I am trying to convert the new 3D Masters Reflex senery using the "Wizard" so that I can use it in AFPD.

And I have come across a problem, I get never ending asterisks (*******************etc............)[][&o][&:]!!!!!

I have inculded a screenshot of the "Wizard" that I captured using "Corel Capture 12" (Now it has reached the stage where it's full of **************[X(][:@][][&:]).

Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks

Greg.

I don't think that this is covered by the Reflex picture copyright ...

Sorry to be dumb but I'm not getting what your saying????[sm=confused.gif][sm=confused.gif]

He saying that you don't have the right to use it for AFPD, which of course is untrue. If you own XTR you can use that scenery however you like as long as you do not redistibute it, unless of course you are going to use the image to critique under fair use.

What are the image dimensions? I've heard that converting these XTR images for AFPD are not a problem.

Rodeo's indoor scenery is a conversion from Reflex XTR... and its downloadable on RC-sim..

I am not entirely sure if you can convert the XTR scenery to AFPD even if for your own use. strictly speaking, softwares are licensed, not sold. when you pay, you paid for the 'right to use the software in the way defined by its license agreement'. you don't own the software itself, nor anything comes with the CD. What you can/can't do is depend on the actual terms of restrictions on the license. (thats our lawyer told us anyway)

Well there's what seems to be a "pano" image which is 8160 x 3060 it's a JPEG and there's also a BMP which is 2048 x 2048 together with 4 "DDS" files and 1 "WLP" file.

I am only going to use it myself and I would NOT pass it on to anyone else![>:]

Thank you Dion for your reply!

OOoh and BTW can I show screenshots of it in AFPD on RCU if I ever get it working?????

Greg.

Hi,

just to make that clear:

I never published a scenery converted from original Reflex data.
All work is based upon FREE sceneries, of course with permission of the authors.
This makes a big difference regarding copyright questions!

Regards
Rodeo [8D]
www.rodeo.onlinehome.de

I think will explain the circumstances better[]:

OK so the 3D Masters were held in Northampton - about 25 miles from where I live so naturally I went to see it & had also heard that you could pick up a REFLEX scenery of the site for free if you brought your dongle..............so I've just received the CD containing the self - extracting file with the scenery in...........now I've found the files in the REFLEX directory I've tried to install them into AFPD using the "Wizard" & the above happened![&o]

I hope this makes it a bit clearer

Greg.

Certainly, whatever you do in your own chamber isn't effected by copyright. As soon as you start making that work acessible to other people for whatever reason, the copyright applys. I don't think that the Reflex guys have much fun doing all the work (research, making that technology available to the market, making the pictures, travelling to places) just to feed the community of the competing product. I would have expected that these issues are widely known and beyond doubt.

I know all of that! I just want to use it in AFPD FOR MY OWN USE!!!! Why I posted this was cuz I can't get it to work and I wanted some help[][&o]!!!!!

Greg.

AFPD pano sceneries...

Greg,

AFPD requires an 8192x4096 (pixels) panorama image... but the program only uses the upper 3/4, so to avoid introducing image distortion, you should add 1/4 as a black addition to the bottom of your pano photo image for a final image dimension of 8192x4096... Any proper equirectangular image (i.e., full 360x180 degree panorama) in jpg format will suffice... aside from the jpg format and the appropriate dimentions, the wizard don't care...

Reflex requires an image size of 8160X3060... generally the Reflex image file name will be S1.jpg or S2.jpg and you can verify the image size noted above. See a very informative thread on the "RC Groups" web site re making your own pano image for the Reflex sim... http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=373322

While the above thread pertains specifically to making a pano image for Reflex, the process of shooting and stitching the original panorama image is the same regardless of the sim where the image will ultimately be used, provided only that the finished image dimentions must correspond to those demanded by the specific sim program... i.e., AFPD or Reflex.

Note that AFPD's wizard makes the final step of converting the pano image to the working AFPD scenery very easy once you have the image (usually!)... I believe that if you search this and other forums you will find additional posts regarding this process...

As to your current specific problem, first make sure you have installed AFPD (not AFP) and that you have at least the initial AFPD patch installed when you download and first run the install wizard... In fact I would advise that you re-install the wizard and then first verify that it works properly on a known posted AFPD add-on scenery image available at RCsim.de or other AFPD download site.

If you know the wizard to properly work with known AFPD new scenery images, then make certain that your new jpg file is the proper dimention for AFPD... If the image size and format is correct, the wizard should properly generate a working scenery regardless of the actual image content... the wizard cares not a whit what the image actually displays, it can be your living room!!

One other suggestion, the wizard expects the new jpg image file to have the exact same name as the folder in which it resides... I generally have that folder on my desktop for the conversion process... so you might have a folder named "my field" for example and in that folder is a single file, the jpg file "my field" of 8196x4096 pixels...

This makes the wizard happy and it should generate a new AFPD scenery called "my field" and automatically place the converted files in the appropriate locations in AFPD... Now start up AFPD and you should see the new "my field" scenery in the AFPD scenery menu...

Hope this helps!!

Charlie

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!! I'll check it out tomorow (need sleep ZZZZZ[sm=sleeping.gif]!)

Thanks again!

Greg.

Sorry this is wrong. You can post that image right here on this forum if you use it in a manner which falls under Fair Use.

