USGS Scenery Design for MicroFlight by Ed Crawford.
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This is a Multi-Part Tutorial... It is meant to be a "Simple
Easy Way" to design
your own Scenery for use in MicroFlight (Flight Simulator)..
But Not the Only Way...
{ No Greater Feeling than Flying some where you made....}
This Tutorial will show you how to make USGS (type) Scenery..
You do NOT have to know anything about 3D Designing...
----------------------------------- Acknowledgements
----------------------------------------------
"Ilan Papini" for designing 2 Excellent Simulators ...
{ Micro Flight & Virtual Sailor }
"Ian Hay" and "Kevin Smith" for helping me
understand the
"New Way of Doing Scenery" without them I would have
never Understood.
"Duane McCullough" for help and allowing me to use his
different Models.
"Alan Winters" and "Adam Galazka" for there
Colored Stone Textures for
Different Buildings....
---------------------------- Things I assume You Know
------------------------------------------
You have Installed MicroFlight and have Flown around in some of
the Scenery.
You have some AirCraft installed.. Plus atleast one
"Car"
(( We will use the "Car" Later ))
You know how to make a Folder...
You know how to rename a File or Folder....
You know how to Download and save a File....
You know how to Copy and Paste into Folders...
You know how to Install Software....
You can use NotePad to edit and save files...
You work in a different Folder then MicroFlight...
(I use one called "Stuff" this way if you delete
something it is not the Flight
Simulator..)
You know how to use a Paint Program..
( I personally like Paint Shop Pro... but there are plenty of
good one out there)
------------------------------------ Getting Started
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You will need to Download a program "3Dem" it is free
and you get it here:
http://www.visualizationsoftware.com/3dem/downloads.html
Install it now and we will use it in just a little bit.....
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Now to downloading the Global Topographic Data
"GTOPO30" Files...
Create a Folder ( I called mine "USGS Maps") .. You
will download to that folder .......
Now to go to the WebSite:
http://edcdaac.usgs.gov/gtopo30/gtopo30.asp
You will Notice I took the Picture and assigned Numbers to
them.....
You can also see the 4-5-7-8 cover almost all of the US....
If You already know the area you want then simply click on the
block and here will be
a file to download.... Some of these files are 10 to 15 Meg. so
they are large files to
download... If you have Broadband Internet no problem if on
Dialup it will take a little
while....
If you are on Modem and have a friend that has DSL/Cable have
them get the entire
world... Then put them on a CD-R for You..
(It took me about 35 Minutes to get it all)
All the Maps are Named by Longitude and Latitude..
As an Example box (4) is W140N90 and box (5) is W140N40.... As
You click on the
Box there will be a file to download something like:
"W140N90.tar.gz"
Right Click on the File as click on "Save Target As" it
will allow you to select the
Folder you created for them....
Download and save the ones you are want to start with.. You
can always go back and
download other later....
----------------------------- Now to Use the GTOPO30 Files
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Now If You do not know the Longitude and Latitude of a certain
Place go here:
http://www.terraserver.com/search/search.asp
As You can see you can search by City (US or International)
ZipCode, County,
Address...
Here is an example of City: Albuquerque, New Mexico
So You can see how easy it is to fine the Latitude and
Longitude of anywhere..
Know Lets Start the "3dem" Program.......
1.) File.......Load Terrain Model
2.) Besure it is on GTOPO30 Tiles
Just Click on the general area you want to Map and then use the
Sliders to fine tune
your location.....
Now I have selected 35 degrees Latitude and -106 degrees
Longitude and 5 degrees
Width....
You will Notice it tells you Which File it wants to Open
"w140n40.tar.gz"
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A 10 degree Map is approximately 700 square Miles and a 5 degree
Map is 350 Square
Miles...
The Smaller the Degree Map the Greater the Detail..... (Less
flying Area)
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Now You see that the 35 Latitude -106 Longitude is the Center
of the Map...
Run Your Mouse all over the Map and watch the Elevation in
Meters...
( Meters multiplied by 3.28 = Feet)
The Reason is If it is 3,000 feet there would be NO snow on the
tops of the
Mountains... but if 14,000 ft. it there would be snow up on
Top..... I will show You a
little later to customize the Textures of the Scenery.
------------------------------------- Saving the Map
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First Lets Create a Folder for this Map, This will be added
into MicroFlight ...
I named mine (Albuquerque) or (W106N35) or any thing else...
**************** ********************* ****************
**********************
{Only one rule for MicroFlight there cannot be any spaces in
Folder Name...}
{ This is IMPORTANT}
**************** ********************** ****************
***********************
Now to Saving the Map..... It is going to create 2 files...
File.....Save Terrain Matrix...
Save it in "Binary Signed Integer"
You Have to enter a "File Name" (I used the Folder
Name)
Plus I generally save a Image in JPG format (Just for my Useage)
An I called it My_Map.jpg.....
Now as you can see from the above picture 3 files were created
...
Now While in "3dem" resize the square that is in the
center and pull it to the sides,
Then goto "Color Scale" and "Show Scale" then
in "Feet//Meters" this is going to tell
You how big a Square you are going to make...
As You Can see This 5 Degree Square is 344 Miles....
---------------------------------- Now Lets Go Flying
------------------------------------------------
You Should Now Have a Folder "Albuquerque" and 3 files
in it...
"Albuquerque.bin" , "Albuquerque.hdr" and
"My_Map.jpg"....
MicroFlight Should be shut down... Not Running....
Copy the complete folder "Albuquerque" into the Scenery
Folder....
( C:\MicroFlight\Scenery\)
MicroFlight is going to Create some files for Us in this
folder....
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NOTE: MicroFlight has Two Scenery Modes "Dense" &
"Sparses"
"Dense Mode" fits acccurately to the Tile Size
Scenery...
"Sparse Mode" textures use a larger size to allow more
natural looks for the
ground especially at high elevations...
You can change the 'Modes' by going to Settings...Graphics..
Dense Texture
Check Box....
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Now Click on Flight.....
Change into the New Scenery "Albuquerque"
Go Flying around Looking at different areas.... Jet's work good
for this....
Now there are NO AirPorts. Buildings etc... and You are Using
the Default Scenery
Textures......
Look for several places you thing are good for laying a runway
and set a waypoint....
Here is a Picture of the Map with the Waypoint set......
Now set two or three WayPoints that look good for AirPorts....
An be sure to save Your Scenery with WayPoints with the
AirCraft..
--------------------------------- Files Created by MicroFlight
-------------------------------------
Now when You first run MicroFlight with the New Scenery it
created some more
Files.....
The "topo.bmp" is the Navigation Map .... When You
Press "F-5"
The "scenery.ini" set the location of the Scenery in
MicroFlight..
The "object.txt" this is the file that we will edit
to set things in it like Runways..
Towers... Buildings... Lights .. Trees and alot of other
things.....
---------------------------------- Where we are Now
-------------------------------------------------
Now You should be able to fly around in your new Scenery...
There should be 2 or 3 waypoints set for possible AirFields...
There should be showing the default Scenery Textures...
This is the end of Part #1 of the Tutorial .....
1.) The Next Part will cover Customizing the Texture's ...
2.) Setting Runways and checking there Elevation's...
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