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Thanks for the message Arno. I've had your blog in my news reader for quite a while. [ But I cannot quite remember where I came across it in the first place. Probably from a Microsoft Flight Simulator site. ]
Scenome is a general modeling platform with extensions for terrain generation. These features include the ability to generate accurate, geographically textured terrain models. When I say that Scenome is a general modeling platform, I mean that terrain specific features are just extensions to the platform. In some sense Scenome has output comparable to MultiGen or Terrex, but the modeling is a lot more general and modern. The mesh quality is a bit higher because we use some very high end simplification techniques. [ For example, Scenome uses a mesh construction history to implement all modeling. Scenome also uses a pageable, completely node-based scene graph, so you can designed truly enormous geographic-area, multi-gigabyte databases on a laptop. Etc.]
To make Scenome specific for FSX, we need to implement an exporter to the correct terrain format. At present, Scenome would only export fully textured terrain models since that is what is has been designed to build in this release. Although Scenome has support for object placement and a lot of modeling features are already built [trimming, beveling, extrusion], we are focused on terrain generation. Later, we'll release support for additional modeling to create runways, roads, aprons, what have you.. [ And those models will be parametrically cut in to the terrain. ] Workflow and modeling-wise, Scenome isn't designed for any specific format: right now Scenome exports OpenSceneGraph. We can add FSX export with relative ease.
Scenome has been designed to make terrain generation, and scene building, as easy and fast as is practically possible on consumer-level hardware. While it doesn't solve some of the hard problems, such as acquiring elevation and texture imagery, it does solve a lot of the other hard problems such as projection, texture generation, generating levels-of-detail automatically, and so forth. It also provides incredibly interactive, visual workflow and numerous conveniences related to those features. You can see your terrain at all times. You can tweak the resolution, simplification, etc., very easily. If you want to generate a small area test, you can do so almost instantly. Texture generation is automatic, assuming you have imagery. We've watched these forums for a while, checking on workflow, problems, and so forth, as part of our development process. A while back your blog contained a post about map projection difficulties. We took that type of problem into account when designing some of our features.
I am here looking for information on formats, data import/export requirements, and of course, looking for beta testers.
Feel free to take a look at our web site:
http://www.scenomics.com/ and also check out the
online help, which may give you a better idea about how it works than what I can explain here! The Exercises section in particular. I am of course happy to answer any questions.
