Topics

1

TopoFusion on other OS - Mac / Linux / Delay Initialization Direct3D - OS X and Linux

« on: September 29, 2007, 07:40:25 PM »

Hi,

I'm a long time TopoFusion user that has switched from PC to Mac OS X, and quite like the Mac.  But I miss TF.

I had it working under Parallels, but their latest update made it stop working, now it dies with the error "Fatal Error: Couldn't create memory pool surface".

Of course, this is all due to Parallels' (and VMWare Fusion's) limited and flaky support for Direct3D.

This got me wondering if the 2D aspects of TF wouldn't work just fine if the 3D weren't initialized.

Is it possible to delay the initialization of TF?  Or possibly have a shortcut in the Start Menu that starts TF in "2D Only Mode".

I don't understand the inner workings of TF, of course, but if Direct3D isn't used for anything but the actual 3D functions, adding a $without_3d variable (or whatever) that prevents the initialization of Direct3D and hides the 3D related buttons and file options seems like it would work.

I have seen other people searching the net for the same solution, for TF specifically.  In fact, one had it installed under Linux and it ran, but died at the Direct3D initialization.  I wouldn't be surprised if the 2D things worked quite well under OS X and Linux with the 3D parts disabled.

Thanks,
Metzen

P.S.  If anyone else would find this useful, speak up...   :}

2

Archived Support / Merging Multiple Tracks

« on: August 08, 2007, 10:47:32 AM »

I have a 37 MB .gpx file with a ton of different tracks, all from different days and lots of start and end points.

I see the new Merge Tracks Tool, a very nice addition.  When I turn it on and then click on a multiple tracks while holding Shift, if I click on two adjacent track segments in a particular order it works as expected.  But if I click on the other one first, then the second, a straight line connects the ends.  Is there a way to suppress that connecting line?

Likewise, when using the Merge Tracks Tool is there a way to suppress the profile window?

Also, once you have selected some tracks, it is very difficult to deselect them.

I have a ton of work to do in this .gpx file, and even small improvements in this tool and my understanding of it will save me a lot of time, not to mention being useful to other users.

Thanks!

3

TopoFusion on other OS - Mac / Linux / TopoFusion working on Mac OS X!

« on: June 11, 2007, 12:20:11 PM »

Woohoo!

I am a long time user of TopoFusion and love it.  I switched to OS X a few months ago for a myriad of reasons, and the one thing I missed was TopoFusion.

The new version of Parallels Desktop just came out, and supports running DirectX games and applications.

I installed it and for the most part TopoFusion works perfectly.  There were some weird video problems when I would resize the window, but getting the windows size I want, exiting, and then reloading TF fixes the problem.

Just thought any other Mac OS X users might like to know.

Thanks,
Brian

4

Archived Support / New Google Maps Satellite Data

« on: February 27, 2007, 02:10:24 PM »

Google Maps just rolled out an upgrade, at least for Utah there is now color satellite imagery for the entire state, at all but the highest level of resolution.

I wish they made their data available like TerraServer does.

I know it's out of your control and you can't make the data available in TF, I just wanted to share the good news about the update, and lament about it's irrelevance to TF...

The thought crossed my mind to suck down the tile sets, resize and geo-reference them, and setup my own server to return the tiles (pointing the appropriate Google domains to my machine) and trick TF into importing the new imagery.

But seemed like a lot of work and violates the Google TOS.  It was a good dream...

5

Archived Support / Downloading Tilesets Stalls and Starts Over

« on: February 22, 2007, 12:32:06 AM »

Using 3.0 I turned off every tileset except for Topo 4 Meter, then selected the entire state of Utah.  0 / 490817.

After a few hours it was 1/4th the way done, but had stalled (hiccup in the internet, disturbance in the force, whatever).

So I hit cancel, drew approximately the same box again, and it started all over again.

I expected that after drawing the box the total would be more like 0 / 380000 or 120000 / 490817.

Were the downloaded tiles just discarded?  Is this the normal behavior?

6

Archived Support / Optimal DEM file size

« on: February 20, 2007, 11:44:32 AM »

I am downloading DEM data for the entire state of Utah.  It's on the order of 1.2 GB of data.

Is there an optimial file size to break the data into?  You can download it in 250 MB, 100 MB, 75 MB, etc.

Will the 250 MB DEM files slow down the 3D viewing in TF?

Thanks!

7

Beta Testing / User Maps Storage Idea

« on: February 17, 2007, 10:38:28 PM »

I have an idea for user maps.  I don't know a thing about the inner workings of TopoFusion, but I am a thinker...  So I'll leave it to the developers as to whether the idea has any merit.

After adding a 10 MB JPEG there was a noticeable decrease in performance.  Chopping it into 4 different images and scaling it down to fit within my graphics cards maximum texture size helped, but there still seemed to be a performance hit.

If I use the user maps feature as much as I suspect I will, I anticipate performance problems.

So what if after the user maps were converted to another tile set?  The different tile sets are absolutely huge (covering most of the earth at varying resolutions) and scale very well.  Can the same approach be used for additional maps?

