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Replacing Ground Textures Poly

R

Randall Smith

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us-northdakota
I am working on 2 airfields in North Dakota. P3d and MSFS 2020 ground textures are anything but beautiful. I am going to need to replace at least 10 miles out.

Does anyone have the link to where I can purchase a Ortho to use to replace the texture and use as a backdrop for creating a ground poly. I have looked for hours on the USGS website and cannot find any purchasable images.

Thanks

Randy
 
Hi Randy:

If you see a downloadable image on a USGS web portal that you would like to use, you do not need to pay to use it, as USGS imagery is in the public domain; all USGS asks is a brief credit as the source of the imagery used.


However, a 10 mile ground coverage extent would indeed be a large quantity of imagery source data, and USGS does offer an optional service to write bulk data onto storage drives for a fee.

Although some may find that an attractive option, I would instead prefer a scripted download over my own high speed internet connection.


Be aware that P3D requires use of Zoom level 15 resolution for imagery draped as custom photo-real land class terrain textures that will display with priority over default land class textures, which involves very large amounts of imagery data to cover a 10 mile extent of ground.

[EDITED]

Be aware that MSFS-2020 requires use of Zoom level 21 20 resolution for imagery draped as custom photo-real land class terrain textures, that will display with priority over default Bing / MS Virtual Earth photogrammetric ground textures, which involves even more large amounts of imagery data to cover a 10 mile extent of ground.

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/photoscenery-sdk-discoveries-msfs-2020.449390/post-858189

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/t...g-a-large-non-flat-airport.450254/post-865482

[END_EDIT]


Be aware as well, that the Nool Aerosystems' utility may incur some complications if creating imagery for a 10 mile extent of ground coverage.


GaryGB
 
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GaryGB said:
Be aware that MSFS-2020 requires use of Zoom level 21 resolution for imagery draped as custom photo-real land class terrain textures, that will display with priority over default Bing / MS Virtual Earth photogrammetric ground textures, which involves even more large amounts of imagery data to cover a 10 mile extent of ground.
Click to expand...
This is not true. My particular procedure prefers ZL19 and can work with much lower levels, which is fortuitous, since one cannot find better than meter per pixel resolution in many parts of the world. Meter per pixel resolution is approximately equal to ZL18, if it is a clear image.

One should be scrupulous about sources, especially in limited markets. I'd been contemplating base imagery from a commercial provider, KOMPSAT-3A 40 centimeter/pixel resolution for $200 for a 10 square kilometer island scenery I am developing.

So I compared the samples with what is freely available from Google and Bing. Finally I decided to take a Google image of about 5k pixels square and blow it up to 14,400 pixels. I ran that through the photo rectification process - this software allows one to map literally any photograph - and I almost could not tell the photographic houses, from placed models, once in the sim.

This, from a photograph.

insim.JPG
Woody_1_25_18_R1C1_wm.jpg


I think what looks most out of place, is the default procedurally placed terminal, which I have to replace with an appropriately red roofed model. You can even see the recent land building on the north side of the island, which is not present in the commercially available DigitalGlobe image. One thing I regret, is not being able to show those beautiful coral reefs, which are what cause these islands to form.

This is the procedure I follow and I was a little surprised to find a link and discussion here, this is not where I originally found it. A couple of posts in, someone suggests SBX for imagery, which I'd already tried. Be aware, all image processing softwares, get images from same servers. SBX can't give us any better a Google Satellite image, than can Ortho4XP. One can easily learn what satellites cover their region of interest.
 
"Bumped" to correct a late-night typographical error in my post above:

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/replacing-ground-textures-poly.452832/post-884519


PS: My citation for the reported minimum zoom level for MSFS photo-real imagery is here:

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/photoscenery-sdk-discoveries-msfs-2020.449390/post-858189

"Default Zoom for all satellite imagery is Zoom 20, if you export your master image tiles to 19 or lower, the higher resolution MSFS photoscenery will show through, unless you turn off satellite imagery"


Indeed, most online imagery is maximum Zoom 18; rarely does one see higher resolutions on web map servers (...and almost never on Bing / MS-VE).


Regardless of whether one can actually compile / display zoom level 20 or 21 imagery on the ground, it is IMHO impractical to use, as Dick explains here:

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/3-5cm-per-pixel.21121/


But, to be able to compile / display imagery at zoom levels less than 20 or 21 on the ground in FS might be a 'good thing' ...for a number of reasons. ;)

IMHO, we may wish to instead allocate system RAM / VRAM to higher resolution texture Materials on flat 2D / solid 3D objects to cover up ground. :idea:

GaryGB
 
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