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FSX [LIDAR] Zermatt / Switzerland Photoreal

J

jetta20162

Messages
88
New Lidar Project on 20 year old FSX sim. Lidar works very well on natural terrain :wizard:


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I WANT TO GO BACK TO FSX!!!

Switzerland in Photogrametry, who would have thought it? You've got me hooked with that picture of the Matterhorn 😁
 
jetta20162 said:
No photogrametry, just lidar data compiled to FSX terrain data, much more accurate for real world aviation ;)
Click to expand...
Ah okay, then I misunderstood. The LiDAR scan data also includes color values?
I previously thought that it was only the "pure" measurement data (without color values).
But colors are visible in the images, hence my assumption that it's photography (LIDAR+Orthophoto=Photogrametry).
 
There is actually laser scan data with embedded satellite imagery but FSX can only handle the 3 elevation values, the fourth value for the rgb pixel is ignored so i had to make two layers. The difference to photogrammetry you can see at buildings. Lidar can't preserve detail of the walls, most buildings will look weird since lidar is scanning only from top to bottom and can only see the roof. Photogrammetry takes photos from different angles to create a 3d object which is placed on top of the elevation layer. Not sure if FSX can handle this.
 
jetta20162 said:
There is actually laser scan data with embedded satellite imagery but FSX can only handle the 3 elevation values, the fourth value for the rgb pixel is ignored so i had to make two layers. The difference to photogrammetry you can see at buildings. Lidar can't preserve detail of the walls, most buildings will look weird since lidar is scanning only from top to bottom and can only see the roof. Photogrammetry takes photos from different angles to create a 3d object which is placed on top of the elevation layer. Not sure if FSX can handle this.
Click to expand...

That would be a better data source for the subject of this thread compared to drone-derived Photogrammetry via Stereo-rectification of aerial imagery:

https://www.bluemarblegeo.com/blog/...hotogrammetric-point-clouds-in-global-mapper/



Can we avoid GIS pre-processing of our (1-piece / 4+ channel ?) aerial imagery / LiDAR data sets via obscure SDK Resample parameters ?

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/semi-transparent-geotiffs.432428/



It would also be interesting to see what we can do with a single processing run using SDK Resample considering its many undocumented old parameters.

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/t...ireframe-cool-stuff-from-paul-roussin.432720/

plane-jpg.20836



Hmmm... lemmeesee... is SDK Resample output Geo-referenced triangulated vectors mapped with texture images on the Faces of those triangles ? ;)


IIUC, SDK Resample output is Geo-referenced triangulated vectors mapped with texture images on the Faces of those triangles with LODs / MIPMAPs.


AFAIK, FS2Kx Resample may do this to create BGLs with better gridded TMF data organization, and less impact on run time rendering than MSFS' SDK.


We can modify display of triangulated vector terrain mesh using FS2Kx LWM and CVX vectors (and setting terrain resolution to max in FSX / P3D .Cfg).


A GIS app is able to create a Triangulated elevation grid that can be imported / edited in a 3D modeling application / mapped with aerial imagery. :scratchch


These are some processing options available in Global Mapper, which I use:

https://www.bluemarblegeo.com/blog/elevation-grid-creation-in-global-mapper-creating-a-dtm/

GaryGB
 
Last edited:
GaryGB said:
It would be interesting to see what might be done with a single processing run using SDK Resample considering its many undocumented old parameters.

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/t...ireframe-cool-stuff-from-paul-roussin.432720/

plane-jpg.20836


Hmmm... lemmeesee... is the output from SDK Resample triangulated vectors mapped with texture images on the Faces of those triangles ? ;)

A GIS app is able to create a Triangulated elevation grid that can be imported / edited in a 3D modeling application, and mapped with textures. :scratchch


GaryGB
Click to expand...
This might be also possible to achieve when you inject custom shaders into the engine of FSX with ReShade or SweetFX they have hundreds configuration options, but i never fully got into it.

EDIT: I could be wrong as this only apply post-processing shaders
 
GaryGB said:
That would be a better data source for the subject of this thread compared to drone-derived Photogrammetry via Stereo-rectification of aerial imagery:

https://www.bluemarblegeo.com/blog/...hotogrammetric-point-clouds-in-global-mapper/



Can we avoid GIS pre-processing of our (1-piece / 4+ channel ?) aerial imagery / LiDAR data sets via obscure SDK Resample parameters ?

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/semi-transparent-geotiffs.432428/



It would also be interesting to see what we can do with a single processing run using SDK Resample considering its many undocumented old parameters.

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/t...ireframe-cool-stuff-from-paul-roussin.432720/

plane-jpg.20836



Hmmm... lemmeesee... is SDK Resample output Geo-referenced triangulated vectors mapped with texture images on the Faces of those triangles ? ;)


IIUC, SDK Resample output is Geo-referenced triangulated vectors mapped with texture images on the Faces of those triangles with LODs / MIPMAPs.


AFAIK, FS2Kx Resample may do this to create BGLs with better gridded TMF data organization, and less impact on run time rendering than MSFS' SDK.


We can modify display of triangulated vector terrain mesh using FS2Kx LWM and CVX vectors (and setting terrain resolution to max in FSX / P3D .Cfg).


A GIS app is able to create a Triangulated elevation grid that can be imported / edited in a 3D modeling application / mapped with aerial imagery. :scratchch


These are some processing options available in Global Mapper, which I use:

https://www.bluemarblegeo.com/blog/elevation-grid-creation-in-global-mapper-creating-a-dtm/

GaryGB
Click to expand...
Can this be done with freeware tools? Bluemarble is quite expensive. I use mainly whitebox tools for lidar data and gdal library to convert the output coordinate system. Apart from that it's just the resample tool. I know that the resample tool can combine multiple sources but i never try to combine terrain with satellite imagery(only satellite imagery whith blendmasks or watermasks). Would this work?

[Source]
Type = Multisource
NumberOfSources = 2

[Source1]
Type = GeoTIFF
Layer = Elevation
NullValue = 0
SourceDir = "."
SourceFile = "1.tif"

[Source2]
Type = GeoTIFF
Layer = Imagery
NullValue = 0,0,0
SourceDir = "."
SourceFile = "2.tif"
Variation = Day

I have to try that :stirthepo
 
Christian Bahr said:
Ah okay, then I misunderstood. The LiDAR scan data also includes color values?
I previously thought that it was only the "pure" measurement data (without color values).
But colors are visible in the images, hence my assumption that it's photography (LIDAR+Orthophoto=Photogrametry).
Click to expand...
1775237143191.png


You can see the limitations of lidar in this example. Building structures do not have any textures on the sides, the information is missing in the satellite imagery because it's just taken from top to bottom. In photogrammetry you have the information because the images are taken in a 45 degree angle from multiple sides to cover most of the visible areas and then it is combined into a 3d object.
 
Absolutely; a simple example is home usage drone made photogrammetry; scan top and scan sides of whatever you want to make photogrammetry. Sides scanning is essential.
 
Both methods have advantages and disadvantages, for real world aviation i prefer lidar data as it is an exact copy of the surface, photogrammetry may look better but it's not that accurate and it takes a lot more space and ressources
 
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