50 MSFS 2020 SDK TUTORIAL - 3D photogrammetry using EARTH2MSFS Tool. Updated for 2024. 4K and CC

50 MSFS 2020 SDK TUTORIAL - Using EARTH2MSFS Tool. Video updated for 2024. Step-by-step installation and use of the tool. 4K and CC
This is a redux of an older video making changes for 2024. This video includes a new patch that makes EART2MSFS work again.
Link to EARTH2MSFS is:
drive.google.com/file/d/18zdI...
The download button is on the top right of the page.
EARTH2MSFS patch:
flightsim.to/file/39900/gogol...
Helpful Tutorials
44 MSFS 2020 SDK TUTORIAL - Basics of Scenery Building - SU-12 - Great for Beginners - Zero to Go
• 44 MSFS 2020 SDK TUTOR...
22 MSFS 2020 SCENERY TUTORIAL - REMOVE TREES, WATER, AND BUILDINGS - ADD TREES, WATER, AND BUILDINGS
• 22 MSFS 2020 SCENERY T...
Other Links
Patriot Six Channel
/ @patriotsix5880
Patriot Six MSFS 2020 Scenery Group
/ 788136852324508
Video Chapters
00:00 Video Start.
00:24 About The Video.
02:03 Installing EARTH2MSFS patch.
04:00 Expectations.
06:51 My recommendations.
08:39 Using the tool to pull in Google Earth 3D Photogrammetry.
10:25 Link to package building video and steps to prepare the scenery folder.
19:34 Using an exclusion polygon to remove AI buildings.
23:25 Use a polygon and terraforming to fix the Ohio River.
25:55 Save the scenery, build the package, move the package to the community folder, and test the package.
27:44 Test the package.
28:57 Wrap up.

[@ScorpionSimulates]

Thank you for the great explanation of this process! I've been trying to find a way to get accurate hospitals into the sim for the HPG h145 as I do a lot of lifeflight ops and this is going to make adding those in so much easier!

[@patriotsix5880]

Thanks for watching. A word of caution: The imported 3D photogrammetry will not have a collision texture, so you will sink through the building if the helipad is on top. There is a fix. I show a workaround in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aV7IpamoiJyMrLs. I hope this helps.

[@pablogarciamarquez7039]

A pleasure to see you again after such a long time. Today's video is very interesting. Thanks a lot.

[@patriotsix5880]

You are welcome. I needed a break. But, once you take a break, it is hard to get going again. Making videos is very time-consuming. It takes me about 24 hours to make a good 15-minute video.

[@andrewischill]

@@patriotsix5880 Really appreciate your content patriot. I have never even messed with the editor myself at all, but love watching your videos on it

[@patriotsix5880]

@@andrewischill Give it a try, even if it is simple. You may find it fun, and knowing you contributed to your experience is a good feeling. You can't hurt anything.

[@zacky5315]

Excellent. Thank you for the updated tutorial.

[@patriotsix5880]

You are welcome. I have been on a long break. 😃

[@CaptainMUAL]

what about the FPS drop?

[@patriotsix5880]

@@CaptainMUAL Thanks for watching. As long as you do not go overboard, you should be fine. If your machine is marginal, it could impact FPS. It is situational, and the variables are vast. How much RAM do you have? How do you run your graphic settings? What GPU do you use, and what is your typical FPS? Single monitor or multi-monitor setup? I would not let it stop me from trying. If it is a problem, you will know it. I prefer to keep the package size less than 3 GB. You can take in a big area and stay under 3 GB as long as you manage the LOD.

[@sundaypilot]

Inspirational. I wanna recreate my hometown too. Too bad it's just a view from 2015 but it'll do on some areas. Love from the Philippines!

[@patriotsix5880]

That is great. Good luck.

[@ayyyejayjay]

MAN! it's hard watching your videos....I'm a dolphins fan, so the Pats stuff kills me. LOL jk friend! Thanks for all of your videos. They've got me interested in scenery development. Keep up the great work! and FINS UP!!

[@patriotsix5880]

Thanks for watching. It's all good. I am not a hater. I live in Nashville so I hear plenty of Pat's hate. It has toned down because of the recent suckage though. I think they honestly hated Brady more than the Pats here. Every fanbase has to go through bad times. NE fans have been very fortunate over a long period. Good luck this season. Let me know if I can help you with your new endeavor.

