Ground2K - New Forum..>>>

[nudata 10]

Ground2K is "ground breaking". It is the first program that literally combines almost all of the highly technical VTP 1&2, mesh, landclass and LWM developed knowledge. It does so in a reasonably user friendly package. I have sucessfully done very long coastlines, islands, lakes, long rivers, minor mesh adjusments, and landclass fixes. A real Swiss Army Knife.As Christian Fumey evolves the program interest will increase as will the activity of those needing assistance. People who work with Ground2k must presently sort through the various messages in the Scenery Forum in hopes of finding an answer. Also, as the popularity increases Christian will be loaded with "help me' questions, impeading development. Therefore, it appears that it may be time to create a Ground2K forum to act as an interactive repository so users can easily assist each other with a program that does just about everything!Dick:D

[Guest jstevenson]

>Ground2K is "ground breaking". It is the first program that>literally combines almost all of the highly technical VTP 1&2,>mesh, landclass and LWM developed knowledge. It does so in a>reasonably user friendly package. I have sucessfully done very>long coastlines, islands, lakes, long rivers, minor mesh>adjusments, and landclass fixes. A real Swiss Army Knife.>>As Christian Fumey evolves the program interest will increase>as will the activity of those needing assistance. People who>work with Ground2k must presently sort through the various>messages in the Scenery Forum in hopes of finding an answer.>Also, as the popularity increases Christian will be loaded>with "help me' questions, impeading development. Therefore, it>appears that it may be time to create a Ground2K forum to act>as an interactive repository so users can easily assist each>other with a program that does just about everything!>Dick>:D Is anyone still using Ground2K v4.0 for FS2002/2004 scenery design - or has everyone pretty well moved on to FSX and assorted updated tools?Reason why I'm asking is - I'm trying to put an old scenery update project properly to rest after about a year of dormancy. Essentially, I'm trying to refine the definition of the coastline around the entrance to the harbour in St.John's, Newfoundland, Canada. The default scenery in FS2002/2004 is pretty bad! I'm basically working through the Tutorial for Ground2K v4 (the one where Monaco is fixed up). I'm having assorted problems, mostly having to do with the fact that the new (correct) coastline is approximated 1 area to the east of where the default scenery was - which seems to be opening up a can a worms.I would appreciate hearing from anyone with experience in this sort of thing. Also - I couldn't figure out a good spot to post this (without it getting buried in some ancient archive). If there's a better spot for it, please advise!!

[scott967 62]

1. Better to post in scenery design forum.2. I used ground2k4 in the past. It is a good program, but I shifted to using sbuilder 2.05 r6 for all FS9 terrain.3. When you move coastlines you have to make sure that landclass is defined underneath any new land areas (if the coast is moved seaward).4. Get and install at least LWMViewer 1.3. Better is LWMViewer2 but some people have had install issues with it.http://www.jimkeir.co.uk/FlightSim/LWMViewer.htmlscott s..

[GaryGB 10]

Hi Jonathan:http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=123 would be an excellent place to to get help with your project.It would be best to identify whether the target FS usage environment for your scenery add-on will be FS2002 or FS2004, as it may determine which version of Ground2K you will want to use for development.Although it is likely (based on my own objective observations of posts in FS forums) that the majority of scenery makers have moved from G2K into SBuilder for FS9 and FSX, G2K remains a useful tool with its own pros and cons, as is the case with all other tools. There are a few who frequent the scenery-related forums who could/would still be able to help you with G2K if you are wanting to finish your scenery project with it for use in the FS8/FS9 environment. ;-) It would also help illustrate the specific objective or problem you are addressing by posting a screenshot (or better yet a link to a screenshot) of the area you are working on along with your post.NOTE: (AVSIM seems to only keep uploaded pix available for a week if they are not linked to one's own 3rd party off-site image location).It certainly can be a fulfilling experience to customize an area of interest in FS which one has been working on for a while (been there myself a number of times, so I know how "special" or downright "captivating" an FS project can become!).Yes it was frustrating how FS8/FS9 out of the box presented us with a lower resolution virtual world which was not geo-corrected with the real world. Those of us who prefer our FS world "As Real As It Gets" have spent vast amounts of time and effort dealing with the shortcomings of FS via the SDK and various scenery tools trying to get things more the way we like them.However, for FS8/FS9, so many things related to water body/coastline shape and placement are accurately rendered with a reasonably framerate (FPS) efficient number of datapoints (too many datapoints in coastlines kill FPS!), and certain landclass details etc. are just plain fixed or enhanced by simply purchasing and installing the Ultimate Terrain (UT) package(s), that I now mostly put my own efforts into customizing OTHER things needing attention AFTER having "geo-corrected" my FS world with UT!NOTE: I have no affiliation with them, but I am a very satisfied user of the product, having previously agonized for 2 years off and on over a FS coastline project "climbing the SDK learning curve" before UT came along, improved my FS world, and saved me a lot of further work. :-hahSince you apparently have grasped a relatively challenging area of the FS SDK with successfully creating terrain mesh as described in your post in the Mesh Design Forum, I am sure in time you will get the hang of any aspect of FS scenery design with persistent and patient effort, and some help from others who have insights to share here in the forums.So, best wishes with your scenery project, and perhaps we can continue to see it shape up to your satisfaction in the scenery design forum and/or mesh design forum? :D Hope this helps!:-) GaryGB

[Guest jstevenson]

Thanks to all who have replied with suggestions. How do we now move this thread to the Scenery Design forum as you suggested?I've just downloaded the LWMViewer 1.3 as Scott S. has suggested and will check out what Ground2K has been doing. I *have* been trying to define the appropriate Land and Water classes along the new coastline but so far to no avail. Something strange I *did* notice was that the gridlines defining which show up while you define the LandClass and WaterClass are NOT the same as when you do the excludes! Before I continue with specific details:For all who have replied thus far who have requested to see a screenshow of my "problem", but I'm having problems with the 150K limit (even with JPGs My screeshots are 200-300K). I'll figure out another way.Back to the Ground2K grid business - The "exclude" gridlines match what I see in FS (CellGrid2 graphics/numbering). However, when I cycle to LC or WC, I see the Gridlines shift east and south?! This can't be a coincidence (i.e. why 19:23 is OK but 20:21/21:19 are not)!

[Guest jstevenson]

Thanks for the advice and encouragement! I will likely be upgrading to FS2004 almost immediately, which would mean switching to G2K4 at the very least. I've already attempted to "fake-out" G2K4 on my existing FS2002 installation but this failed rather badly.I'm intrigued by your suggestion of SBuilder and also these Ultimate Terrain package(s). I was wondering if you could do me a favour and do a quick check in the St.John's area (airport is CYYT), assuming of course that you have North America (Canada + USA). Maybe, as you said, this would be a "quick fix" to my current dissatisfaction with my immediate neighbourhood!I was trying to upload some screenshots of my current dilemma but to no avail - the 150K limit stops me. Meanwhile, I should be able to set them up on an FTP location. Meanwhile, is there a simple way to switch this thread over to the alternative forum you've suggested?