Flickering Plane Objects

[Guest]

Hi everybody - I've created a flat plane object for the airport I'm building using GMAX. When I export and go into FS2002, that flat plane object flickers. Does anybody else experience this and is there a parameter/property that needs to be set while creating the flat plane object in GMAX?Thanks!Jay

[Guest]

Try this link to Arno's site.http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen/In the gmax tips section it tells the procedure. (I assume you're talking about a ground plane.) Ryan the Glidiator

[Guest]

Thanks, Ryan.I think I found out what the problem was. I had to move the ground plane up a few inches so it doesn't conflict with the original ground? Once this was done, the flickering stopped. Thanks for your response, Ryan.Jay

[Guest]

That is one way to do it, yes. The problem with that method is that your aircraft's tires will look like they have gone flat! Since the ground plane is raised up off the ground, it will cover up part of each tire. Also you won't see any shadows from the aircraft on the ground plane, and from high altitude the flickering sometimes reappears. The method on the website fixes all that. All you have to do is replace a few lines of code and recompile with BGLC. Ryan the Glidiator

[Guest]

Ryan, thanks a lot. I didn't realize those side effects until I loaded the scenery up and found that I had flat tires as you mentioned.Arno's site tip helped. Thanks again.Jay

[Guest]

Glad I could help!Ryan the Glidiator

[Guest]

Hi Ryan,One more question (hope I'm not being a pest) ... I created my airport scenery just using GMAX and Photoshop, and I didn't create it from an ".asm" file. I looked up BGLC and downloaded the compiler - do you know how to create the "asm" file if one wasn't created in the first place? Thanks ...Jay

[Guest]

You're not being a pest!First of all, you need the newest version of makemdl (the program that converts the gmax file to the flightsim .bgl file) Get this from the makemdl SDK. The makemdl version on the flightsim CD is the old version. http://zone.msn.com/flightsim/FS02DevDeskSDK00.aspWhen you export your scenery from gmax, go to the options tab in makemdl. Check the "keep files" option. (upper left part of the dialog box) This will save the .asm file in the same folder as the .bgl file. After you finish editing the .asm file, save and close it, then drag it's icon onto the bglc icon. This will create the new .bgl file. That took me a while to figure out the first time I tried it!Ryan the Glidiator

[Guest]

Ryan,Do you have any idea how long it would've taken me to figure that out? Never! Thanks again! No more flat tires!Jay