DEM data
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Yeap and mostly and mainly having a tool to manipulate such workflow and be able to do it from ground zero. Bells ringing!!!
Also it would be nice to start collecting data and maybe doing preliminary work from theater dev’s or if external 3dparty tools are to be used it would be nice to know and start learning them…Problem is that real tools doesn’t exist yet, I have some very basic “tools” which I wrote for my immediate needs, but are very specific to what I needed, and not including any GUI (Although now that I know how to write a “decent” tool-style GUI, that isn’t really a problem).
Basically, all the “Pure data” should be downloaded from anywhere you want and via any tool (e.g QGIS, GlobalMapper, OSM etc). However, the intention is to not use anymore Falcon fake projection but to use instead a Transverse Mercator projection that will be centered on the most suitable Meridian per theater.
This is the very base. If anyone is serious about creating data for a newly-made theater, let me know and we will discuss further.
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Problem is that real tools doesn’t exist yet, I have some very basic “tools” which I wrote for my immediate needs, but are very specific to what I needed, and not including any GUI (Although now that I know how to write a “decent” tool-style GUI, that isn’t really a problem).
Basically, all the “Pure data” should be downloaded from anywhere you want and via any tool (e.g QGIS, GlobalMapper, OSM etc). However, the intention is to not use anymore Falcon fake projection but to use instead a Transverse Mercator projection that will be centered on the most suitable Meridian per theater.
This is the very base. If anyone is serious about creating data for a newly-made theater, let me know and we will discuss further.
well all theaters will be new so all theaters must be re generated.
The thing is to setup QGIS to project Transverse Mercator to visualize it.
But what datasets are needed?
Is there a minimum of layers?
Like landuse
urban areas
roads
railroads
citiescan we add extra layers?
The tile set will be in what format?
elevation?
it would be like a .shp .dbf .xml etc?
Theater size limitations?
Theater features limitations of the above mentioned?Any good python coder here? I believe it would assist greatly on manipulating the datasets and exporting for Falcon. Thinking outloud here…
Feasible to pre convert current theaters? Maybe say it better, create new ones and use their data with autoplacement on the new terrain?
The not having a tool is an ouch.
I live it every day at work and we loose time by reinventing the wheel daily.
I understand your pain and I would give up anything If I could assist on creating the tools by coding. I believe I could do the forms for the UI and manual maybe…
But instead of creating a new tool maybe consider as u mentioned QGIS? Can’t QGIS be used entirely to start from zero and do all the work and export to Falcon?
What the tool would be used for?
QGIS is open and the code is public if you fear that one day the QGIS is gone.Oh dear so many questions so many discoveries ahead… YYYeeeesssss give us pain… :lol:
//Edit: QGIS 3.10 downloaded and installed… Waiting for Input… :lol: I have 3 qgis installations active on my laptop already… :rofl:
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Problem is that real tools doesn’t exist yet, I have some very basic “tools” which I wrote for my immediate needs, but are very specific to what I needed, and not including any GUI (Although now that I know how to write a “decent” tool-style GUI, that isn’t really a problem).
Basically, all the “Pure data” should be downloaded from anywhere you want and via any tool (e.g QGIS, GlobalMapper, OSM etc). However, the intention is to not use anymore Falcon fake projection but to use instead a Transverse Mercator projection that will be centered on the most suitable Meridian per theater.
This is the very base. If anyone is serious about creating data for a newly-made theater, let me know and we will discuss further.
