Autogen Novice Question

[Guest rbrown3rd]

I created an airport using FS Architect. It uses a .bmp for a background Photo image. The airport has runways and taxiways. I created an agn file using Annotator but no autogen objects show up. Could someone give me some tips on how to get autogen working?Here is a snap of the airport in Architect.

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi rbrown3rd.Architect uses an older-style polygon to laydown textures on a flattened surface. Those polys exclude autogen. There was a very recent post on this exact problem "Need help in this code plz :)". In that post, a method to save the pre-existing autogen was discussed. I think there are also some older posts on autogen and Architect that can be found through the forum's search function.Normally, a TMF-style CUSTOM ( photoreal ) BGL will have CUSTOM slices that can have associated autogen. Architect's pseudo-photoreal cannot , unless some newer experimental tricks yield this benefit.Dick

[Guest rbrown3rd]

Thanks. This clarifies the problem very well for me. I looked at the reference you gave and it will take some digging for me to grasp it. If I could get the Photo Texture properly oriented in Airport for Windows or Flight Simulator Scenery Creator I would go with one of those. I have had trouble getting the photo texture to display properly with them. Instead of the single image filling the polygon it is repeated over and over in a tiled display. If I could overcome that I would switch over. Perhaps I need some guidance in that direction also.

[Guest]

Hmm, I think placing it with Airport for Windows etc. will also make only a "scenery polygon", not a terrain polygon, to which you can add autogen with agn-files. I personally use FS Terrain Calc (by Jari Kaskelin) and FS Regen to place and split my ground texture.

[Guest rbrown3rd]

>Hmm, I think placing it with Airport for Windows etc. will >also make only a "scenery polygon", not a terrain polygon, >to which you can add autogen with agn-files. I personally >use FS Terrain Calc (by Jari Kaskelin) and FS Regen to place >and split my ground texture. Am I understanding you to say that Airport for Windows also places the wrong kind of polygon for autogen to work on?

[Guest JR Morgan]

Hi Robert... Apt26 ground polygons do NOT allow ADDING autogen with the MS autogen SDK, however, by using the Apt26 "create polygon" routines in a certain way, all the PREEXISTING (default for the particular location) autogen objects can be either fully preserved and/or manipulated to surround added ground polygons. I think adding autogen per the autogen SDK requires that the ground polygon be a true terrain mesh polygon.You might want to look into using John Cillis's "Land Class Assistant" freeware program for adding autogen where it doesn't presently exist on the FS2002 default terrain mesh. I think Version 1.3 of his program has just been uploaded to the Avsim library.Regards...J.R.

[spotlope 0]

Yes, I believe it does.

[Guest rbrown3rd]

I have no idea how to use LCA to add Autogen. I just completed the entire state of Florida using LCA but sure don't know how to add Autogen with it. What is the "certain way" of creating polygons with Apt?

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi rbrown3rd.It is possible to add autogened, photoreal textures by using CUSTOM textures placed with a resample.exe-derived BGL, as per the FS2000 Scenery SDK.We can also place these CUSTOM textures with VTP Method2 polys, as per the FS2002 terrain SDK.There is no 'traditional' program that can place these textures other than TerraBuilder. TerraBuilder acts as a front-end for MS's resample.exe program. There is currently no program to make VTP Method2 polys... that must be done by hand-coding and BGLC.exe to compile the BGL.CUSTOM textures are limited to an approximate 4.8 meter per pixel resolution, which is actually quite rough. Effects on the framerates by using CUSTOM textures is nil.-------------If you insist on using FS2000-style polys, then as JR Morgan points out, you can preserve some of the default autogen, by using reference points for the poly that are far removed from the area, fooling the terrain engine into believing that no flat poly exists over the default landclass texture. I think that technique can also place objects in autogened areas, without disturbing the existing autogen. We've found that excluding some default objects sometimes requires finding the refpoint, which has been distanced from the area. I'm not sure if any of the packaged scenery programs easily allow distant refpoints for polys or objects, but if they do, that would ease your problem, as you would not have to edit the SCASM code to save the autogen.The use of flat FS2000/FS98-style polys for photoreal ( such as placed by Architect and Airport and GroundBuilder and FSSC and ASD... ) do have the advantage of allowing greater texture detail. But they must be placed on flattened ground, and sometimes need some handcoding of the SCASM code to get them just right in FS2002. These polys may also adversly affect your framerates to some extent, as they have much greater resolution than CUSTOM textures, and may actaully be composed of many smaller polys. The same is true for objects... the more polys and points, the greater the stress on the CPU to display the object or poly.-----------------------With the help of 'jmf', I have derived a trick, which will allow the placement of CUSTOM autogen anywhere, but it is highly experimental ( untested ). VTP & Custom LandClass #252This trick , along with distancing the refpoints of your FS2000-style ground poly, may be the answer to your problem.Alternately, you could actually make CUSTOM textures, with the help of TerraBuilder, perhaps. These textures can be assigned autogen, and then your ground poly placed over the CUSTOM with the distanced refpoints as described by JR Morgan.Dick

[Guest GerrishGray]

Hi RobLooking at the size of the polygon surrounding your airport that you want to place trees and buildings on, I would suggest that you forget Autogen altogether. As you can see from the foregoing posts there is a great deal more to doing it this way than simply using the Autogen Annotator as you hoped!Far easier would be to add accurate trees and buildings to the area, individually placed using macros etc. in the conventional way in FS Architect. Using too many macros can ruin your frame rates because of all the separate Area() blocks they create, but you'll find that the macros that accompany my Trees Library can help you here as far as the trees are concerned, and it wouldn't be too difficult to apply the same technique to the buildings. I suggest that you use the built-in 'advanced buildings' rather than 'hand-made' models, to reduce the frame rate hit to a minimum. It would also be a good idea to vary the scenery complexity settings for each macro so that users can adjust the frame rate hit by adjusting their complexity setting. The full set of trees and buildings should only be visible when complexity is set to 'Extremely Dense'. Again, my Trees Library macros can do this for you automatically.Kind RegardsGerrish

[Guest rbrown3rd]

Thanks Gerrish and everyone. You have given me some excellent pointers. I started out doing as Gerrish suggests adding accurate trees and buildings within Architect and using the tree macros. When I looked at the number of buildings to be added, (you can see on the background image), I started wondering if autogen might not be the better way to go. The various scenery complexity settings is a great suggestion as well as the use of the built-in advanced buildings even though they don't really look much like the houses that are in that area.I had one suggestion from a friend to create library objects in Nova for multiple houses. That is something I have never done and that also might be a possibility. At this point it looks to me like my best strategy might be to use the multiple tree macros wherever possible and the built-in buildings as much as possible.I am still learning and enjoying every minute of it. Thanks.