Ortho4XP for FSX/P3D

[RobF2 151]

Agree - Orbx, Ozx, Ant's Airports, Flukey - we're very sploilt "down under"....

 

Edited July 14, 2020 by RobF2

[euroau 1]

Can someone walk me through the process of creating autogen for the ortho? I've tried to find a tutorial, but I haven't been able to find one (either through sheer blindness or I'm completely oblivious). I've gotten as far as retrieving the OSM data, but I'm not sure where to continue from there.

[PanosG 2]

Caught exception: Ortho4XP_v130.exe: RegistryKeyLookupFailed `CoderModulesPath' @ error/module.c/GetMagickModulePath/665

635 lines with this error!

[Snoober 0]

I'm having issues adding ADDON_SCENERY folder to FSX. I finally was able to when I copied it over into the FSX game directory/Addon scenery folder and named it something. Then I was able to add it. However, I get an error with my "SCENERY.CFG" "Invalid remote scenery path in scenery Area.155". It goes away if I delete the area from ortho4xp.

 

My ADDON_SCENERY folder only has a texture folder with *.agn files. Is this normal?

[Snoober 0]

I figured out my problem: I used the wrong version of imagemagick.

[Snoober 0]

One more question: what priority should the ortho4xp scenery be? The example video puts it at priority 1 above everything else. Is this correct?

[philmurfin 74]

Sorry, I'm a bit late to the dance as I'm a long time XP flyer.

However, all I'm getting in the orthophotos file are bmp and inf files.

 

Please can someone advise?....

 

Best..... Phil

[philmurfin 74]

On 7/16/2020 at 10:28 AM, PanosG said:

Caught exception: Ortho4XP_v130.exe: RegistryKeyLookupFailed `CoderModulesPath' @ error/module.c/GetMagickModulePath/665

635 lines with this error!

I'm getting this same problem, can\will anyone advise please?

Best....  Phil

[PanosG 2]

Install ImageMagick from dist folder.

[philmurfin 74]

1 hour ago, PanosG said:

Install ImageMagick from dist folder.

Brilliant, thank you so, so much....  Phil

[Polaris 0]

 After reading all the thread, learning the different tutorials, venturing into XP forum related posts and testing the program I've come to the conclusion that at its current state it is not a useful tool for P3D VFR scenery.

It is a wonderful adaptation by the author and such that should make him proud.

It also has a lot of potential.

But, the following issues are in its way:

1. Tile size in volume is far too big to be used in large areas in P3D when compared to XP generated tiles.

ZL16 is kind of acceptable at apt_smoothing_pix 8 but...when you go for ZL 17/18 each tile weighs above 10 GB.

Add a few and it's way too heavy/ slow for P3D...or to generate them.

2. Custom ZL - adding higher resolution ZL to lower one around airports and such doesn't work (planned to be WIP by OP).

3. Missing information within tiles.
After a couple of hours you find out that some data is missing and it's being replaced by white color.
It is unclear as to the cause and it also renders the tile as damaged.

4. Software doesn't fix data of one source with another (BI clouds with GO2 or better resolution etc...).
Bottom line: while the conversion can make tiles it lacks the adaptations that it has in XP and which makes it so valuable there.

 

I do think the autogen feature is nice but not the main issue of this software and maybe one should look for solutions outside of this scope or with other tools.

 

I'm happy to see the OP is still planning to further develop this tool and I would sure be happy to use it...when and if it shall be able to make proper usable VFR P3D tiles.

 

One thing is for sure..if and when this tool shall be complete I do not see any reason to pay these large sums of money for ORBX.

The delta in what you get shall not justify its cost.

But...if and when...

Edited September 11, 2020 by Polaris

[jimmy2020 0]

Oh man,I am just a lay person trying to use Ortho4XP in FSX,it sounded too good to be true,and indeed,it is...please someone help,after I hit "Batch" ,this is what happens=.

..."Batch build launched for a number of 1 tiles.
Dealing with tile  1 / 1 : -20-048
OS error: Cannot create tile directory ..\Tiles\zOrtho4XP_-20-048  check file permissions.

Im tired of using FSET....and would love to use ortho in Fsx!  Any heçp is appreciated

[Gumerson 85]

On 6/19/2020 at 10:34 PM, cwburnett said:

@OzWhitey

Re Scenproc, there are basically three big steps that it all comes down to, and each of these big steps needs to be in your .spc file.

