Conflict with Modified Terrain.cfg File

[Art_P 6]

I somehow mistakenly posted this in the mesh scenery forum earlier.  It has come to my attention that when using my Freeport, Bahamas MYGF scenery with the FS X modified terrain.cfg installed (available in the AVSIM library as fsx_modified_terrain_cfg.zip), trees occur in taxiways and aprons.  I have also observed that some UTX-TAC added roads do not appear when using this terrain.cfg file.  

 

Upon further investigation, it appears that the modified terrain.cfg file rendered the airport background tagged "Flatten Exclude AutoGen" ineffective for removing autogen, and all of the trees for the landclass exist on the airport.  The trees can be removed by tagging the airport background to include "Mask Class Map" which also results in the typical airport grass rather than the landclass texture that more closely resembles the actual airport.  This, however, does not resolve the issue where vehicle traffic is occurring but without a road.  The roads could be put back around the airport as part of that scenery, but where do you begin and end?  Anyone using UTX-TAC, and maybe other products, may be missing roads throughout scenery areas.

 

Although I was unaware of it, the modified terrain.cfg file was touted as a "must install", but I am choosing not to use it since FSX was and is working fine for me with the original file.  Well, maybe "fine" is not the most accurate term when it comes to FSX scenery.

 

A global solution to the conflict would be appreciated.  This forum was indicated to be where to go for the terrain.cfg file support.

 

 

[meshman 109]

Maybe this helps with the tree problem?

 

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4725&highlight=terrain.cfg

 

The UTX additions to the Terrain.cfg file *should* work regardless of the version of the file, RTM or Modified. Unless the Terrain.cfg file got messed up and those added entries are not being recognized>

[Art_P 6]

Maybe this helps with the tree problem?

Thanks, but it appears from that 2007 thread that a true solution was awaiting release of SP1 which happened a long time ago. Your reference to UTX additions to the terrain.cfg file gave me some food for thought. Since I downloaded the modified terrain.cfg file after installing UTX, there were no additions by UTX. After running the UTX setup tool with the modified terrain.cfg file active I got the roads back, but the autogen problem still existed.

[meshman 109]

Yes, the issue of revisiting the modification of the Terrain.cfg file never came about.

 

Since you've done a lot of modifying (much appreciated), I'm wondering what is different with Freeport and your prior work, if anything? If the poly that you used is different than what you used before, could it be one of the CFG entries that needs to have the priority corrected from 20,000 to 200,000?

 

It's been a couple, few months since I browsed through the CFG file and thought "that one should be changed and tested". It's on my long list of things to do.

 

And even with a couple potential problems with the modified file, what it corrects more than makes it's use a positive. See Thames River in London as a good example.

[Art_P 6]

 

I'm wondering what is different with Freeport and your prior work

 

What is different is trying to use a "Flatten Exclude AutoGen" tagged airport background without "Mask Class Map".  As indicated in the thread you referenced, the modified terrain.cfg file seems to eliminate the ability to merely omit autogen.

 

Before someone indicated to me that they had problems with my Freeport scenery, I was not aware that this modified terrain.cfg file existed.  It was only because it was on a list describing their FSX setup that I was able to consider it as causing the problem.  While I understand from the file documentation that it improves the sloping water problem, it takes away the functionality of some polygon tags.  What is the sense in including the ability to delete autogen with a polygon as part of airport design software if it doesn't work?

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Dick Ludowise and I made the modifications to the terrain.cfg file in order to eliminate water flattens and add a few possibilities for designers.

 

Since I am the author of many of those changes, I guess it is up to me to face this issue.

 

In short: my modified terrain.cfg does not change FS X Airport Background polygons.

