Charts

[Deali]

Originally Posted by capt_douglas

I'm having a frustrating time downloading CM93/2 May 2010 from [illegal link deleted]. I get partial segments, dropped or broken links and other problems. Does anyone have a good download link or possibly a working torrent? I'd like to get the charts so I can get OpenCPN set up.

Thanks.

Almost all executables on that servers are infected by virus/trojans!

Be carefull of what you are doing.

Deali

[capt_douglas]

I grabbed them via my Mac but have learned to virus check all files I download. Better safe than sorry.

[Hud3]

Just a polite warning, guys.

Please don't post information about, or links to websites offering pirated software. Cruisers Forum does not condone sharing information about illegal activities. I'm sure you can understand why.

That sort of thing can get you banished from the forum.

[pdbms]

Hi,

I am based in Brisbane, Australia. I am on mac osx and currently have 1.3.6 installed (although the "about" dialogue says 1.3.0). some questions for you:

1) Does anyone have a set of east coast Australia google earth conversions that I can load?

2) Is there anywhere that I can get a succinct set of steps for conversion of charts and google earth images?

3) Has anyone managed to compile 2.x on a mac?

TIA

Kevin

[Charles1960]

Originally Posted by sinbad7

Did an interesting conversion this morning adding a .kap overlay of soundings obtained from a CM92 map of Holehaven-Thames.

I uploaded a normal CM92 map display of the Holehaven area of the Thames estuary.

Using the OpenCPN vector chart setup,I deleted all the Mariners standard configurations in the box and then added just the items strating with 'BOY'

I took a screen dump of the resulting soundings and buoys only display and saved it. Switching back to the vector chart setup screen I re-enabled all the options and displayed the chart. I then made a note of 4 suitable buoy locations as calibration points.

After editing the saved soundings file and adding a suitable pale blue background,I saved it and used MapCal to calibrate it to a .kap file.

Finally,using MapTiler and adding the new soundings.kap file, I created and saved the resulting MapTile rendering.

Don't know what it's good for but it was fun doing.....

Looks good, you might like to try saving the OpenCPN map as a JPG see if how well MapTiler supports transparency.Maptiler looks very promising but a few issues on my system

Using GIF/PNG Transparency In Displaying Raster Graphics In Google Earth

[cagney]

I'm moving the discussion about developing tif2bsb for dimming charts over here, from the 2.2 beta thread.
Here is a NZ test chart where I cheated a bit by suppling three levels, where there should really only be two + a day light adjusted version.
What do you think?
Download here.
Thomas

[sinbad7]

Thomas..

Not sure I follow your reasoning for moving a missing feature from the 2.2 beta test report page. It is NOT working for many proprietary .bsb/.kap charts including all Scandinavia and very badly for others (Brazil)

NOR does it work for .kap conversions.

Rather than basing the dimming function on the maps color palette,I suggest dimming the screen by a percentage set by the user. This is the method used by several other nav. progs.

I downloaded the NZ .kap chart but I do not see what you are driving at?
3 charts in one + dimming?

Tore

[dacust]

Originally Posted by sinbad7

...

Rather than basing the dimming function on the maps color palette,I suggest dimming the screen by a percentage set by the user. This is the method used by several other nav. progs.

...

I think it should work the way the system is designed to work, which is with different palettes.

Now, since there are many charts without the other palettes defined, then as an additional feature, those charts could be displayed with dimmed colors.

-dan

[jonasaberg]

Dan,
I am absolutely with you:
1. A refined tif2bsb or the like to implement different palettes for different "dimming levels"

2. A feature in OpenCPN that dims charts that does not include different palettes for varying "dimming levels"

I also think we need to define expressions to differentiate between dimming with palettes and dimming with "screen percentages"...