1) Importing the data - so you can pull data from lots of places - shapefiles, osm files, existing AGN files, etc.

2) Processing the data - reading different pieces of the imported data and creating AGN objects from them to be written.

3) Writing the objects into AGN files.

So, in this case we just want to import an OSM file, and we have the option to import only part of the data or all of the data. We can choose a geography to import and we can choose what fields to import. Remember that an OSM file is really just an XML file - so just lots of text and it is all coded by field names, so we can pick what we want to import.

As for processing, we want to identify landuse types to associated autogen vegetation with and we want to import building footprints, then classify those buildings so we can assign autogen to them.

Then, we want to find roads and place points along those roads for light poles.

Lastly, we want to create the AGN items and write them to files.

Here is a version of the script I use, which was modified from the one included:

# Credit to Harry Otter for the default ScenProc script!
# IMPORTOGR|@0@|*|building;landuse;natural;leisure|NOREPROJ
ImportOGR|C:\Users\cwbur\Documents\GIS Files\Greece\karpathos.osm|*|landuse;highway;building;natural;leisure|AUTODETECT
#ImportOGR|C:\Users\cwbur\Downloads\test.shp|*|landuse|AUTODETECT
#ImportAGN|D:\ORBX Library\p3dv5\ESNQ Kiruna Airport\ORBX\FTX_EU\FTX_AA_ESNQ\Texture|EXISTINGCELLSONLY
#
SplitGrid|AGN|*|building="*"
#
SETAGNBUILDINGHEIGHT|*|0.6;0.3;0.1;0.0
#creation de la vegetation
CreateAGNPolyVeg|FTYPE="POLYGON" And landuse="forest"|{a91a9e12-d0ae-433b-9153-c6c2e8143f3d};{64da6e09-6d2c-4eac-bf32-f79cbaddcffb};{f92dfb07-9e9d-4db9-a936-4dde2ece3fbf};{46537aa4-0f85-4840-ac15-bb1198111254};{51abd43d-294d-4fbb-93b1-61f35ac8891c};{b39919c5-083e-4be0-a5df-cfb43cee439d};{0a85e154-6aff-4ec6-9640-8d46758d9c55};{bcf582df-fe10-43a1-bf91-74cb004451d0};{e738b5f2-0b4e-42af-955f-96f24fc50043};{5fc298b3-6a99-40be-a6d2-51d49a1f6310};{d9139817-a733-4609-8b91-cccb3bda8528};{88a689ae-958f-4588-8805-0c48ae8d923d};{494e699d-5f5e-4191-85c9-8ed41b96aa3e};{13c6b576-38a1-4daf-bbfd-99a3da908a54};{7337b46a-4e7c-4167-85d4-31a08794317d};{08eafa28-5200-4e5e-aa76-2cbd934108aa};{3fff1747-e528-472e-a5e5-e7dfc44240b6};{cc321ca5-c258-4584-996e-0dd3f3bc531d};{f423294e-5624-499e-80ef-73d8cefe61c1};{5b87d25c-f98e-4401-a3f7-ee667749f7c3};{95dc5b85-13ca-4c36-8c90-1124b71a5769};{e258071f-4026-447a-8227-fdd1e16f5097};{6b0ae83d-41bc-4171-9f04-45b4694b43f3};{9683c859-7b37-41fb-9d40-828477713f06};{9d2d1501-9135-4b2d-808f-5c6a8d0c3ce7};{59413a8e-065d-4706-ba20-d1756f0f25e2};{c4378eea-8d57-4afc-abb6-d63eb6da9c15};{2957ebf1-5ef6-47ce-aa79-31a3d0fa849a};{64b9ff09-f918-4e96-9262-57b07629f6c0};{3daebd73-10e7-41a3-b57a-4bc9e646ac5f};{98c043f3-661a-4ac0-8239-712948a602ec}
CreateAGNPolyVeg|FTYPE="POLYGON" And natural="scrub"|{2fde0277-1697-4dab-b481-c3985c80596f}
CREATEAGNPOLYVEG|FTYPE="POLYGON" And landuse="orchard"|{56a4998d-c1e5-416c-a37b-c35ce16504b6}
CREATEAGNPOLYVEG|FTYPE="POLYGON" And landuse="conservation"|{72e37d90-824e-4e97-9187-a60491864a49};{ad0c30b6-5b47-4d96-9bab-38f58e251c5e};{b7c05b80-45e9-4faf-9548-6a3e59c02dd6};{bc6396b0-6e51-4a4f-ab4f-5386c84609a6}
CREATEAGNPOLYVEG|FTYPE="POLYGON" And natural="wood"|{dcf543b7-c0d5-4fd4-b970-83965c2911c9}