I am absolutely giddy to have found all of the trail maps for the state of Utah in PDF format (http://www.stateparks.utah.gov/ohv/maps.htm).  I plan to import them all as user maps.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Anyway, just a thought.

Thanks for the great software.

8

Feature Requests / Contour Shading in 2D

« on: February 12, 2007, 07:01:18 PM »

I notice that 3.0 has contour shading in 3D mode (nice!), is there a way to turn that on for 2D?

9

Beta Testing / User Map Calibration & Image Quality with Beta 3

« on: February 06, 2007, 09:39:14 AM »

I absolutely love the User Map feature, but I'm struggling to get it to work with the image I have.

Here is the image I'm using:
http://www.atvutah.com/tristat....map.jpg

It's a 10.2 MB JPEG, 8451 X 4821.

If you ATV in southern Utah it's a great map.

Two problems I'm having:

1.  When calibrating, I can get close with 3 points (as discussed elsewhere, more would be great).

After calibrating those 3 points I clicked on Calibrate by Hand, expecting to be able to tweak my 3 points, but instead was given two points in the top left and bottom right corners. It seemed to have discarded my 3 calibrated points.

It would be better if you could nudge the other calibrated points (which I haven't found a way to do yet).  Maybe both could be there, "Calibrate Points" and "Calibrate Corners".  In fact, being able to calibrate by all four corners would make a lot of sense.

Calibrating this image may be complicated by the fact that the image crosses over into another zone.

2.  Once I have it in TopoFusion and calibrated pretty close, the image quality is really fuzzy.

Here you can compare the original and how it displays in TF:
http://www.winchesterhills.com/MailDropOrig.jpg
http://www.winchesterhills.com/MailDropTF.jpg

Is there a way I can resize / resample the original image so that it displays better?  For instance, so many pixels per mile, etc?

Thanks,
Metzen

10

Archived - Feedback and Comments / Waypoint Icons (ie. GeoCaching)

« on: September 13, 2005, 02:40:59 PM »

Hi,

I'm requesting icon support for waypoints.

I'm getting into GeoCaching and it's really fun.  There are 800 different caches within 20 miles of my house.

There are different standard icons for waypoints, including GeoCache and GeoCache (found).

On my GPS V I can look and see a treasure chest icon for GeoCache's, and caches I've found the icon is an open treasure chest.

It would be nice if those were supported and recognized in TopoFusion.  On my GPS V I can glance and find a cache I haven't been to, it would be nice to do the same in TopoFusion, since the icon type is stored in the GPX file I'm importing.

Thanks,
Brian

11

Archived Support / Caching of Auto-Downloaded DEM Files

« on: March 14, 2005, 11:26:56 AM »

Hi,

I love the new features and improvements in 2.50, they are great!

Is there a plan to cache the auto-downloaded DEM files?

I use TopoFusion on my laptop out in the mountains, where I don't have an internet connection (someday, perhaps...).

It would be nice to be able to view the area at home and auto-download the DEM's, then have those permanently saved so that when I view the area again in the mountains without an internet connection the 3D data is still there.

Another dream item for the wishlist that has sort of been mentioned elsewhere, would be the ability to download DEM data in advance using a tool similar to the download tool for map data where you draw a box and it downloads tilesets.   The ability to draw a box and download DEM data and select which resolution of data to get would be awesome.

Thanks for the hard work!

Brian

12

Archived Support / Images garbled on wide screen LCD

« on: October 04, 2004, 06:36:33 PM »

TopoFusion rocks!  You guys need an affiliate program so I can get paid for all the people I'm turning on to it...   '>

One problem I've had, under all the versions I've used, I believe, is that when I go to full width on my widescreen LCD (1680 X 1050) on my Dell laptop, the  map image becomes garbled.

It happens whether I maximize or just drag the width to full width.

Here is a screen capture at just under full width:
http://www.gzmarketing.com/just_under_full.jpg

And here is one at full width (garbled):
http://www.gzmarketing.com/full_width.jpg

This only happens at non-native map resolutions.  By that I mean that when you use your wheelmouse to zoom in and you reach say the 64 meter topo, it looks fine even when maximized, but then you zoom in further (still using the 64 meter images, just zoomed in) and then it gets garbled.

The garbling is actually the image getting stretched extremely to the sides, creating banding out of the individual pixels on the map.

When zoomed in further you can see map features, they are just really distorted.

This doesn't happen on my second LCD (dual monitor setup) at 1280 X 1024, only on the widescreen built into the laptop, at 1680 X 1050.

Thanks,
Brian

13

Archived - Feedback and Comments / 2D & 3D Labels

« on: September 18, 2004, 08:41:17 AM »

Great product guys (and gals?)!

When using TopoFusion in 3D mode with DEM data, and selecting "Show 3D Waypoints" under 3D Preferences, it would be helpful if the 2D labels were turned off.

If you have a lot of 2D waypoint labels in 3D mode that are close together, you end up not being able to see any of your map image.  Turning off the background for labels under color preferences helps, but it would be quite helpful to turn them off altogether.

Thanks!
Metzen