Project Australia hi-res ressurection?

[Artlav]

I once made a full Lv 12 set of Australia textures, with some parts up to Lv16 (for Orbiter 2006), but it seems the thing was well forgotten.
So, here is a re-release, if someone is interested:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Australia hi-res, pre-release one (080404):
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3945"]Australia hi-res[/ame]
Generated from I-Cubed LandSat3.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Contents:
Continent, Lv12, 100Mb

Yulara region, Lv16, 7Mb
Ayers Rock and Kata Tjuta region, Lv17, 3Mb
80% of Victoria, Lv14, 8Mb
Ballarat, Lv17, 3Mb
Blue mountains, Lv16, 6Mb
Brisbane region, Lv16, 6Mb
Woomera, Lv15 and Lv17, 13Mb
Perth region - 3Mb, Lv15.
Sydney region - 4Mb, Lv15.
Beagle Gulf, Van Diemen Gulf, Darwin - 10Mb, Lv15 and Lv17

163 Mb total.
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ToDo:
Ayers Rock and Kata Tjuta, Ballarat, Blue mountains, Woomera and Yulara are clean.
Continent, Brisbane, Darwin, Perth, Sydney and Victoria needs oceans masked out.

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Installation:
Unzip config into Orbiter directory.
Copy all the dds files from textures2 and subfolders to Orbiter\Textures2

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Continent:

Overviews:

Ballarat:

Woomera:

Yulara:

 

[Notebook]

Not forgoten.

N.

 

[Artlav]

Not forgoten.

A year have passed.
No one volunteered to fix the gaps.
No one ever mentioned it, and since it wasn't online for half a year, this means no one looked for it.

So, i thought it was well forgotten.

 

[fort]

Hi, Artlav,

You say in the readme :
Copy all the dds files from textures2 and subfolders to Orbiter\Textures2

I do not really well understand but if i move ( that's what i've made )..."all the dds files from textures2 and subfolders to Orbiter\Textures2" , is the result the same ? I think that the answer is yes, but...

I do not remember seeing this texture previously. Was it present with early versions of Orulex ?

My configuration (... vidéocard ) has some problems at the start ( 30s/1 min to launch it ) but the result is nice.

I started collecting a year ago with information, photographs taken from sattellites by day and night on major world cities with the intention of adding it to Orbiter. I have not had time for that ( except for Mexico, I think, if i remember ) , taken up by other things. But that's about the way I wanted to see them from orbit.

Good day.

fort

 

[Artlav]

Copy all the dds files from textures2 and subfolders to Orbiter\Textures2

I do not really well understand but if i move ( that's what i've made )..."all the dds files from textures2 and subfolders to Orbiter\Textures2" , is the result the same ? I think that the answer is yes, but...

Yes, same or even better.
Place the files from subfolders into Textures2 directory is the better description.

I do not remember seeing this texture previously. Was it present with early versions of Orulex ?

No, they were present in WorldWind (open-source Google Earth).

 

[fort]

Thank you Artlav.

fort

 

[tblaxland]

A year have passed.
No one volunteered to fix the gaps.
No one ever mentioned it, and since it wasn't online for half a year, this means no one looked for it.

So, i thought it was well forgotten.

Definitely not forgotten. In fact I was looking at the old thread (http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=895) just last month. Only trouble is, my system struggles with hi-res textures so I'm holding out for a performance upgrade (graphics card and RAM) but the ageing and dangerously close to failing hard disk must come first...

A level 17 Sydney would be nice, but I may be accused of bias on that account.

I must say, you have the overall colour balance very nice. Well done

 

[Artlav]

A level 17 Sydney would be nice, but I may be accused of bias on that account.

It's not much of an improvement, i think -

Lv 17 looks like that:

While Lv 15 looks like that:

Is it really worth additional loading time waiting and downloading?

Anyway, you can get them here:
[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3951"]Sydney Lv17 textures[/ame]
Compatible with Australia hi-res add-on.

On the other topics, any volunteers to mask out oceans and clean things up?

 

[tblaxland]

It's not much of an improvement, i think -

Is it really worth additional loading time waiting and downloading?

Anyway, you can get them here:
http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3951
Compatible with Australia hi-res add-on.

Thanks! Yeah, its worth it. I like to fly out of [ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=750"]this base[/ame] and your textures look like they will cover a larger area.

 

[fort]

Hello Artlav,

When you say "mask" oceans. ..I believes to understand:
- to convert the concerned dds in bmp;
- to repaint the oceanic area in a color that adjusts
itself to the one of the ocean in Orbiter basic, this for the concerned zone;
- to convert the modified bmp to dds.

I did, in the past, some experiences in this respect ( i do not remember precisely how...). This is a little tedious but easy to realize.

Or is it a question to apply a mask (of which sort ?) on the oceanic zone?

fort.