Interesting read……See everyone, I told you the Falcon world is FLAT and faked……
You are not Really flying over Korea…chuckle!!!Have FUN,
demer -
Interesting read……See everyone, I told you the Falcon world is FLAT and faked……
You are not Really flying over Korea…chuckle!!!Have FUN,
demerWell, every projection in a flight sim is a fake unless you make your earth curved and your sim 100% LAT/LONG friendly. But, Boy we are NOT going to go there
TM projection is probably pretty accurate for a “flat theater” like Falcon’s. For sure more accurate than default Falcon projection (Which BTW the idea of it isn’t so much different AFAIK but the result is less accurate).If you are interested in new stuff, I’m here…
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Well, every projection in a flight sim is a fake unless you make your earth curved and your sim 100% LAT/LONG friendly. But, Boy we are NOT going to go there
TM projection is probably pretty accurate for a “flat theater” like Falcon’s. For sure more accurate than default Falcon projection (Which BTW the idea of it isn’t so much different AFAIK but the result is less accurate).If you are interested in new stuff, I’m here…
Yeah, lets NOT go there……yet
I like the TM thought, and have for sometime now. GUAM is loosely based on it and the .map is easily manipulated to it.
As far as projection, the AB’s in GUAM were only off a few degrees (~10) according to Nikos who did the Stations and ILS file for the THEATER.
Easily fixed at that time as I was into REBUILD THEATERS TO BMS 4.1 FOR DEEJAY mode……LOL!!! Cannot even remember how many…though I know for a fact I did not do Libya due to the Smans lawsuit, which I eventually won.And Yeah I am interested in new stuff, just PM me with your thoughts, intent etc…… and lets GO from there……
Anything that increases “Joe Pilots” immersion, suspension of disbelief and enjoyment in sim/game, I AM ALL FOR IT!!!Serious,
Dave -
@Cloud:
?? Why do you keep talking about SRTM data and posting links??
Like I told you previously, Joe Labrada has supplied Falcon ready SRTM data for the entire planet!!
Here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/29dg56hd6kk66c8/JoeLabradaWorldMapDem2Terrain.zip/file
C9
If it’s already in e00 thats great, let me give it a shot, getting active and Pak-Ind theatre is the vision
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What are the dem pixel/meter resolutions supported by BMS? Knowing that is essential for choosing a DEM source. For example:
SRTM is C-Band SAR, which means that it has some ground penetration. It has a medium resolution (30m/px). On the other hand, TDM1 or Tandem X/Terrasar is a X-Band SAR that has very limited ground penetration but the free data provided by the European Space Agency is low res (90m/px). ALOS PALSAR is the best DEM source for resolution but its a L-Band SAR that has the longest ground penetration of the 3.Compared to a tank simulator, I estimate that a flight simulator doesn’t require very high res DEM files which in the end would be more detrimental to graphic performance, more than the benefits of a higher res terrain. Knowing that, for a desert terrain, where the soil is dry and sandy, higher ground penetration means that the data as a result would look a lot more bumpy, noisy with more pronounced features than in reality (Deeper valeys and higher hills); when in reality is pretty flat as far as the eye can see. That’s because the microwaves are penetrating up to a meter (sometimes even a lot more) into the sand and scattering off the wet underground, rocks, clay, archeological sites yet undiscovered or whatever is underneath. In this case the lower resolution X-band would be my source of choice because, although lower res, it models the lay of land, the surface, more accurately. Also, today it is already possible to get very high resolution data (Lidar) for a few places like the US, Spain, Denmark of up to submeter/pixel, for free and then process it to whatever the need.
For texture, thats even easier today. Its possible to get Multispectral data for any place on earth, for free. Resolution varies from 30 to 15m. The good thing about it is that with multispectral imagery, its possible to accurately use a software to automatically classify the terrain type according to their spectral characteristics, that means, to create automatically in a matter of minutes a map with each feature in a different colour, like forests in red, sand in brown, water in black, sand in green and infinite other combinations.
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Still can’t get dem2terrain to work. Windows 10 suggestions how to?
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What you can try is to get Oracle VM Virtualbox and make a virtual installation of XP or whatever windows that works with this app. Or perhaps you dont even need it anymore. If I understood it right, its just a format converter that turns dem into e00. I bet you could do that with open source Gdal (QGIS, Grass, SAGA…), maybe even Global Mapper.