[@ayyyejayjay]

@@patriotsix5880 one of my brother’s is a Pats fan so I love the banter. I do have a question, I’m creating a fictional scenery on a lake in the mountains of NC. I’d like to do a grass strip and seaplane base right next to each other. Should I create two separate scenery files or have them as one? I prefer as one but wondering if this was possible

[@patriotsix5880]

@@ayyyejayjay Oh I love it too. It's sports and banter is healthy and fun. It is difficult in these times to have fun banter because folks get emotional. I loved it here when folks would hate the Pats. The hate was because they were relevant. Now, not so much but the NFL is always changing. It is designed to change quickly. The Pats defeated the odds because of one Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr, You can do it either way. If they are together, I would suggest one file. If they are a distance from each other, I would use two. I do hot have a video that meets your unique desires but I have a video on building a fictional seaplane base, and a video on making grass fields. I also have a video on making fictional airports with multiple runways. So, it is all covered. Here is how I would approach the project. 1. If you do not know the basics, start here. It will save you a lot of time. kzbin.info/www/bejne/g4mzfWOkZdB0lZY 2. If you are comfortable with the basics, the seaplane base is here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mGrNiKCaYph-g9E 3. This tutorial will help you with a grass field as well as adding a second runway. The principles are the same even though your geographical area is different and you want to add two unique runway styles. In the example, I added a grass runway and a asphalt runway. You simply set place the second runway on the water using the techniques I used in the Sea port video. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iF7ak3ljoZx-Z6c If you use Facebook, you can find me and several other follows of Patriot six in the link. There are a lot of helpful people here and you will not get mocked or flames for any question you ask. Its a great community and the folks there have varying levels of skill from basic up to advanced. We would love to have you. facebook.com/groups/788136852324508

[@AsturMik]

Great content! Could you by chance make a tutorial on how to create water masks? It's the only thing I can barely find information about. Kind regards!

[@patriotsix5880]

I guess you are talking about scuba masks? If so, that has to be modeled in a 3D tool. If you are talking about something else please explain.

[@cptbaku6310]

Hey Captain, I am really thankful that you thought me MSFS SDK! Without you I wouldn’t be making my sceneries available for MSFS. :) However I was wondering if you could make a video specifically about the taxilines/taxilights. I have a issue with it, you need to connect it to something and I can’t pass that issue. Creating the route and the names and codes its hard for me, I watched your video but I still couldnt fix it.

[@patriotsix5880]

Thanks for watching and the lovely comments. Which video do you watch for taxiways and lights? I have made a couple different videos on the subject.

[@yik68]

I found that if you have too many plug-ins, you cannot export the Google 3D landscape. After you remove all the plug-ins from your community folder and re-enter the game, you can export the Google 3D landscape in the map.

[@patriotsix5880]

Sounds reasonable. I do not have that problem because I use the MSFS Addon Linker. When I am building scenery, I only have mods in the community folder that are needed to build the particular project. I am a firm believer in managing the community folder.

[@AC_Twig]

Hello , great to see you return! I have been following your tutorial’s and made a custom airport today. Things went really well till after I saved the airport and placed it into my community folder. The airport did not show up in the sim so I did some investigating to find out there was 2 differently named html documents in the folder. I tried to open both of them in the sim editor to no avail again. I was wondering if you have possibly encountered this error before? I have sadly lost 4hr of my work haha. I left the files alone just incase you know a fix. Thanks in advance🤙🏼

[@patriotsix5880]

I have not experienced this that I remember. Are you willing to zip the scenery folder and send it to me? I want to see what is in it.

[@AC_Twig]

@@patriotsix5880 I appreciate you for the fast reply and helpfulness!! I realized by watching one of your older videos I saved the project incorrectly somehow therefore causing all of it to not really save. I have restarted and am using your video as a guide on how to start and save when working with scenery as I started and saved it completely wrong.

[@patriotsix5880]

@@AC_Twig The process has changed with new iterations of SDK. The bad part is the KZbin algorithm will usually send folks to older videos because it has more views. This is the best resource as of today. kzbin.info/www/bejne/g4mzfWOkZdB0lZY

[@AC_Twig]

@@patriotsix5880 thank you greatly!

