Beginners Guide to Scenery Creation for FS9

[hawk_eye1975 1]

Hi all,

 

Ok, these have probably been bought up in other strings and i could be here all night trying to find the answers (That would de-tract from my ADE time !!! (SHOCK) )

 

I'm trying to find out if i can .....

 

- Get better taxiway lighting, the small blue ones at the adge are just too dim and the greens centre line lights look a mess at junctions

 

- Make taxiway marking clearer, stand out more from the concrete

 

- Flood lighting affect for aprons

 

- How to extend an airports flat area, if you look on the "look down" view, you can clearly see an area for the airport that is different from the scenery, how do i make that bigger or add new bits??

 

- Buildings ...... need some ^_^

 

Any other easy beginner level bits and bobs you guys can think of.

 

I've learnt how to make flight plans using AIFP2, how to add 3rd party AI aircraft, how to change airports with ADE (mmm ADE :lol: ), how to add airfields.

 

Would love to build my own airport from scratch, can't seem to find anything spacifically about that on the net at all ??

 

Any info would be great, but keep it simple

 

Thanks

 

Peter

-

[WingZ 547]

Peter, scenery design is not a trivial activity, people have been known to disappear completely from society...

Best to go to the horse's mouth:

http://forum.avsim.net/forum/123-msfs-scenery-design-forum/

 

Realise you are late to this party, and start at the oldest topics...

[mebull 27]

 

 

Would love to build my own airport from scratch, can't seem to find anything spacifically about that on the net at all ??

 

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/

 

Using ADE would be the quickest and most direct approach to improve most smaller airports just to gain experience. That would use stock scenery elements at first.

 

Taxiway edge (blue) lights are fixed in brightness as far as I know. The only way to improve on that would be with custom made line polygons (with lights) laid out to match your taxiway edge lines - very time consuming and only after mastering some other design software such as GMAX or something like it. The green center line lights are the same. Yes they look like a jumbled mess don't they. I don't normally use them, but, if I really feel the center line lights necessary, here is my way of avoiding the visual mess. Picture two 100' wide taxiways intersecting at a 90 degree angle. I set ADE to draw a 1' wide closed taxiway of the same material as the 100' taxiway. I then draw the 1' section off to the side of the taxiway where it while be applied (so the nodes will not link to the 100' section). Next I  set the attributes of the 1' closed section to; no lines, no edge lights and centerline lights on. (centerline lights off in the 100' taxiway of course) Next I drag the nodes of the 1' section so the they lay over the top of the 100' centerlines and placing the nodes so they do not lay on any node in the 100' taxiway near, but not on. If needed I can elaborate further.

 

The taxiway markings can be made to be more vivid. The texture for the markings is in the main FS9 texture folder and the name is; taxiway_marks. The texture is normally yellow / orange with black markings. the file also has a alpha layer, black with white markings (black - invisible, some shade of white to gray - what you see in the sim). If you are not able or willing to edit that file (make a back up if you intend to try) then you may be able to download something more to your liking.

 

You can use ADE to create a flatten polygon or polygons that can expand the area around the airport - simple approach, or you can use a program called SBuilder which can make more creative flattens such as sloped flatten that can blend the airport into the surrounding terrain more realistically.

 

There is are buildings listed in ADE that are from stock FS9 you can place with ADE. You can also add object libraries and models to ADE that will give you additional choices.

 

"how to add airfields." If you are referring to a new airport that does not exist in FS9 then again with ADE / File / New Airport - and input the information required. From there a flatten for the airport to set on, a airport background polygon to remove any autogen buildings and trees (SBuilder) or use excludes (ADE) to remove buildings and trees and use whatever texture background is already present.

 

To build your airport from scratch and as you imply, with your own(?) buildings will require you to learn at least one of the 3d modeling programs and a good texture editor and I'm sorry to say there really is no fast track. Just start with simple things and work your way up.

 

I hope this answers your questions and that it helps you out.

 

Regards,

Mel

 

 

Peter, scenery design is not a trivial activity, people have been known to disappear completely from society...

 

Hi I rated your post as funny based on the quote above, on everything else I agree completely. I just thought I should explain that so that it was not taken as disrespect toward anyone.

 

Best regards,

Mel

[WingZ 547]

Good post, Mel.

(I did get your intent in the "funny" icon. Thank you though for the explanation!) 

 

I have for years wanted to do some small local airports with a custom hi-res photoreal base, just within the airport property. 

Lots of (the best) designers have this capability, but I never got beyond the advice that using the FS2002 SDK and transplanting bits was the way to go.

