GUI based Photorealistic Condor Scenery Tutorial - draft

Everything related to creation of new sceneries for Condor...

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tberry
Posts: 91
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2012 4:10 pm

GUI based Photorealistic Condor Scenery Tutorial - draft

Post by tberry » Wed Mar 25, 2015 4:53 pm

Thanks to the many people on this forum for their help in scenery development. I have completed an exhaustive, draft tutorial that details how to build a Condor photo realistic scenery using mostly QGIS, a GUI GIS tool. The tutorial includes a spreadsheet that auto-builds the few terminal entries you may need to complete the task. You simply cut and paste them into the terminal window.

The goal of the tutorial was to use find and use free GUI tools and free (not Google Earth) imagery.

You can find version .98 of the tutorial (Updated, but not quite finished, March 2016) in pdf form here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByLWsV ... sp=sharing Please note that the tutorial has been updated but not yet tested with a new scenery - the same goes for the spreadsheet. If you have problems with either, post in this thread or use the email in the tutorial to contact me.

The tutorial also uses a spreadsheet I created using Google Sheets so you are not dependent on having Excel. If you have a Google I.D. you can create your own version of the spreadsheet (also updated but not quite finished) from a template I've shared:

https://drive.google.com/previewtemplat ... ode=public

[Edit: I have dropped the Excel version until I have a stable Google sheets version. It is entirely possible to use the Google Sheets version and export it to Excel for use but there may be some minor incompatibilities relating to the use of the SPLIT and CONCATENATE functions that may affect the calibration points tab, among other batch commands on the spreadsheet. Use an Excel exported version at your own risk.

If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them in this thread.

There are still a few odds and ends to clean up in the draft, including a section on how to place scenery objects. However, the full process for accomplishing the scenery generation is covered in a little over 100 pages with full illustrations and examples. Several people have used it to create photorealistic sceneries, but there are many variations and technical problems that crop up from time to time. I'm happy to answer them in this thread.
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Last edited by tberry on Wed Mar 23, 2016 6:36 pm, edited 13 times in total.

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jbreznai
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Location: Hungary / Budapest
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Re: Photorealistic Condor Scenery Tutorial - draft

Post by jbreznai » Wed Mar 25, 2015 7:00 pm

:shock:
Thanks....

rollllgggg
Posts: 22
Joined: Tue Oct 20, 2015 10:18 am

Re: GUI based Photorealistic Condor Scenery Tutorial - draft

Post by rollllgggg » Mon Nov 09, 2015 11:29 am

tom,
Have been moving right along and believe that all is going good. Now on pg 67 "OSGEO4W Terminal instructions".
When I paste " Terminal Entries" cell F6 I get a message not recognized as in the attached images.
Tried everything that I could come up with but NG.
rm

aaOSGeo4WShell-paste-terminal entryF6.tif
aaOSGeo4WShell-not--recognized.tif
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tberry
Posts: 91
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2012 4:10 pm

Re: GUI based Photorealistic Condor Scenery Tutorial - draft

Post by tberry » Mon Nov 30, 2015 9:47 pm

Sorry I didn't see this sooner. Your tiffs are broken, so I can't see them. The correct entry will be:

gdalbuildvrt [destination file path] [source files path]

Replace everything, including the brackets with the file names. If you have spaces in your file name or path, that will be the problem. I think you can fix it by using quotation marks around the paths, but if not, I suggest fixing the folder names and file names by substituting an underscore for the spaces.