[@dantican3800]

With Beyond ATC out now, we have a lot of airfields where the taxiways, runways and gates are wrong. Are you able to do a video on how to edit these items in addon airport packages as well as Asobo titles? Fly Tampa CYYZ for example is all kinds of messed up when it comes to taxiway data. CYUL still includes runway 28 which isn't even on the Jep charts anymore. I'm not looking to change the scenery or make my own folder. Just want to edit these items.

[@patriotsix5880]

Thanks for watching. I am very aware of the impact of BATC since I am a customer. I have a simple question. Do you want to put in a lot of work? If so, I can show you how to do it but it is a lot of work. I have not looked for a shortcut yet but you have to do many of these steps in this two-part series because everything has to be tied together for it to work with ATC. kzbin.info/www/bejne/i526mnSYncqlqck

[@dantican3800]

@@patriotsix5880 Thanks for the reply. Having watched your videos, I expected it to be time-consuming, so I am prepared. My concern is what happens when there is a new update to let's Fly Tampa CYYZ from the developer? Or an update from Asobo that affect all airport editing processes in the future? Is there a way to troubleshoot these taxiways in the editor and figure out why they don't make sense to BATC? Without creating a new airport. I hope this makes sense.

[@patriotsix5880]

@@dantican3800 Everything you do will live in the package. This means, with a simple delete, everything is back to normal. So if FlyTampa and Asobo make corrections, you remove the package and you are good to go. FlyTamps is one of the best creators so, I am surprised in the inaccuracy. I have YYZ but I have not noticed any issues because I have not flown in or out of there since I picked up BATC. I do not expect Asobo to make changes. It is amazing what they have already built but I can see how time-consuming it would be to fix every airport worldwide. A lot of the work is from AI. If it was all handbuilt MSFS 2020 would be MSFS 2028 or later. 😁 Here is a quick tutorial of how it works. With all scenery, you have a scenery folder with various XML files, models, textures, etc. Also in the scenery folder is the package. The package is what the sim reads for scenery placement. The packages are in the OneStore folder or the Community folder depending upon the method of purchase. Access to the scenery folder allows you to edit and make changes and make a new package with the changes. But, we do not have the entire scenery folder, we only have the packages and packages cannot be edited. It takes the entire scenery folder to make changes. If I had the complete FlyTampa scenery folder, yes, I could make changes. But as I said, the packages are only editable wit the entire scenery folder. I hope that helps you understand how it works.

[@dantican3800]

@@patriotsix5880 Ok that makes perfect sense now. Truthfully, I don't know if the inaccuracies are on the part of Fly Tampa. The scenery is fantastic which is why I love flying out of that hub. The complexity of the airport could be too much for BATC at this early stage. Regardless, I really appreciate your help. I will go poke around using your videos and see what kind of fun I can get myself into. Cheers!

[@geirrosset]

After building and loading it into editor all the scenery files show up as "unknown" and no scenery is visible.

[@patriotsix5880]

Thanks for watching. Can you give me the location you are trying to select? City name and a brief explanation of the area you have selected. Looking forward to you reply.

[@sykojuice9669]

What if I wanted just to update a building. How do I exclude the surroundings?

[@patriotsix5880]

Thanks for watching. I saw a video on KZbin that is probably three years old now where the scenery tiles are pulled in Blender and manipulated. I watched it and decided it was more work than I was willing to do. I don't know if anything newer is on KZbin but you might try Myphysical World. He appears to be very good with Blender. Good luck.

[@flare242]

This is odd, my windows 3d viewer just shows the blue splash screen anytime i try to open files i exported with Earth 2 MSFS Decoder. I even tried to repair the app, but to no avail. :-( I'm trying to create my first scenery, but so far i'm a bit overwhelmed. Thanks for the tutorial!

[@patriotsix5880]

I think I mentioned it in the video. You can use Google Earth and figure out if it is 3D or not. Once you see it, you can't unsee it. I have had the same issue with the 3D viewer before. If you are on the correct file it should open. If you are on the JASOn file, you will not see anything. Sometimes it takes it a bit of time depending upon your PC. I wouldn't let that stop me. It is not mandatory. It will work or it won't work regardless of testing it.