CREATEAGNPOLYVEG|FTYPE="POLYGON" And leisure="nature_reserve"|{dc5c8dcb-551e-4980-867d-ee6d12695c50}
CREATEAGNPOLYVEG|FTYPE="POLYGON" And leisure="garden"|{2368c260-177d-4af7-94d4-da882778108f}
CREATEAGNPOLYVEG|FTYPE="POLYGON" And natural="tree"|{acd89c1c-2a87-4168-8cb6-a1ca8e2859ac};{1cdb2a6c-b20f-4923-9e12-4aa636441d4d};{7dc6ef4e-92a5-4d0d-b94b-212dd1fa936d}
CREATEAGNPOLYVEG|FTYPE="POLYGON" And natural="tree_row"|{51abd43d-294d-4fbb-93b1-61f35ac8891c};{b39919c5-083e-4be0-a5df-cfb43cee439d};{e738b5f2-0b4e-42af-955f-96f24fc50043};{8fa52b1e-4d35-428c-9adc-dea62fc92bab};{34126b61-fee1-4343-bdf9-1bd65ae91ae7};{5fc298b3-6a99-40be-a6d2-51d49a1f6310}
CREATEAGNPOLYVEG|FTYPE="POLYGON" And natural="wetland"|{0533d2b5-2a93-4c4a-9660-069a3f73b921};{224fafba-241a-4dbb-b36f-280bcead2110};{ad0c30b6-5b47-4d96-9bab-38f58e251c5e};{0f069be1-b5ef-4a03-9455-b8507846ea73}
CREATEAGNPOLYVEG|FTYPE="POLYGON" And leisure="park"|{e04669c0-9f7b-42e8-a2c7-eee870c59d8e}
CREATEAGNPOLYVEG|FTYPE="POLYGON" And leisure="golf"|{2fbf9f8d-6ba2-4cc1-8d8e-af218f65d0e8}
# Add attribute to indicate the type of building
# 1 = ALMOST RECTANGLE (BASED ON AREA RATIO)
# 3 = REGULAR SHAPED (MANY PARALLEL EDGES)
# 4 = CONVEX POLYGONS
# 5 = CONCAVE POLYGONS
AddAttribute|FTYPE="POLYGON" And building="*"|Integer;BUILDTYPE|5
AddAttribute|FTYPE="POLYGON" And building="*" And BUILDTYPE=5 And FAREARAT>0.80|Integer;BUILDTYPE|1
AddAttribute|FTYPE="POLYGON" And building="*" And BUILDTYPE=5 And FNUMVERT<10 And FNUMPERPANG>3 And FNUMNOTPAR<2|Integer;BUILDTYPE|3
AddAttribute|FTYPE="POLYGON" And building="*" And BUILDTYPE=5 And FCONVEX=1|Integer;BUILDTYPE|4
# Classify industrial/commercial buildings
AddAttributeIfInside|FTYPE="POLYGON" And building="*"|LUCODE=16|String;BUILDCAT|INDUSTRIAL
AddAttributeIfInside|FTYPE="POLYGON" And building="*"|LUCODE=15|String;BUILDCAT|COMMERCIAL
# Add attribute for roof type
AddAttribute|FTYPE="POLYGON" And building="*" And FWIDTH>5|String;ROOFTYPE|PEAKED_ALL
AddAttribute|FTYPE="POLYGON" And building="*" And FWIDTH>5 And FLENGTH<12|String;ROOFTYPE|PEAKED_SIMPLE
AddAttribute|FTYPE="POLYGON" And building="*" And FWIDTH>20|String;ROOFTYPE|PEAKED_LOW_PITCH
AddAttribute|BUILDCAT="INDUSTRIAL"|String;ROOFTYPE|PEAKED_LOW_PITCH
AddAttribute|BUILDCAT="COMMERCIAL"|String;ROOFTYPE|PEAKED_LOW_PITCH
# Remove complex buildings
ReplacePolygonByBuildingRectangles|BUILDTYPE=3|0.8;4;4|0.25;2.0;0.5|Integer;BUILDTYPE|2
# Create buildings autogen
CreateAGNGenBuild|BUILDTYPE<3 And ROOFTYPE="PEAKED_ALL"|{c05c5106-d562-4c23-89b8-a4be7495b57c}|MAXRATIO=2
CreateAGNGenBuild|BUILDTYPE<3 And ROOFTYPE="PEAKED_SIMPLE"|{d4ee02a2-ed47-4f10-b98c-502516983383}
CreateAGNGenBuild|BUILDTYPE<3 And ROOFTYPE="PEAKED_LOW_PITCH"|{a9b0e686-0758-4294-a760-9bb4fd341621}
#
CreateAGNGenBuild|building="*" And FWIDTH<20|{5ae04eb6-934c-4f63-bb48-5e7dee601212}|MAXRATIO=2
CreateAGNGenBuild|building="*" And FWIDTH>20|{6089A0BD-CED1-4c47-9A9E-64CDD0E16983}
# lights
# GCC roads
LineToPoint|FTYPE="LINE" And highway="secondary"|CONTINUOUS|150;150|5;5|0|String;type|light|hdg
#
PointToPolygon|type="light"|8;8|hdg|String;type|lightpoly
#
CreateAGNLibObject|type="lightpoly"|{0017a263-464f-14fd-f77f-2996fed44864}
#
#CreateXMLLibObj|type="light"|{47c97ced4e4bc4e610b19f8e62ea9e98}|0|0|0|0
#
#ExportBGL|P3D v2|lights|S:\scenprocoutput|KEEPXML
#
EXPORTAGN|P3D v2|C:\Users\cwbur\Documents\autogen\greece\karpathos\

