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....
------------------------------ Customizing Ground Textures
-------------------------------------
So far Your Scenery has been using the "Default
Textures" located in the graphics
folder of MicroFlight.... These files are named txt000.bmp (jpg)
thru txt009.bmp
(jpg)......
Texture Files can be in ".bmp" or ".jpg"
format....
Land Textures are Generated by Altitude..
If an Island is only 300 ft. above sea level then you would only
use 2 texture files..
If an Mountain Range is 14,000 ft tops then you would use 5 or 6
texture files..
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NOTE: You have run the mouse over the Scenery while you were in
"3dem" and the
highest Elevation was approx. 4000 meters.. (times 3.28) = 13,120
ft.
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Texture Files Follow a numbered order.... You can copy and paste
other Texture files
but rename them so they are in order....
txt000.jpg / txt001.jpg / txt002.jpg / txt003.jpg / etc..
NOTE: You can not skip a number ..,.. It will leave a big white
gap in the Scenery.......
Now there are two other files that are texture files of a
different name........
"waves.bmp" (jpg) they go where there is water....
"cliffs.bmp" (jpg) they go where there is a sharp rise
in the Scenery...
Each File is 256x256 pixel and in the ".bmp" format....
---------------------------- Creating a "graphics"
Folder ----------------------------------------
Inside the newly created Scenery (Albuquerque) create a Folder
called
"graphics"
Inside this folder we will add the redone Texture Files....
This is where the Paint Program is going to come in.....
These Examples are out of PaintShop Pro ver 7.2...
You see that we can change alot of things in this txt001.bmp
...
Color Balance... Lightness.. Brightness... Contrast...
We are going to adjust the Brightness down .. of the Texture
File......
You See we could have adjusted the Contrast Also....
See the difference in the Picture....
Now we are going to Save it as a ".JPG" file changing
the Format......
JPG's are smaller in Byte Size then BMP's which is a plus also...
We will cut and paste all the ".JPG"s into the newly
created "graphics" folder....
As You can now see in the Graphics folder there are 6 texture
files ....
txt000 thru txt005 = 6 plus the waves.jpg and cliffs.jpg.....
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NOTE: You could have just as easly scanned a picture and captured
different levels
to make your own texture.jpg's ... That would have truely been
Customized Scenery....
ONLY Convert the Texture Files... Some files will remain .BMP
because they are called
into play by the Models (X) files...
REMEMBER don't just convert everthing into JPG...
---------------------------------- Now to See the Changes
----------------------------------------
If you have done this in another Folder, Shut Down MicroFlight
..... Add the
"graphics" folder inside the "Abluquerque"
folder....
C:\MicroFlight\Scenery\Albuquerque\
------------------------------- Map (F-5) Mode Buttons
-------------------------------------------
Normal Map Mode....
Somethings like Zoom In and Out don't need explaining...
Pan Map >>> click once and drag the map around click
again and turn it off...
Measure Distance>>> I use this to check Distance and
Angles to an object..
Click it on / off...
Move to Point>>> Moves the Aircraft or Camera to the
cross arrows...
You just put cross arrows and click this and it moves to it..
Add Waypoint>> I use this to set a Waypoint...
Delete Waypoint>> Use this if you make a mistake..
Moving Map>> Map Scrolls as the Aircraft moves...
Change Map Type>> This will move between Tile Look and Topo
Look...
Design Mode >> This is the Button to get into the Design
Mode we will use alot..
Most Buttons (Zoom In & Out, Camera Position, Pan Map, Move
to Point are the
same as above.....
Reload Objects>> this is the button that will reload
"object.txt" file as you work on
adding objects..... It makes it Real Time..
Export NAV Data>> This is used to export data VOR / ADF /
ILS..
at this time I have not tryed it .....
Copy Coordinates>> this will copy the Longitude &
Latitude of the Cross Arrows.
Show Tiles>> If You are adding objects into a Tile Base
Scenery...
Design Mode>> Click here to return to the Basic Map
Mode....
-------------------------------- Scrolling Scenery ----------------------------------------------------
You will Notice most Pictures are without an AirCraft ...
This is done so I can Scroll and move around in the Scenery
Faster....
First Remove the AirCraft/Car...
Hold Left Mouse Button and roll forward (or) backwards it scrolls
real fast....
Hold Right Mouse Button and Roll it goes up real Fast and You can
Rotate the
View of the Scenery......
-------------------------------- Now to Add AirPorts
------------------------------------------------
Now Your new Scenery with custom Graphics .... You should see the
difference..
Now we are going to add Runways ... to our newly created
Scenery.....
This is Done RealTime.... We will add, resize, rotation,
elevate...
1.) Open the "object.txt" with Notepad ( Windows Text
Program) you can use
any program you want as long as it saves in TXT format....
2.) With MicroFlight running... Use the Map (F-5) and click on
the WayPoint "A"
cross arrows move to that location and then click on the
"Move To Point"
Now we are positioned on the WayPoint...
Click on the Design Mode....
Be Sure to Zoom In as far as it will go.....
You will Not see anything Yet..... because we have nothing
there..
Click on Copy Coordinates...... it copys to the Clipboard
memory.. Now
Minimize MicroFlight... do Not shut it down....
Now bring up "object.txt"... It is Blank Now ........
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Now to the Parameters of a Runway....
Name---East---North---Length---Width---Rotation---Curve---Heigth
1.) Name was "Patch_a"
2.) East and North are added by clicking Edit Paste.....
3.) Length is in Meters (6,000ft divided by 3.28 =1830 meters
4.) Width (I use 80) it makes a nice wide Runway to land on....
5.) Angle (is in Rads) 0.0 = East (I don't know why)
{Rads are angle 1degree=0.01745 rads}
so if you wanted it rotated 90 degrees 90x0.01745=1.5705
This will be 90 degrees clockwise/ -1.5705 would be
couterclockwise.....
if preceded by a minus it is always couter clockwise......
6.) Change 0.0 makes it straight .... if you used a number in it
the runway will
curve..
7.) Height... I started with 0.5 ( I show an example of it with
the Car......)
I am also going to show 1.5 and look at the Car...
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SAVE BEFORE RELOADING OBJECTS
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You will have to Reload..... From the Map (F-5) .. Design Mode
..... Then click on
Reload objects....
Now You see the Runway in the Map ..Design Mode....
Now You see the Runway at the WayPoint...
We are going Now to test the height of the Runway above the
Ground....
This is the "Height" Parameter.....
I am going to add a Ambulance to drive over the Runway Edges to
see if the Height is
set Correctly.....
Notice the Car does not tilt much with the Height setting of
0.5..
This is a picture of the Car with the Height set at 1.5....
So as you can see it looks and works better set at 0.5....
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Now this is the "object.txt" with 3 airports all at
the WayPoints....
Notice I Made (R-01) 7000 ft. long and Rotated it 45 degrees
Clockwise...
I Made (R-02) 6000 ft. long and Rotated it 100 degrees....
Now do the test on the other Airports.... with the Car......
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Now in the Placing of the Runways Now MicroFlight has Created a
file called
"runway.txt" this will show up in the regular Map Mode
for an Airport....
Here are some examples of the Airports at Waypoint A & C...
You will also Notice the Elevation in Feet of the Car....
-------------------------------- Where we are Now
--------------------------------------------------
You Should have 3 AirPort Runways Set at all 3 Waypoints....
You should have the Custom Textures looking Great....
This ends this Part of the Tutorial...
NEXT:
We will add Towers, Hangers, Lights etc....