 

[fort]

Hello Artlav

I began to remove all the dds situated in open sea for keep only those situated close to the coasts. About 1200 files removed for the only "basis" folder on about 3000 coming with the addon in the "basis" folder . I've made the change in the cfg related to that.

It was long to do but it was probably the easiest part.

The result at this point :

fort

Good day

( I think that there is still around 50 to 100 dds that i should remove also in the same folder. It was a first approach ).


Edit 02/05

The transparency (DXT5) will double the weight of the dds along the coast but the number of dds to the final for the whole ( now: 1604 for what concerns the "basis" folder ) - now being divided by two...

 

[fort]

Artlav,

I think that I will do Victoria, and can be two three others (I rediscover the tools and that can go enough quickly), but surely Victoria.

Says me, if necessary, if there is something special to oversee.

fort

Good day.

 

[fort]

Hello,

I advanced on the files for Australia and notably Victoria and does some tests of compatibility of textures (dds very generally called in the surftilelist toward dds called in a mesh and situated at the the same place - that this be in ownmaterial or declared explicitly and having an equivalent _n one in the textures - with the intention to present to weak distance cities lightning by night) I wanted simultaneously to verify the compatibility of such configurations with the versions in development of the next Orbiter (the last version).

It turns out that Australia, here, presents artefacts in it's center when it is combined with the basic version (for the version ng, I do not know. ..) and leads to a CTD when one adds the high textures resolutions coming with Orbiter. But it can be an error from my part.

My question, very generally is what will be, technically speaking, in this new Orbiter version , to the adaptation of texturized extensive zones (since it is these, at first glance, that may be referred) already realized (certain parts of Europe, notably, but generally textures recovering the globe ).

Are the contents of the planet tex file that were modified (it seem to me that yes...but...), and does the possible futures customers/client graphic external (OGLA?) take they in eventual account problems ?

Thank you.

fort

 

[Artlav]

Hello Fort.

Thank you for working on cleaning up these textures and my apologies for missing your posts earlier.

By masking the oceans i meant to open dds's in photoshop and add transparency in places with water, then save as DXT1 (1 bit alpha channel), looks like you found that out already.

The image with Victoria look like pretty much what i had in mind, only i think something should be done about the low-level textures showing up from below. Maybe, make a gradual transition between the tiles's ocean (keeping shore part of it unmasked) and the main textures, in DXT5 full alpha channel?

As for your description of the problems with the recent beta, i have completely failed to understand what problems did you encounter. There should not be much difference, SURFTILES - wise between the current and the next version, i think.

 

[fort]

Bonjour Artlav,

I do not come a lot on the forum since fifteen days (while the remainder of the time, I read it daily). Health problems in my family.

But to summarize my activity presents and recent: I had begun a first one sort of all the textures representing the Australian coasts while doing my accounts well precisely, zones by zones,for all concerned dds, and while eliminating, in the cfg the useless dds. While passing in value 3 all those concerned by the transparency. Etc. After a problem of hard disc my sort lost itself, and I must remake it. This summer probably. From July. Fortunately, I rediscovered the files cfg that I had prepared.

But, along the way, although I no longer know in what way, I began being interested in me the lights of night, that disappear as early as the instant when new tiles come to superimpose themselves, to the basic configuration for Orbiter. And I put back in road an old project, henceforth more advanced, at the same time that I had to remake a little trigonometry (notably) to adjust this device to tiles existing, as the one of your addon for Australia.

It was, here ( the link ) a first approach. The global configuration changed since.

http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=8181

This is a lot of reflections ( reflexions ?) but I arrive to the end, if I continue nevertheless, a little by curiosity, a little by interest, to apply these small research to the creation of bend meshes, which is finally rather simple.

Concerning what appeared me to be an incompatibility with the coming Orbiter version (the high textures resolutions of the less) I would remake essays but the better I believe is that I take a picture screen of this and that I present it here.

Being a question of the transparencies in coast edge, I have does multiples experimentations, that suit in several cases, but I have to mastery a little better the effects of layered one that are necessary from that time at the moment when one is located nearby zones showing mouths of rivers or the presence of silts. I begin to success but this is again to the research state. At less to succeed in not to spend a time excessively long on every dds while obtaining a result of good quality. Therefore, optimum usage of the tools.

I found some software a little specialized for that that can do enough well what done Photoshop or the Gimp. I usually use for the overall work Photoplus and sometimes Pixia. And DXTBmp.

At last, there are zones where effectively this is not simple to regulate the problems that arise with the low textures level coming with Orbiter. Layered one of course is the solution.

I have some choices to do.

I finish my some calculations with my bend meshe and I come back to Australia (after assuring me that the compatibility with Orbiter 200??? is possible). Some tests to remake.

fort