Incoming Freeware NZ Scenery - Topo50 forest and Buildings

[Kelvinr]

Hey all,

It's been a long time, i've been working hard on converting the Linz topo50 vegetation for use in X-plane, for the entire country (NZ).

my 9900k has been working overtime in QGIS. additionally, I am also converting the latest NZ building outlines for the entire country, with separation of commercial, retail, industrial, and residential areas giving a nice distinctive look to the buildings in those areas.

Once i'm done I'm also going to combine this data with osm data to ensure that all the other scenery can be enjoyed. Of course, these will be in 3 separate scenery packs... nztopo_vegetation, nz_building_outlines, and the osm data to provide the powerlines, roads, extra trees in areas missing from the topo data, and much more.

I've been an X-Plane fan for a while now as in my opinion, it's a far superior engine and sim than Prepar3D, thus my reasoning to make scenery for it, which has been a huge learning curve, especially with the way the scenery utilizes data from the OSM format.

The data is is what I used for my Prepar3d scenery which was incomplete at the time, a couple years back but now it's basically complete with a bit left to finish this year as far as LINZ report. I may do a convertion of the latest data for Prepar3d as all I'll need to do is run it through scenproc but my focus is to get it done for X-Plane.

The scenery is designed around Lyndimans ortho. Some initial screenshots at the link below. There is also an Auckland scenery NZMB that includes the Auckland City and surrounding area so I won't be reinventing the wheel, simply adding to the scenery folder brings Auckland alive so much more.

Comments welcome, just putting this out there.

Cheers!

https://imgur.com/a/bM22C8D

[Splitpin]

[chopper_nut]

Looking forward to this. Is there any variation in the .for files for regions?

[Kelvinr]

[quote="chopper_nut"]Looking forward to this. Is there any variation in the .for files for regions?[/quote]

I have assigned a forest type for the different vegetation areas ie scrub, pine forests, etc... Its in the early stages of testing and the joy of it all is that it can be adjusted pretty easily, I love python it's such a powerful tool and allows me to make changes later without any great deal of hassle.

I'll look at putting out an initial release soon for all to play with.

I am currently working on road clipping through forests, so this will involve another release for sure but will take time to process all the data.

Cheers.

[chopper_nut]

This with the ortho is going to be hard to beat

[Kelvinr]

Just a quick one....

Does anyone have house house front textures they would like to donate to this project? I can make them but would be a bunch more work to do. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind doing the work but want to see if I can get an initial release out fairly quickly.

Thanks!

[Kelvinr]

As I am always keen to look at projects and how they're progressing I thought I would post a few more screenshots of my work. Here you'll see vegetation, buildings, roads, my reworked street lighting, in all it's glory.

There's still some work to go, but in my opinion, this is looking pretty damn good and frame rates are also not as bad as i though they might be. My settings sliders are all on full.

If you want me to post screenshots of specific areas let me know :)

Enjoy...

https://imgur.com/a/MJyXoyd

[cowpatz]

Wow. I'm not an XP user but that looks pretty damn good. Any screenshots from lower altitudes?

[Kelvinr]

[quote="cowpatz"]Wow. I'm not an XP user but that looks pretty damn good. Any screenshots from lower altitudes?[/quote]

Thanks for the comment.

What is it that you expect to see?

There are some issues with some of the buildings whereby non sloped roofs will show for residential housing i.e single house (not apartments) but for an automated process it still is convincing in that the building exists in that footprint.

I'm still trying different methods to get it as accurate as I can, though.

[cowpatz]

I'm just curious as to the resolution and accuracy of the scenery. As you are aware most scenery appears great at altitude but not so much lower down.
Perhaps something in the region of 1000ft over a built up area?

[Kelvinr]

[quote="cowpatz"]I'm just curious as to the resolution and accuracy of the scenery. As you are aware most scenery appears great at altitude but not so much lower down.
Perhaps something in the region of 1000ft over a built up area?[/quote]


The data is as accurate as the linz building outlines, pretty damn close when at ground level. I'll get a few new screenies soon for you.

[Kelvinr]

[quote="cowpatz"]I'm just curious as to the resolution and accuracy of the scenery. As you are aware most scenery appears great at altitude but not so much lower down.
Perhaps something in the region of 1000ft over a built up area?[/quote]

Here ya go, some more shots closer to the ground and as you'll see the building outlines are pretty accurate.

https://imgur.com/a/BuN88r6?

p.s. I have to say that X-Plane building textures are pants as compared to Prepar3d or FSX textures. I'll be trying to make them a little more bearable but I'll see, unless someone here has the skills to make some house facades?

[cowpatz]

Yep that's pretty darn good. Excellent work.