Holger Sandmann
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Posts posted by Holger Sandmann
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Hi there,
those light-blue slivers look like tears in terrain that can open up when mesh files of different shapes overlap. Very odd that they "follow you around" though, as they generally only occur occasionally at specific locations.
Not seeing anything wrong with your setup and you don't appear to be using any terrain mesh add-on either. You don't happen to have deactivated any of the default DEM mesh files in the numbered subfolders in your \Scenery\ directory?
Cheers, Holger
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Hi guys,
QuoteHi Holger, just done it as soon as I installed the VI update; sorry for asking, and Paris is compatible now?
Fulvio, the update for Paris -- compatibility with World Update IV -- has been on Orbx Central since May 14th and on the MS Marketplace since May 21st. Or do you mean something else?
QuoteHi. Does this mean that WU6 is using the exact same Orbx building assets as the Frankfurt City Pack?
For the most part, yes. There are several models that aren't ours, but all of ours have been optimized with LODs for better performance. As mentioned though, there are additional custom models and enhancements included with the original Frankfurt Landmarks that will be made available in our update, which entered testing today.
Cheers, Holger
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Hi there,
hmm, according to today's release announcement, both London and Dubai service packs for PC have made it to the Marketplace, and London also to the Xbox. If they aren't visible yet they hopefully will be soon.
Cheers, Holger
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Hi there,
also, please see https://forum.orbxdirect.com/topic/209971-frankfurt-city-compatibility/
Cheers, Holger
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Hi all,
we are working on an update for Landmarks Frankfurt to be released soon. While many of the custom buildings are now directly integrated into the photogrammetry version of Frankfurt delivered with World Update 6, there are many more features specific to Landmarks Frankfurt that we want our current customers to retain and enjoy. Those include custom trains and boats, improvements to vegetation and night lighting, as well as a few POIs outside of the city.
In the meantime, please remove Landmarks Frankfurt from your Community folder as the current version is not compatible.
Cheers, Holger
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Hi all,
my apologies for not directly responding to the request for making the helipads landeable.
We'll make an effort to get this done asap, also for the hospital pads we overlooked in Landmarks Adelaide.
I certainly agree that helicopters are a fun and engaging way to explore these cities, we even specifically select buildings (and vessels) to model because they have helipads.
Cheers, Holger
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Hi there,
"End of the world" is a pretty good moniker as it's literally the outer edge of the landclass-based ground textures. Beyond, a global coarse map is displayed and its hues often don't match well with those of the landclass textures, especially at mid latitudes and during specific seasons.
The only "fix" is to limit visibility via your weather settings so that these sharp edges become hidden.
Cheers, Holger
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Hi Greg,
that screenshot looks like you're in offline mode, meaning Bing data/orthoimagery doesn't get loaded. Check Options > General Options > Data
Cheers, Holger
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Hi there,
unfortunately, autogen excludes don't work on autogen placed with photoreal imagery. That's not specific to TrueEarth but rather true for all autogen that isn't placed via landclass tiles. To manually remove or alter this type of autogen requires loading the corresponding orthoimage tile into Annotator.exe, along with the correct autogen definition .xml files; see the SDK documentation of autogen placement.
A work-around, if it's only a few trees or buildings, is to place small objects on top of each autogen object, for example one of the default shrubs. If those objects have their suppress-autogen flags set the autogen will no longer display.
Cheers, Holger
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Hi Marc,
thanks for the kind words!
We do think of our Landmarks products as "dynamic" meaning further updates and additions are planned, though depending somewhat on how well received a given city is.
Given that the original selection of custom objects is necessarily a compromise we tend to have pretty long "wish lists". I'll certainly add your suggestions to it.
Cheers, Holger
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Hi Brian,
try verifying Orbx Libraries first. It's the "product" that checks and repairs the necessary entries to terrain.cfg that are then used by Vector, openLC, the regions, etc.
Cheers, Holger
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Hi David,
in Central's options menu, under Downloader, try setting concurrency to Hard Disk Drive, which reduces the number of parallel download threads.
Another tip is to prevent OC from being the only app downloading data, e.g., running a random YT movie in the background helped in my case.
Not sure if you're having the same issue though; for me it was that the multiple threads somehow "overwhelmed" my modem, causing the interruptions.
Cheers, Holger
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Hi Paul,
those MSFS bgl files can actually be loaded into the TMFViewer tool from the FSX/P3D SDK to examine their content and coverage area. In this case the file contains local terraforming and object/vegetation exclusion polygons limited to northern Orcas Island and Sucia Islands. Those are the yellow polygons I've circled in red. The blue water layer I just added for spatial reference.
I don't know why the freeware mesh would be affected in other areas but that's probably due to nature of how it was made, presumably one of those heightmap mesh files. Heightmaps are essentially complex terraforming rectangles meant for airports and local adjustments. Since they work at the same priority level as other terraforming polygons (unlike a MSFS native mesh file compiled to .CGL format), conflicts of this nature are inevitable. The usual workaround is to remove the mesh heightmaps in the overlap areas.
Cheers, Holger
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Hi guys,
thanks for the kind words, much appreciated.
We are experimenting with better terrain data for the local mountains including the entire Cape of Good Hope area. Google Maps extracts aren't an option for us but there are other possible approaches so stay tuned.
