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FSXA Help with Masks

Hughes-MDflyer4

Hughes-MDflyer4

Messages
466
Country
us-california
Hi,

I downloaded a tile for some photoscenery from the USGS site. I added a blendmask as a new (5th) channel in the GeoTiff using Gimp. After compiling the BGL, however, the blend mask does not show in the sim. I also tried saving the GeoTiff as a BMP and the blend mask as a separate Tiff and defining the coordinates for both images in the INF file. This time, it wouldn't even compile a BGL. What am I doing wrong? :confused:

INF for TIFF with RGB and blend mask channels
Code: 
[Source]
Type = GeoTIFF
SourceDir = "."
SourceFile = "59831004_WGS84_test.tif"
Layer = Imagery
Variation = Day
NullValue = 0,0,0

[Destination]
DestDir = "."
DestBaseFileName = "L08_Ortho"
DestFileType = BGL
LOD = Auto
CompressionQuality = 85


INF for the BMP + TIFF Blend Mask
Code: 
[Source]
Type = MultiSource
NumberOfSources = 2

[Source1]
Type = BMP
Layer = Imagery
SourceDir = "."
SourceFile = "59831004_WGS84_test.BMP"
Variation = All
NullValue = 0,0,0
Channel_BlendMask = 2.0
SamplingMethod=Gaussian 
ULXMAP = 33.2743713
ULYMap = -116.3552204
XDIM = 1.03757047590173E-05
YDIM = 1.03757003037450E-05

[Source2]
Type = TIFF
Layer = None
SourceDir = "."
SourceFile = "59831004_WGS84_test_B.TIF"
ULXMAP = 33.2743713
ULYMap = -116.3552204
XDIM = 1.03757047590173E-05
YDIM = 1.03757003037450E-05
SamplingMethod=Gaussian 

[Destination]
DestDir = "."
DestBaseFileName = "L08_Ortho"
DestFileType = BGL
LOD = Auto
UseSourceDimensions = 0
CompressionQuality = 85
 
I don't know much about it, but I think "UseSourceDimensions = 1" in your second example might help.

I always add the water and blend masks as additional channels in the .tif, not sure how gimp handles the extra channels, but in PhotoShop when you create a new channel it becomes "Alpha 1", "Alpha 2", etc. I've always used Alpha 1 as my water mask and Alpha 2 as the blend mask. I don't know if the actual channel name has anything to do with it, or if it's some kind of layering tag within the .tif, but resample seems to do OK with it.

I don't try to put the geodata back in with FWTools after saving in PS, I have that defined in my .ini [Source] as you've done in the second example so there's no need. There are probably better suggestions, I adopted the first technique that I managed to get working and haven't really experimented with anything else since.

Jim
 
How many bytes is your BMP file and your TIF file?

While I'm asking, how many for the GeoTiff? Before trying to add the 5th layer.
 
Sorry for not replying to the thread sooner!

It looks as though GIMP's TIFF format is not compatible with FSX. When saving the TIFF with the trial of photoshop, the geotiff method works perfectly and the blending works. Very strange...guess I solved my own problem. :D
 
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