cfs2autocoast

[Jaxon]

I am in the need for this program by Sander.

Thought I grabbed all back then, but it seems I missed it and now I stuck somewhere in the middle while following his 2006 tracks.

[Ettico]

I'm in need of it too. I lost my copy when I had to scrub my user partition to regain control of the computer from a virus. I tried downloading it again from Sander's server, but the download didn't work.

[rhumbaflappy]

Sander has not been part of CFS2 or the outhouse for about a year.

Unfortunately, Sander used a web deployment scheme that will not allow the program to run without web verification as to updates... his site is down, so the updates cannot be checked... so the program cannot run.

Unless someone can contact Sander, this program is dead.

Dick

[Jaxon]

I just wrote Sander a mail.

Keep your fingers crossed, that he will answer. It would be shame not to finish the project.

But now I understand how much work is needed to convert the FS9 files.

[rhumbaflappy]

If Sander doesn't reply within a week, both of you could contact me for some info on that program.

Dick

[Ettico]

Thanks, Dick. You da man!:ernae:

[Jaxon]

Yes, that is a nice offer!
And I would directly ask for this support.
Mails returned from all Email-adresses I have.
Even webmaster@... decoqc... failed.
So there isn`t a chance for reply any more.

Sander stays a mystery. As sudden as he appeared, as fast he disappeared.

Last I have heard was he has a pretty well paid job (IT, I suppose) and lots of work to do.

But I have no idea, why he seems to be on another planet?

Anyhow, Sander - I hope you are doing fine!
:wavey:

[rhumbaflappy]

Hi Guys.

Check your PMs.

Dick

[Jaxon]

I have and tried it yesterday-evening Over the night I let my PC work and today I had a working LWM.bgl

So all is technically working as expected.

The reason for my efforts is: Many of the scenery attemps I started years ago are stuck somewhere, because they are related to a coastline.
With Sanders rework, I had hoped to have the shorelines just where they were, so I could move on.

As long, all my attemps were stopped.

Well, now I think, I have to do it myself finally.

[Jaxon]

Ok, back to CFS2: I followed Sanders description and it was easier than expected (I had an idea of what he was doing, though)

The main territory I am interested in, is the northern part of Germany. I live here, know this part like the pocket of my vest and thus: Can judge, if its close or not.

I want to show you my scenery-attemps using Hamburg as example:

Here is a Hamburg scenery for FS2004, which I want to use in CFS2.
Each object has an own BGL. That is very handy, because I can easily split them up in pre and postwar buildings. However - for reference, all are loaded up at the same time here.

The first pic is showing Sanders Land-Water-Mask (LWM) and his matching coastlines.
The second is my own LWM-attemp from yesterday.
As you can see, there is a bit much water in the harbor right now. But that can be fixed. Important is: I was able to produce a working LWM bgl at all.

And now starts the trouble:
Obviously the FS2004 scenery doesn`t match the appearance of the river Elbe.
I researched, which is right and had to notice, the scenery itself is not at the correct position, when comparing the right place (Lat & Long) at google earth.

Now I dissambled the SCENERY.BGLs into *.sca files and see several Lat/Long entries. But no matter what I do - when compiling them again with Scasm, no change takes effect. They still pop up at the same place.

Can anyone help me please? I wan to move the object around by handediting their *.sca files?

[Jaxon]

Oh, because I was so disappionted because of my unlucky moving attemps, I decided to at least repaint them.

Here is the "Michel" in 1930 green copper roof optics.

Today he just got a new roof, which is still dark.

[Jaxon]

Ok, guys - I need some help and I am sure I can find it here!

First: My raster-to-vector (R2V) free trial period has expired.
I am not going to spend 99$ for a full program licence only to use the simplest feature.

Is there any other free(!) program, that can convert images into vector images and save a file in the needed format for Sanders autocoast?

I was dealing with Wintopo, but this program saves the vector file in another format, CFS2autocoast can`t read.

[xavierb]

Jaxon, check your e-mail (the one starting with CFS2...)

[miamieagle]

You are doing a great job Jaxon!

Your works looks great. Keep it up. Germany is a beautiful Country.My question is are you going to do this for other Countries like France and Italy, Poand and China, India and Burma. Its all up to you but it sure would be nice.

Thank you for you sharing your screen shots with us.:ernae:

[MaskRider]

Hi guys!

Currently I am very slowly and methodically reworking the MR Solomons pack so that everything fits in with the Rhumbas mesh. The first step in the process is rebuilding all of the islands. I started with the Rennell-Bellona group which I did by hand. However, when I got up to San Cristobal it became very clear that I would have neither the patience or time left in my life to do the other island by hand- no way. So, I dusted off Cfs2AutoCoast and dove in.

I can't be believe how comparatively effortless it is to get land and coastline that perfectly match Rhumba's mesh using AutoCoast. Don't recall why I wasn't using it more all along. So far I have done San Cristobal and Malaita islands and will be moving on to the Floridas Group next. After that- Guadalcanal and on up the chain.

This thread is getting revived because as I work with CFS2AutoCoast I got to wondering if maybe there is some sort of further reference or manual available? I Googled on "cfs2autocoast reference" and this thread popped up.

Contrary to the issues mentioned in this thread: AutoCoast not running because it can't update itself and r2v shutting down after a certain number of conversions- my copy of AutoCoast is working fine and the only pop-up I ever get from r2v is one that tells me that the unregistered version will only convert a maximum of 3 files at a time. Which is fine by me since I never convert more than 1 at a time. Guess that somewhere along the line I must have done whatever was needed to fix these issues. Maybe from this thread- I don't recall.

