Test Build alpha v.0.1.5 (Patreon)

Hello hello everyone, and welcome back to Targa Florio.

How is everything going? I hope everyone is safe and healthy.

I may sound like a broken record, but damn, time sure fly. We are now in June! Back in 2019 I was actually thinking of going to Sicily in May this year. But looking at how things going today, doesn't look like it's gonna happen anytime soon. 

One of the reason why I wanted to go to Sicily was to gather more data. But since it is impossible for now, we've been trying to find another way to do that.

For the last couple of months, we're trying to get the LIDAR data of the area around targa florio. we know the Italian Government has it. Our friend Antonio who live in Caltavuturo has been a great help by making contact with both the national and regional Italian geology department. 

But many months and few emails later, we still haven't receive a positive reply. 

only until recently that we've learned that there are another way to get the LIDAR.

So now, we finally have a solid data we can use to improve the track even more!

well, that being said, it's not really a smooth sailing process. We didn't get the data as raster GeoTiff files. We're getting the data as raw xyz point files, and they came in hundreds of separate parts.  Some of the parts are missing, and for some areas, the LIDAR data is not available in the first place. 

But still, this is a very valuable data.

At first we've tried using meshlab for the xyz files but the result is not satisfactory. And in the end, we have to learn a little bit of python scripting to get these points straight into blender. And it was worth it.

The script was able to sort the points as sequence and generate vertices and faces based on that sequence. It increases the speed of the process by many folds.

Soon, after we've gathered all the parts, we will start updating the track!

in the meanwhile, texturing progress is still going, and here is the test build apha v.0.1.5 

More and more road signs has been added and updated as well.

as always, thank you for all your support.

please stay safe, stay healthy,

and I will see you again soon!

Cheers!

Abulzz