FS2K4 problem

[arno 1]

If you add the Fs2002 folder where you installed to the scenery library in Fs2004 it also works. Therre is no need to copy the files to Fs2004 then. Just call the correct folder of Fs2002.

[Guest JohnC]

I added a new scenery folder called MyScenery which contained a folder named scenery with the bgls, including the terrain bgl and a texture scenery with all the numerical names bitmaps.I shut down FS9 (did you forget this?) and restarted it....my custom Terrabulder bgl, my gmax structures all showed up

[Guest JohnC]

I added a new scenery folder called MyScenery which contained a folder named scenery with the bgls, including the terrain bgl and a texture scenery with all the numerical names bitmaps.I shut down FS9 (did you forget this?) and restarted it....my custom Terrabulder bgl, my gmax structures all showed up

[arno 1]

But are this also older TerraBuilder files with the TexRelief command or are this the newer files with the mesh scenery with a photo on it?

[Guest]

yes...Thatis the whay I did them. I just also discover that in the are that the test tiles should be the autogen is gone also like it did in 2002. I think they maybe still be there but a 0 ft and they should be a 17 ft. I sat where the airport should be and the altitude is 2 ft and should be 17 ft. If I use Mesh1 would that work?

[Guest PaulL01]

TexRelief and Meshwith1tex no longer seem to be supported...I lost as well, now will have to go from less than 1 meter to five times lower res! UGHHHHH!Lost:http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/ecto2.jpghttp://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/ecto1.jpghttp://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/ecto6.jpgWhere or what version of Scasm should I use for FS2k4?Thank You.

[arno 1]

Just the same version of SCASM you used for Fs2002, it also works for Fs2004. Only some commands that are listed as "do not use after version 7.0" in the Fs2000 scenery SDK don't work anymore (but they warned us for that about 4 years ago now). I noticed that for example the BitmapMode command is also listed there, but that still seems to work.But for your screenshots above, do you only use the photo for the airport or also for the surrounding area? If you only use it on the airport a simple flatten of the area and then placing the photos with a SCASM polygon grid can get your photos back very easy (I use that method as well for an airport I am working on at the moment, with 1 meter/pixel photos).

[Guest PaulL01]

>Just the same version of SCASM you used for Fs2002, it also>works for Fs2004. Only some commands that are listed as "do>not use after version 7.0" in the Fs2000 scenery SDK don't>work anymore (but they warned us for that about 4 years ago>now). I noticed that for example the BitmapMode command is>also listed there, but that still seems to work.>>But for your screenshots above, do you only use the photo for>the airport or also for the surrounding area? If you only use>it on the airport a simple flatten of the area and then>placing the photos with a SCASM polygon grid can get your>photos back very easy (I use that method as well for an>airport I am working on at the moment, with 1 meter/pixel>photos).Thanks Arno,1000sq miles was done, however what is in the screen shots above is 4 meter for the wide area and 25 sq miles of the airport as well as 25sq miles of the downtown area was done at 1 meter and blended nicely.My big problem is that 1 meter full color data was just purchased to replace this >whole:)

[arno 1]

Hi Paul,>1000sq miles was done, however what is in the screen shots>above is 4 meter for the wide area and 25 sq miles of the>airport as well as 25sq miles of the downtown area was done at>1 meter and blended nicely.If it would work depends on the area I guess. We have been evaluating a similar technique for our scenery and for the Netherlands (which is already almost completely flat), we think it is no problem to flatten such a big area. But if you have hills, or even mountains, in your area it is off course more difficult to flatten it, as that doesn't look correct :).>My big problem is that 1 meter full color data was just>purchased to replace this >whole< area and I misguided myself>into thinking the MSFS would have allowed for introducing the>use of higher res terrain textures (512x512 etc.), but that is>a chance I took.Yes, I also hoped they would do that, that would have been really great, higher resolution photos with DEM data and autogen :D. I guess we have to wait till Fs2006 for that.>Thanks for the suggestions on the flatten and poly, which poly>command do you suggest? You can throw season as well as night>map commands right?What I did is just make a simple polygon with 4 vertices and on that polygon I place one entire photo tile. By making a grid of such polygons you can place the entire photo.Here is a piece of SCASM code to illustrate it. This example uses the floating point commands introduced in Fs2002, but if you really want you can also use the older Points/TexPoly commands.[tt]Area( 5 52.3654275740035 4.70484279186894 50 )LayerCall( :L1 8 )Jump( : ):L1RefPoint( 7 :return 1 52.3654275740035 4.70484279186894 v2= 715 )MaterialList( 00.500 0.500 0.500 1.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000)TextureList( 05 FF 128 128 128 0 1000.0 "x108y487.bmp")VertexList( 0-504.816 0.000 495.114 0.000 1.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 -495.384 0.000 -504.587 0.000 1.000 0.000 0.000 0.000504.811 0.000 -495.166 0.000 1.000 0.000 1.000 0.000495.389 0.000 504.537 0.000 1.000 0.000 1.000 1.000)SetMaterial( 0 0 )DrawTriList( 01 2 30 1 3):returnReturnEndA[/tt]