 

Here is the complete list of changes to the default terrain.cfg:

 

Modifications include the following:

- 3 new land class values added:
    252-custom seasonal,
    253-custom non-seasonal,
    254-transparent

- VTPLayerRenderPriorities
    changed    7=30000
    to    7=20000

- all FS9 legacy shorelines 2-109 now have a GUID
    and a StripWidthMeters added,
     making them usable with Shp2Vec

- wave effect removed from
     dry water body shorelines 10,28,37,64,100

- wave effect added to
     lake urban perennial shoreline 41

- legacy airport backgrounds (obsolete)  167-185
    changed     FlattenMode=flat
        FlattenPriority=50000
    to    FlattenMode=none

- land class polygon white coral beach 192 now references
     coral texture, value 132
     instead of tansand, value 137

- all default fs x hydro polygons 194-199 now reference
     non-rocky water, ocean_sea_large_lake_0
     instead of ocean_sea_large_lake, value 100

- legacy water flatten and mesh-clinging water polygons 380-381
     now reference non-rocky water, ocean_sea_large_lake_0
     instead of ocean_sea_large_lake, value 100

- added FS9-style land class polygons 383-385
     referencing
     252-custom seasonal,
     253-custom non-seasonal,
     254-tranparent

- added hydro polygon rockslope 386 that references
     rocky water, ocean_sea_large_lake, value 100

- added wave effect without a shoreline texture, 387

- added utility without grass corridor, 388

 

This list of changes is included both within the modified terrain.cfg itself (just open it with Notepad) and in the html document that accompanies it.

 

Perhaps what most people do not realize is that other scenery designers quickly saw advantages for their products if they also modified the terrain.cfg file, thus creating a confusing situation where some commercial addon will modify an already modified terrain.cfg, thus causing issues of this sort.

 

The only recommendation is to run that commercial addon's Setup or Configuration Utility so as to reset their modifications correctly. If you own various addons that modify the file, then this may or may not solve the issue, but usually it works.

 

To resume, my file, the first modified terrain.cfg released, does not make changes to this type of polygon, so the culprit must be found elsewhere.

 

Luis

[Art_P 6]

 

In short: my modified terrain.cfg does not change FS X Airport Background polygons.

 

And we are saying this never happened?

 

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4725&highlight=terrain.cfg

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

No, Art, I am saying that I did not make any changes to the default. Please read carefully:

 

I believe what happened was Luis and I were working off the Betas, and as I look at the terrain.cfg of the Betas, they did use 20000 for Terrain.264

 

It may have been intentional, but not on our part. Neither of us had an issue with excluding autogen.

 

What I would suggest for you and Thomas, if you are distributing your scenery, is to alter the value to 200000. It certainly won't hurt what Luis and I have done, and it would be doing the enduser a favor.

 

After SP1 is released, I'll contact Luis about changes to a new version. We'll need to see what changes occur to the file, and how the sim handles water, flattens, and excludes.

 

Many thanks for finding this, Holger.

 

Dick

 

And further, Dick was mistaken in that I did not use the beta file as the basis for the modifications, but rather the RTM version, that is, the first released version of the file as Microsoft first published it. Here are the relevant sections copied directly from the RTM terrain.cfg file:

 

 

Airport Backgrounds (FSX) - Flatten + MaskClassMap + ExcludeAutoGen

[Texture.164]

Name=Airport_Backgrounds_Flatten_MaskClassMap_ExcludeAutoGen

Color=FFFFFF00

guid={46BFB3BD-CE68-418E-8112-FEBA17428ACE}

FlattenMode=flat

FlattenPriority=51000

LandClassRemapType=airport

ExcludeAutogen=Yes

RenderToTexture=No

RenderPriority=20000

Water=No

 

Airport Backgrounds (FSX) - Flatten + ExcludeAutoGen

[Texture.165]

Name=Airport_Backgrounds_Flatten_ExcludeAutoGen

Color=FFFFFF00

guid={18580A63-FC8F-4A02-A622-8A1E073E627B}

FlattenMode=flat

FlattenPriority=51000

LandClassRemapType=none

ExcludeAutogen=Yes

RenderToTexture=No

RenderPriority=200000

Water=No

 

Airport Backgrounds (FSX) - MaskClassMap + ExcludeAutoGen

[Texture.166]

