Hello,

 

I recently purchased SimSavvy and would like to add autogen around the 70 or so airports that I fly to regularly. I would like to do this using my laptop and not my main FSX PC. I have everything installed on the laptop correctly to generate the autogen using either SBuilderX or Annotator w/ the FSX SDK. What I'm wondering is can I build a project in SBuilderX using it's downloaded images, add autogen to it, and then get just the autogen from that and add those to my SimSavvy scenery on my FSX PC? Or, I can generate the photoreal scenery bgl from SBuilderX and then use the annotator to add autogen to that bgl file created from SbuilderX. This I know creates agn files whereas the SbuilderX way, I'm not sure I can get just the agn files as I think that compiles it all into the bgl, correct? Either way, or even another way I don't yet, can I create autogen without the actual SimSavvy bgl's or do I have to copy them from my main FSX PC to my laptop and then annotate them directly?

 

What I'm trying to avoid here is having to locate specific airports inside the SimSavvy bgl's as they aren't the easiest to locate.

 

Hope that makes sense. Thanks for any help.

I don't remember Sbuilder ever being able to annotate autogen, only add 3D objects. You can do a small photoreal section for a specific airport and then use the annotator from the SDK to create agn files AND try it and see if you can transfer them to the simsavy folder to work. If this does not work, another workaround is since FSX will display the highest resolution photoreal tiles automatically, you could do small airports in Sbuilder at a better resolution than what simsavy offers and then just match the colors to the simsavy stuff and add autogen..

I don't remember Sbuilder ever being able to annotate autogen, only add 3D objects. You can do a small photoreal section for a specific airport and then use the annotator from the SDK to create agn files AND try it and see if you can transfer them to the simsavy folder to work. If this does not work, another workaround is since FSX will display the highest resolution photoreal tiles automatically, you could do small airports in Sbuilder at a better resolution than what simsavy offers and then just match the colors to the simsavy stuff and add autogen..

 

Seems like it would be cool (and wise) for SimSavvy (and BlueSky and others) to help facilitate any efforts to put 3D objects on their stuff (hint, hint,...if they're paying any attention to these threads).

Hello Kevin,

 

A little confusing, but I think you are on the right track.

 

1. SBuilderX cannot add autogen to custom ground textures. However, you can place objects at will. Please note that custom scenery objects are not the same as autogen (auto-generated objects.)

 

2. The way to go is probably to create the custom ground textures with SBuilderX, and then load the bgl into the Annotator in order to add the autogen ("annotate" the file.) This will create the agn files that must go in the accompanying Texture folder (unlike custom objects that are in a bgl and should be in the Scenery folder.)

 

3. Of course, you mention that you don't want to use the SimSavvy bgls in order to add autogen, but that would most likely be the fastest and easiest method (and you wouldn't have to do the SimSavvy work all over again in SBuilderX.) You should be able to determine which SimSavvy file to load in the Annotator by first having a look at it in TMFViewer. Once you locate the file you want, annotate it and the agn files should be saved in the Texture folder.

 

Best regards..

Luis

Seems like it would be cool (and wise) for SimSavvy (and BlueSky and others) to help facilitate any efforts to put 3D objects on their stuff (hint, hint,...if they're paying any attention to these threads).

 

It would be cool, but in the many forum posts from these guys i have seen, it isn't much of a priority for them probably because of the huge increase in work load.. Adding autogen is a tedious and time consuming process. I have a large photoreal project for Afghanistan I have been working on for over a year now and I am still not done with adding autogen, LOL.

It would be cool, but in the many forum posts from these guys i have seen, it isn't much of a priority for them probably because of the huge increase in work load.. Adding autogen is a tedious and time consuming process. I have a large photoreal project for Afghanistan I have been working on for over a year now and I am still not done with adding autogen, LOL.

 

That would be part of my point. I think they might find a bunch of volunteers who might help if there was a way to do it. There are a lot of folks that prefer photoreal and, in popular areas, might be willing to pitch in if there was a way.

That would be part of my point. I think they might find a bunch of volunteers who might help if there was a way to do it.

 

Luis gave you the answer:

 

"You should be able to determine which SimSavvy file to load in the Annotator by first having a look at it in TMFViewer. Once you locate the file you want, annotate it and the agn files should be saved in the Texture folder."

 

George

"You should be able to determine which SimSavvy file to load in the Annotator by first having a look at it in TMFViewer. Once you locate the file you want, annotate it and the agn files should be saved in the Texture folder."

 

Ok. Can I ask how difficult those apps are to use? I'm not familiar with them at all.

Hello Gregg,

 

Here is an illustrated tutorial on the use of the Autogen Annotator:

 

Using the Autogen Annotator

Available in the Avsim library

http://library.avsim...hp?&DLID=140537

 

 

 

TMFViewer is part of the SDK Tools and you will find it in that folder. Just launch it and start loading the SimSavvy bgl files until you find the one you want.

 

Best regards.

Luis

Hello Gregg,

 

Here is an illustrated tutorial on the use of the Autogen Annotator:

 

Using the Autogen Annotator

Available in the Avsim library

http://library.avsim...hp?&DLID=140537

 

 

 

TMFViewer is part of the SDK Tools and you will find it in that folder. Just launch it and start loading the SimSavvy bgl files until you find the one you want.

 

Best regards.

Luis

 

This is basically what I started doing last night. However, finding the files in SimSavvy is not fun to say the least. It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack almost. They do follow a grid pattern that helps. But it still took me probably 30 mins last night to find 3 airports.

 

Anyway, now I have them copied to my laptop so I am just annotating the SimSavvy bgl from there with the FSX annotator. It's definitely a tedious process. As Gregg stated(and we have talked before in a different post), it would be great to get several people to work on it all together.