Fair Use or “fair,� is such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. That means if someone wants to post that image to critique it or comment about it, they may do so and RCU will allow it. It's especially ok to publish the copyrighted material as long as it's not of a commercial nature, in this case publishing the image is not of a commercial nature. Neither the person who publishes the photo, the persons who are showing the image (RCU), nor the persons viewing the image will be doing so with the intent of a profit.

However you may not just blatantly transmit, duplicate, share or sell it without permission of the author of the copyrighted material if the published copyrighed material does NOT fall under Fair Use.

Sorry, Rodeo, I must have confused your indoor scene with Reflex's "Roedinghausen Sporthasse Kunstflug". My bad.

Anyone who wants to get a hand on these reflex sceneries can download the Reflex XTR demo, all the photo sceneries are in the demo. Although I am still not sure if the license allows them to be converted to AFPD.

Using a copyrighted picture for a competitors product and offering the results for "criticism" won't go as "fair use" in any court. Just think about a fake picture showing Mrs. Bushs face on the naked body of Pamela Anderson offered for "criticism" on the front page of New York Times. Normally it would be obvious, that a Reflex picture is not designed to be used in AFP/D, but "normally" also compromises the fact of accepting what is morally right or wrong or just. So just go on looking for the pot holes. If you would invest the same time doing something of value on your own instead of stealing other peoples work, you would probably come up with something interesting - and start fighting for your property. I can't see that we will come that far but who knows?

In the example you list, it is NOT belong to 'fair use', because the critism is not on the works (the picutures) themselves.

But if you quote a segment of a copyrighted material (un-modified), then use it to critise the original work, it falls nicely in the 'fair use' term. The definition of 'fair use' is quite clear on this regard.

And, publishing copyrighted materials outside these examptions (ie, fair use) is a copyright violation, regardless commercial/cause financial lost to the owner or NOT. Justic department is quite clear on this. Cause in doing so, you infringe the "distribution right" of the copyright owner.

Who said "using it", I said publishing it.

We can go round and round of whose right and whose wrong. I'm just letting you know that if I wanted to post that image I could under Fair Use as long as I was publishing the photo within the guidelines of Fair Use.

I'm not trying to rip anyone off here, like Reflex, but they could have easily protected that image from Fair Use or copyright infringement but they chose not too. Thus if someone finds a way to use the image under Fair Use, or another grey area or "loophole" they have every right too.

Hi,

let's try to come to a conclusÃ*on, I hope we all can agree with this:

It's clear that any commercial scenery or model of rc simulator A should not be converted and published for rc simulator B. Conversion can only be done for personal use if you own both simulators (this was Greg's initial intention).

It's clear that the developers of commercial rc simulator A don't want to feed the users community of commercial rc simulator B.

Actually there are so many FREE panorama fotos available and still on their way. Most authors will agree if they are asked friendly to allow publication for rc simulator A, B or C.

Most of us have a digital camera and could do a panorama foto. Workshops for taking the fotos and stichting them together are available or in preparation. So we will see many more FREE sceneries in the next few months.

Best regards to all the enthusiastic rc pilots.
Rodeo
www.rodeo.onlinehome.de

Hey guys I got it!!!!!!!!!

Vid soon so you can see it!

Thanks

Greg.

..........[link=http://www.streamload.com/Deliver/Deliver.asp?cxInstID=15770324&nodeID=1475029517&re turnPage=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Estreamload%2Ecom%2FNod es%2FNode%2Easp%3FcxInstID%3D15770324%26nodeID%3D1 139463089]Video!!!!![/link] (sorry about my heli flying!)

Greg.

Rodeo, please believe me I'm not trying to say that posting the Reflex images is not the right thing to do. However I was just explaining that it is possible. Especially since Reflex did not copy protect the images and made them available to download for free in their demo.

So to sum it up if you want to use the Reflex scenes for your own personal use just dload the demo and use them however you like. Just please do not pass or post them without permission from Reflex.

Also if you do a Google for "Panorama" or "Panaramic" you'll find some great ones out there. Just look for ones that have the proportions to fit close to 8192 x 4096 (which is 2w:1h). Like this one I found of Mars (see pics). Anything over 4000 x 2000 is good to use. Anything less will be pretty pixelated.

There are also some GREAT VR images out there that can be stiched together real nicely using screen capture and stitching software. Since these VR images are already pre-shot with great cameras and lighting the images are going to be really nice. Here is a link to some great VR images. http://www.panoramas.dk/ use the dropdown top right corner to see them.

Right mouse click and save [link=http://www.aeroflypro.com/mars2.jpg]here to get the Mars image for AFPD[/link]. Public domain image, feel free to use it however you like. Couresty of JPL, NASA and the American taxpayers. You can install it using the fabulous AFPD Installer.

Hey Dion,

great idea about the panorama links.
But Mars surface looks rather unfriendly for our models [&o].
We better stay at our terran airfields .

Best regards
Rodeo
www.rodeo.onlinehome.de

What you guys don't hand launch and hand catch models in Germany?

Also I want to be the first person to hover a foamy on Mars or even the moon ... of course on Mars it will melt in the daylight and freeze like a rock at nite. But hey, there has to be at least 1 minute of the Martian day where it's 70 degrees for at least a couple seconds.

I hope one day IPACS works that into the program where you can reach out and lanch or catch your plane. Now that would be nice.

Rodeo, can you stich this image together? This would be awesome. I don't have stitching program ... Guess I need one.

http://www.panoramas.dk/fullscreen3/f29c.html

Another great one for the upcoming AFPD Submarine.

http://www.panoramas.dk/fullscreen/fullscreen45.html

Hi