Too hard for me... but dipping the toe was enough to ensure enduring admiration for those that produce stuff for the hobby!

[mebull 27]

 

 

I have for years wanted to do some small local airports with a custom hi-res photoreal base, just within the airport property.

 

I have worked on that periodically with barely acceptable results (I am my om worst critic!). What I found I was that I was able to produce the necessary files along with a pile of my hair in the area of the keyboard and that is a sacrifice I am not willing to repeat often. I also would love to be talented enough to produce pay ware like results, so, I do work at it occasionally, but only when my hair needs thinned. My little home airport is begging for a face lift.

 

Thanks for the complement, much appreciated.

 

Regards,

Mel

[Jeff H 63]

Great post, Mel.  I've been dabbling in photo real scenery recently with FSet and that's something I'd like to figure out how to do.  That is, finding a way to place the scenery down as an airport polygon.  Not so much to include it in the airport scenery itself, but more for alignment purposes.  I've noticed that some airports are off just a little bit when they're sitting on top of the photo real stuff, but I haven't a clue how to add it to ADE with the correct position and alignment.  I'd also like to be able to add some of the autogen trees around the perimeter of the airports so I don't have that "you can see to the horizon" effect.  Ed Cox did it with his Glens Falls airport (KGFL) and it strikes a perfect balance for use with photo real scenery.   

[vololiberista 205]

For taxiway signs these are really good.

http://library.avsim.net/search.php?SearchTerm=taxiway&CatID=fs2004&Sort=Name&ScanMode=0&Page=2

 

Go down to "Airport Sign Enhancement"

[mebull 27]

 

 

I'd also like to be able to add some of the autogen trees around the perimeter of the airports so I don't have that "you can see to the horizon" effect.

 

The easiest way I have found to do that is to use SBuilder. Create your polygon(s) for the areas where you want trees then assign the VTPP with a stock texture that properly represents the trees in the area of the airport. Select the texture with a "Y" preceding the description text (Y = Autogen yes). The only restriction is that the polygons have to be over a certain minimum area in size or the autogen will not be applied to the texture. The main advantage to this method is that unlike using a tree library and placing the trees such as TreePlanter is because the trees in the VTPP file will match in color and season with the surrounding trees. Trees placed as scenery objects always appear brighter and probably will not match the season correctly. The season attributes have to be programed in when / before the tree(s) model is compiled. Since you wrote autogen then SBuilder is the way to go. The rest is for anyone else who might be interested. Hope this helps.

 

Regards,

Mel

[Jeff H 63]

Thanks Mel.  Looks like I'm going to have to dig into the books again as I never did manage to get a handle on SBuilder.  I see a pile of hair on my desk, in the near future  lol.

 

Cheers!!

Seeing how this topic has progressed, I think it's a great start to a permanent FS9 scenery thread.  Given that new scenery products for FS9 are not usually on the top of commercial developers list of things to do, I think it would be nice for us to have a place for us FS9'ers to help each other out with making and sharing our own.  I certainly don't want to re-invent the wheel here as we do have several scenery creation forums, but having a thread that is specific to FS9 may prove beneficial to many of us. 
Peter, I hope you don't mind my broadening your topic a bit.  :Big Grin:

 

Cheers,

Jeff

[mebull 27]

Looks like I'm going to have to dig into the books again as I never did manage to get a handle on SBuilder.

 

Hi Jeff,

Here is a little tip / trick I use; open the airport you intend to enhance with ADE, start up FS9 - top down view. Slew to your NW most point where you want to add the new polygon, go back to ADE and start a guideline at that position and extend it in the direction of and beyond the next position. Slew to the new location in FS9, go back to ADE and rotate the guideline to intersect the aircraft position then start a new guideline extending towards and slightly beyond the next location. Once you have done this to fully enclose or lay out the new area for the polygon you will make with SBuilder. Use ADE to move the aircraft position to the intersection where you started. Open SBuilder, create your 'new' project (you can use ADE Airport properties to get you latitude and longitude) then with SBuilder - View / Show Aircraft, layout a polygon that is approximate size and shape, take the first point in SBuilder and drag it to aircraft symbol  - zoom in for more accuracy. Next, back to ADE, move aircraft to the next junction in your guidelines - back to SBuilder and move the next point of the polygon as previous repeat and add new points if necessary (in the polygon mode press 'i' on the keyboard and left click on the outline of the polygon). All of that saves slewing the aircraft by hand, is more accurate and seems to help things go a bit faster in SBuilder. I hope this is of some use.

