Excluding Special FS9 Autogen Objects Only?

[Misha_K 0]

Sorry if I'm asking a potential newbie question but I couldn't find an answer for this in any of the manuals I looked at. One of the "improvements" of FS9 over FS2002 was that it added special objects like churches, transformer stations, malls, fast food outlets etc. to teh autogen mix. I am presently working on a VFR scenery for the Belgrade area and have to contend with an inordinate number of MS Autogen gothic cathedrals that are way too large and culturally wholly inappropriate for the region. Is there a way of excluding only those special objects without excluding the rest of the autogen trees and buildings and without eliminating them from the rest of the world? Thanks in advance. Misha

[GaryGB 10]

Hi Misha:If the FS9 objects you wish to exclude are defined as a type of "autogen" object, it may be possible to use small exclude polys or invisible exclude "objects" such as has been implemented to deal with FSX autogen objects in F1's "Instant Scenery" (which also works with FS9 BGLs, BTW!); I believe the invisible object "bounding box" collision may allow the target object exclusion to take place in FS9 as it does in FSX. :(http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=instscen See these references as a starting point for your solution:http://forums.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?t=186158http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=22390http://www.fsdiscover.com/downloads/Exclusion_Box.zipIt may be that these FS9 compatible objects could also be compiled into a FS Library file (using Arno's included "LibraryMaker" utility) for use in Instant Scenery to exclude other types of objects if the proper GUID codes were assigned to the resulting BGL.Alternatively, one could use Arno Gerritsen's own "ObPlacer XML" utility to place the MDL files:http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/fsdevdownloads.phpOr as a last resort, one could hand-code a nested XML exclude file with the appropriate target object coordinates and GUID or MDL name being edited into each subsection.Also: AFX (by same author of Instant Scenery) allows a graphical "drag and draw" method of creating excludes on-screen for both FS9 and FSX.NOTE: IIRC, one does not have to add even (1) ICAO reference nor an airport start point, runway, or helipad in the resulting "AFX_*.BGL" file if one only wishes to use it as a "quick-and-dirty" multiple exclude area file builder... using a superimposed background image, or via its capacity to link AFX cursor position to one's FS aircraft position.FYI: Be sure to check the type of final file being written out when done, as AFX can actually store large background images inside its proprietary "work" BGL files, and you would only want to have a compact "placement code only" BGL for use in FS when done working. :( Hope these ideas help you solve your mis-matched building issues more easily! :( GaryGB

[Misha_K 0]

Thanks Gary, But the net result seems to be that I would have to create special excludes for each and every church I want to exclude within my scenery area (one entire LOD 9 square) rather than one big exclude for the whole scenery which is entirely more work than I am willing to invest. I might do it for a couple of the most obnoxious offenders but that's it.Misha

[scott967 62]

I don't know if this will work, but here is an approach that might be worth considering:Determine which landclasses have these churches placed on them. Copy all the related texture bitmaps and autogen annotation files to a new texture folder. Use the sdk autogen annotator tool to remove the library object annotations that include the church (you would have to go through default.xml and determine which class or classes places the churches). Note there are typically 3-6 texture variants for each landclass and you need an annotation file for each. Now create a landclass bgl with only entries for the landclass that you have modified, and place this in the "paired" scenery folder". Note: if you forget to copy all the required textures into the paired texture folder, you will cause the dreaded "landclass memory bug".So the idea is that maybe there is a single landclass that has these churches, let's say it's 108. Your landclass bgl will contain all the areas of landclass 108. When FS9 reads the bgl, it looks in the paired texture folder for its textures which it finds. This includes the edited annotation. I'm not sure this will really work, but you could experiment with it.Conceivably you could create a new default.xml class with a different mix of objects which you could then use in the annotation, but then you have the problem of how to ensure a user's version of default.xml gets updated as well. scott s..

[Misha_K 0]

Scott, Thanks for the creative brainstorming. But if I did that wouldn't it cause the churches to disappear all over the globe wherever that landclass is used? Wouldn't this make installation and deinstallation for any users of my scenery once I release it rather cumbersome? I think I will just create individual excludes for the worst offenders. It's a reasonably small scenery area after all. Misha