So, if you have a destination file of C:\New Scenery\My Scenery.vrt and a source folder of: C:\My Scenery\Images then I *think* that the following will work:
gdalbuildvrt "C:\New Scenery\My Scenery.vrt" "C:\New Scenery\Images\*.jp2"

However, you'll have to keep using the quotes, so I suggest you change the destination to C:\New_Scenery\My_Scenery.vrt

Likewise for the source files. Change that folder to C:\My_Scenery\Images

The entry would then be:

gdalbuildvrt C:\New_Scenery\My_Scenery.vrt C:\New_Scenery\Images\*.jp2

Hope that works for you! Any more questions, post here or contact me at the email in the tutorial docs.

marko
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Joined: Tue Mar 16, 2010 3:19 pm

Re: GUI based Photorealistic Condor Scenery Tutorial - draft

Post by marko » Wed Dec 02, 2015 11:01 am

on page 20 for QGIS Vector->Research Tools->Regular Points.
The reserach tools and fTools plugins don't seem to exist any more so not sure how to proceed with QGIS here

GregHart1965
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Re: GUI based Photorealistic Condor Scenery Tutorial - draft

Post by GregHart1965 » Fri Dec 04, 2015 1:49 pm

Ummm have you tried using Global Mapper instead? So easy, none of this code stuff.

tberry
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Re: GUI based Photorealistic Condor Scenery Tutorial - draft

Post by tberry » Wed Dec 09, 2015 1:43 am

Marko - I've got QGIS version 2.8 and it seems to have it in the menu. What version are you using?

"fTools is now automatically installed and enabled in new versions of QGIS, and as with all plugins, it can be disabled and enabled using the Plugin Manager "

Maybe try the plugin manager?

@gregHart1965 - I don't know what code you are talking about? This process is designed to use A) free tools; B) GUI based tools with a minimum of non-GUI interaction. There is a single command that you must copy from the spreadsheet and paste into the terminal window that will cut the tiles for you. Everything else is GUI based. Global mapper is listed at $499 to purchase.

marko
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Re: GUI based Photorealistic Condor Scenery Tutorial - draft

Post by marko » Thu Jan 07, 2016 12:46 pm

@tberry, I'm using QGIS 2.12.2
Here is a screenshot of the UI with all plugins
Screenshot-QGIS.png
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tberry
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Re: GUI based Photorealistic Condor Scenery Tutorial - draft

Post by tberry » Thu Jan 07, 2016 6:03 pm

Very odd. I just installed 2.12.2-Lyon and I have quite a few more plugins when "All" is selected in the plug-in manager.

Go to Plugins->Manage Plugins and Settings and select "Settings". See if the plugin repository is there. You should see the QGIS official plugin repository and the URL is "http://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/plugins.xml?qgis=2.12" Click on reload repository and see if it loads the plugins.

I've only seen one or two references to this online and they were related to not having the plugin installed. Since ftools doesn't show up as a plugin for you, I wonder if the repository is working or not.

Another thing to check is to make sure Python installed properly. Use File->Preferences and look at the System tab (scroll to bottom) and see if there is a variable that shows the PythonPath.

You can continue the tutorial and just skip the part where you calibrate the landscape and put an airport in to test the terrain for now while you do the rest of the steps. You'll need to come back and take care of it before you can use the landscape but you can wait to the end to do it.

marko
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Joined: Tue Mar 16, 2010 3:19 pm

Re: GUI based Photorealistic Condor Scenery Tutorial - draft

Post by marko » Fri Jan 08, 2016 9:28 am

it was the python support. I installed now the python-qgis package and all is working showing the plugins.

Thank you for your effort and support!

tberry
Posts: 91
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2012 4:10 pm

Re: GUI based Photorealistic Condor Scenery Tutorial - draft

Post by tberry » Fri Jan 08, 2016 3:23 pm

Glad you got it worked out.

BTW, another person has been working through the scenery process and providing comments to the tutorial and I've re-written both the tutorial and the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet template updates instantly but I haven't published the tutorial that follows it, so you may have a tutorial that doesn't quite match with what's on the spreadsheet. IMHO the new spreadsheet and tutorial are a huge improvement but I haven't gone back through the tutorial to refine the details in it yet so hadn't published the update tutorial.

