So what indeed would/should go there. Three layers here, it seems. 1. Contour, the floor. This represents the ground elevations and such. The aircraft model interacts with this one, taxis on it, takes off from it, flies over it, lands or crashes onto it.
2. The terrain image, the carpet. This is laid or projected onto the countour. Here is where I believe the googleearth(-type) images should be used instead of generics. Now, everything is there so when flown at altitude much greater than the features heights, this looks realistic and no further furnishings are required. That bridge is represented, buildings, roads, all should be there without further editing. Note that this image was projected from the real ground contour onto a flat photo and is now re-projected onto our contour. Where there are steep inclines at feature boundaries, editing may be needed. Otherwize, should play as-is. This can be algorithmicly accented. Forests at lower altitude could have their "surface" randomized a bit to simulate treetops, for example. Buildings could be "raised" though one might not know how much to do it. Side views of skylines and such would provide more clues. 3. 3D objects, the furniture. These are various buildings and other features that we want to show heightwize. Needed near airports and major cities where altitude much greater than features heights is no longer the case and elsewhere for eye-candy and more realism. Mostly generics if there is a sufficient library of building shapes and bridges. Distinctive buildings such as for New York: Empire State, Chrysler, Statue of Liberty, Financial district lower Manhattan structures and certain bridges, need be added. What tools are available for doing any of this and previewing it in a reasonably visual manner? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys -- and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Flightgear-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/flightgear-users
