Quality of textures

[yorkfield]

I was just wondering whether both your TrueEarth - regions Holland and England South

are built exactly the same way and if we can expect exactly the same quality of textures, density und variety of autogen

for both regions... Or does Orbx always step ahead of their game with every new release?

[John Venema]

We licensed the ground imagery from a UK supplier for TrueEarth GB. The quality that we could afford to pay for (it was insanely expensive) was probably not as crisp as the Netherlands imagery. For this reason we added a detail map layer to create definition at very low latitude to compensate for this. 

 

As we make make more TrueEarth regions you will find the quality of the ground textures will vary according to each supplier. In a perfect word we would only every see perfectly crisp and clear LZ17 imagery but that is hardly ever the case, sadly.

[kaboki]

1 hour ago, John Venema said:

We licensed the ground imagery from a UK supplier for TrueEarth GB. The quality that we could afford to pay for (it was insanely expensive) was probably not as crisp as the Netherlands imagery. For this reason we added a detail map layer to create definition at very low latitude to compensate for this. 

 

As we make make more TrueEarth regions you will find the quality of the ground textures will vary according to each supplier. In a perfect word we would only every see perfectly crisp and clear LZ17 imagery but that is hardly ever the case, sadly.

 

Hmmmm, makes me wonder if there is a chance in h... that orbx would give us the DEM files to use with ortho4xp for for each tile so we can make crisper ortho by ourself and just use the orbx overlays....

[John Venema]

We have to license the imagery so that we remain within the law and only use properly sourced data that we pay for. All of this is very expensive, well into six figures. So it is very hard for us to compete against freeware tools that allow people to scrape whatever data they like for personal use, something which falls outside the scope of the use of that data in the first place.

 

So we add value by cleaning up the licensed source imagery, colour matching it, removing clouds and artefacts, making custom autogen and then hiring a team of 3D modelers to make bespoke models for as many POIs as we can. We then deliver it via a simple interface with no messy installation.

 

If we start providing elements of how we assemble TrueEarth to you to enhance your use of scraped textures, it completely erodes our value proposition.

[kaboki]

Ok, thanks for replying, makes sense, anyway im all in. These true earth regions with payware orbx airports has been something I dreamed of for a long time. 

[britfrog]

On 10/10/2018 at 2:17 PM, John Venema said:

  something which falls outside the scope of the use of that data in the first place.

 

 

you are wrong there JV we have letters in our possession giving simmers full rights to use the images for personal simulation use from 2 of the largest suppliers and we abide by that ruling very few simmers share the images ,as the files generally  are too large to send over the internet, i certainly would not like to try to share my 13tb's of scenery over a 1.2mb upload link

[Fizzelle]

This now worries me. Looking at all the recent screenies, I detect definite tiling patterns in fields. I am panicking because it looks like Landclass by another name.

 

Can someone confirm this additional detail layer is NOT Landclass? With the impending release of TE GB this weekend, I don't want to get my fingers burnt!

 

See JV's post above for reference.

 

Thank you.

[Wonderbadger]

49 minutes ago, Fizzelle said:

This now worries me. Looking at all the recent screenies, I detect definite tiling patterns in fields. I am panicking because it looks like Landclass by another name.

 

Can someone confirm this additional detail layer is NOT Landclass? With the impending release of TE GB this weekend, I don't want to get my fingers burnt!

 

See JV's post above for reference.

 

Thank you.

The tiling effect will be from applying a decal texture to the ortho photos so that when at low altitude you see variation instead of blur as you would using ortho photo only. This technique is used by many already including myself. The only thing I would question about this implementation is the obvious repetition of the chosen texture leading to lines in the landscape, something I've not seen in my own use of this. It's certainly not landclass texturing though, just a way to give more of a visual cue at low level.

[John Venema]

Yes I can see the repitition in the bump decal as well. We will look into a replacement which does not create a tile effect. If not for release, we’ll patch it in soon after.

[Fizzelle]

17 minutes ago, John Venema said:

Yes I can see the repitition in the bump decal as well. We will look into a replacement which does not create a tile effect. If not for release, we’ll patch it in soon after.

 

Sorry didn't want to cook up a storm prior to imminent release! Thanks so much for clarifying and listening.

 

I have my pennies ready....