So, the # is stuff that's commented out, and I tend to use that so I can easily replicate a script for a new area. One thing you'll see at the top is a commented out example of importing existing AGN - I use this when solving for the annoying area around third party airports with no autogen. We need to merge autogen to get full coverage and I just place those files in both the airport texture folder and the underlying scenery texture folder as well, to be sure I get full coverage.

Remember that if you hover over things, you get a 'tooltip' that tells you how to use that function...

Some notes on the above:

1) Importing OGR files like OSM or SHP files:

ImportOGR|C:\Users\cwbur\Documents\GIS Files\Greece\karpathos.osm|*|landuse;highway;building;natural;leisure|AUTODETECT

After the filename, there are two filter fields separated by |

The first is for the geographic area you want to process - in minx;maxx;miny;maxy format, so if you only wanted to process the grid 36N16E for example, you'd swap that first * for 16;17;36;37.

The second is for the fields, or attributes, you want to import. OSM files have standard attributes, and these work well: landuse;highway;building;natural;leisure

The last field is for the projection. Best to leave it as AUTODETECT unless you know you're importing a dataset in a non WGS84 projection.

So, if we wanted to specify a particular grid, that line would read:

ImportOGR|C:\Users\cwbur\Documents\GIS Files\Greece\karpathos.osm|16;17;36;37|landuse;highway;building;natural;leisure|AUTODETECT

2) Setting building heights:

SETAGNBUILDINGHEIGHT|*|0.6;0.3;0.1;0.0

This just sets a distribution for building heights in the specified region. The star can be replaced by a filter for specific autogen cells, but I don't know how to use that properly, so I actually run the script for different regions using the filter in step 1 if I want to adjust building height by area.

After the second pipe, we specify distribution between buildings that are 1-2 floors;3-5 floors;6-9 floors;10-12 floors. These can each be 0-1, but for simplicity sake, I always make sure that the four add up to 1, so I can think of them as percents, so in this example, 60% of the buildings will be 1-2 floors, 30% will be 3-5 floors and 10% will be 6-9 floors.

