TRINUS GYRE AND X-PLANE!

Are you looking how to get a real experience of flight with your PC? Here you will find the solution!

What you need:

1 - X-plane (I have a v9 lincensed)
2 - Google cardboard or similar (I have a Durovis Dive) - http://www.durovis.com/index.html
3 - A smartphone running Android (I have Motorola Moto X)
4 - App android "Trinus Gyre" - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.loxai.trinus.full
5 - PC software "Trinus Gyre Sever - http://oddsheepgames.com/trinus/#
6 - X-Plane plugin: "Pilot View" - http://www.xpluginsdk.org/pilot_view.htm
7 - A PC running Windows

Setting UP:

1 - As first you need to connect your smartphone to your PC using the USB Cable.
2 - Start the Trinus Gyre App on your smartphone and the Trinus Gyre server on your PC. Here the setup for the server:
     a - uncheck the "Autodetect" option
     b - select the "USB Tether" option
     c - put the same IP that you see on the Trinus Gyre APP on the smartphone
     d - select again the "autodetect" mode
     e - select "Windows Mode B" in the capture mode module
     f - select "Fake 3D" in the video Setup
     g - Sensor Type: try both the "FreeTrack Mode" and the "IR Mode"; in case you are using the Free Track you must check the "Invert" flags.
     h - set a "reset" key, I used the "\" symbol

4 - Now you can start X-Plane and then connect the Trinus Gyre Server to the smartphone (click on the the power symbol in the low right corner). Select "x - Server" as application.

5 - Done!

Sometimes during the flight you must reset the center of the point of view. To do that move your head looking in front of you and use the reset key you set on the Gyre Sever (I used "\").

Enjoy your flight!

ASTER Global DEM & Surfer: create your map in few steps!

If you are looking for digital models of terrain, there is a powerful tool that can help you: USGS Global Data Explorer.

With this tool you can explore the area of your interest and, after a free account creation, it is possible to download the DEM (or DTM ) of a specified area.
Let see an example:

1 - Zoom in a region, and select an area of interest with the "Define Area" button. In this example I choose the Vesuvius volcano in Italy.

2 - Just select the "Download Data for Defined Area" button (you need a free account at this step). Now you can select the preferences on the file format.

In this example I selected the ASTER Global DEM database (30m cell), a ArcASCII format (we need a numeric DTM), a projected UTM metric coordinate system. In the field "Research" area you can choose your field of use of these data. When ok select "Submit".

In few seconds a new window with the DTM image preview and the information of  previous selected preferences will appear.

Now you can download your DTM!

3 - Once you got your DTM in ArcASCII file format, you have just to modify its header: open the file with a text editor and  modify it as follow.

Basically you will use the "cellsize" instead of "dX" and "dY". This step is necessary because Surfer cannot read the file with its original header.

4 - Open Golden Software Surfer and select "Grid"->""Convert" in the menu.

Then select as "ASC Arc/info ASCII Grid" as file type and select the modified file.

Following the convertion procedure you will get a .grd in surfer file format of your DTM.

5 - Enjoy your data with Surfer! Some example reported below. You can use these data as base for your maps or to upload it in the GPS. Remember that you are using a WGS84 - UTM datum.