Hi all.Dr. Falko Dienstbach, our own 'Falko', has created another helpful tool:SCM2XY2]The dos tool is a test version... it will transform a SCASM polygon into a VTPm2 polygon. You'll still need to alter the BGLC OUTPUT.ASM for the correct texture, layer, etc.. but it seems to do a very good job with the simple polys I played with.Very nice to have VTPm2s possible from Airport, FSSC...This tool compliments his E0022VTP and SCM2VTP. Great work!Your code may need some tweaking to insure the conversion:Header( 1 N42:40:41.6872 N42:35:17.7129 W088:31:25.0001 W088:38:45.3593 )LatRange( N42:35:17.7129 N42:40:41.6872 );;Polygon 1Area( 5 N42:38:00.1536 W088:35:04.6598 15 ) LayerCall( :lblLayer 4 ) Jump( : ):lblLayer RefPoint( rel :lblEnd 1.0 N42:38:00.1536 W088:35:04.6598 v1= 15000 v2= 300 ) LoadBitmap( 0 5 F0 0 0 0 "002c2su7.bmp" ) Smoothing( 1 ) Points( 0 -125 0 -40 -94 0 -90 -33 0 -120 42 0 -120 81 0 -82 124 0 -30 133 0 30 94 0 90 25 0 110 -34 0 120 -89 0 92 -126 0 36 ) Poly( au 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 ) Smoothing( 0 ):lblEnd ReturnEndA[/fontThat is some FSSC-generated code.. the texture name means nothing to the output, nor does the layer ( I think ). I stripped everything but the header info and the poly routine, and prefaced the routine with ";;Polygon 1".. I believe a ";;Polygon 2", and so on may be possible.Dick

Great! I was thinking about making such a tool myself, but this can save me a lot of work :). I'll give it a try ASAP.Arno

---

Member Netherlands 2000 Scenery Team[a href=http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen]http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen/banner.jpg[/a]

Great news! I will give it to try also when I come home, but I will try it on more complex polys :)Best regards,Goran BrumenFS Slovenija 2002 teamhttp://slovenia.avsim.net

I tried it on a four sided poly (I was messing with LWMDraw the last two days and trying to get a handle on how to create a polygon for an airport skirt, as I extended a runway at an airport recently). I just used FSSC, had it, when it compiled, output the scasm source, did some creative editing, and bingo! I struggled with LWMDraw (although I think it's a fantastic tool), I found out that evidently, I only need the VTP source to create the airport skirt. Using that scasm code, I used this scm2xy2 and it worked great. First try.Now, I've got to modify a river that runs through my city in FS2k2 (Tulsa, OK) to show up as wide as it needs to be. I'm sure I'll need LWMDraw for this. Making water based objects I had no problems, but land based objects just gave me fits.Both are great tools, and when I learn to use them a bit better..watch out!

Yes, I am also going to try complex polygons :), I want to use it to make the grass polygons for my airfields and these ussually have strange shapes.Arno

---

Member Netherlands 2000 Scenery Team[a href=http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen]http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen/banner.jpg[/a]

OK, I did my test now and I must say I am not dissapointed with the results.First I made the scenery with GroundMaker and adding the comment as stated in the readme didn't help in the program recognising the code. So I made a little test file with Airport and then pasted the Area, RefPoint and Points from GroundMaker into there.After that it worked fine with the source file.Then to the results in FS. I used a rather complex polygon that determines the bounderies of one of the airfields I have made. I was really surprised to see that it worked fine, only one point is missing and that means that one corner is skipped. With some manual editing of the source (splitting the polygon in two) this should be easy to solve.Arno

---

Member Netherlands 2000 Scenery Team[a href=http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen]http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen/banner.jpg[/a]

Hi Arno.Yes, Falko did us a great service here. With a little hacking of the code, we now can use the familiar GUI's of the SCASM-based programs. I hope he continues the series... perhaps making convertors for VTP1 polys and strips, and LWM masking, as well.Dick

Just one question. Is this program able to do something different than LWMDraw as far as VTP is concerned? After reading LWM Draw doc I am under the impression that VTP can be made there but within 256x256 window. And one more question. It is also my understanding that after Landcalss textures are assigned to map backroung via LWMDraw, and textures are developed, in order to add autogen buildings and trees -Autogen Annotator has to be used on them in the standard SDK procedure. Sorry for my possible incompetence, but just learning.Ted

