Discussion Tile making

[misha.physics]

Good news. I found the reason of the issue, that's the grey edge on the mask alpha channel:



I don't now why it happens, it may be related with how ImageMagick crops my tiles.

I have to manually open mask tiles of levels 14-15 with Photoshop, go to alpha channel and paint these grey border with white. That's the solution (top right mask tile is fixed):



So it's not related to 512 and 1024 sizes. By the way, all these surface and mask four tiles (of level 15) have the same resolution of 512. So, the update is coming.

 

[misha.physics]

I uploaded a patch in the add-on discussion thread:

OHM Post in thread 'Baikonur Cosmodrome (Surface Tiles for High Global Textures)'

Jul 25, 2025

If you installed version 1 of this add-on, then here is a patch that fixes some mask tiles.

Just unpack it in your Orbiter directory. This patch will be included into 1.1 version of this add-on.

Sorry for inconvenience. Thanks to @Buck Rogers for reporting the issue.

• misha.physics

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[misha.physics]

Note: mask tiles of levels 13, 12, 11, ... still have such the grey edges, but it doesn't visible from far distance. Just let tiles to load.

 

[Buck Rogers]

So it was feathering from saving, I even thought of that and checked your images but the edges looked sharp, didn't think of checking the alpha on the mask though.
Glad you found it.

 

[misha.physics]

Yes, the gray border on the alpha layer had a thickness of 2 pixels.

 

[Luke Reichelt]

Could you maybe help me with the task described in the post linked below?

https://www.orbiter-forum.com/threads/building-meshes-for-stpsp-bases.42047/page-6#post-632548

 

[misha.physics]

First, you need a source map for the area you want to create surface tiles for.

Then, you may use a BAT script descriped on page 2 of this thread or the algorithm that @Buck Rogers mentioned in the thread you linked above.

 

[Luke Reichelt]

First, you need a source map for the area you want to create surface tiles for.

So where do I find one? The specific area I want to create the tiles for is the Paris region, particularly the Place de la Concorde and the area surrounding it.

 

[N_Molson]

So where do I find one? The specific area I want to create the tiles for is the Paris region, particularly the Place de la Concorde and the area surrounding it.

Géoportail

Accédez à l'information géographique de référence : cartes, photographies aériennes, données géographiques

www.geoportail.gouv.fr

Enter 'Place de la Concorde, Paris' in the field

 

[Luke Reichelt]

Géoportail

Accédez à l'information géographique de référence : cartes, photographies aériennes, données géographiques

www.geoportail.gouv.fr

Enter 'Place de la Concorde, Paris' in the field

View attachment 45114

Okay, so where do I go from there?

Sorry, it's just that I've never made surface tiles before, so I'm really out of my depth here.

 

[misha.physics]

So where do I find one? The specific area I want to create the tiles for is the Paris region, particularly the Place de la Concorde and the area surrounding it.

Generally, anywhere you want. Satellite maps. I described my approach on page 2 of this thread.

 

[Luke Reichelt]

So, I went to the link N_Molson provided, and this is the part of the city that I need to get done:

 

[N_Molson]

At some point you need to find the exact decimal long/lat coordinates of the tile you want to do.

A set of 2 coordinates should be enough to define a square (2 corners from a diagonal).

 

[Luke Reichelt]

At some point you need to find the exact decimal long/lat coordinates of the tile you want to do.

A set of 2 coordinates should be enough to define a square (2 corners from a diagonal).

The co-ordinates, at least for the base itself, are 2.32113 (long.), 48.8655 (lat.).

For the time being, I'm seeing if the tiles included in this add-on are still workable. (Keep in mind, I'm still using Orbiter 2010.)

 

[N_Molson]

OK, but you need to figure out the coordinates defining the tiles covering the place you want to make.

For that you have to know which 'level' you want to use, and plan things ahead. You'll need to get a bit familiar with the 'QuadTree' system Orbiter uses.

 

[Luke Reichelt]

OK, but you need to figure out the coordinates defining the tiles covering the place you want to make.

For that you have to know which 'level' you want to use, and plan things ahead. You'll need to get a bit familiar with the 'QuadTree' system Orbiter uses.

Here are the parameters given in the base's configuration file, using the tiles from aforementioned add-on:

BEGIN_SURFTILELIST
4 51 1111 1
4 51 1112 1
4 52 1111 1
4 52 1112 1
4 53 1111 1
4 53 1112 1
END_SURFTILELIST

Essentially, what I need are new, higher resolution versions of the tiles for the areas in question.

 

[N_Molson]

Oh but this is from the 'old' tile system. Things changed from Orbiter 2016, you no longer need to declare the tiles in the .cfg files. The idea is that you turn the satellite images into .dds textures and these must have very specific names which tells Orbiter their 'level' and where to draw them on the planet. Tiles are no longer related to surface bases, they are rendered at the planet level.

So what is super important for this to work is to 'cut' the texture files correctly from the satellite imagery. And to get familiar with how the system works and the naming conventions.

 

[Luke Reichelt]

Oh but this is from the 'old' tile system. Things changed from Orbiter 2016, you no longer need to declare the tiles in the .cfg files. The idea is that you turn the satellite images into .dds textures and these must have very specific names which tells Orbiter their 'level' and where to draw them on the planet. Tiles are no longer related to surface bases, they are rendered at the planet level.

So what is super important for this to work is to 'cut' the texture files correctly from the satellite imagery. And to get familiar with how the system works and the naming conventions.

Okay, I kind of got distracted by some other project. Anyway, I'm personally thinking the tiles for the Paris region should be of a similar resolution as those included in LadyCrousette's Toronto add-on. The problem is, not only do I have zero idea how to extract the images from the aforementioned link or even create my own tiles, but I'm also personally convinced that if I tried to, I'd just botch it up horribly.

 

[Luke Reichelt]

Let's choose a tile of 14 level and make it until 19 level. Each tile will have a resolution of 512x512. I'm using @jarmonik's TerrainToolBox included into OpenOrbiter:

Where can I find a download link for the Terrain Tool Box?

 

[misha.physics]

It's already built into the Orbiter 2024 (and OpenOrbiter). Just activate it ("TerrainToolKit") on "Modules" tab. In game press Ctrl+F4 and choose it.