Can you check to see what version of the spreadsheet you are using? Look on the info tab. If it is December 2015 or later, I need to get you the new tutorial pdf.

marko
Posts: 18
Joined: Tue Mar 16, 2010 3:19 pm

Re: GUI based Photorealistic Condor Scenery Tutorial - draft

Post by marko » Fri Jan 08, 2016 3:27 pm

I started looking at this some time ago bu then I got to busy for work. I'll wait for your updated spreadsheet and tutorial and restart the whole process again.
Thanks

mtecles
Posts: 13
Joined: Sun Jan 17, 2016 9:53 pm

Re: GUI based Photorealistic Condor Scenery Tutorial - draft

Post by mtecles » Sun Jan 17, 2016 11:37 pm

Hi from Bazil, Tom!

First of all, thank you for your work and time with the tutorial and the spreadsheet, a piece of art.

I am trying to build a small scenery, 4x4 terragens, of the CVV-CTA glindg area (SDIP), near Caçapava, São Paulo state, Brazil.
I have the version .92 (October 2015) of the tutorial, December/2015 and January/2016 copy of the spreadsheet.

I think I have found two problems:
1- In "User_inputs" there are only D46 (Aerial imagens folder path), D48 (VRT folder path) and D50 (Final Condor tiles output folder).
No D51, D53, D55 nor D57. The result is that the gdal command line (Terminal Entries, D18, Cut the files) must be modified, at
least for the CSVFileName (Is it an input or output file? Where?).

2- Gdal returns an error (ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: '4096-levels'), using 4096 for resolution.
I think it is missing a space in the gdal "Cut the tiles" command after the "-ps" arguments:
"-levels 1 -csv " should it be " -levels 1 -csv "?

Thank you!
Mauricio

mtecles
Posts: 13
Joined: Sun Jan 17, 2016 9:53 pm

Re: GUI based Photorealistic Condor Scenery Tutorial - draft

Post by mtecles » Thu Jan 21, 2016 5:21 pm

I searched for gdal help, I figured it out (csv outout file, " -levels 1") and I applied the command without error.

Anyways, the result was not good: a black tile with white strips. I must review, redo all the procedure and consider the differences of images from North and South America.

Thank you!
Mauricio
mtecles wrote:Hi from Bazil, Tom!

First of all, thank you for your work and time with the tutorial and the spreadsheet, a piece of art.

I am trying to build a small scenery, 4x4 terragens, of the CVV-CTA glindg area (SDIP), near Caçapava, São Paulo state, Brazil.
I have the version .92 (October 2015) of the tutorial, December/2015 and January/2016 copy of the spreadsheet.

I think I have found two problems:
1- In "User_inputs" there are only D46 (Aerial imagens folder path), D48 (VRT folder path) and D50 (Final Condor tiles output folder).
No D51, D53, D55 nor D57. The result is that the gdal command line (Terminal Entries, D18, Cut the files) must be modified, at
least for the CSVFileName (Is it an input or output file? Where?).

2- Gdal returns an error (ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: '4096-levels'), using 4096 for resolution.
I think it is missing a space in the gdal "Cut the tiles" command after the "-ps" arguments:
"-levels 1 -csv " should it be " -levels 1 -csv "?

Thank you!
Mauricio

tberry
Posts: 91
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2012 4:10 pm

Re: GUI based Photorealistic Condor Scenery Tutorial - draft

Post by tberry » Fri Jan 22, 2016 4:23 am

Mauricio - I've been updating the spreadsheet to try to simplify the process and that is what is causing the confusion.

First - I think that 4 X 4 is the minimum size for Condor!
Second, do you have version .95 of the spreadsheet? Look at the "Info" tab to see. If so, you can input the values manually on the terminal entries tab in cells E6-E11 on that sheet.
Third - you are correct about the missing space in the sheet for the terminal entry to cut the tiles! Thank you for pointing it out. I'd changed this section but didn't test it. That was a bad idea. I'm glad you figured it out.

Lastly, do you know the details of the source images you are using to make the scenery? The black output is probably because the projection of the tiles is different from the U.S. ones. I would like to help you figure this out so other non-US image sources can be used.

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