Surface Base Apollo Landing Site Sceneries for Orbiter 2016

[ggalfi]

I just tried it and for some reason, my terrain seems to be enlarged on the z-axis (vertically) by a factor of maybe two or three? Not sure what I did wrong, just installed the files as mentioned in the doc.
Here's some screenshots, the elevation of the surrounding look exaggerated.. hmm..

I guess it is a factor of two, and the cause is that I used 0.5 m vertical resolution for the elevation. The non standard scales are handled correctly only by Orbiter2016 Beta. Currently it is only a recommendation in the documentation, so I think I should modify it to clarify that this setup is practically a requirement for the proper usage of the elevation maps. If you read back some earlier posts here, you'll see that it is a recurrent problem, however the only help I'd able to provide is to degrade the vertical resolution of the elevation maps. But I'm reluctant to do so, because 1. it looks uglier (especially with the lack of terrain smoothing in the standard Orbiter), 2. it would meant the task for me to manage one additional package for each landing site, just to be compatible with some more or less obsolete Orbiter versions. Using the cutting edge setup of Orbiter beta (and the strongly recommended D3D9Client) comes with no cost, so why not to do that?
Also, please don't forget to set "ElevationResolution = 0.5" and "MaxPatchResolution = 18" in the Moon.cfg file(s), but forgetting to do so will result in only a lower quality display, not this exaggerated elevation problem.

 

[barrygolden]

you might look to do the planned landing site for Apollo 14 just west of Apollo 17

 

[FordPrefect]

ggalfi, so I installed everything into a new Orbiter Beta and I absolutely love your terrain works! Now John and Charlie are loading up the LRV for their first trip at the Highlands of Descartes!
I am very much looking forward to the Taurus-Littrow elevation textures, I hope you will do Apollo 17's landing site too (A17 is my favourite mission, but all are amazing).

 

[FordPrefect]

Just a sidenote for this nice add-on. In order to land at the historically accurate position on the lunar surface, make sure your (AMSO) bases (Tranquility, Frau Mauro,...) have the correct LAT/LON in their config files! The meshes appear to be placed very precisely at their correct location.

The exact landing site coordinates have been updated in 2017 and I just realized it because I landed with AMSO at Tranquility and noticed it was way too far to the west of West crater and little west crater. The AMSO base files for the landing sites have the outdated Post-Apollo era coordinates.

Below you can find the initial part of the updated AMSO Tranquility base config as an example...


BASE-V2.0
Name = Tranquillity
Location = +23.473922 +0.674014
Size = 500
MapObjectsToSphere = TRUE

BEGIN_NAVBEACON
VOR TQLY +23.473922 +0.674014 112.70 500
END_NAVBEACON


Here, the Eagle as it landed at the correct spot about 50 meters west of little west crater on this addon's hi-resolution mesh:

 

[barrygolden]

I've got that issue but didn't see a solution and can't get it out either

 

[ggalfi]

I've got that issue but didn't see a solution and can't get it out either

Hi,

first of all, feel free to tag me in your post, otherwise I don't get any notification on new posts here.
The odd terrain on the pic is likely caused by Orbiter2016. You're supposed to use Orbiter Beta because this version is able to handle fractional elevation resolution - most of my elevation maps are using 0.5 m instead of the usual 1m.

 

[barrygolden]

Is there sites for normal orbiter ?

 

[moonheart]

I have found if you simply use the texture maps with "normal" orbiter - they work quite well - especially with the higher level orbiter meshes available.

 

[Max-Q]

I have found if you simply use the texture maps with "normal" orbiter - they work quite well - especially with the higher level orbiter meshes available.

View attachment 30451

That is what I do. I run NASSP on Beta, but since I share planet textures with regular o2016 the elev maps work fine in Beta, but mess up the Apollo sites in regular 2016.

 

[Glowworm51]

Just wondering, did you also download the micro-textures?

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users.kymp.net

Having recently re-installed the latest elevation and texture files, I am now having problems with the Tranquillity Base display (see attached). At more or less the same stage I edited the Tranquillity base co-ordinates (this was because of a post saying that the ones given in the moon.cfg were slightly wrong) - could this have caused the problem?