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250m?! Thats worse than DTED level 1. Are you sure its the best res for BMS?
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What you can try is to get Oracle VM Virtualbox and make a virtual installation of XP or whatever windows that works with this app. Or perhaps you dont even need it anymore. If I understood it right, its just a format converter that turns dem into e00. I bet you could do that with open source Gdal (QGIS, Grass, SAGA…), maybe even Global Mapper.
Nah… I remember i did made it work some how one day (before the format) but i cant remember how i did it…
Is some option or some fidling you have to do -
Perhaps run it in compatibility mode?
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What you can try is to get Oracle VM Virtualbox and make a virtual installation of XP or whatever windows that works with this app. Or perhaps you dont even need it anymore. If I understood it right, its just a format converter that turns dem into e00. I bet you could do that with open source Gdal (QGIS, Grass, SAGA…), maybe even Global Mapper.
Ehm actually DEM2Terrain translates Digital Elevation Measurements in L0-L2 that is the format that Falcon reads in the terrain, the e00 files are what you put in for the roads,rivers and citties portrayed on the terrain through the tiles!
and still im struggling to make it work -
Make sense. E00 is a vector format, that is, shapefiles (points, lines, polygons).
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e00 are compressed files of data.
I recently had some talk with Binanees.The convertor to e00 still exists and is a DOS command line tool.
From Falcon wiki what we know is that we want those:- Political/Ocean
- Populated Places (both Polygon & Point)
- Roads - Drainage (network)
- Aeronautical
We suggest you copy the feature files (*.e00 files) into the dir where your DEM data is located, then rename the features like:
rdline.e00 == countryname-road.e00
dnnet.e00 == countryname-river.e00
eapoint.e00 == countryname-airport.e00
pppoint.e00 == countryname-label.e00
ponet.e00 == countryname-coast.e00
pppoly.e00 == countryname-city.e00as we see each is an e00 file.
ArcInfo
ESRI softwareArcInfo interchange file
[data transfer] A file format, also known as an export file, used to enable a coverage, grid or TIN and an associated INFO table to be transferred between different machines which are not connected by any type of file sharing network. ArcInfo interchange files have a .E00 extension, which increments to .E01, .E02, and so on, if the interchange file is composed of several separate files.ArcInfo workspace
[ESRI software] A file-based collection of coverages, grids, TINs, or shapefiles stored as a directory of folders in the file system.each e00 is like a project that contains files inside like one file for points one file for metadata one file for lines etc and consists of files like:
- A label layer (polygon labels, or free standing points) is named LAB if present.
- A centroid layer (polygon centroids) is named CNT if present.
- An arc (line) layer is named ARC if present.
- A polygon layer is named “PAL” if present.
- A text section is named according to the section subclass.
A region subclass is named according to the subclass name.
info here: https://gdal.org/drivers/vector/avcbin.html
here: https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/82471/when-trying-to-convert-an-e00-file-into-a-shapefile-with-ogr2ogr-getting-erro
and here:http://avce00.maptools.org/docs/v7_e00_cover.htmlNow in modern GIS data we have those:
.cpg
.dbf
.prj
.shp
.shxThose are ESRI shapefile format.