3) Creating Vegetation Autogen Polygons:

CreateAGNPolyVeg|FTYPE="POLYGON" And landuse="forest"|{a91a9e12-d0ae-433b-9153-c6c2e8143f3d};{64da6e09-6d2c-4eac-bf32-f79cbaddcffb}

Here's where it gets fun. This is where we get to specify WHAT autogen objects will appear in the sim.  For this you need to be sure you've setup your paths correctly and, sadly, you do need P3D installed on the computer for this to work right. I'll include my setting screen below, but basically IF you have your scenproc setup to point to your P3D version, then you can right click on the GUID and you'll get an option to "Select GUID..." and if you click that, you'll get a menu to open will hundreds of autogen options for different vegetation types. This is important if you don't want your Mediterranean island populated with Douglas Furs or your Swedish forest populated with coconut trees...

Options Screen:

GUID list:

You can add as many GUIDs to each line as you like and it will randomize, but what you may have noticed in my Sweden autogen is that it appears to assign a different type for each autogen cell, so that's why in Sweden we see the forest abruptly change tree type at the edge of a grid - not ideal, so maybe best to stick to one or two types of trees instead of the 10 or so I selected...

4) Creating Building Autogen:

So I haven't changed this at all from default, so all of the ADDATTRIBUTE and CREATEAGNGENBUILDING lines I've left alone. I'm sure they could be tweaked, but I haven't done that.  So leave it as it is for now and you should get buildings. All of Sweden was created with these settings.

5) Creating Street lights or similar objects:

This part I learned and added to the script from the scenproc manual. Basically what we're doing is taking a line and converting it to tiny polygons to place autogen street lights in. Again you can hover over each line to see what the variables do, but we're first creating points from a line, we're placing them every 150 meters, starting a 150 meters from the start of the line, we're offsetting them 5 meters from the line (so the light poles are next to and not in the middle of the street), and we give these new points an attribute name. Then we create 8x8 polygons for each point and give those objects a new name. Lastly, we create a library object for each polygon and here, again, we are using a GUID we have selected from the menu.

6) Writing the autogen to files:

The last thing we do is write our AGN files with the EXPORTAGN line and we write them into a folder we create just for this autogen package. When this is done, you have it all.

7) Merging autogen files:

The easiest way to merge autogen files is in the tools menu. Use this if you created autogen for a region from multiple scripts, for example if you did just a city with taller buildings or something like that.

Basically, select your main folder (if there is no main folder, then just select any of your folders as the 'main' folder). Then select each additional folder that contains autogen that you want merged as 'other folders' and then make and select a new folder for the merged files and click 'merge'.

You would only use the 'only merge AGN files that exist in the main folder' if you wanted to merger bordering areas that share an AGN cell. So for combining 4 different Lat/Long grids, just select any of the four as the main and the other three as other folders - won't matter which is which - and do not check 'only merge'.

However, say you already have autogen Stockholm, but you wanted to merge in my Stockholm data also, but you didn't want all the rest of my autogen for all of Sweden. Then, you'd select your existing Stockholm autogen as the Main, you'd select mine as the "Other" and then you'd choose 'only merge AGN files that exist in main folder" - that would DISCARD all of my autogen that isn't in the same area as your autogen is in, and would merge yours and mine in the region covered by your existing autogen.  This can be particularly useful for merging autogen with that of a third party airport.

Hopefully that helps get you started! Let me know if you run into trouble or need help trying to get some specific outcome. I am FAR from an expert, but have managed to get it to work for my needs.

Brilliant!! Thanks a lot

[creator 0]

hi 

i applied multi zoom levels on one  active area on preview 

but at final it takes only one scenery bgl folder

with only one zoom level. others are ignored 

 

 

[creator 0]

On 9/11/2020 at 10:46 AM, Polaris said:

 After reading all the thread, learning the different tutorials, venturing into XP forum related posts and testing the program I've come to the conclusion that at its current state it is not a useful tool for P3D VFR scenery.

It is a wonderful adaptation by the author and such that should make him proud.

It also has a lot of potential.

But, the following issues are in its way:

1. Tile size in volume is far too big to be used in large areas in P3D when compared to XP generated tiles.

ZL16 is kind of acceptable at apt_smoothing_pix 8 but...when you go for ZL 17/18 each tile weighs above 10 GB.

Add a few and it's way too heavy/ slow for P3D...or to generate them.

2. Custom ZL - adding higher resolution ZL to lower one around airports and such doesn't work (planned to be WIP by OP).

3. Missing information within tiles.
After a couple of hours you find out that some data is missing and it's being replaced by white color.
It is unclear as to the cause and it also renders the tile as damaged

same problem. Now i changed to XP11.