 

[barrygolden]

Can anyone help me finding Alphonsus crater and a screen shot of what you find

 

[FordPrefect]

ggalfi​

, how are you doing? Is there any news for a possible Apollo 17 landing site elevation map now that the 50th anniversary is here?

 

[ggalfi]

how are you doing? Is there any news for a possible Apollo 17 landing site elevation map now that the 50th anniversary is here?

Hi, I aimed for the 50th anniversary with the Taurus-Litrow stuff, but wasn't able to make it. Partially due to some personal issues (nothing bad, but there are a few things I have to give higher priority than this), and also this specific landing site has some of it's own peculiarities which I have to dealt with. For example, the two DTMs provided by the LROC site is not consistent with the NAC images, there is a circa 30m horizontal discrepancy between them which I don't like at all. On the other hand these DTMs are finely detailed and covering a large area, they are simply beautiful from a few thousand feet of altitude, definitely worth the effort. So I'm on it, I do my best to roll out at least the high sun version with the elevation map till the end of the year.

 

[barrygolden]

Saw this and wanted to share it with you guys , as you can see the Molab is in the back ground. gattis made that for orbiter 2010 version and will have a look to update it in 2016 . I am finding some of the proposed Apollo sites and exploring them, that been pretty cool to do.

 

[FordPrefect]

Hi, I aimed for the 50th anniversary with the Taurus-Litrow stuff, but wasn't able to make it. Partially due to some personal issues (nothing bad, but there are a few things I have to give higher priority than this), and also this specific landing site has some of it's own peculiarities which I have to dealt with. For example, the two DTMs provided by the LROC site is not consistent with the NAC images, there is a circa 30m horizontal discrepancy between them which I don't like at all. On the other hand these DTMs are finely detailed and covering a large area, they are simply beautiful from a few thousand feet of altitude, definitely worth the effort. So I'm on it, I do my best to roll out at least the high sun version with the elevation map till the end of the year.

Thank you for your detailed answer! Very much appreciated. Looking forward to a future release, whenever you find the time. Thank you for your efforts, I really like your detailed elelvation maps of the landing sites!

 

[ggalfi]

I wasn't able to make it till the 50th anniversary of the last manned lunar mission, but it gave me a good opportunity to give the Orbiter community a nice Christmas present: the Apollo 17 landing site scenery. I think the Taurus-Littrow DTMs provided by the LROC site are the most detailed and cover the largest area than any other DTM I've worked with. Download from the usual location. I wish you a Merry Christmas and have a nice trip in the Taurus-Littrow valley (though don't look for the orange soil as NAC images are all B&W).


Right after pitchover that was the panorama for Gene Cernan. That heavily battered surface doesn't seem very welcoming, however the actual landing site on the LPD line at 43° was a relatively smooth area and provided a safe spot for touchdown.


A (feeble) attempt to replicate one of the famous photos of Apollo 17 mission.


Nothing to do with the scenery, just I couldn't resist to replicate another iconic photo.


Nansen crater


Shorty crater


Jack investigates Tracy's rock while Gene takes a few photo.

 

[FordPrefect]

@ggalfi this looks really spectacular. Thanks for all your efforts in creating this.
I seem to have a problem, although I correctly unzipped the elevation files into my orbiter main folder, the hi-resolution elevation surface just won't show up in Orbiter. Do you have any idea? Thank you! Happy new Year to you!

 

[kuddel]

Maybe the Surface texture load options (from D3D9Client advanced setup) is set to "Archive only"?
Try changing it to "Cache & Archive"

 

[FordPrefect]

Thanks @kuddel ! I checked and it is set to "Cache & Archive". Fired up Orbiter again but still no Taurus Littrow hi-res elevation to avail. I don't get it. The other landing sites show the hi-res terrain (same orbiter installation).


EDIT ohhh... the textures are drawn from another orbiter installation. I forgot about that! Now it works! It looks amazing! WOW. Thanks kuddel and HUGE THANKS to ggalfi!

 

[n72.75]

Thanks @kuddel ! I checked and it is set to "Cache & Archive". Fired up Orbiter again but still no Taurus Littrow hi-res elevation to avail. I don't get it. The other landing sites show the hi-res terrain (same orbiter installation).

Do you have multiple Orbiter installs that share a Textures directory?