Sweet! Permission to use work time on FSX

[Timmo]

I showed some screen shots of the very high resolution data ive been working on for FSX (mostly in my own time) around the Rotorua lakes to my boss and he was very impressed....so he has allowed me to use some work time to do THE WHOLE BAY OF PLENTY REGION in photo real textures (0.8m resolution) and using our Lidar data where its avaliable (which is terrain mesh accurate to within a few centimetres)

When you think about it makes alot of sense: FSX costs around $100 which is a drop in the pan compared to the price of other GIS software (which costs tens of thousands per license)

As a visualisation tool its great: The default terrain is pretty good, there are full atmospheric effects including object and terrain shadows, real weather, water reflections etc etc.....most GIS 3d Visualisation software cant do this yet costs hundreds of times more!

Here is a teaser but dont expect this to be released

[AlisterC]

Oh go on Please
Looks awesome! I wish my boss would let me work on fsx instead of paperwork!

[Jimmy]

Thats awsome Timmo! and how much of that time do you need to "test" the scenery?

So would you be able to ever release the scenery?

(0.8m resolution) and using our Lidar data where its avaliable (which is terrain mesh accurate to within a few centimetres)

thats incredible!

[Timmo]

Haha, How much time do i spend testing?- on my home PC: ALOT since it takes so long to load all that data (although i have just bought some new RAM) Seriously though, the many hours ive personally spent doing this is probably far more than the total amount of time actually playing the game!

We have a high-spec machine here at work which im going to load FSX onto....its a bit of a beast so hopefully it will run well (8GB of RAM, Dual core, 246MB vid card etc)

Im just having a conversation with Christian Stock about the chances of releasing it.....there are a lot of problems associated with that. The main one is that the data, technically belongs to the ratepayers of the BOP region...i can only but ask i guess

[Alex]

What if the people were rate-payers of the BOP? (Not saying that I am, but, you know. )

Alex

[Naki]

Hey I am rate payer in the BOP region - I'll let you do it!

[Timmo]

haha....well im investigating it so ill let everyone know.
What is confirmed is some of the other scenery im working on...and now ill have time to actually finish it off and release it!

[JonARNZ]

Booootiful!

[scon]

I wish I could play FS school

But that scenery looks real good

[Matthew]

Scenery looks good, that level of detail is amazing

Matthew

[ardypilot]

Great news. Great scrennie! I wish yoiu all the best with your work Timmo.

[ZK-Brock]

Timmo, I assume that the use of this scenery in FSX would make the loading times quite a bit longer?

[Jimmy]

Timmo, I assume that the use of this scenery in FSX would make the loading times quite a bit longer?

hahahahaha youd think so, well he did say:

Haha, How much time do i spend testing?- on my home PC: ALOT since it takes so long to load all that data (although i have just bought some new RAM)

But when we all have 10gbs of RAM rather large h/drives I doubt it will be a concern

[Timmo]

ummm...well yes....but it is a lot more data (i.e. It wouldnt load any faster in FS9 with the same amount of data) On top of that, FSX is doing a lot more rendering- The processor power needed just to calculate all the shadows of the small hills etc must be pretty huge.....

FSX certainly is a test of your system! But the results are worth it....that sort of visualisation quality from a product that costs $100 NZD is phenominal. As i said before, 3D visualisation software from a GIS vendor (such as ESRI) costs many tens of thousands of dollars per license and the results arent as good....granted, FSX isnt a true GIS but you cant argue with the cost/benefit aspect

The real money is in the actual data.....to purchase the data that im using with a view to recouping costs/making a profit off selling the scenery just isnt feasible....we are talking hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of data that im 'playing' with.....guess im quite lucky