What's the best way to start making photoreal airfield scenery?

T

tigisfat

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What's the best way to start making photoreal airfield scenery?

What would I need? I've got the deluxe version and scenery design editor, which as I understand is only for placing objects.

I wanna make what Falcon409 is making, even though I'm sure mine won't be as good as his. What software do I use to get the photoreal tiles and turn them into scenery, and also edit airport layouts?
 
Ask four people and you'll get that many answers probably tigi, but SBuilderX is what I use to capture the tiles and convert to ground textures, also use it for flattens, excludes, ground poly's, Landclass and a lot more I haven't even gotten into.

For editing existing AFCAD files or building a new airport from scratch, I use AFX (payware), mainly because it was the closest thing to Lee Swordy's AFCAD program when I got started and it handles both FS9 and FSX AFCADs.
 
search for make_photo-real_ground_textures_in_fs_x.zip on flightsim.com, tells ya everything you need to know, best to read "Using SBuilderX" bit first, then the "Problems" then the "useing fsx resampler" if you need to
 
For me its from withen Sbuilder itself useing the virtual earth server (google doesnt work anymore) :engel016:
 
tigisfat said:
What would I need? I've got the deluxe version and scenery design editor, which as I understand is only for placing objects.

I wanna make what Falcon409 is making, even though I'm sure mine won't be as good as his. What software do I use to get the photoreal tiles and turn them into scenery, and also edit airport layouts?
Click to expand...


the main problem is finding adequate source photos for your project. FSX default terrain is approx 1m horizontal resolution, and you should aim for something around there or better. Google/Bing is an option, though I don't think they are wild about people using their data. also, they put watermarks on their tiles so you have that possible degradation. Resolution of Google/Bing varies, but it looks like where they don't have detail imagery they are using LANDSAT which I think has pretty wide coverage. But IIRC LANDSAT has B&W imagery @ 15m resolution, and color at 30m so it isn't really an option for airport photo, where you are close to the ground.


a problem with source photos is that to avoid distortion or misplacement, they need to be set to a geographic projection (scale units are degrees lat/long) and positioned to the WGS84 datum. Tiles you get from Google/Bing will be that way, but stuff from other places (like gov't or university) probably won't be. At that point you need to get GIS software to process the photo. there are some free options online but if you need to do more complex tasks the freeware stuff can be a project in themselves.

Once you have a photo you need some sort of image editing software, where Photoshop is the coin of the realm, though I get by with the freeware GIMP program (it barfs for me on really big photos but otherwise gets the job done).

All you must have to convert the photo is the resample.exe program from the sdk (on deluxe/accel/gold install dvds), but SBuilderX can ease the problem of getting the necessary attributes right and SBX will run your photo through resample for you.

Using this method, you can place photos up to the limit of FSX terrain system, 6 cm resolution. This method also relies on using the default runway / taxiway / apron scenery which may or may not look acceptable to you. To get better than that, you have to turn the photos into scenery objects, and doing that can get a bit more complex. One advantage is you can use the scenery object photos to create the runway/taxiway/apron textures instead of relying on the default ones. A drawback is that these scenery object photos don't follow the seasonal/weather changes for the most part.

scott s.
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Hi Tigisfat,

I am also stunned at what people are achieving on this forum in terms of scenery. I've just started learning what I need to design airfields and found the tutorials at http://www.scenery.org/tutorials.htm a great help.

On the plus side it looks as if most of the tools are freeware, thanks to the generousity of the community...so that helps :jump:

SBuilderX does seem to be the weapon of choice for most...

Andrew
 
Tigi, get SBuilderX and then I can talk you through the basics of getting your first photoimage placed. Once you've done it one time. . .the rest is experimentation and refining the technique to get the results you want.

Believe me, if I can learn enough to do the sceneries I make available here, anyone can do it.:wiggle:
 
falcon409 said:
Tigi, get SBuilderX and then I can talk you through the basics of getting your first photoimage placed. Once you've done it one time. . .the rest is experimentation and refining the technique to get the results you want.
Click to expand...
Thanks!! I appreciate it a lot.

falcon409 said:
Believe me, if I can learn enough to do the sceneries I make available here, anyone can do it.:wiggle:
Click to expand...
I wouldn't say that, you're in the top ten freeware scenery builders out there.:applause:
 
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