cwright

[Guest Richard Hill]

Chris;Have you any news on the BETA program to use with TerraScene?I have been checking but have not seen any news.Richard;

[Guest cwright]

Hi Richard, it's coming along slowly but surely. I hope to have a first version ready before Christmas. I will probably release it as a public beta. There are still some outstanding problems (e.g. islands that don't touch the edge of a LOD13 square may not be filled properly) but they're not too important so I'll leave them until next year. Meanwhile there are a few things I want to fix before I release it.******************************************************************** Here's a problem I was working on yesterday. If there are any Windows experts out there with any ideas, please let me know. AutoAsm can automatically generate the asm files, call bglc to compile and copy the bgl files straight to Flight Simulator. However, the Microsoft tools (bglc, resample etc) are asynchronous tasks. Obviously the program can't copy the bglc to FS until bglc has finished compiling. But, left to its own devices, VB will call bglc and then immediately try to copy the bglc, ignoring the fact that bglc hasn't created it yet! I initially used a delay to fix that, but with enormous amounts of scenery imported from TS images, the delay would have to be very large. The best solution is to detect when bglc has terminated. My brother suggested a method using the Windows API. It should have worked, but after many hours struggling with it we came to the conclusion that it wasn't working because bglc is a DOS program and I'm using Windows XP. I'm trying a different approach. The program calls bglc and then uses FileLen() to check the size of the bgl file. When three consecutive checks a second apart show no change in the file size, it is assumed that bglc has finished. It almost works, but for some reason it often causes the VB program to stop running. AutoAsm can create terrain mesh and generic textures. It calls the SDK tools (resample, tmfmerge etc) in succession, so the same problem applies, as one tool will use data created by the previous tool. I'm sure the best solution is to determine when the DOS tool has terminated, but how to do it in Windows XP? If anyone knows the answer (preferably a simple one as I'm no VB expert!) I'd be most grateful. I use VB5.I call the DOS tools with the shell() command. Looking at the Microsoft online docs, it appears that shell() has a second and third parameter not mentioned in my docs. The second parameter is *precisely* what I need. When set to true it tells VB to wait until the task called by shell() has terminated. When I tried it it generated an error message, so most likely it's only supported in later versions and not in VB5. Can anyone confirm this?***************************************************************** As I mentioned in a previous post, I had problems with artifacts in TerraScene images. I wanted to get rid of the actual water mask, as I suspected it was interfering with the lines. I found how to do that, and now it looks as if TS is generating clean lines that AutoAsm can use. The program is reliably handling huge amounts of data from TS (the asm files can be tens of megabytes!) By setting suitable colours in the TS options, the program can read both LWM and VTP lines from the same image. Thanks for your interest, it certainly encourages me to keep at it! There's one feature I just added that's quite handy. After loading the map and creating the LWM/VTP bgl files and automatically copying them to FS, click on the map to select a particular position. Then click on the FS button and AutoAsm opens Flight Simulator and places you precisely at the position you selected.... As I said, I hope to have it ready in time for Christmas. Best regards, Chris

[nudata 10]

I ain't no programmer but maybe the COMPATIBILITY settings for BGLC may yield some way to detect activity or conclusion.I believe that many people are looking for the development of a Terrascene to FS200x system. I have used Terrascene output as "photoreal" textures and the placement of roads and streams is accurate enough to fit precisely in the FSGenesis 38 meter mesh. For me this validates the the process you are working on and raises my anxiety level for its completion. Using Ground2K to place roads and streams is fun but very tedious for large areas.My personal vote is to have roads and streams properly placed first. You will need automatically generated excludes to rid the area of the old stuff. I know that clicking and clicking on the exclude button in Ground2k is not the fun part.Rivers present a challenge since the hydro files in FS2004 "lock in" the elevation (flat) of the old river bed. For me landclass is not an issue since the FSgenesis USA landclass is quite good and Groudn2k allows me to very easily "tune" it. Coastlines are important. However, if you find that your program, in its first incarnation, leaves a few chunks of water on land, or the opposite, then Ground2k can also clean this up. I know that even with Ground2k, ridding an area of water intrusions along a coast can be difficult.I believe that there is considerable interest in your program/system. If you see silence on the forum it is from people letting you alone to develop what they want or need. Richard bubbled over just before others and asked a question on the minds of many. Hope you solve the "detect DOS running" issue soon.Dick Boley KLBEPS: THANKS!!

[Guest Richard Hill]

Chris;Wow! Sounds like things are realy looking up. That would be a fantastic present from Santa. Have you downloaded the New River Gorge Bridge file? This is one that Daniel Greenwood from NZ and I worked on for Fly!2 and he reworked it for FS9. Someone is working on it to make it hard surfaced. I think Daniel did a fantastic job.Again Thanks;Richard

[edgarone 0]

Hello Chris,concerning the termination of a process... have a look at http://www.visualbasicforum.com/showthread.php?t=103256It seems, you can check the ProcHandle for a returncode.Hope it helps,Edgar

[Guest cwright]

Edgar, brilliant! I tried it and it works a treat. Now my program can call up the SDK tools in sequence with impunity.... Many thanks. Best regards, Chris

[Guest cwright]

Dick, as you may have seen in my other post, Edgar's suggestion worked perfectly. That's another problem I can tick off the list! It's always nice to know people are interested and it's certainly a source of encouragement. Best regards, Chris