Pittsburg Development

[Rick Ace]

Hello guys. I'd like to announce that I would attempt to enter the realm of Flightgear development trying to develop (KPIT). It looks like a bare airport right now.

I'll post updates in this topic. I probably won't have anything to show for a week or two, at least.

If you guys could help me with this project, I'd appreciate it. Of course, the biggest concern is data. There's a very limited number of things available online. I'm also rather new to finding airport data under GPL. So, any assistance with that would be great.


So, a little help with data? And does anyone have an 850 of this airport? Thanks.


Data Gathered
I've downloaded images from wikimedia commons for reference.

[f-ojac]

Hi,
For 850 data, look at the mapserver (mapserver.flightgear.org), enter the ICAO code an check. If the data suits you, this means the airport was enhanced in XPlane data.

[statto]

http://www.pasda.psu.edu/uci/MetadataDi ... taset=1539

KPIT does have a 9.00 file.

[Rick Ace]

http://www.pasda.psu.edu/uci/MetadataDisplay.aspx?entry=PASDA&file=NGA_pittsburgh_pa200904.xml&dataset=1539

KPIT does have a 9.00 file.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't someone have to go through Terragear and all to make it ready for Flightgear? I was hoping someone might have already done it, as my Terragear skills aren't that great.

[Rick Ace]

Hi guys. I've been working a building in Downtown Pittsburgh.


However, the area seems to be filled with buildings that don't exist in the real world?

http://i.imgur.com/fJG6mL2.jpg

So, what step should I take next?

Edit:

And also, if someone is good with terragear, and wants to help with something else in the project, PM me.

[radi]

What is wrong with those buildings? It's been a while since I visited Pittsburgh, but I recall there were some tall buildings, so it looks reasonable to me. The fact that buildings float on water in FG doesn't mean they're wrong. Often, landclass is a bit off, but the building's position is OK.

If you want to model buildings in downtown Pittsburgh, I see basically two options.
1) Model each major building individually. You're free to add detail where necessary, it will give the overall best result, but will take a lot of time.
2) Use openstreetmap (OSM) data, then have buildings generated procedurally, check osm2city in the FG wiki. Buildings will look a little more generic, but this will take a lot less time.

OSM has some buildings for downtown Pittsburgh. You could also add some more buildings to OSM (you're allowed to use bing maps for that, check the OSM wiki). I could volunteer to do the procedural generation, since osm2city is not yet that user-friendly.

Of course, you could combine both approches: individually model some buildings, have the rest generated from OSM data.

Landclasses could probably also be improved, but I'm no expert in that.

[f-ojac]

The answer is once again in mapserver:
http://mapserver.flightgear.org/map/?lo ... FTFFFTFFFF
The buildings are indeed well placed, they even are noticed as ground obstructions to air navigation by the FAA, so they shouldn't be deleted: http://scenemodels.flightgear.org/objec ... ?id=246021
What is wrong is the landclass definitions beneath the objects: the river is not at the right place, which is often the case with VMAP0 data.
NLCD seems to be right however: http://mapserver.flightgear.org/map/?lo ... FTFFFTFFFF so let's hope for a better open source landclass for the US to be shipped with FG.

[Rick Ace]

@f-ojac
Thanks for the reply. I'll try to use the mapserver from now on. I suspected the river, because there was a similar problem at KJFK a few years ago (I'm not sure if it has been corrected or not).


@radi
I'm trying to individually model selected buildings.

[Rick Ace]

Update:




That's basically the Fricks Building. I still need to work on the texture. I'll also make adjustments here and there. Finally, I'd be able to place the structure in its correct location and altitude.

[Rick Ace]

Good News: Using OSM data, I was able to quickly "draw the floor" of the main terminal for KPIT.

Bad News: I can't find any open source data for the height of the terminal. Is this a dead end? (By terminal, I mean the spider-like structure with all the jetways attached, known as the Airside Terminal with all the present-day concourses.)

And in other news...

I'm still working on the textures for the Frick Building.

[radi]

I can't find any open source data for the height of the terminal. Is this a dead end?

Don't think so. Google for pictures of the KPIT terminal, e.g

http://jetphotos.net/showphotos.php?regsearch=KPIT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh ... al_Airport

Ask the respective copyright holder nicely if you could use his pictures for this purpose. Explain what you're doing. If he says yes, using some known reference length (e.g., assuming people are 1.75 m tall), you should be able to estimate heights with reasonable accuracy. Also, you could just email KPIT airport and ask nicely if they tell you the height.

Also, I dug out two pictures I made that accidentially feature some of Pittsburgh's skyline. Feel free to use them.

[statto]

Finally, I'd be able to place the structure in its correct location and altitude.

What corner of the building is the building's origin in your model?

[Rick Ace]

@radii,

Thank you for your advice. I've googled and found 1 picture. The author responded saying that the building's measurements weren't protected by copyright. Based on the width of a part of the building (which I already know from OSM), I'm going to estimate the height.

Thank you very much for the pictures. These are going to be very helpful.

@statto
The front-left corner of the Frick Building is on the origin.

[statto]

@statto
The front-left corner of the Frick Building is on the origin.

Northwest? Northeast? Southwest? Southeast?

Cheers

[Rick Ace]

@statto
The front-left corner of the Frick Building is on the origin.

Northwest? Northeast? Southwest? Southeast?

Cheers

The southwest corner is on the origin.