PHOENIX AREA TERRAIN MESH (30 METER RESOLUTION)



The city known as the Valley of the Sun is not without its surrounding mountains that offer spectacular views of the city and looking south, the Sonoran desert stretch of southern Arizona. This terrain mesh for the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000 covers an area from northwest of the city, to the outskirts of Tucson. It will merge well with my previously released Tucson Terrain Mesh (30 meter resolution). Ideal for VFR flying, the area offers many airports, including the Evergreen Air Center (KMZJ) at Marana, where you can drop your old airliner for a "facelift" or its final demise.



As anything of this complexity in flight simulator, this scenery demands plenty of computer power, including CPU and RAM, to achieve acceptable frame rates and smoothness of the image. I recommended to try this terrain mesh only if you are experienced in installing terrain mesh files and tuning your FS installation for performance.





To Install:



This terrain mesh is contained in a file called phx30m10.bgl which you can install as any other scenery file.



1) Place the *.bgl file into the scenery subfolder of a folder where you would like to install very high resolution terrain mesh files like this one.



2) Start FS2000 and select scenery library from the World menu, then select Add area and find the folder where you installed the scenery. Click OK and if needed, click the checkmark to make the scenery active.



3) To make sure the simulator loads the scenery file correctly the first time, quit the simulator and start again. If you skip this step, you may risk crashing the simulator, or not having the scenery loaded correctly. 





Take a tour:



You can start enjoying this scenery by setting your aircraft at KPHX (Phoenix Sky Harbor International). Takeoff and turn right to PIMMA intersection (135 degrees bearing, 78 nm), to KTUS (Tucson International). Most of the way you would be following Interstate 10. About halfway you should see Newman Peak to your left. A little farther down and to your right is Pinal Air Park (KMZJ) at Marana, home of the Evergreen Air Center. That's one place you can take your old airliner for dismantling or refurbishing. Join the ILS for runway 11 at KTUS (runway course is 123).





Technical Information ---



  Source data: 104 7.5 Minute DEM files from the USGS (30 meter horizontal resolution) converted to 1x1 arc second DTED files and merged to form 2 major areas, subsequently merged to produce one BGL file. This is the standard method used in most of my large terrain mesh projects.



  Level of Detail (LOD): 10



  Approximate area covered: 15206 sq. km. (5940 sq. miles) in 2 overlapping areas as described below:



    Corners of the area covered (Northwest Area):



    (NW) N  33.75333° W 112.50361°        (NE) N  33.75333° W 111.37583°



    (SW) N  32.87556° W 112.50361°        (SE) N  32.87556° W 111.37583°

  

    Corners of the area covered (Southeast Area):



    (NW) N  33.00250° W 112.00278°        (NE) N  33.00250° W 110.87639°



    (SW) N  32.37611° W 112.00278°        (SE) N  32.37611° W 110.87639°



  Calibration points: 

                     Summit of Montezuma Peak (Southwest of Phoenix at Sierra Estrella)

		      Elevation and Geographic Coordinates from DEM

			4364 ft, N 33 11 10.98, W 112 11 52.97 (WGS84)

		      Elevation and Geographic Coordinates in FS 2000 with this file

			4295 ft, N 33 11 11.7818 , W 112 11 54.0028

		     

		     Summit of Newman Peak (near midpoint between KPHX and KTUS)

                      Elevation and Geographic Coordinates from DEM

			4505 ft, N 32 43 13.98, W 111 24 4.49 (WGS84)

		      Elevation and Geographic Coordinates in FS 2000 with this file

			4509 ft, N 32 43 14.6163, W 111 24 4.9205



Tools used:



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 ) (development version that can export BSQ files)





Notes about this first release:



Finally, just as a reminder, terrain mesh files don't change roads, rivers, coastlines and the placement of textures over the terrain. Odd things can happen, like floating lakes, rivers and roads, as well as farmland on top of a rain forest, or suburban streets on the sides of steep slopes, etc. This can be fixed, but it's an entirely different project.





Other 30 Meter Resolution Projects in Progress:



El Paso, Texas (including Las Cruces, New Mexico, and surrounding areas)





Other 30 Meter Resolution Projects Released:



Tucson Area in Arizona, USA (blends with this Phoenix Terrain Mesh)

Puerto Rico (entire island)





Acknowledgements:



Dr. Peter Guth (creator of Microdem and DEMconvert) fine tuned his tools to make this work possible. He offered valuable insight on the method to use to convert multiple 7.5 minute DEM files into a single seamless terrain file for flight simulator. 







Copyright and License to Use:



This archive is Copyright by Orlando Sotomayor on the year 2000. You have the right to use for your personal enjoyment. Redistribution for any type of commercial use is strictly prohibited. September 7, 2000.







							Questions?



							Contact Orlando Sotomayor at osd@att.net