as a test with a completely synthetic mesh. So it is proved that this can be done for the sim. I used a tool caled Daylon Leveller for doing so. It does not export geotiff though, so I had to go the route via GM to project it and ready it for resampling.

If you just want to sculpt around an airfield it is easier to work with small airport flatten polygons. I use that extensively to create berms, depressions, elevations, and things like that. You also can create sloped runways in every way. Note the image below, it has a sloped runway with a depression in the middle. Also note the drainage ditch ("klong"), to the left of the runway. It was all made with the flattens.

Cheers,
Mark

 

[Penzoil3]

https://secure.simmarket.com/fsheli.ch-sa315-lama-x.phtml

The FSX version contains the air bases in Zermatt and Raron, the village of Zermatt, as well as the following mountain cabins: Hörnlihütte, Schönbielhütte, Monte-Rosa-Hütte, Topalihütte and Hollandiahütte. The scenery elements have been designed by Michael Röthlisberger.

 

[falcon409]

Thanks Mark. One question though. . .I am getting spikes, is that because some of the poly's are touching? I put in one group of triangular flattens at increasing altitude settings and liked what I saw, so I continued, however the next set gave me spikes in quite a few places so I am assuming that would be the reason.

Things were going well even with the spikes showing until my computer froze and I had not yet saved what I was doing in SBuilderX, so I lost all the work, lol

 

[roger-wilco-66]

Spikes, if we talk about the same phenomena, are usually caused by elevation errors of vertices of the polygon.
They can happen when a flatten vertice is set way lower than the actual elevation, and the sim engine is trying to "bend" the terrain down to it. That causes sort of a spike on the outside the flatten poly, if the elevation difference is large.
The other type of spike is caused by an elevation value of a vertice that is too high for the terrain. The tip of the spike is the vertice here, and it pulles the terrain up to the given elevation figure.

Usually, when I encounter that, I find that I made a mistake or typo when setting the vertice elevation.

Flatten polys should not touch each other, except if the have the same elevation! Or better not at all. That could also cause spikes, I would imagine.

To determine the exact terrain elevation of a given point I use the Aerosoft Scala tool, by the way which works very well for that kind of work.


Cheers,
Mark

PS: SBX can be set to autosave at given intervals

 

[scotth6]

You should be able to do almost everything Global Mapper can do with QGIS. A brilliant program. I currently have version 2.20 installed.

There is also GDAL Tools (FWTools or OSGeo4W), which is more command line based, but also very useful.

There is lots of info on GDAL (and OSGeo4W) over at FSDeveloper.


https://www.fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php?title=GeoTIFF_file_creation_with_GDAL

At times I find that a process won't work with QGIS, but the same process will work using GDAL.

Cheers,

 

[falcon409]

https://secure.simmarket.com/fsheli....5-lama-x.phtml

The FSX version contains the air bases in Zermatt and Raron, the village of Zermatt, as well as the following mountain cabins: Hörnlihütte, Schönbielhütte, Monte-Rosa-Hütte, Topalihütte and Hollandiahütte. The scenery elements have been designed by Michael Röthlisberger.

Yep, good suggestion Sue. I had looked that over and thought. . .nah. . .for that kind of money, I can knock this out easily. Not really, I'm good on flat terrain (which I guess is no terrain at all really, lol), but in the mountains, a whole different story. . .buying it sucked but the headaches are gone too, lol.

 

[Penzoil3]

The scenery is great and it's a darn nice helicopter.

 

[falcon409]

The scenery is great and it's a darn nice helicopter.

Yes to both observations. The only "tweak" I made was to correct the name on the Air-Zermatt Hangar at LSEZ. It was still showing Tom Tailor (?sp), it's actually Air Zermatt. . .so I did a bit of touchup to the textures and all is well now. I also went so far as to add one of the Hospitals the Rescue Choppers use (Visp) which is a stones throw from Raron and Sion and a relatively short flight even from Zermatt.

I haven't seen the cabins yet, but once I'm done playing I'll get serious about finding those and maybe adding a few more on my own. Thanks for the suggestion! Great fun!