FSDevConf scenProc presentation

Yesterday I gave a presentation about scenProc for the FSDevConf. If you were not able to watch the session live, you can still view it on YouTube, you will find the presentation here.

Compared to some other scenProc presentations I have recorded before, I spend more time on explaining how to examine the GIS data that you are using. I have noticed that many users have trouble to analyse the structure of their GIS data. But it is important to understand which attributes are used in your data, as else it will be hard to make the right filters in scenProc. So hopefully this extra explanation will help you to get through that phase.

During the Q&A session at the end I also spend some time discussing the vegetation detection feature that is still in development.

 

FSDevConf schedule

schedule_clipart 450x300The schedule for the FSDevConf has been announced. So have a look and put the sessions in your agenda that you would like to attend!

As you can see I will also be giving a few presentations. You can expect sessions from me about the following topics:

  • How to convert a SketchUp object to Flight Simulator with ModelConverterX
  • How to make autogen scenery from GIS data with scenProc
  • What is a drawcall? Explaining the importance of drawcalls for good performance.
  • Scenery Design 101, an overview of the different types of scenery that exist. How can you recognise them and how can you create them?

FSDevConf is approaching…

Just a quick note to let you all know that the online FS Developer Conference (FSDevConf) that we are organising is approaching quickly now. It is actually scheduled for next weekend. So that means that the coming week I won’t have much time to update my tools, so the reported issues will have to wait a while. I first have to prepare my presentations for the conference and to finish  he other preparations for the event.

Tree detection – part 5

It’s been a while since I was working on the autogen vegetation for Nantucket. It was actually before my summer holiday. Afterwards I thought I would quickly fix some of the reported bugs and then return to this interesting issue. But as always I got carried away by adding some new features to ModelConverterX and so it is only now that I had the time to look at the autogen vegetation detection again.

Before the summer I was working on vegetation detection based on the histogram properties of an area. This worked OK, but sometimes it is hard to distinguish water and vegetation. So this time I tried another approach for which I needed imagery with a near infrared band as well. For Nantucket I was able to get hold of such imagery through the state GIS portal. It seems this kind of imagery is available for more parts of the US for free and in the coming years it is likely to become even more easily available.

imagery_rgb

Above you see a picture of this imagery. The quality is actually less than the imagery I have used for the photo scenery. But since we want to use it to detect the vegetation it does not matter too much. The most interesting part is the near infrared channel that is included. Below you see a color infrared version of the same area shown before. As you can see the near infrared information lets certain features stand out more.

imagery_cir

I found a common approach to detect vegetation, with is called Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). This algorithm uses the red channel and the near infrared channel and calculates an index based on that. The higher the value, the more likely it is vegetation. So I have implemented this as an alternative approach compared to the histogram matching algorithm I used before. The first results look better, although it is sometimes still hard to distinguish between a shadow and vegetation for example. Below you see a picture with the detected trees.

trees

I think both algorithms are OK for usage now. So I plan to finish up the GUI I have been working on that allows you to tune the algorithms for the imagery you want to process. And then I will add the vegetation detection feature to scenProc. And given the complexity of the algorithms I will also add some documentation to explain how they works and what the settings of the algorithms do.

Blender

blenderlogoFor a long time 3D objects for Flight Simulator could only be developed with a couple of tools. For example FSDS or GMax with the right gamepack. But over the last few years there is a trend to use more and more tools. For example SketchUp is also popular now to make scenery objects. Recently we have also seen more interest in using Blender to design for FS on the FSDeveloper forum. That’s why we have added a special subforum for it now.

To get the objects out of Blender and into FS you can best use ModelConverterX. From Blender you export as a DirectX X file. This way you can even export animations. In ModelConverterX you can then load this X file, tweak the materials and animations as needed and then export again. The X file Blender makes does not have all the FS specific extensions, but ModelConverterX will add them for you.

I’ll try to post a little more details about using ModelConverterX and Blender in the near future.

scenProc XML objects optional attributes

The scenProc processing step to create XML objects had a last argument that when provided would add the NoAutogenSuppression tag to the create XML object. In the next development release the behaviour of this last argument has been changed a bit. From now on it matters what you enter. That’s because you can now specify any of the additional tags that BGLComp supports. If you want multiple just separate them by a semicolon. The possible values are:

NOAUTOGENSUPPRESION
NOSHADOW
NOCRASH
NOFOG
NOZWRITE
NOZTEST

Grrrr, stupid MakeMDL error!

Image2013-10-22 2134.46.827I think every designer exporting objects to FS2004 has seen the error message on the right at least once. It happens when you export a small object to a FS2004 MDL file with MakeMDL.

The reason is that somewhere inside MakeMDL, when calculating the octtree for the crash detection, some assertion is triggered. Of course this is nice to know, but it doesn’t help you as you still have that same error.

The standard fix for this in GMax is to add a fully transparent dummy box that is big enough. This will make sure that the object gets compiled by MakeMDL. And the polygons of the fully transparent box don’t end up in your MDL file, MakeMDL will filter them out for you since they are fully transparent.

Today I have updated the FS2004 MDL exporter of ModelConverterX. When you try to export an object that is small (small enough to trigger this error), it will automatically add a dummy box for you. So you don’t need to worry about it anymore. As a result you shouldn’t be bothered with this assertion message anymore in the future.

Scenery Objects Editor

Image2013-10-20 1605.33.298In the next development release of ModelConverterX you will find some changes to the “List objects” form. The first change is that this form is now called the “Scenery Objects Editor”. The icon in the toolbar has not changed by the way.

As the new name already indicates you can now do some editing as well. It is now possible to add or remove objects from the active scenery. When adding new objects you will be given a dialogue to select the file you want to insert.

You might think that this functionality sounds very similar to Library Creator XML. In a way it is. With this new function you can now also manage your object library from ModelConverterX. There are a few important differences though:

  • Library Creator XML can only handle MDL files. In ModelConverterX you can add objects from any of the supported formats. The tool will automatically convert when needed.
  • Library Creator XML does not alter your MDL files. It just creates the correct XML code to make your library BGL. When adding the objects in ModelConverterX the tool will import them into its internal representation. When saving the library they will be exported again to the requested format. This might mean that certain elements could be altered (although for scenery MDL files you shouldn’t run into too much trouble).

Scenery (tool) designer

NL2000-LogoAs many of you probably know I am a member of the Netherlands 2000 Scenery team for almost 15 years already. Or actually I should say I was. Because I have decided to stop working as a part of the team.

This decision has nothing to do with the team, they still make a great freeware scenery of the Netherlands (go check it out if you don’t know the scenery). I have made the decision because I don’t enjoy creating scenery as much as I did in the past.

What I enjoy is finding new ways to make scenery and making tools. Within the work I did for the NL2000 team I couldn’t give those aspects enough attention and with a small child at home I could not combine making tools and scenery at the same time anymore.

So I have now chosen to focus on what I enjoy most and that is making tools. So I’m no longer a scenery designer, from today I am only a scenery tool designer.