Name=Airport_Backgrounds_MaskClassMap_ExcludeAutoGen

Color=FFFFFF00

guid={594E70C8-06A5-4E3F-BE6E-4DBF50B49D11}

FlattenMode=none

LandClassRemapType=airport

ExcludeAutogen=Yes

RenderToTexture=No

RenderPriority=20000

Water=No

 

Airport Backgrounds (FSX) - ExcludeAutoGen

[Texture.264]

Name=Airport_Backgrounds_ExcludeAutoGen

Color=FFFFFF00

guid={6C0C6528-5CF1-483A-A586-2C905CF2757E}

FlattenMode=none

LandClassRemapType=none

ExcludeAutogen=Yes

RenderToTexture=No

RenderPriority=200000

Water=No

 

Airport Backgrounds (FSX) - Flatten + MaskClassMap

[Texture.265]

Name=Airport_Backgrounds_Flatten_MaskClassMap

Color=FFFFFF00

guid={5A7F944C-3D79-4E0C-82F5-04844E5DC653}

FlattenMode=flat

FlattenPriority=51000

LandClassRemapType=airport

ExcludeAutogen=No

RenderToTexture=No

RenderPriority=20000

Water=No

 

Airport Backgrounds (FSX) - Flatten

[Texture.266]

Name=Airport_Backgrounds_Flatten

Color=FFFFFF00

guid={47D48287-3ADE-4FC5-8BEC-B6B36901E612}

FlattenMode=flat

FlattenPriority=51000

LandClassRemapType=none

ExcludeAutogen=No

RenderToTexture=No

RenderPriority=200000

Water=No

 

Airport Backgrounds (FSX) - MaskClassMap

[Texture.267]

Name=Airport_Backgrounds_MaskClassMap

Color=FFFFFF00

guid={1F2BAAB1-4132-416E-8F6F-28ABE79CD60B}

FlattenMode=none

LandClassRemapType=airport

ExcludeAutogen=No

RenderToTexture=No

RenderPriority=20000

Water=No

 

 

As you can clearly see, they, Microsoft, had the different Render Priorities, and I made no changes at all to these values.

 

You might also remember that Microsoft released various updates, the Service Packs. Whether they then both modified the terrain.cfg and finally activated the Render Priorities for the Airport Backgrounds is something I shall leave to others to investigate since I really don't see that this is of any particular importance.

 

To resume, I did not make any changes to the default Airport Background polygons, which is what I have already stated.

[scott967 62]

I think maybe SBuilderX 313 is distributed with a copy of mod terrain.cfg that has the "20 000" setting on 264.  Don't know the pedigree of that version but IIRC SBX offers the option to install that mod on the local fsx.

 

scott s.

.

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Thanks. I see that I was hasty and that Dick was right. My apologies to him.

[Art_P 6]

 

To resume, I did not make any changes to the default Airport Background polygons, which is what I have already stated.

 

All I know is that I have distributed airport sceneries with autogen exclusions that work with the FSX default terrain.cfg file.  When it is replaced with the file included in the AVSIM library fsx_modified_terrain_cfg.zip described as "everyone should install this file", autogen is no longer excluded.  I'll leave the accusations of who did what to others.

[Emi350 0]

Hello,

I download SbuilderX and installed it, I modified the terrain.cfg at the installation. I have Ultimate Terrain X. Now no more Lakes and river in switzerland France etc...The sea il always here.

What do I modify to soluce this problem.

 

JJ

[meshman 109]

Start up the UTX Setup tool, it will do a check of the Terrain.cfg file and if it finds it's required entries missing, it will add them back.

[Emi350 0]

Hello,

 

It's done! and all is Ok! Leman lake returns and also the others. Thank you very, very much :smile:

I managed to make my first photorealistic texture, I have a blue cast to correct that shocks with the surrounding landscape.

I am following an AVALSACE.free.fr tutorial in French.

 Best regards,

 

JJ