Hi TedI hope I can answer you correctly here. With SCM2XY2 you can draw a ground poly within Airport, FSSC, or GroundMaker placing your poly exactly where you wish on the spot and then generate the SCASM source file eg; .sca, .txt. Now SCM2XY2 can convert the generated scasm source file to the BGLC VTP method 2 poly type accurately placing the poly as it was drawn. Also, but I haven't tested it yet, I believe SCM2XY2 will generate multiple LOD 13 Areas in one file where LWMDraw does not and with LWMDraw it's more of a hit a mis experiment for accurate placement where SCM2XY2 takes the guessing out of it.With the numbered landclass textures, you simple draw a poly and add the selected number value to the texture section of the .asm source file and Autogen Annotator is not at all necessary.Here's a pic where I simply drew a VTP poly next to a lake area and gave the landclass value "117" ;Small City Suburban Grid Wet.I hope this helpsKen

Hi Ted.Falko's program is a convertor that takes a SCASM coded poly and makes it a VTP2 poly. It is very helpful for designers that are familiar with making ground polys with Airport, or GroundMaker, or FSSC, or Architect.. as it allows them to draw their polys in a familiar working environment, then translate them to BGLC-VTP2 code. It doesn't "compete" with LWMDraw, or AutoASM, or any other method of making VTP2 code... just a different way of doing the same thing. ============================Large areas should be changed by landclass BGLs. Small areas can be textured by VTP2 polys, like airport backgrounds, stadium parking lots, parks within cities...============================VTP2 polys that use landclass numbers will show autogen... but because the polys are vertically flipped ( terrain engine bug ), the autogen will appear out-of-place for some textures ( autogen is not flipped ). As far as I know there is no fix for this. With small polys, this shouldn't be a problem. You could exclude the autogen from the area, and place objects for the buildings and trees.If you look at Ken's example above, the buildings of his VTP2 lakeside poly don't have the autogen buildings matched to the ground texture... but it's barely noticable, and for a small area I wouldn't bother with it.============================A named set of textures for VTP2:VTPTextureName "SantaWi.bmp;SantaHw.bmp;SantaSp.bmp;SantaSu.bmp;SantaFa.bmp;SantaLm.bmp"...will not show autogen, and will require object placement... but if it's only a small area, again this should be no problem.============================A city could be built using CUSTOM textures, and laid down as a VTP2 poly.If you decide to display a CUSTOM texture with VTP2 ( like those created and named by resample's photoreal process ), using "252" or "253" for a texture name, then each of those textures may be given a specificly named autogen, that matches each CUSTOM name. The only drawbacks are that the texture and it's autogen must be in the "C:Program FilesMicrosoft GamesFS2002SCENEDBWORLDTexture" folder ( with the default landclass and autogen ), and the texture will need to be vertically flipped. DXT1 Opaque or 8-bit mipped with alpha transparency ( 8-bit extended... like FS2000 or CFS2 or FS2002 shorelines & roads ) are the texture formats needed. It's possible to make a completely transparent CUSTOM texture, so you may then place it's CUSTOM autogen on this invisible sheet. A very handy trick.Like all VTP2 polys, the shape doen't need to be square or confined to an LOD13 Area, but is confined to an LOD8 Cell dimension. A VTP2 that covers more than one LOD13 area is fine, but you'll need a separate CUSTOM texture and autogen for each LOD13 area it covers.A CUSTOM city could span, say 12 LOD13 Areas, need 12 CUSTOM-named, flipped textures, each with a specific autogen... and then trim the poly to the edges of the city's borders... eliminating the need to "blend" the city into the default landclass, as most CUSTOM design requires.An added bonus besides the CUSTOM autogen? This is a VTP layer, and the default watermaking will still be in effect, as will roads, shorelines, etc... and these can all be changed as desired. You can't alter anything with a resample-placed CUSTOM texture... it destroys all VTPs and LWMs, and prevents us from adding them.==================Falko's program will convert SCASM ground polys to VTP2s and take care of the details of splitting the polys at the cell borders, and makes VTP1 design much easier for usres of traditional design programs. It's a great additon to Falko's suite of tools.Falko's UtilitiesDick

All of You, thanks really for answering my question and first of all for researching, developing and sharing the know-how of this new and fascinating branch of FS design.I have other things to say, but do not want sound too pompous.Just thanks guys !!!ted

Deleting double post.