This detailed terrain mesh file is centered near Lompoc, California. It includes the western half of Santa Barbara county, the islands of San Miguel and Santa Rosa and the southern half of San Luis Obispo county. An experimental land cover replacement scenery file based on high resolution NLCD data is also included. The high resolution terrain mesh is based on USGS 30 meter digital elevation models, resampled to LOD of 10 (38.2 meters).
To Install:
There are 2 BGL files include in this archive. The terrain mesh file is called lpc1saa.bgl. The land cover replacement file is called LC_N12W32.bgl.
The quickest way to install the mesh file lcp1saa.bgl is to extract it from the zip archive and place it in this folder:
Your own installation of FS2k2 may use another root directory than C:\Program Files so make sure you find the ADDON SCENERY\Scenery folder under FS2002. You don't have to create it. The ADDON SCENERY folder is already configured in the Scenery.cfg file so the next time you start the simulator the terrain mesh file will be active.
The land cover replacement scenery file (LC_N12W32.bgl) could be installed in the existing
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\FS2002\scenery
folder in order for it to work properly. However, you should create a scenery folder of land cover replacement files for each designer. Don't create a texture folder, however, or the land cover will not show properly. This scenery folder will allow you to manage your files so that if there are 2 designers producing this type of scenery, you can chose which one gets displayed without having to move files in and out of the main scenery folder. Further instructions are found in the file land_cover_install_update.html that is included in this zip archive. Open that file with your favorite web browser.
Technical Information ---
Source data: 7.5 Minute UTM-based DEM files from the USGS. The merged files were converted to a DTED Level 2 file (1 by 1 arc-second which is about 30 meters) then converted to BGL using LOD of 10.
Level of Detail (LOD): 10 for file lpc1sab.bgl (38.2 meters horizontal spacing)
Approximate area covered: 8600 square kilometers
Corners of the area covered (WGS84 Datum):
N 35 19.921875 W 120 56.25 N 35 19.921875 W 119 52.96875
N 33 45.0 W 120 56.25 N 33 45.0 W 119 52.96875
Tools used for the creation of the mesh file:
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)
CAVEATS:
Terrain mesh files don't change roads, rivers, coastlines and the placement of textures over the terrain. They also don't add or remove objects from the scenery.
If an airport appears to be on a plateau or a basin, in most cases it's due to the restriction of the simulator to design airport sceneries as perfectly flat areas. In real life most airports are not absolutely flat, therefore this terrain mesh will show the discrepancies between the fixed airport elevation and the elevation of its surrounding terrain perimeter. There might be a few private strips in this scenery that may appear on high plateaus or sunken too deep. The problem with those strips is that their elevation was derived from geographical databases where it was listed as estimated. In most cases the exact position or the estimated elevation of those strips are not consistent with the terrain elevations derived from the USGS DEMs.
The new terrain engine in FS 2002 has many features that are new and were meant to increase the performance of the simulator and improve the apparance of the terrain. There are side effects to these, like textures that remain blurry for too long, floating autogen objects, and the resolution of a mesh not getting displayed immediately. In high-end systems these problems are less evident. Tuning the special effects that you want displayed, rather than maxing everything out, should help.
List of other 30 Meter Resolution Projects Previously Released, all work in FS 2000 and FS 2002. Exceptions noted.
Los Angeles, California, USA - VERSION 2 - (lax1sab.zip, merges with Lompoc, Riverside and San Diego)
Santa Rosa, California, USA (sts1saa.zip) (merges with San Francisco V2)
Taos, New Mexico, USA (skx1saa.zip) (merges with Albuquerque mesh)
San Francisco, California, USA - VERSION 2 - (sfo30mab.zip, merges with this mesh and Monterey mesh)
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA (abq30m10.zip, merges with Taos)
Death Valley, California, USA (dv30m10.zip)
Monterey, California, USA (sns30m10.zip) (merges with San Francisco mesh)
Gunnison, Colorado, USA (guc30m10.zip) (merges with Telluride and Central Rockies mesh)
Telluride, Colorado, USA (tex30m10.zip) (North boundary merges with Gunnison)
Colorado Central Rockies, Colorado, USA (ase30m10.zip) (South boundary merges with Gunnison)
Sedona and Meteor Crater, Arizona, USA (sez30m10.zip)
Island of Oahu, Hawaii, USA (hnl30m1011.zip, or hnl30m10.zip) - FS 2002 only
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA (slc30m10.zip - for FS 2002 only install slc30m10.bgl)
Glacier National Park, Montana, USA (fca30m10.zip)
St. Martin/St. Maarten, Caribbean (sxm30m11.zip)
San Diego County, California, USA (merges with Riverside and LA) (san30m10.zip)
Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA (cos30m10.zip)
Riverside Area, California, USA (merges with Los Angeles and San Diego areas) (ral30m10.zip)
Las Vegas Area, Nevada, USA (las30m10.zip)
El Paso, Texas, and South Central New Mexico, USA (elp30m10.zip)
Phoenix Area, Arizona, USA (merges with Tucson Area) (phx30m10.zip)
Tucson Area, Arizona, USA (merges with Phoenix Area) (tus30m10.zip)
Puerto Rico, Caribbean (purtmv1.zip)
Where to obtain these files:
You can do a search under my last name (Sotomayor) in any of the major file libraries of FS freeware (e.g. www.SurClaro.com or www.SurClaro). Here's the URL to search in the much improved AVSIM library:
You can copy and paste it to your favorite browser's Open URL field.
Acknowledgements:
Dr. Peter Guth (creator of Microdem) fine tuned his tools to make this work possible. He offered valuable insight on the method to convert multiple 7.5 minute DEM files into a single seamless terrain file for flight simulator. Recent improvements to Microdem are making this type of project more streamlined than in the past.
Many thanks to Peter Govaars for obtaining the DEM files.
Copyright and License to Use:
This archive is Copyright by Orlando Sotomayor. You have the right to use it for your personal enjoyment. Redistribution on a commercial basis is strictly prohibited.
March 20, 2002
Questions or comments? Contact Orlando Sotomayor by email at mesh64@att.net or check the website (still under construction) at http://mesh64.home.att.net/ for more information.
