Buildingless Building Crashes

[Guest EdrickV]

I've been working on an airport (my first) and have had some odd problems with it. I can taxi through the buildings that I placed (a mix of buildings from the file library and those that come with FSSC) which I imagine is normal, but tend to apparently run into invisible buildings near the buildings I made. The airport is set at a lake that's totally surrounded by forest and did not have any buildings before I put my airport there. I think I also had the same problems when my airport was out at N0,W0 for testing which has nothing but water. I'm wondering if the buildings are supposed to be crashable but the crash detection code is getting the wrong locations for them or if there's something else going on. (I checked "Visual Scenery" as an exclusion in FSSC's menus so if it does what I think it does then there shouldn't be any autogen stuff there, and there isn't any autogen trees within the scenery area.)"Let me help you out. You're cleared to taxi any way you can to any runway you see."

[arno 1]

What do you mean with buildings from the file library? Are these macros and did you make them yourself?Also, does the crash also happen if you remove a certain type of object (to see which one is causing it)?Arno

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Member Netherlands 2000 Scenery Team[link:home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen]Arno's FlightSim World for scenery design hints, tips and other tricks...

[Guest EdrickV]

They're macros I downloaded from the FS2k2 scenery design catagory in AVSIM's file library and macros that came with FSSC, for example I use lgt_pln_hangar2.zip by Frank Betts. Got a bunch of his files. I haven't tested every building yet, and will see if I can get a clearer idea what is happening. (Haven't made any buildings of my own, and only just now found the website for the Easy Object Designer program which I assume is commonly used to make the .api macros.) Will also try the airport with various things removed and get some screenshots of the actual crashes. :)"Let me help you out. You're cleared to taxi any way you can to any runway you see."

[arno 1]

I indeed think that one of the macros must have a corrupt crash detection in it, the question in then which :DYou could indeed use EOD to create your own macros (or FSDS but that is commercial). Another option (if you are designing for Fs2002) is to use GMax, it comes with FS and although the learning curve is a bit steep in the beginning you can do really nice things with it :).Arno

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Member Netherlands 2000 Scenery Team[link:home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen]Arno's FlightSim World for scenery design hints, tips and other tricks...

[Guest EdrickV]

GMax only comes with the Professional version, which I don't have. Though I do have FS92/2000. I've experimented with it before for other stuff (Freespace 2 MODding) and didn't like it. I've got a 3D program I like (Wings3D) to use for making meshes and have Lithunwrap for textures, but wouldn't know where to go from there. I will be checking EOD out once I download it. Further experiments seem to indicate that the problem is sporadic. It doesn't happen very consistantly but as near as I can tell, when it happens it happens soon after the plane passes through the building, which makes me wonder if it might be a completely different problem: Maybe the collision detection code is running slowly enough on my computer that it's not finishing before I get through the building. Will try some more experiments later."Let me help you out. You're cleared to taxi any way you can to any runway you see."

[Guest]

Hi GuysI have had similar problems with Crash detectionWhen in spot view and near a building, has the view range/location coincides with the building it generates/triggers a Crash.Just wondered whether this related to EdrickV problemsArno, maybe you could encourage us all to understand the Crash code given below, surely here must lie the answer to these strange problems!!!

; CRASH DetectionIfVarRange3( :NoCrash  37E  0 100  382 0 25  386 -15 13 )SetVar( 0284 14 ):NoCrash

I think the numbers after Variables 37E, 382, and 386 control the the sensitivity of the crash detection, although I dont understand the significance of the different type of crashes 14=building, 2=mountain crash, etc....any thoughtsRegardsDave

[arno 1]

You are refering to FSDS crash code :), our team has also some scenery with that problem. I think they use the "wrong" code and that often gives problems in spot plane view (because then the position of the viewpoint get in the crash area).

; CRASH Detection IfVarRange3( :NoCrash  37E  0 100  382 0 25  386 -15 13 ) SetVar( 0284 14 ) :NoCrash

The variables 37E, 382 and 386 are the distance from the RefPoint in x, y and z direection. And the numbers behind it thus define the box for the crash detection.The type of crash is mainly for the display I guess, so FS knows if it should display the mountain crash or building crash message.Arno

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Member Netherlands 2000 Scenery Team[link:home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen]Arno's FlightSim World for scenery design hints, tips and other tricks...

[Guest]

Yes the FSDS code is at fault.The variables it uses used to be thought of as "aircraft distance from refpoint" in the x, z, y planes but they are in fact "eyepoint distance from refpoint". This wasn`t really made clear until the FS2000 Scenery sdkxv 0x037E rotated X-axis eye to object distance yv 0x0382 rotated Y-axis eye to object distancezv 0x0386 rotated Z-axis eye to object distance This means that the crash detection seems to work properly when you are in the cockpit but if you switch to spot view the plane will happily taxi through the building (and if your viewpoint passes through the building as you pan around you WILL get a crash)Before FSDS most simple crash detection used the Monitor3D or MonitorTR functions. These just used a set of measurements around the refpoint of the object without using any variables. The drawback was that the Monitor3D instruction defined a fixed box that was always oriented NS even if you placed the object at a different heading. The MonitorTr instruction (which supposedly moved and rotated the "box" to match any RotatedCall or TransFormCall being used) didn`t actually work as it was supposed to.

[Guest]

Hi guys thanks very much, very informative and yet more knowledge I have learn't from this very resourceful forumRegardsDave

[Guest EdrickV]

This sounds like it is the problem I have been having. (Being an FU2 user I'm used to flying using chase views and taxing via a taxi view so normally use spot plane view.) That could also explain why it was hard to reproduce the crash, since the camera was zoomed out more (to show there weren't any buildings to crash into) then it was when I initially had the problems. Will have to try cockpit/vc mode. Is there any fix?"Let me help you out. You're cleared to taxi any way you can to any runway you see."