Oh I see
, usually the changes are in the github repository. I missed the google drive download link in the description part of the github page.
I'm not exactly sure what's going on with the google drive setup
, but I was able to get a Nwisc.data.zip file. I may have accidentally downloaded from the other thread, but the zip files I got included Nwisc-data.zip.
It seems the only way to download is to click "Download All" in the top right corner? Doing that brought up a dialog box while google zipped up - and after a while 2 zips downloaded. I got a 1.7 GB download for the scenery with most but not all the zip files, and a 3.5 GB download for the orthophotos.
Is it possible to just have the general scenery in one zip file, the fgdata changes for /all/ your sceneries in a 2nd zip file, and the orthophotos in a 3rd zip file?
Folder/file format inside the zip files:
Usually scenery download packages just imitate the file structure on disk, and just zip up the relevant folders. I don't think most people downloading would really know which folder goes where?, or how to make changes to materials.xml to include the new regional definitions file.
For example:
- Scenery folder like SuitableCustomSceneryFolderName/Terrain, SuitableCustomSceneryFolderName/Buildings, SuitableCustomSceneryFolderName/Roads etc.
- Orthophotos: SuitableCustomSceneryFolderName/Orthophotos/*.* in a 2nd zip file.
- FGData: data/Textures/Terrain/*.* in a 3rd zip file. This should also be in the github repo. Maybe include a copy of materials.xml that loads wisconsin_north_and_up_michigan.xml . Can call it NWisMaterials.xml and ask people to change names, but materials.xml is fine too (it will just overwrite the existing version probably without giving people a chance to backup/rename the old file). This zip file should contain regional definitions for all sceneries - otherwise the materials.xml files will clash (it will also improve terrasync terrain so there's no harm).
That way people can just extract folders to install in their custom scenery folder, and replace materials.xml. In the longer term, the FGData changes should be merged so nwisc_data.zip file isn't needed.
SuitableCustomScneryFolderName should probably be of the form: USA-maybe-a-region-state(s)-optionally-airports to make it easier to manage lots of custom sceneries.
I'll have a closer look at it inside the simulator later. Here's the first impressions from looking at the new FGData files (and a quick look around KOSH with the FGData changes only).
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Reviewing FGData changes for possible merging - these files should be in the github repo
Textures\Terrain agriculture textures:
https://imgur.com/a/juLVoN8Sources:
It's possibly a good idea (?) to just create a text file called sources and write down the files under USGS. I think earthexplorere might use several soruces, not all of them are public domain
https://www.usgs.gov/core-science-syste ... ata-policy so the exact source should be noted. I think for FGData the sources either get mentioned in the commit, or get mentioned in a textfile in FGData (which is probably better for people iterating on textures, and also attribution).
If you have the info available, it might also help to write the lat/lon down, and/or a url along with the sources - as that might help future people re-process textures from the original USGS sources, or create larger textures from orthophots in that area.
Does anyone have any review comments?
The landclasses for this area (all of non-southern USA in fact?) don't have any type of regionalisation whatsoever - not even a general one like Europe. Landclasses just use the global placeholder scenery - so this should be a straightforward improvement in most/all aspects. For reviewing it for merging with FGData it's probably best to also compare against default WS2 which will stress test it more for things like tiling - disabling/renaming the custom scenery folder works.
The agriculture pattern a square one in all of crop textures. If the horizontal and vertical boundaries align with the image I think the square crop rotation (rotation_flag = 2) should work better? It probably introduces a bit of noticeable tiling and irregularity otherwise - but it doesn't look too bad, but I've only had a quick look around KOSH using default FG terrain. It's ok to rotate the images/layers in GIMP slightly so the vertical/horizontal boundaries are not at an angle. This will produce slight holes, but they can be patched up using the resynthesiser I think - if you have the original source/location then a larger texture could be used. The agriculture effect has <uv_xoffset> and <uv_yoffset> 0 to 1.0, to use a smaller square and rotate that.
If you can find suitable drone images in OpenAerialMap (
https://openaerialmap.org/ ) for agriculture or other textures for parts of the USA (zoom out so the squares cover more images and browse them), I can extract them . Parts of images containing the type of texture you want is fine, and the resynthesiser can remix them.
The modern high quality agriculture base textures tend to be 2048x2048 spread over 2km or less (I think orchards.png is 2048x2048 spread out over a much smaller area as you can see a lot of crop detail). If you remember the location where you extracted the textures it's possible to just extract a larger texture (or at a higher zoom level). There's also room to resynthesise.
Texture folders/names - currently the textures are just in one folder, I guess it makes it easier to go through available texture options. So it's probably better to have it that way. It might be better to use file names that indicate the country-state as people might not know all the US states, and it makes searching easier in future.
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File names
Textures: I don't know if it's better to have Country_stateORregion_IrrCrop1.png or IrrCrop1_country_stateORregion.png to make browsing texture options easier in future. The 2nd option is probably easier to work with, although some filenames use the 1st.
Materials: wisconsin_north_and_up_michigan.xml should maybe indicate the country and the region of usa as well so people can find areas better?. e.g. us_region-here_wisconsin_north_and_up_michigan.xml
Kind regards