Many users are asking me for clarification on how to create a photoscenery with simplicity. The procedures currently proposed are rather complicated and work well only on Linux machines, they use various types of programs that less experienced users are unlikely to understand. This is why I wanted to create a scenario generation procedure that was as automatic as possible and that would allow you to change the resolution of scenarios in specific areas (for example around an airport) according to the wishes of the users.
In these posts I insert the information necessary to use the procedure that is now available on this GIT under GPL2 license:
https://github.com/abassign/PhotoscenaryCriteria for implementing the program
Analyzing the various problems of FGFS users who want to get a good photoscenary to be able to fly on a photo-realistic territory, I noticed that some were very recurring so much that I could list some features to be solved:
1. Use a single programming environment that is compatible for Linux, Windows and MAC.
2. Do not use script language that only work on certain types of shells, which is hardly acceptable to a user without high programming skills.
3. Be very light on the CPU level to be able to run on PCs that are doing other things, such as working or flying with FGFS.
4. Being able to resume an image download session without having to start over.
5. Handle the images that have not been properly uploaded.
6. Being able to change the resolution of images in certain areas (for example around an airport) to reduce the RAM required to take advantage of this feature.
7. Being able to define a certain area only with a pair of coordinates (for example an airport or a city) and a radius within which to cover with the photoscenary.
8. Ability to perform multiple downloads that increase the download speed of the scenarios from 3 to 10 times (depending on the actual speed of the network connection).
Use of the Julia programming environmentThis is not the place to determine the use of a specific programming language, but the introduction of Julia among the languages present in the constellation of FGFS applications can be a good opportunity to rethink what can be done in 2021. Julia, like Java, is a completely platform independent language, this fact is essential to simplify the life of those who program, but also of those who use it. Julia is a language that has an executive permance equal to C ++ despite its syntax being more similar to that of a script-language such as Python. In Julia it is not necessary to define variable types (although recommended in projects that require maximum performance and guarantee a more precise debug), which is very useful when you need to produce prototypes or programs that are easy to modify, as is the case in this case.
Julia has other very interesting features, it is an imperative language, but also functional (in this case similar to NASAL), it allows to interface directly to almost all programming languages(C, C ++, Java, Java Script, Python etc) and produces a compiled very compact and "hidden" from the eyes of those who use it.
Finally ... Julia can directly use the GPU for some applications and OpenGL etc ...
In short, it can be a good investment for those who want to program and, observing its constant increase in popularity, they are very likely to think so.
PrerequisitesFor all three environments (Linux, Windows and MAC) it is necessary to satisfy two prerequisites that can be easily downloaded at these two links:
ImageMagick https://imagemagick.org/index.phpIt is absolutely necessary to convert the downloaded png file to dds type files which are used by FGFS for scenarios. It is also possible to use just png files, but if these are large, FGFS performance drops miserably and often overflows memory. For this reason I did not want to insert the option to use only png files, but I oblige the user to accept the automatic conversion of files from png (which are then deleted) to dds.
Imagemagick allows you to convert files transparently to the user very quickly.
In Linux distributions, Imagemagick is often already present, to find out just type the command "
convert --version" and see if something responds. In windows it must be downloaded with an installer that can be downloaded here:
https://imagemagick.org/script/download.php#windowsImagemagick allows you to convert files transparently to the user very quickly.
Julia https://julialang.org/downloads/The download link is this:
https://julialang.org/downloads/I strongly advise you to use the Julia 1.6 version as the compiler is much faster to compile than the 1.5 which is often present in Linux distributions. However, 1.5 works well with this program as there are no particularly advanced instructions.
Also for Julia download the program file and install, it is very simple and takes a few minutes of time.
The executable programThe executable program is called
photoscenary.jl (
jl is the typical extension of programs in Julia) and can be obtained at this link:
https://github.com/abassign/PhotoscenaryDownload the zip file with [code] (green button you see at the top right) and open it in any folder.
A complete program manual has been created on the FGFS wiki
https://wiki.flightgear.org/Julia_photo ... _generator