 

Regards,

Mel

[Jeff H 63]

Mel, thanks so much for the step by step.  I'm going to try this out over the next week or so.  Once I get the hang of creating the airport poly's, I think I'll be in good shape.  I'll certainly post back if I run into any snags.  In the meantime, I've figured out the process of adding custom autogen to my photo scenery surrounding the airports.  I've been using the annotator program from the SDK to add trees and buildings in the right places within roughly a 5 to 10 mile radius of the airports so I now have that depth and texture I was looking for on departure and landing.  It's the best of both worlds with photo scenery for my flights and custom autogen for the immersion on or close to the ground.

Thanks again for your help!!

 

Cheers,

Jeff

[mebull 27]

It's the best of both worlds with photo scenery for my flights and custom autogen for the immersion on or close to the ground.

 

Jeff, sorry for the very late return to this topic. The annotator method for your autogen is certainly a viable option with merit equal to SBuilder. Thanks for sharing that. I will file that info in the old and fuzzy memory bank. Eh, maybe I'd just better write it down somewhere and leave a note as to where I put the note and a note reminding me where that note is, so on so forth - off to buy a case of sticky pads!

 

Glad you found a solution that works well for you. It is also a example that there is often more than one way to accomplish these things.

 

Regards,

Mel

[Jeff H 63]

Jeff, sorry for the very late return to this topic. The annotator method for your autogen is certainly a viable option with merit equal to SBuilder. Thanks for sharing that. I will file that info in the old and fuzzy memory bank. Eh, maybe I'd just better write it down somewhere and leave a note as to where I put the note and a note reminding me where that note is, so on so forth - off to buy a case of sticky pads!

 

Glad you found a solution that works well for you. It is also a example that there is often more than one way to accomplish these things.

 

Regards,

Mel

No problem, Mel.  I've been a bit busy too, these last few days. I have found time to work with SBuilder though.  I've figured out the calibrated maps and I've been working on learning the other features and going through some tutorials.  I found that the autogen that I've done with SBuilder works fine as long as it's not over photo scenery.  Annotator seems to be the only program that does custom autogen that will appear on top of the photo scenery.   The downside to annotator is that doing autogen is a bit more laborious than it would be with SBuilder, but the results have been great so far.  At the moment, I'm working on doing textured poly's on the airport, but I'm having a little issue with getting my ADE runways, taxiways and aprons to sit on top of the SBuilder created poly's.  I'm sure it's something I'm doing wrong.  Not sure if it's a layering issue or a draw order issue as it regards textures.  My plan was to do the poly's in SBuilder and then do all the lines and other enhancements in ADE and/or Object Placer.  The only other confusion I'm having with textured poly's is figuring out how the X-Y tiling numbers work  and how to control the direction of some of the textures.  I've tried some of the runway textures and they seem to cut across the runway at an angle rather than along the same heading.  Hope that made sense, lol.  So when you have a few minutes, If you have any more suggestions or tips, I'm all ears...or eyes, as the case may be.  :smile:

 

Cheers,

Jeff

 

Oh btw, I've always relied on my memory but, like you, I'm coming to realize that may not be a viable long term solution.  LoL.  I'm thinking about buying stock in Sticky Notes!!

[mebull 27]

 

 

Not sure if it's a layering issue or a draw order issue as it regards textures.

 

Are you using a 'stock' texture (which ever one that might be) or one of your own? That really shouldn't make a difference. What layer number are you assigning to the polygon - texture? Second, where are you placing the VTPP in you scenery? If you are placing the VTPP and the ADE created airport in the same folder / scenery layer that is probably your problem. I have a separate scenery folder / entry for those files layered like this;

 

[Area.041]
Title=Addon Scenery
Local=Addon Scenery
Layer=41
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Remote=

[Area.042]
Title=Airports MB Lc
Local=Addon Scenery\Airports MB Lc
Remote=
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Layer=42

 

[Area.043]
Title=Airports North America Lc
Local=Addon Scenery\Airports North America Lc
Remote=
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Layer=43

 

with my object libraries, airports, and terrain mesh to follow and all of my AFCADS in the Add On / Scenery folder. So the answer may be where you are placing the VTPP file(s). I hope this helps Jeff. Please let me know how it turns out.
 

 

 

Regards,

Mel

 

HELP!!! I lost the sticky note that reminds me where the sticky note pad is!   :Cry:

[Jeff H 63]

Thanks, Mel.  I'm going to play around some more over the next couple of days.  I appreciate all the advice.  I'll just keep at it 'til I get it right.  I might actually get to a point where I can release some of these airports I'm working on.  :smile:

 

Cheers!!