Preview scenery modifications with Airport

[Guest jlwoodward]

I use Airport to build a scenery and then start FS to see what it looks like. You have to wait and wait and wait while FS updates all the scenery files and then loads the scenery, only to find out you need to make a small change. So you go back to Airport and repeat the whole process over and over until it looks right.Please tell me this is all wrong and that there is an easier way!Thanks,John Woodward

[Guest]

Hi JohnIn the days of designing FS98 scenery with Apt210 we didn't have the advantage that we have now to ensure accurate placement of poly's and objects. All we had was the dredded BLACK SCREEN background. (if scenery design programs were still setup this way, I wonder how many scenery designers we'd have today?)Now Airport 2.60 has an excellent option to place an FS screenshot as a background image and when setup properly you'll be able to ensure accurate placement of your scenery area. It's certainly worth the time and effort to setup the screenshot image and the help menu explains it all very well. The old black screen was really a pain in the butt and made scenery design real time consumming. (lot's more than it is now)Also, I believe you can enter the FS Scenery Library (with FS open and running of course) and remove your scenery entry, then place FS in the taskbar and re-edit and compile your updated scenery.bgl (if you also have the scenery directory open in the taskbar you can delete the Scenery.dat file, this will be helpful) Then just enter the FS Scenery Library again and re-install your scenery. Although this sounds like alot of extra work, it really does save FS startup time and such.Hope this helps JohnKen