... and once we have a better and stable terrain model for Table Mountain we can implement a proper (animated?) cable car.
Cheers, Holger
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Hi guys,
the weird thing about those hovering lights above buildings is that their appearance is inconsistent; during some of my night flights across the city there are none, during others the entire road network seems to have lifted off. Possibly related to start location and flight path but I'm not sure.
It's not a local issue though as it does happen in many default areas too. What would be helpful if MS/Asobo gave us the ability to exclude or place these floating orbs; at the moment we have zero control over their position and altitude.
Cheers, Holger
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Hi guys,
thanks for the feedback.
The "water glitches" on Table Mountain are actually temporary tears in the terrain itself, the light blue being the colour of "nothing" meaning no textures get applied. It happens in mountainous areas across the world, at specific view distances, and the issue has one of the longest running threads in the official forums: https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/transparent-strips-in-the-mountains/360660
We're experimenting with different ways to remove or minimize them in this area and elsewhere; fingers crossed.
Cheers, Holger
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Hi there,
sorry, but that's the way it works in FSX/P3D when placing landclass features as polygons: we developers have zero control over which part of the tiled texture gets displayed where because that is hard-coded globally. Think of it as a planet-wide layer of golf course textures, and each golf course polygon cuts a hole into the general landclass above, revealing bits of that layer.
The only other option is to place golf courses as raster landclass. That would mostly avoid cutting through features but then the golf course will appear anywhere within about a square mile of its actual location and with incorrect outlines.
Given that it's usually the spatial orientation and position that pilots use to navigate visually we believe the polygonal approach is better for clearly delineated features such as gold course, towns, forestry areas, etc.
If golf courses are 'your thing' then some photoreal coverage would be the better solution for you -- with its specific downsides, like lack of seasons and huge storage requirements...
Cheers, Holger
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Hi there,
it's possible to create very large ortho CGL files as long as they don't cross one of those grid cell boundaries I mentioned, in which case they would need to subdivide the product into separate layers. When covering relatively small islands, the likelihood of crossing grid cells is, of course, smaller. In any case, the developers won't be able to sell these on the MS Marketplace, at least as long as MS has that 4GB cap for any single file in a package.
Note also the product sizes for their higher-resolution (probably 60-100cm) version: ~20GB just for the 850 sq km of Lanzarote! Ortho coverage for New Zealand, for example, would require more than 300 times that
Cheers, Holger
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Hi guys,
no need to go 'dude' here. Big things that can't make it up or down the tricky stretch of the 'impossible' highway get shipped in by barge. There's plenty of large equipment in Bella Coola.
Cheers, Holger
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Hi there,
QuoteThere are plans to build sceneries such as TrueEarth Eastern Alps also for the MSFS?
At the moment, this is not possible as far as the orthoimagery is concerned. While the SDK does allow us to compile custom orthoimagery -- some of our MSFS airports and landmarks city packs include it -- there are several hard barriers to cover areas much larger than ~100 sq km, and TE Eastern Alps is ~1,000 times that size!
The MSFS package builder only allows for a single ortho CGL file per project, while Eastern Alps, in the P3D version, has some 350 tiles whose individual Photoshop source files are about 5-8GB each, meaning we can't possibly combine them into a single source file for compilation.
Moreover, the MSFS compiler itself is much more limited in terms of influencing compression and output resolution, and the MS Marketplace currently has a limit of 4GB for any single file included with a product.
That being said, there are opportunities for porting some of the components of TE Regions to MSFS, and the Regional Packs announced in this thread are an example of that approach.
Cheers, Holger
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Hi there,
the intention certainly is to have those pads landable.
I've just checked and the collision flag is actually set for that building's pad area so I'll need to investigate further what's going on.
Does the helipad on the Allied Health Building at the NE end of downtown work?
Cheers, Holger
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Hi Hendrik,
looks great, thanks!
Apologies for making you run circles around the static vessels. I was wondering how Landmarks Singapore might impact your project as I was placing the 150 or so offshore statics; pretty crowded anchorage indeed...
On the plus side I've "rescued" the submerged naval port to the southeast of Changi Airport so at least your military vessels have somewhere to aim for.
Cheers, Holger
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Hi Ben,
not sure how that can be as openLC Europe doesn't include any shoreline vectors for GB. If you don't have Global Vector installed then the default shoreline vectors and their respective surf effects remain active.
Cheers, Holger
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Hi Andy,
QuoteFirst is that the default MSFS Marina Bay hotel is pretty good, actually better than the one the competitor produced (same with the big wheel), so maybe an option to turn the new one (which I assume will be part of the package) on/off as desired?
We're actually keeping the five default landmark objects in Singapore -- they are of very good quality indeed -- but are adding things that are missing like night lighting, rooftop vegetation, etc.
Quotebut if it is possible to take some of the "shine" off some of the buildings, I think it would increase the realism enormously.
Fair point, thanks for the feedback.
Cheers, Holger
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MSFS v1.19.9.0 Frankfurt City Packs v1.0.0 one massive building appears after update of MSFS
in Microsoft Flight Simulator Support Forum
Posted
Hi Cloudhunter,
make sure you update Landmarks Frankfurt; a service pack has been released since World Update VI to make it compatible.
Cheers, Holger