Ground2K - Landclass ??

[nudata 10]

Ground2K 1.2 - Windows XP 1ghz/512mbI click the LC icon. The selection box appears with a picture of the selected landclass textyre. Make selection. Click OK. Grey dashed vertical lines appear in the grid. BGL generation proceeds normally. However, in FS2002 no change appears to the landclass nor to anywhere in the vicinity. I selected REEF in order to make the change obvious.I have been using Ground2k for two days to modfy lake shorelines and correct the default roads. EXCELLENT program. Very well done. It is very obvious the amount of time expended on it. Have not ventured into all areas but at least roads, streams, and excludes work very well. Landclass is the current hangup.Dick

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi Dick.Ground2K doesn't handle the creation of the landclass or waterclass BGLs well. But there is a way:When you start a new project, you will define the bitmap, bounds, etc... At the bottom of the File Parameter screen, you have 2 check boxes for the RAW files, and 2 folder destination fields.UNCHECK Use.raw general fileCHECK Update.raw general fileFor the fields, I select the Ground2kTemp folder for each.You can set the file parameters for these boxes and fields through the dropdown menu, at the top of Ground2K, if they aren't set right at the start of the project.=================Open and play with your project.Save. Then compile the BGLs.Your VTP and LWM BGLs will go where you have directed them... but where are the Landclass and Waterclass files?=================There is a "Temp" folder within the "Ground2K" folder. Inside this "Temp" folder, you'll find your INF and RAW files:FicRaw.RawTmpLC.InfTmpWC.InfLC_???_???.RawWC_???_???.Raw-------------------I copy the following files to that "Temp" folder:resampleV11.exetmf2bgl.exetmfcompress.exe-------------------Now I need a batch file to crank out the BGL:@echo offdel FicRaw.Rawren WC*.raw FicRaw.Rawresamplev11 "TmpWC.inf"tmfcompress landclass.tmf landclassWCc.tmftmf2bgl landclassWCc.tmf MyWC.bgldel landclassWCc.tmfdel landclass.tmfdel FicRaw.Rawren LC*.raw FicRaw.Rawresamplev11 "TmpLC.inf"tmfcompress landclass.tmf landclassLCc.tmftmf2bgl landclassLCc.tmf MyLC.bgldel landclassLCc.tmfdel landclass.tmfdel FicRaw.Rawdel TmpLC.infdel TmpWC.infI save those 18 lines as "WC&LC.bat"=======================Now I can double-click on the "WC&LC.bat" icon, and generate "MyLC.bgl"and "MyWC.bgl"... which I can then rename, and move them to the "Ground2KLandClassscenery" folder... and add to the FS2002 Scenery Library. It needs a separate folder, because landclass doesn't want a twin "texture" folder to the "scenery" folder.I actually made a shortcut inside the "Temp" folder, to the Landclassscenery folder, so I can move the BGLs easily.The batchfile cleans up all the unnecessary files, and prepares the "Temp" folder for the next landclass or waterclass compilation.======================Once you're set up, just doubleclick the "WC&LC" icon, and you'll get the BGLs. ( Just remember from now on to check the right box for 'Update.raw general file' ).I've attached the batch file as a TXT file... just save it to disk as "WC&LC.bat"I also attached pics of Abbeville, before and after the classes are altered.Dick

[nudata 10]

Thanks for the detailed, and accurate, outline. I followed the instructions and had a landclass tile in 10 minutes. Sorry, but one added question - the tile occupied one grid sector with no blending. The docs mention that VTP2 textures do not blend. It also says that VTP1 does not presently handle landclass. Other than these statements the LWM also seems to generate landclass but there is a strong focus on water in the docs and I am strictly dealing with land at this point. Is there a way to generate a landclass at a smaller LOD and have it blend in Ground2K. Or, is this best left for the future?Dick BoleyPS: the amount of time you spend detailing answers is commendable!

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi Dick.The landclass assigned in the BGL should have blended. What texture did you use?A resampled landclass BGL isn't the same as VTP poly. VTP polys don't blend, but are ground polys that can use a landclass texture.I know water-textured landclass doesn't blend, and CUSTOM ( #252 & #253 ) won't blend.This might also be a source of confusion.Among the landclass assignments, there are water textures. I believe these are holdovers from FS2000, and the dataset MS used to generate the worldlc.bgl. These landclass textures are not "real" water. When we build an island or extend a coastline, I had earlier believed there was no landclass far from shore, and so the land would not show when we masked for it... so we had to make a landclass BGL. I know now the whole world has landclass.. but most of it is textured as water! TMFViewer shows this when we view the worldlc.bgl. The LWM masks switch areas between landclass and waterclass... so if you want water, use an LWM watermask poly.============You said one grid sector is water? Do you mean 1 LOD13 Area is water, or the whole LOD8 Cell is water? Dick

[nudata 10]

You guessed corectly. I used the reef (water) texture to insure that I would see it. Took up the entire LOD-13 grid square. Tried several adjacent DIRT (131) textures and they worked perfectly! Blended properly. Now I am dangerous! A few hundred miles of roads corrected so far. Working on re-doing the lake and then off to landclass.This is a very addictive area. I pulled up Terraserver pictures using the compositor(see below). Thus I have a very large Terraserver area on file around Western PA to play with. It is quite simple to join "sections" of Terraserver pictures using the Waypoint facility in the compositir program. It places a little green dot at the end of a road that you will use as a reference in the adjacent picture. Note the dot's LAT/LON and load the adjacent picture into Ground2k in the normal manner. Then you can pickup the continuation of the road starting at the green dot on the new picture. Use as many green dots (waypoints) as you wish to insure you do not overlap roads, etc. into the previous picture.URL: http://jdmcox.com Go to USA photo maps.Many thanks,Dick