Thats about it. I just thought it would be nice to revive the discussion about AutoCoast. What have other folks been doing with it? Get feedback and more detail on how to use various AutoCaost menu functions?

Cheers guys!
MR

[Jaxon]

The problem was, I still needed alot of hand editing and it needed alot of time (~ a night) compiling with open end.
Without feedback it is hard to find the error in the edited files.
Thats why I left it stuck in the mud after first successes back then.

I still have all of the files somewhere on my HDDs, if you need a certain file of the tool by Sander.

[MaskRider]

The problem was, I still needed alot of hand editing and it needed alot of time (~ a night) compiling with open end.
Without feedback it is hard to find the error in the edited files.
Thats why I left it stuck in the mud after first successes back then.

I still have all of the files somewhere on my HDDs, if you need a certain file of the tool by Sander.

Hi Jaxon,

Thanks for the feedback.

Yeah, so far I have failed to re-educate myself how to create the coast lines with AC. I used to do it but for some reason the little gray cells are refusing to cooperate.

So, for now I am saving/renaming the Land LWM project as a new project for shorelines and simply changing the land LWMs over to VTP1 shorelines. Its relatively pain free- no redrawing involved. Adjusting the width of the VTP1 lines resolves any issues that occasionally come up.

Cheers,
MR

PS Knocked off the Florida Group (Tulagi, Gavutu, etc..) before turning-in last night. Moving on to Guadalcanal tonight.

REQUEST: Below is a screen-shot of before and after at Florida Group. Can some one who has both Rhumba's mesh and masks installed please post a screenshot of this same view? It appears that somehow for some reason I currently have Rhumba's mesh but the stock masks installed. I'd like to see what this same shot looks like with both Rhumbas mesh and masks. Thank you!

MR

[UncleTgt]

Hi MR,

Attached shows my Rhumba mesh "stock" install. First, Rhumba mesh but no watermasks, stock coastlines (my preferred start point). This looks exactly like your "before" pic.
Second, Rhumbas mesh plus his watermasks activated. I think the watermasks are too agressive, there are lots of water where there really shouldn't (in general). Ignore the stock coastlines, which are obviously out of place & should be removed if using Dick's watermasks.

Hope this is useful.

[MaskRider]

Hiya UT,

Yes, thanks very much. That is very helpful. I can see that I currently must have the stock masks loaded. I wondered because the airfields were fitting the shorelines just fine and I knew that they shouldn't if I were looking at Rhumbas masks.

At one point, before knocking of for about a year I had tried to get too cute by half. I divided-up all masks hoping to create a system whereby simply activating or deactivating a few folders I could easily switch between (1) stock mesh and masks and the airfields built specifically for them; (2) Rhumba's mesh and masks and the airfields built specifically for them and (3) airfields that worked fine with either since they came with specific mesh and masks of their own. LOL! Anyhow, the upshot is that I ended up with masks scattered between several different folders and now need to get them sorted out. Suppose it doesn't much matter that much since I am going to start with a watermask "exclude" for each island group anyway. But still it is very untidy.

The plan now is to rebuild my old fields that were built to stock mesh and masks so that they to fit Rhumbas mesh but with nice new masks and shorelines of my own.

Again thank you, UT, that was exactly what I wanted to see.

Cheers,
MR

[MaskRider]

BTW UT,

One more favor.

With Rhumba's mesh and masks loaded, can you easily tell me whether the water in the channel between the two main islands is climbing the mesh at all?

Thanks
MR

[MaskRider]

Dang! LOL! My free trial period for raster-2-vector just expired! Didn't even know I was operating on a limited time basis. I though the only limitation was not being able to batch covert more than one file at a time. I downloaded a new copy and started a new trial period. But I don't know. Can anyone explain to me if r2v is absolutely necessary for autocoast to function or can we get along without it? I feel sorta like Jaxon did above about not wanting to spend $50 for the privilege of using r2v's very simplest function.

[UncleTgt]

BTW UT,

One more favor.

With Rhumba's mesh and masks loaded, can you easily tell me whether the water in the channel between the two main islands is climbing the mesh at all?

Thanks
MR

Hi MR,

screenshots attached. Yes, it's little rough at the edges, the screenshots show the tendency for the mask to clip across each bend in the channel & climb a little up the sides, but not the worst I've seen (I was flying kinda low:icon_eek:).

Hope this helps.

[MaskRider]

Hiya UT,

Yep, that helps.

I wanted to see if there was a little wiggle room in there for me to widen the channel between those islands in my mask. It doesn't really look like there is. So, I think I'll leave mine as is.

Thank you, UT!

MR

[MaskRider]

FYI,

I have been having a lot of luck starting with a 4200x4200 bmp capture from TatukGIS viewer. After cleaning it up, I select all of the land and expand it out 3 pixels. Then I save the thing as a 5000x5000 bmp for use as the G2K Project map and as the r2v source file. So far the masks are fitting the mesh pretty much like a glove.

For the larger islands, like Malaita and Guadalcanal, I divide them up into 2 or three project sets. Guadalcanal I divided into 3 project sets- west, central and east each with it own 5000X5000 project map. Malaita I divided into two project sets- north and south. The Russells and Florida group I did each as single project set using a single 50000X5000 project map each. Been using minimum line segment length of 7. So far so good. The next group is the New Georgis Group. I'll need to study them a little to see where I want to make the project cuts.

Thanks again, UT
MR