[Guest PaulL01]

Thanks Arno,Yes the rochester area is not the Rockies/Alps but it is not flat either.I am going to have to try to decipher that code, thank you

[arno 1]

Dunno about the frontend. The payware version of Architect has some sort of photogrid option, but as I don't have the tool, I don't know which code it does produce.I made the code from the AutoCAD file I have for my airport and I used my own DXF2SCA converter to do the trick (plus some manual source tweaking :)).

[Guest PaulL01]

Arno,>Dunno about the frontend. The payware version of Architect>has some sort of photogrid option, but as I don't have the>tool, I don't know which code it does produce.I probably have less than half the brain you have (lazy) so I like a program to do all the calculations for me then I go in and tweak.>I made the code from the AutoCAD file I have for my airport>and I used my own DXF2SCA converter to do the trick (plus some>manual source tweaking :)).Cool!Nice website you have there Arno.Keep up the great work and thanks for the Tips, Have to get to work now. :)

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi Paul.SCASM and BGLC will go through some major revamping. The BGL format for the default FS2004 scenery has drastically changed.There may yet be a command for Hi-res texture placement with mesh, but it will have to wait for an SDK, and perhaps a further wait if SCASM is reworked to absorb the new differences in the BGL structures.I suspect we'll find quite a few SCASM commands either don't work, or don't work as expected. The VTP1 polys and lines of the last SDK have been eliminated, even after The MS design team promised us our sceneries would be OK if we followed the SDK. I don't mean this to be a rant, but this does have an impact on some scenery designer's work. We're going to have a few weeks of adjustment until we find out what our limitations are. We have a subset of commands that will work, and we don't have the knowledge to make the new sceneries... so we're a bit crippled right now. We just don't know how crippled.Some of us expected the TMF files ( landclass, mesh, LWM and VTP... ) to have the BGL headers removed, as they are just a "wrapper" for those files. Oddly, those TMF BGLs retain the BGL header wrapper, and the older scenery design commands have had it removed! Gmax is actually supplied with the disk set for FS2004, but there is no "makemdl.exe" or "FSModelExp.dle" included. So we await the SDK, and limp along with what we can make.Dick

[Guest PaulL01]

Dick,Thanks for passing that on.I hope we hear somthing soon about the progress of the SDKs too.I think you folks have exercised extreme patience with the pain that comes from having you hard work vaporized with out something new to work with! And that is my biggest gripe of all, why the MSFS team can't be more sharing at the early stages is really bothersome. Of course they and we wouldn't want them to be hindered with answering questions 24/7 but just a visible forum presence somewhere with basic questions answered by a rep for an hour once a week would do extreme wonders, instead having to spin around with a blindfold on playing pin the bgl on the...It is just silly for designers to have to pioneer these commands, get a little info a year after release...another year later we are just starting to hum with great new programs and tools and yank! The plug gets pulled with the new version and the cycle restarts...It doesn't have to be this way, and why anyone feels that they better be kind to the boys from Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington well.... Ok we need to be kind and tactful, their work is certainly great! But their help really Suxors too!I guess I'm beginning to rant again so I'll stop right here and let others set me straight if they feel the need. :) ...But I've been feeling and watching this painful exercise since the days of Laemming Wheelers great work with the SEE4 editor as well as countless others and it really shouldn't be this way.OK, I promised to stop. >.

[Guest]

So basically what I am understanding here. Is that my texutres won't work anyway. They are 1024x1024 and don at 1 meter res. So I need to go to the polygon method talked about if I still want them to work. Is there another program other than Terrabuilder that can do Mesh real easy?