1. Introduction

These instructions describe how you can generate photorealistic sceneries by using the REFLEX scenery construction (RSK) software in order to simulate them on the REFLEX model flight simulator.

The spheric panorama images are forming the basic element. They are showing the whole environment (360° horizontal and 180° vertical) at one node on one single picture. For REFLEX, spherical panorama images with an angle of 360° horizontal and an upper vertical angle of 135° are needed. The bottom angle of 45° is omitted, because the model aircraft will generally not fly around your feet. The following illustration shows a down-scaled version of the panorama images which had been created for the REFLEX scenery “FTG Borstel-Hohenraden e.V”:

To work with the RSK you need a spherical panorama image in the BMP format with a resolution of 8160 x 3060 pixels. It is not so easy to take photos and generate spherical panorama images of such a resolution. An explanation of this topic would go beyond the scope of these instructions. On the Internet you will find a large number of guidebooks about this.

The construction procedure of a REFLEX scenery with RSK mainly consists of accumulating the two dimensional panorama images with three-dimensional geometry data. Also, any information about wind and light conditions, starting locations as well as material properties regarding the ground and obstacles are being edited. In order to construct correctly scaled scenery geometry, RSK can read panorama images from different measured locations. With the help of triangulation you can then gain the coordinates of distinctive points in the three-dimensional space.

After a successful installation of the RSK, you can find the project directory RSK-Beispiel MFG Tangstedt eV in ..\REFLEX\Simulator\Umwelt\Wlp\Germany. It includes all necessary files to open the ready-made sample scenery with RSK.

 

Following topic: Taking photos of the scenery