Now the following are mandatory:
- .shp — shape format; the feature geometry itself {content-type: x-gis/x-shapefile}
- .shx — shape index format; a positional index of the feature geometry to allow seeking forwards and backwards quickly {content-type: x-gis/x-shapefile}
- .dbf — attribute format; columnar attributes for each shape, in dBase IV format {content-type: application/octet-stream OR text/plain}
It could also have those:
- .prj — projection description, using a well-known text representation of coordinate reference systems {content-type: text/plain OR application/text}
- .sbn and .sbx — a spatial index of the features {content-type: x-gis/x-shapefile}
- .fbn and .fbx — a spatial index of the features that are read-only {content-type: x-gis/x-shapefile}
- .ain and .aih — an attribute index of the active fields in a table {content-type: x-gis/x-shapefile}
- .ixs — a geocoding index for read-write datasets {content-type: x-gis/x-shapefile}
- .mxs — a geocoding index for read-write datasets (ODB format) {content-type: x-gis/x-shapefile}
- .atx — an attribute index for the .dbf file in the form of shapefile.columnname.atx (ArcGIS 8 and later) {content-type: x-gis/x-shapefile}
- .shp.xml — geospatial metadata in XML format, such as ISO 19115 or other XML schema {content-type: application/fgdc+xml}
- .cpg — used to specify the code page (only for .dbf) for identifying the character encoding to be used {content-type: text/plain OR x-gis/x-shapefile}
- .qix — an alternative quadtree spatial index used by MapServer and GDAL/OGR software {content-type: x-gis/x-shapefile}
So now we can have an idea of the link between the old and the new files schema.
So we will need convertors for all those. each by each like convert the dbf shx and shp file to a PAL and LAB and text.
Unfortunately since shp files are new and e00 or Arc/Info are old finding new to old file format convertors is way hard.I don’t know if taking the time to find such convertors will be ok.
Without being sure and from the search I made ARCGIS desktop applications from ESRI version 9.x or older version where capable to convert .e00 files to shp files (like Arcmap info here: https://support.esri.com/en/technical-article/000004705 or ArcCatalog info here:https://gis.ubc.ca/2018/02/how-to-create-a-shapefile-from-an-e00/ ) maybe they could do and the opposite or be able to create arcinfo files and then with the e00 convertor you can create the e00 files from arc info files.
but those where paywhere versions.This is from ArcGIS 9.3: http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.3/index.cfm?TopicName=What_is_a_coverage
Also look here: https://community.esri.com/thread/2687
I know it’s not the help we might like-want to get but… it’s all I can find.
Now searching my disks I just found an ARCGIS 9.3. I don’t want to fubar my system right now So I’ll try it in my old laptop and we might get lucky if this dvd has inside something valuable.
Still not sure what we’re looking for in it, probably world data if they are there (I think they must be… by the size of it) -
Not sure what you mean?
I can try to retrace where I found it, no promises tho, if i remember it was buried quite deep into the internet.
Edit : Found the original source (https://psu.app.box.com/v/dcw/file/55755582550), still comes as one big compressed folder, much the same as what I uploaded on google drive.
This link looks legitimate.
I opened the files of Afghanistan and Pakistan in GIS app (ArcMap 10.6.1) and they look ok to me:
I mean the detail is for laughs compared to current data, but the info is there. points names lines lakes like here the Dashte Nawur:
So if 10.6.1 doesn’t do the job for e00 9.3 will do it.
All that it seems to be missing is the GIS application and knowledge of the application to clip the wanted area which is rather easy.
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This link looks legitimate.
I opened the files of Afghanistan and Pakistan in GIS app (ArcMap 10.6.1) and they look ok to me:
https://i.postimg.cc/FsgwhSjd/Annotation-2020-05-29-235149.png
https://i.postimg.cc/dtBNbYYG/Annotation-2020-05-29-235247.png
https://i.postimg.cc/m2R6pr0b/Annotation-2020-05-29-235421.png
I mean the detail is for laughs compared to current data, but the info is there. points names lines lakes like here the Dashte Nawur:
https://i.postimg.cc/T357pWbJ/Annotation-2020-05-30-000705.png
So if 10.6.1 doesn’t do the job for e00 9.3 will do it.
All that it seems to be missing is the GIS application and knowledge of the application to clip the wanted area which is rather easy.
Arty all theese are good IF i could make the freaking dem2terrain to work on my win10 x64. I somehow did it before the format now all new in the hard drive it still refuses to work so whatever info i can have on all the features etc it doesnt come handy if i dont have the very basic program running….
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when u say it refuses to work what do you mean?