This FS2000 terrain mesh, at 30 meters horizontal resolution, is centered near Riverside, California, USA. Major portions of Riverside, Orange and San Bernardino counties are included in this elevated scenery. Fertile river valleys, low deserts, mountains, foothills, rolling plains, and lakes are all here.
As anything of this complexity in flight simulator, this scenery demands plenty of computer power, including CPU and RAM, to achieve acceptable frame rates and a smooth image. I recommended to try this terrain mesh only if you are experienced in tuning your FS installation for performance.
To Install:
This terrain mesh is contained in a file called ral30m10.bgl which you can install as any other scenery file. If you are not familiar with this process, please read Tim Dickens tutorial. Point your browser to:
This is a summary of the main steps, more details in the tutorial above:
1) Place the ral30m10.bgl file into the scenery subfolder of the folder where you would like to install very high resolution terrain mesh files like this one. Keep these very high resolution files in separate folder(s) from the lower resolution terrain mesh files available from Eddie Denney, and others.
2) Start FS2000 and select Scenery Library from the World menu, then select Add area and find the folder where you placed the ral30m10.bgl file. Click OK and if needed, click the checkmark to make the scenery active.
3) To make sure the simulator installs the scenery file correctly the first time, quit the simulator and start again. If you skip this step, you may risk crashing the simulator or your computer, or not having your scenery loaded correctly. This step is a workaround required by possible bugs in the MSFS 2000 software.
Take a tour:
Two of the most scenic destinations are Palm Springs (KPSP), at the foothills of the San Jacinto Mountains, and Big Bear Lake (L35), elevation 6700 ft, the "Lake Tahoe of Southern California." For a real-life account of flying to Big Bear, check out this web page: http://www.av.qnet.com/~biobob/tbbear.html written by Bob Grove.
Technical Information ---
Source data: 104 7.5 Minute DEM files from the USGS (at 30 meters horizontal resolution) converted to 1x1 arc second DTED files and merged to form one BGL file. This is the standard method I use in generating large 30 meter resolution terrain mesh files.
Level of Detail (LOD): 10
Approximate area covered: 14800 sq. km. (5800 sq. miles)
Corners of the area covered:
NW NE
N 34.50250° W 118.00333° N 34.50250° W 116.37583°
N 33.50111° W 118.00333° N 33.50111° W 116.37583°
SW SE
Calibration point:
San Gorgonio Mountain (highest point in this map)
Elevation and Geographic Coordinates from DEM
11502 ft, N 36 6 4.0000, W 116 49 33.08 (WGS84)
Elevation and Geographic Coordinates in FS 2000 with this file
11501 ft, N 36 6 4.3081, W 116 49 34.6597
Tools used:
Microsoft Terrain SDK ( http://www.microsoft.com/games/fs2000/devdesk.asp )
Microdem ( http://www.usna.edu/Users/oceano/pguth/website/microdem.htm ) (latest debugging version)
DEMconvert ( http://members.bellatlantic.net/~pguth/demconv.htm ) (version that can export BSQ files)
Notes about this first release:
FS2000 runways can only be rendered absolutely flat. That's the way it works. The side effect is that if an airport lies on terrain that is on a gentle slope, the flattening of the runway will create ridges that are not really there in real life. This is annoying and distracting, but there's no way around it.
Finally, just as a reminder, terrain mesh files don't change roads, rivers, coastlines and the placement of textures over the terrain. Odd things can happen, like floating lakes, rivers and roads, as well as farmland on top of a rain forest, or suburban streets on the sides of steep slopes, etc. This can be fixed, but it's an entirely different project.
Other 30 Meter Resolution Projects Previously Released:
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (las30m10.zip)
El Paso/South Central New Mexico (elp30m10.zip)
Phoenix Area in Arizona, USA (merges with Tucson Area) (phx30m10.zip)
Tucson Area in Arizona, USA (merges with Phoenix Area) (tus30m10.zip)
Puerto Rico (entire island) (purtmv1.zip)
Next Project:
Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA
Acknowledgements:
Dr. Peter Guth (creator of Microdem and DEMconvert) fine tuned his tools to make this work possible. He offered valuable insight on the method to use to convert multiple 7.5 minute DEM files into a single seamless terrain file for flight simulator.
Copyright and License to Use:
This archive is Copyright by Orlando Sotomayor. You have the right to use for your personal enjoyment. Redistribution on a commercial basis is strictly prohibited. September 24, 2000.