[@flare242]

@@patriotsix5880 Thanks, but i think i messed up LOD settings during my first two exports. When i left the default LOD values for my third, the gtlf files finally open. Although it does take quite a while, despite being loaded from m2 ssd. Now i'm stuck at python errors in Blender and during msfs project build. One stepat a time i guess...

[@patriotsix5880]

@@flare242 The bad thing about the default LOD is it makes huge packages that take a lot of time to build and load in the sim. It can cause stutters if you take a large area. I try to stay below 500 MB. 250 or so is ideal. Good luck.

[@adilawadilaw8248]

Hello i try to download earth2msfs but i cant find any download clickable file , anyone can help me ?

[@patriotsix5880]

Thanks for watching. I tried the link and it still works. So, open the link to the Earth2MSFS drive.google.com/file/d/18zdIjLbRgM5Ce1PtFPKYn-bCfOZcpPAO/view Once this opens, look for a download symbol on the top right. It is a symbol of a down arrow. A symbol you often see for downloading. I hope that helps.

[@StinnMysterious]

I am creating an airport but MSFS map is very outdated. Is it possible to use this tool to make newest aerial map of the airport?Not the 3d photogrammetry. Just flat map.

[@patriotsix5880]

Thanks for watching. Let's walk through this. If the airport has 3D photogrammetry, it will be part of the scenery with this tool and I would never recommend using this for an airport. The resolution is good enough to fly over but not good enough up close to make you happy. if this is a small airport out of the way, it is likely the airport does not have photogrammetry. If that is true, then you may be able to get the tiles to work. If may error and not work. It's impossible to know until you try. I have seen this tool pull flat terrain before. Pull the airport up on Google Earth and select 3D to test for photogrammetry. If the buildings are flat, it does not have photogrammetry. If the buildings are 3D, you will see that pretty fast. There is another way but it is convaluted. I will link the video but it looks like a lot of work. This video is also three years old so there is always a possiblity that the process does not work today. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gqukpJl3q6t-Zs0

[@StinnMysterious]

@@patriotsix5880 As long as it pulls flat terrain, I am satisfied because I have modeled the airport buildings. I just need a base map to place them. This airport doesn't have any photogrammetry in google earth/maps. just flat.

[@patriotsix5880]

@@StinnMysterious Can you give me the airport ICAO? I can give it a quick test and see if it works. I can do it faster than you unless you have done this before.

[@StinnMysterious]

Yes. Its Bangalore. VOBL. If you check the ingame map vs This map, it has alot of new updates.

[@patriotsix5880]

@@StinnMysterious Before you do all of this, please let me know exactly what you want from the terrain maps. There may be an easier way. Please tell me everything about the ground you want to change.

[@UberGeek]

When you created the second polygon, why not just make it "Water" the first checkbox? , Other than that, good job.

[@patriotsix5880]

Hey UG. Thanks for watching. It might work in some instances. I have yet to successfully use a polygon for water over Google Earth tiles. Here is why that is the case. The Google Earth tiles are typically elevated above the standard Bing mesh. So the times I have tried it the water will sit below on the global mesh and not elevated to the level of the Google tiles. In the video, I raised the standard mesh above the Google Earth tiles to eliminate the differences in mesh and color. If you try this process, take a look by dropping the camera below the imported Earth. You will see what I am talking about. Is this the case all over the world? That is impossible for me to know. I offer a method I know will work, but everybody is free to test and look for better ways. 😃 Happy flying.

[@StinnMysterious]

Is there another way to contact you?

[@patriotsix5880]

Yes. We havea Facebook group. If you join, we can work through there or go on Discord. The Discord server is linked in the Facebook group. facebook.com/groups/788136852324508 If we do Discord, we need to set a time since you and I are on opposite sides of the Earth. I am flexible with my time. I am often awake during your daytime.

[@StinnMysterious]

@@patriotsix5880 I actually live in Seattle.

[@AirBorneDanial]

8:46 spelling mistake

[@patriotsix5880]

Thanks for watching. You only found one? Knowing me, you may want to check closer. 😃

[@AirBorneDanial]

@@patriotsix5880 lol