 

Gregg, what part of the world do you fly in the most? Do you know anyone else that would be interested in doing this? If we could get even 5 people to each do one airport a week, we'd cover the major airport areas in the US in a couple of months I would think.

 

However, having said that, we would not be able to use annotator then from the sounds of the previous posts here since the autogen would be tied to the specific bgl(SimSavvy, BlueSky, MS, etc). So we'd have to use SBuilderX and hand place custom objects, which would take even longer, right?

 

Won't it be nice when the day comes where the earth is mapped in 3D and then games are allowed and start using this "real" representation of the earth. I can't imagine that's too far off from possible - look at google 3D/earth whatever they call it.

Gregg, what part of the world do you fly in the most? Do you know anyone else that would be interested in doing this? If we could get even 5 people to each do one airport a week, we'd cover the major airport areas in the US in a couple of months I would think.

 

 

I fly SoCal exclusively (because of the scenery I have here.) I don't know anyone else, though, I have seen others doing it. Seems like, with a bit of organization and some clarity about the tools, we might be able to gather up some folks. My own preference would be to use the Flight1 tools since you can find airports (and places) very fast and start, visually, creating things. The Object Studio creates the objects...useful for custom objects that only appear once as well as to create objects that you want to use in the Scenery tool. The Scenery tool lets you repeatedly blat them down where you want them so, useful for placing trees, houses, generic buildings, antennas...stuff like that.

 

I'd probably be inclined to try out a couple of smaller airports to see how it goes. Santa Barbara, Paso Robles. I fly GA so they're of more value since flying a Cessna or a Lancair into LAX seems dubious...LOL.

 

Won't it be nice when the day comes where the earth is mapped in 3D and then games are allowed and start using this "real" representation of the earth. I can't imagine that's too far off from possible - look at google 3D/earth whatever they call it.

 

If Google would offer it's stuff via FSX...woh. This is what the final at KLAX 25R would look like even without FSDT KLAX...

 

I haven't used the Flight1 tools. How detailed are you looking at getting? For me, just adding autogen is good enough. I just want a more real feeling on the ground w/ the photo scenery. Seems like those tools are more for creating and/or placing objects as close to what they really are IRL. So, if there's Ma and Pa's Pizzeria, let's make a building that looks just like it and place it in the scenery. Is that the level of detail you're looking for?

 

For me, I'd like the building footprints to line up with the photo real scenery and not have buildings in the middle of streets etc but I don't care down to the level of detail of creating custom buildings and such. That would take forever and require familiarity with every area we do or at least using street view in google maps to figure out exactly what's there. Again, either option is way to time consuming.

 

Even trying to do autogen, it's hard enough to figure out or know whether a particular building or goup of buildings is 1 story, 5 stories or 50 stories unless you are familiar with that part of a city or use street view in google maps or similar.

 

The more I'm looking into this, the more daunting a task this really is. That's where I was hoping to use a tool like scenproc or something to do it for me. But, again, finding building footprints for the USA is not as easy to come by apparently. And, if you can find building footprints, they usually don't contain houses/residential, just businesses or POI's. So, there still would need to be autogen annotation to some degree.

I think we're on the same page. If you've ever seen MegasceneryX, the buildings are not, generally, accurately placed. All the do is give you a feel of "something above the ground" that's kind of supposed to be there. Your peripheral vision catches it and it makes it feel sufficiently right. Some larger buildings, I might spend some more time on but, mostly, just plopping down pre-canned stuff is all the scenery needs. I'll look at the Flight 1 stuff some more. Maybe there are some more vids that have more information. Since I don't have SimSavvy, I'd probably just use BlueSky for now. Not sure what the difference is between the two in terms of quality.

I think we're on the same page. If you've ever seen MegasceneryX, the buildings are not, generally, accurately placed. All the do is give you a feel of "something above the ground" that's kind of supposed to be there. Your peripheral vision catches it and it makes it feel sufficiently right. Some larger buildings, I might spend some more time on but, mostly, just plopping down pre-canned stuff is all the scenery needs. I'll look at the Flight 1 stuff some more. Maybe there are some more vids that have more information. Since I don't have SimSavvy, I'd probably just use BlueSky for now. Not sure what the difference is between the two in terms of quality.

 

Ok. Then, at least from what I can see about the Flight1 products so far, I don't think there's a need for them, IMO. The FSX annotator from the SDK would really be all we need, I think. If you really wanted to hand place something, then you could use SBuilderX though I guess it wouldn't be as easy because you'd still have to find the area out of the SimSavvy files.

 

BlueSky scenery would be easier to locate the appropriate files, I think anyway, as they at least have the quadrants documented on the website so you could narrow down your search of bgls quicker than with SimSavvy. But, BlueSky doesn't cover the whole US either. Quality wise, SimSavvy is excellent!! At least as good as BlueSky. I only used BlueSky for about a week just to see if I would like photo real or not and then bought SimSavvy immediately after. What I did use of BlueSky was great too. It was a pain to download their files though.

 

Again, though, that goes back to the issue talked about earlier where if you annotated BlueSky and then gave it to me(using SimSavvy), I probably wouldn't see your autogen because you annotated your BlueSky scenery files where I'm using SimSavvy ones. So, we'd all have to be using the same photo real scenery I believe. I can't imagine you'd want to buy SimSavvy to help out SimSavvy users like myself, when you are only interested in a small part of the US.

I can't imagine you'd want to buy SimSavvy to help out SimSavvy users like myself, when you are only interested in a small part of the US.

 

Well, I do enjoy flying SoCal but there are other places I'd like to fly. I just don't have scenery that makes them interesting. North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Caribbean. I'll look at SimSavvy and look at the Annotator.

 

The thing I have to ask: why can't we use the same .agn file on both SimSavvy and BlueSky?