/J

[GPS-Marco]

Originally Posted by cagney

I'm moving the discussion about developing tif2bsb for dimming charts over here, from the 2.2 beta thread.
Here is a NZ test chart where I cheated a bit by suppling three levels, where there should really only be two + a day light adjusted version.
What do you think?
Download here.
Thomas

Hi Thomas, your dimmable chart works fine. Note anyway that in DSK and NGT the red values are too high (the red values are dimmed half w.r.t. Green and Blue) so the colours are not kept right.

I agree anyway that OCPN should be able to dim all charts regardless the dimmable palette is or is not in. This would also allow a custom configurable dimming level.

Ciao, Marco.

[sinbad7]

Thanks Thomas,I misunderstood,your chart dimmed fine.

I agree of course it would be preferrable if the dimming could be based on the color palettes of ALL charts. However,it seems whatever standard exists for color palettes,it is NOT adhered to by all. Perhaps it would be possible to create a seamless system based on a) The 'official' palette standard and b) A configurable % PC screen dimming function for other charts not conforming to the a) standard.

I have attached some sample screendumps to demonstrate results of regular PC screen dimming for Fugawi and SeaClear II using Vista. The first is a regular proprietary .bsb chart and the other a .kap conversion.

Tore

[sinbad7]

Here is a further demonstration of 'non-conforming' color palettes in official .bsb charts in Brazil,Canada and Thailand to list but a few. Here displayed in OpenCPN and Vista.

Tore

[cagney]

Yes Marco, I did apply a bit of redshift, but it's probably better to keep the original colors.
I have made two more slightly different charts.
I'm comparing how OpenCPN is handling (all) vector charts.
DAY is basically the same as the default RGB.
DSK is quite dark
NGT is more or less black without proper night vision.
Version 2 below corresponds very closely to the palette of the vector charts, and is probably the way to go.
Version 1 is much brighter, DSK in 2 is NGT in 1, for example.
The next step is to make a script for conversion of kap charts without DSK & NGT palette, which ought to be a straight forward task (famous last words ).

But,... as everyone agrees, OpenCPN still needs it's own dimmer.
It is not just a question of charts without dimming palettes.
Just use the night palette in version 2, get your proper night-vision and then open the Route Manager ........and you will get my point.
NZ42_1.kap.rar
NZ42_2.kap.rar

Thomas

[sinbad7]

Interesting info for the uninitiated:

BSB -- Maptech/NOAA BSB Nautical Chart Format

BSB Nautical Chart format is supported for read access, including reading the colour table and the reference points (as GCPs). Note that the .BSB files cannot be selected directly. Instead select the .KAP files. Versions 1.1, 2.0 and 3.0 have been tested successfully.

This driver should also support GEO/NOS format as supplied by Softchart. These files normally have the extension .nos with associated .geo files containing georeferencing ... the .geo files are currently ignored.

This driver is based on work by Mike Higgins. See the frmts/bsb/bsb_read.c files for details on patents affecting BSB format.

Starting with GDAL 1.6.0, it is possible to select an alternate color palette via the BSB_PALETTE configuration option. The default value is RGB. Other common values that can be found are : DAY, DSK, NGT, NGR, GRY, PRC, PRG...

NOTE: Implemented as gdal/frmts/bsb/bsbdataset.cpp.

Converted charts normally have the indexed color reduced to 127.
Not sure if this causes a problem when adressing the palette values.
What does the RGB values listed in the header section of the .kap file refer to?

See the attached section of the header of a typical .kap chart pertaining to the color palette and dimming.

Tore

[GPS-Marco]

Hi thomas,

What about this other palette for night? This is a custom one, not a proportional one. Works only for NZ charts. Inverted black and white (sea vs. text), high saturation, low luminance. Give it a look.

NGT/1,0,0,0
NGT/2,30,30,30
NGT/3,30,0,30
NGT/4,15,10,15
NGT/5,0,10,25
NGT/6,0,5,15
NGT/7,0,15,0
NGT/8,20,10,0

Ciao, Marco.