Tools for building landscapes for the Condor 2 flight simulator
Condor 2 landscapes consist of several artefacts and can be very time-intensive to build manually.
'create_landscape.py` automates some of the process and is able to generate:
- the terrain (height map) from USGS EarthExplorer .bil files
- texture tiles and the overview map from a GeoTIFF
- forests, water and the thermal map
What you're left to do is placing airports and objects, maybe fixing up some tiles.
Prerequisites:
- Windows (Linux et al. likely work to, but untested)
- A QGIS installation (https://www.qgis.org/de/site/forusers/download.html)
- Python 3
- At least a couple of 100G of SSD space
- Patience: some of the rendering steps can take days for large areas
First adapt create_landscape.py to your installation (QGIS directory etc).
The rough workflow with the tool (please refer to the Landscape Guide for details):
- decide on an approximate area of coverage (in WGS-84 coordinates,
should a bit larger than the final landscape) and exact UTM coordinates
(UTMTools.exe) and put them into the
config.json. I've included theconfig.jsonof the EastGermany map as an example. - Terrain
- download DEM data from USGS EarthExplorer
- convert terrain data with
create_landscape.py -c config.json heightmap - create a .trn file from the data with RawToTrn (further instructions in the output of create_landscape.py). The use the resulting .trn file to create a new landscape in the LandscapeEditor. It creates the landscape directory with a directory tree that is the foundation for the next steps.
- Forests, Water, Thermal (OSM)
- download OpenStreetMap data for your coverage (.osm files), for example
from https://download.geofabrik.de/, add to
config.json. - generate forests and water tiles and the thermal map with
create_landscape.py -c config.json osm - import forest tiles in the LandscapeEditor.
- Textures
- download textures and stitch them to a large GeoTIFF. In some countries
you can get DOPs (resolution 1m or better) from the local administration,
or you can rip data from mapping services with sasplanet (z17, EPSG 3785).
Add path and kbs to
config.json. - generate textures tiles with
create_landscape.py -c config.json textures - run WaterAlpha on Working/Terragen/Textures/ to combine the generated texture BMP tiles (XXYY.bmp) with the water BMP tiles (aXXYY.bmp) from the OSM step to tXXYY.bmp and converts them to dds files (Working/Terragen/Textures/dds/).
Import forests with the Landscape Editor. Run WaterAlpha on the generated texture and water tiles.
condor_obj_file_tool.py converts Condor's .obj files, which contains the coordinates, dimension and orientation of objects in the landscape.
It can also help translate objects from one landscape's coordinate system to an other's. While Condor's .obj files contain relatives coordinates, the tool writes absolute coordinates to the JSON file.
The JSON output can be used to diff and patch updates from concurrent edits.
Typical workflow
condor_obj_file_tool.py export --name <landscapefrom> --json objects.json
condor_obj_file_tool.py import --name <landscapeto> --json objects.json
Based on the work of Bre901, see http://www.condorsoaring.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=18521&p=165412
osm_to_objects.py queries OSM for power tower and wind generator data and creates a .json file with their positions, which can be imported into a landscape's .obj with condor_obj_file_tool.py
Download https://lovr.org/ Create a directory for main.lua and create a link from your Textures/ directory there: mklink.exe /J Textures ....\Textures (or use)
Your directory layout
- /lovr/ the lovr installation
- /lovr/lovr_viewer/main.lua
- /lovr/lovr_viewer/Textures
Then drop main.lua on its .exe.
Inside the viewer:
- a,s,d,f to move
- A,S,D,F to jump to the min/max extensions in x/y
- VR controller to move the view
| Directory | Format | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| HeightMap / Terrain | ||
| HeightMaps/ | .tr3 | Edited directly via Landscape Editor. |
| Also "Export Terrain Hash" after changes! | ||
| <>.trn | .trn | Source for .tr3 files, but |
| <>.tha | .tha | Terrain hash |
| Textures | ||
| Textures/ | .dds | Actual landscape ground tile textures. |
| Not shown in Landscape Editor! | ||
| Working/Textures/ | .bmp | Textures as shown in Landscape Editor!?! |
| Working/Terragen/Textures | .bmp | Raw data for textures |
| (XYYY.bmp for texture and aXXYY.bmp for water) | ||
| Generated by create_landscape.py. | ||
| Run WaterAlpha on this folder to create merged | ||
| .dds files in which water becomes transparency. | ||
| Working/Terragen/Textures/dds | .dds | Final textures |
| ForestMaps | ||
| ForestMaps/ | .for | Custom forest maps format |
| Also "Export Forest Hash" after changes! | ||
| Working/ForestMaps | .bmp | Forest maps as display in Landscape Editor |
| (bXYYY.bmp and sXXYY.bmp) | ||
| Generated on "Import tile size forest maps" | ||
| Working/Terragen/ForestMaps | .bmp | Source for forest maps |
| (bXYYY.bmp and sXXYY.bmp) | ||
| Read on "Import tile size forest maps" | ||
| Generated by create_landscape.py | ||
| Other | ||
| Working/ThermalMap.bmp | .bmp | Thermal map in Landscape Editor |
| <>.tdm | .tdm | Thermal map |
| <>.fha | .fha | Forest hash |
| Images/ | .jpg | Splash images shown on load |
| <>.obj | .obj | Coordinates of 3D objects |
| World/ | .c3d | 3D object models and textures |
| <>.cup | .cup | Turnpoints |
| <>.ini | .ini | Version and options |
| <>.bmp | .bmp | PDA map |
| <>.apt | .apt | Airports |
| <>.gmw | .gmw | ? |