General Question Surface tiles HELP!!!!!

[jedimaster1214]

This is really frustrating......
Easy Tiler v0.9 doesn't split tiles, plus it only shows a black screen....
Does ANYBODY have any step-by-step instructions on how to import surface tiles into Orbiter????

Also, World Studio doesn't work for me either....

 

[Artlav]

What exactly does World Studio do that you call "doesn't work"?

 

[combrown]

Easy Tiler

I had a diddle with Easy Tiler some time ago and even tried to email the gentlemen that developed it.

I was trying to create a scenery area for my home city of Perth Australia.

But everytime I tried to import and compile it would always jumble them up.

Really annoying.
I hope most understand I really do apprecaite what they do with these addons and development.
But at the end of the day I get frustrated at spending so much time developing when I would rather put orbiter into action with some relative ease.
Sounds selfish, I am sorry.

Like with flight simulator, you want to get in the air instead of diddling around with configuring all the time.
I guess thats what you get for free.

Fair Enough, Please don't take this as a complaint.

Love you all.

oh and not to mention everytime you increase graphical representations you likely find you need to upgrade your hardware sometime soon.

Where are we going?

 

[Notebook]

This is really frustrating......
Easy Tiler v0.9 doesn't split tiles, plus it only shows a black screen....
Does ANYBODY have any step-by-step instructions on how to import surface tiles into Orbiter????

Also, World Studio doesn't work for me either....

Haven't tried World Studio yet, so can't help there. I had a small go at Easy Tiler, but didn't pursue it.

So why am I here you ask? Wel, maybe these threads will give some background to Surface Tiles, and the fun and games you can have with them.

http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=11333&highlight=surface+tiles+google+earth

http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=10396&highlight=surface+tiles+google+earth

Hope some of it helps, N.

 

[jedimaster1214]

Thanks for the links!!!

Also, why are surface tiles named the way they are?

Earth_6_W0016_N0132

For Example, The W0016 & N0132. are these the SPECIFIC location of the tile on the Earth? If these aren't, how do you know what to name the tile perfectly as?

~~~~~~~~~~~EDIT~~~~~~~~~~~~

Figured out World Studio. Thanks ARTLAV for the Add-on!!!

 

[Notebook]

Good question, jedimaster1214!

Here's a quote from Ar81's Surface Tile Calculator readme.txt.

Example:
Lets say you want to put a tile on Costa Rica, longitude 84W, latitude 10N and you have a base called Heredia.cfg. Let's guess we want a level 3 tile.
-You type 84 in the longitude field and then press the W button.
-You type 10 in the latitude field and then you press N button.
-Select the desired tile level. In this case, level is 3.
-Press the "Calculate" button.
-Place the first line in your surface base CFG file. So you should add the following text at the end of the Heredia.cfg file...
BEGIN_SURFTILELIST
3 -957 114 1
END_SURFTILELIST
-Rename your DDS tile texture as indicated by the second line.
You need a texture named Earth_3_w0957_n0114.dds in the Textures directory, so it serves as base tile.

SURFACE TILE CALCULATOR V5.0a
-----------------------------
Made by José Pablo Luna Sánchez. 2006.

[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2752"]Surface Tile calculator v5.0a[/ame]

So, to get your surface tile visible in Orbiter it needs an entry in the surface base .cfg file, and a .dds texture in the Textures or Textures2 directory. These have to be linked, and they are linked as Ar81 explains above.

As I understand it, the tiles have an origin at zero Latitude, and zero Longtitude, then start you start counting.
West and South are given negative values, East and North, positive values. They also have a value for how large they are.

Level 0 is the starting value, and goes up from there, largest I made are Level 9, most bases seem to have values between 6 and 9.

To look at ar81's example,

BEGIN_SURFTILELIST
3 -957 114 1
END_SURFTILELIST

This is a Level 3 tile, its -957, so its the 957th Westerly tile, and its 114, so its also the 114th Northerly tile.

You have to give this same info to the .dds texture, so its name is
Earth_3_w0957_n0114.dds
Note the "w", and "n" before the digits, I'm assuming this is because you can't put "-" in file names?

Hope this helps, N.

 

[jedimaster1214]

Hope this helps, N.

Thanks!!!!!

Now a question for ARTLAV....(or anyone else that can answer)
When i compared World Studio made tiles to tiles in Google Maps the resolution doesn't look as good....
Is there any way increase the resolution of the World Studio tiles?
I used level 9 tiles around my apartment and it looks like an orange blob, whilst Google Maps look perfectly clear...

 

[fort]

If you want to be precisely at a Orbiter's zero level with WorldWind level 0 you will have to resize that level: first by the (f) coefficient ( 1.00111...) and, in a second time, by 1.6 before to cut your 256x256 tiles for Orbiter in that final picture. And, for example, if your tile are 512x512 cuted in the map but registered as, by example, Earth_0_e000 etc, you will be at level 1 for orbiter. And so on.

The processus is not really différent with VE ( as plugin in worldwind or coming from screencapture ), as Yahoo, as Google.
First, rezize by the f1 coeff. Second, rezize ( reduce ) vertically by the cos for the latitude. From that you can cut your 256x256, 512x512...tiles in your map.

But i must say that it's not always evident to know at witch level one are on the different sites for satellite maps. I've made the experience and if i begin to handle it, it takes a certain time to practice.

Note: i've made it in the run some times ago. There could be somewhere, here or there, in a line, an error in the calculus but i think that that can be easily changed by comparison from level to level in each table.

 

[Artlav]

When i compared World Studio made tiles to tiles in Google Maps the resolution doesn't look as good....
Is there any way increase the resolution of the World Studio tiles?
I used level 9 tiles around my apartment and it looks like an orange blob, whilst Google Maps look perfectly clear...

Quite likely. World Studio uses Landsat and USGS data, while Google uses a lot more sources.

Try several different datasets - if you look for your apartment, and is in USA, then USGS urban can be much better resolution-wise.

Also, "level 9 tiles"? You sure you figured it out?
You need to download the data, then export tiles.

 

[jedimaster1214]

Also, "level 9 tiles"? You sure you figured it out?
You need to download the data, then export tiles.

By that i meant that when turned into tiles for orbiter, the final tiles were level 9... they were level 20 i think in World Studio....

 

[fort]

I've found this some days ago. If it can help:

" SASPlanet mapping and navigation program designed for viewing and downloading high-resolution satellite imagery and conventional maps submitted by such services as Google Maps, DigitalGlobe, Yahoo! Maps, VirtualEarth, Gurtam, OpenStreetMap, iPhone maps, etc., but in contrast to all these services, all downloaded your card will remain on your computer, and you will be able to view them, even without connecting to the internet. In addition to satellite-based maps can work with the political landscape, the combined maps, and map the Moon and Mars. "

http://sasgis.com/sasplanet/

Some related tips:

" 3D terrains with satellite imagery "

http://www.racedepartment.com/bobs-track-builder/28189-3d-terrains-satellite-imagery.html

I use World Wind but, after some trys, the SAS program seems interesting too.

Edit 26/05/2010:

I've forgot to say that SAS can combine on your request ( from top/bottom long lat that you want ) all the png in it's cache and create the map really precisely.

I've used another program - umd - in the past wich can do the same but 1) it is limited in the free version to level 12- but sometimes, it' is mostly enough 2) it create the map only on the nearest png from the coordinates that you give to it.