Google Earth and modding - my 2c.

[ccc]

Google Earth(GE) is a very cool program.. i just fire it up and "fly" over many areas of interest( mostly PMC theater coverage) to get the feeling -- what if we use Google Earth texture on PMC terrain.

my humble impressions..

- resolution of terrain elevation is much better than Falcon4 terrain engine.
- high-resolution texture is limited for obvious reason..fly high, the feeling is good and real, fly low, it looks fair or worse than falcon4.
- Even the high-res texture needs a lot of processing work to correct its colors, contrast, and brightness. you can not use them directly. however, part of the texture can be used for upgrading existing falcon tiles, or creating more tile variants.
- High -res texture best fits small areas of interest, the rest of falcon terrain better use generic tiles. Aegean theater has showed us the right way.
- 3d building models in GE look great. As falcon is a fast-jet sim, the way GE handling 3d features/building models is a good example ofr us.
- GE provides a good picture of terrain tile type. for example, you may wonder the size of a city/town when hand-tiling it in terranview.. now GE gives a good dimension. Based on this idea, we may create our "tile type map" by hand-drawing, to help CATE do autotiling.

now come to my flying over some theater-related areas..

- Vietnam, yes i want to check it...flat plain, hills at inland Lao, greenish, many torturous rivers..yes i got the feeling of "vnam war".. but the texture resolution is horribly low over most areas!!
- Afghanstan.. gorgeous moutains! texture resolution is good.. as such texture is purely for moutains.. it surely looks great. the sandy, or desert plain does not look that good, acutally is boring or featureless. i enjoyed a lot over hills.. i think Afghanstan moutains can use some generic GE tiles.. the visual quality can be boosted easily.
- Taiwan.. well you'll find city/town areas cover much more than falcon mod. GE shows the island is highly-poplulated at plain area..so the ratio of city/town tile coverage may be increased.
- india-china-Putan area.. alright it's out of the scope of PMC theaters.. just want to check Mt Everst.
very cool terrain..NE corner of Afghanstan mod also looks great, just needs better tiles. Honestly GE tile resolution is not good in this moutaneous area..no profit yeah?

To sum up, tho the texture resolution is not perfect, flying GE gives me a good picture of "how it should look like"..a cool experience. For falcon/sim tile modding, we can learn and benefit from it - but limitedly. imho the most we can learn and use is..
- the location/ratio/distribution of terrain tile types. tweaking tile type distribution/ratio/location, we may give different theaters a right feeling.
- upgrade generic tiles with SAT image.
- use SAT image for foci of interest.

[molnibalage]

- resolution of terrain elevation is much better than Falcon4 terrain engine.

I agree. Not the texture resolution is the real problem. I don't understand why is so low the res. of the terrain mesh with 100 m (50?) res. terrain mesh is available and it is free! Is is so hard recalculate the terrain mesh? Are the objects the real problem? (leveling)

however, part of the texture can be used for upgrading existing falcon tiles, or creating more tile variants.

Great idea!

- High -res texture best fits small areas of interest, the rest of falcon terrain better use generic tiles. Aegean theater has showed us the right way.

This is a five start note! I totally agree.

now come to my flying over some theater-related areas..

What about Korea?

[ccc]

GE and falcon terrain resolution issue - check SRTM thread. falcon engine has difficulties switching terrain resolution smoothly.. it needs a fresh new terrain engine.

more GE check..
- Korea, i checked Wonson, Seoul, and Pyongyang area.. the GE resolution is low.. default korea tiles look good in falcon. btw GE image are taken from from various seasons, in different colors. the only thing i noted is, rivers runing thru Seoul and pyongyang with nice curves..

- Georgia, the focus is South Ossetia to Tibilis.. quite flat with eurpean style farm, farm house, and forrest.. imo korea tiles are ok for this theater.

- Panama, the texture resolution is low at Canal area..i think Malc's Panama tiles look great.. and sharp. the forrest tile in Panama mod is exclusively great.

- Kurile, from Bifuka to NW end, resolution is fair, mostly covered by green forrest.. korea tiles fit in this mod.

- ODS and Iran, i checked Kuwait, Al Basarh, and Baghdad..well, flat terrain.. the city texture is excellent .. we need them! as for the rest of terrain..flat, pinkish sand..the generic desert tile may use them for upgrade.

[ccc]

more..

Balkan - there're some gray rocky hills at the coastal area.. imo Balkan theater tiles look pretty good. a glance at Sarajeva area..well it seems more populated than expected. the rest looks ok, european style farm, villages, and green moutains.

Europe-Alps - just a glance at Mt Blanc and Swiss..nice, gorgeopus! deep valleys and snow-capped moutains..remind me of some wonderful siwss AF vid clips! i did not check plain area yet.

Nevada - GE image looks great.. i like Area51 again, Nevada theater mod needs better desert and rocky moutain tiles.. the terrain looks quite simple - plain rocky desert, rocky moutains, and cities.. that's all.

[toonces]

I think SM mentioned a while back that he had made some rough tiles for Nevada using GE. He posted some pics a while back.

I find the Nevada terrain functional, but I'd certainly like to see something better if it's available. Making new tiles is just one too many projects to take on.

I wonder what happened to Polak? He was making some very nice contributions to the ODS tileset...I don't know if you guys know this, but he's one of the guys that totally revamped the terrain for EECH. That's like the Falcon 4 of helo sims. It would be nice to have him here to participate some more.

[Polak]

Hi toonces and all ,
It is so nice to remember me well for my initial contribution into ODS theater project. Thank U and to answer what happened it was obiously RL "distractions" which forced me to take this temorary, I hope, leave. I would like slowly , and very limited time permiting, to return to the Project.

About GE ... I agree, that it is most important source of photo materials for the terrain tile making process. In fact this is where all my tiles are from. I also made all new repaint tiles for bases from there. GE has an significant advantage over the MS Earthview , however , quality and consistency of the lower resolution of the photo material from that server is greater.

I suggest to introduce some theread with tools which can be used in order to harvest this vast photo resource...maybe in Theater Tools.

[toonces]

Hey Polak, nice to see you back again.

I tell you, the flight simming world is so small sometimes. I was on SimHQ a while back, looking at a review of the Hind mod for EECH when I saw your name associated with all of the terrain work done for EECH. I was like, "Hey, I know him from the ODS tiles on PMC!" Same thing with Ripcord. He's been posting here off and on and then, I was browsing a retro look at Jane's F-18 and saw his name associated with "the best" campaign developed for JF-18. I was like, "Hey, I know him from PMC!" LOL.

There is so much that can be done with Falcon with respect to tile work- in fact, over at the Freefalcon forums on the development side there has been some minor discussion about tile work. There is probably nothing that can make a sim feel completely different than having new terrain over which to fly.

I really hope you will stick around here and continue to contribute. While ODS isn't exactly a priority right now, that doesn't mean the terrain can't be used for other campaigns.

Also, there are other terrains that could truly use your help- Vietnam and Nevada are both pet projects of mine. I think Vietnam could really be the Next Big Thing if we all sit down to take it to the next level.

I can't do it. I just have too many other projects to try to learn to build tiles right now.

Sorry for the minor hijack.