FS Architect-2004

[Guest bnick]

Just a little heads up for everyone who has used FS Architect-2002.Recently there has been a lot of frustration written within the forum regarding the lack of a FS Architect-2004 upgrade for FS9...I received an email from Doug Pouk 1-22-04 in which he conveyed that he is indeed working on FS Architect 2004, so the rewrite is not completely on hold, it is just moving slow, due in part to home renovation. He also let me know that he is reworking the Architect GUI a fair amount. So work is progressing. He hopes everyone can please be patient.Doug ended by writing, "Architect will come back strong I promise."Patience everyone...

[Guest sbdwag]

Until he fixes the texture browser in Windows XP. Or the bgl import function, or the node mislocation, or the polygon flattening, or the macro scale issues. UNTIL!!!! Less see the much touted OGL export even NOVA dropped that!Yeah right! I paid thirty nine dollars TWICE for software that did not support Windows XP and continued to add more bugs into it with every port and NONE of those issues above were fixed and the software was virtually useless to me. In fact its so bad that I was offered a free lifetime upgrade and it was (and is) not even worth the time for me to ask for it. FSSE is free and it is infinitely better.Nope fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on ME.RegardsDennis Waggoner

[Guest ayrsimming]

HiWhilst I admit that FSArchitect is not perfect and at times have found the support to be very poor, I have to say that I have been using the program for over a year with WindowsXP and after intitial problems with the texture browser were sorted I have not found the program to operate any differently from use with other previous operating systems. I certainly don't have all the problems Dennis has listed.Iain GallacherScotflight Scenery

[Guest bnick]

Iain - Hi, I had many of the same complaints Dennis had, and truthfully, until I see it run slick and smooth, I may still wonder if it will ever happen... but... as you have stated, those certain areas of the program that have worked for you also have worked for me, and continued to work in FS9, ie: exclusion areas are working perfect for myself and a couple other designers, but on the other hand my FSA2002 bgls that I worked so hard to create a year ago lock me up big-time in FS9, even when they are just sitting there in the add-on scenery directory without actively being included,(check-marked), within FS9's scenery library. You never know we may just be surprised with what comes our way with the new version if we live that long... Below are a couple images of last years FSA2002 scenery with the Phototexture grid, a close up of our Airport and a Flyover of the Phototexture Grid... sorry if it's boring...

[Guest sbdwag]

bnickSorry did not mean to dis your comments. I tried several months to work with FSArchitect and finally gave up it simple had to many problem and I just gave up. But Im right here with my free lifetime upgrades saying ok Ill give it a shot when its released send it my way Doug and Ill give it a go and see if these problems are fixed and if so Ill come back here on this forum and tell everyone how much improved it is and apologise for my harsh comments. But until then I reccommend not to spend a dime on this product.Dennis Waggoner**************************************************************** -------Original Message------- From: support@pouksim.comDate: Tuesday, September 17, 2002 12:34:30To: Dennis WaggonerSubject: RE: Problems with Windows XP Dennis,I'll throw in free upgrades forever. Thanks for your patience :)DougDouglas A. PoukAuthor: FS Architect 2002http://www.pouksim.comsupport@pouksim.com -----Original Message-----From: Dennis Waggoner [mailto:sbdwag@voyager.net]Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2002 10:45 AMTo: support@pouksim.comSubject: RE: Problems with Windows XPDoug I addition to my acceptance of your offer to continiue trying to make Architect work with Windows Xp. I would ask that my one year registration period not start until you have this problems fixed. Is that aggreeable with you? Dennis Waggoner

[Guest bnick]

I tried to attach a couple tiny images but somehow they didn't stick, sorry I'm still learning this forum...http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/59405.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/59407.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/59408.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/59409.jpg

[bob.bernstein 0]

I feel for anyone who entered the market to sell a payware design tool. There was a market at one time. Back in the days of fs98, ASD made money providing features no one else had. Early on, Terrabuilder made money. I bought both those products and used them during the days of fs98 for making tex-releif photo real imagry above the otherwise flat terrain.I never bought architect, but I believe it was similarly featured.The question is, why would anyone buy a payware design tool today?Freeware: AFCAD: Lee Swordy has done a wonderful job, and it now creates visible taxiways, lines, tarmacs, and with using AFCAD to create the visible taxiways, you automatically have the linkages to add ai aircraft, so I've replaced all static aircraft with ai traffic. Traffic Tools: makes it easy to add traffic, and fs2004 now allows for multiple versions of traffic.bgl, so I can include a custom bgl within my scenery upload to add traffic to just my new airport, so that's pretty neat.Mesh Terrain: srtm2bgl fs2002 sdk tools: photo real imagry texturesground2k4: to decorate the surrounding territory around my photoimage patch, and to connect roads up so it looks more seamless, or an alternative to the photoreal approach....can also place photoreal imagry on a vtp2 poly.Gmax: creating of objects.CAT: (by Arno) for animation tweakingthe new bglcomp sdk: to add excludes, fuel area triggers, effectsAnd for those who prefer to use an airport assembly tool....FSSC and Airport for Windows_______________________________All Free....how'd you like to try to market a payware product into that headwind?Bob Bernstein

[Shaka 2]

Bob, I agree with you 100%. There is a lot of quality freeware out there right now that I think is going to be tough for a payware design tool to compete. The exception may be FSDS2, which has managed to keep getting updated, and has a huge user base.I used Architect for awhile, but I can only think of one useful feature that FSSC/AFW (both free) don't have. I think that there would have to be a lot of features added to make it worthwhile. If someone were to make a BGLComp version of one of those design programs, it would probably be worth paying for.But, now that I think of it, most of the freeware software is worth paying for too.- Martin

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi Martin.I suspect it won't be too long before there is a GUI version for BGLComp. Hopefully, it will use a geographic map ( rather than orthographic ). Then we can use bitmap output from LWMViewer for placing objects and effects... as we can now with Ground2K4.Dick

[Guest bnick]

Thanks Bob, Martin and Dick,The 3 of you have made very relevant points to which I agree completely... I too, from early on, bought and upgraded every version of ASD,FSDS and FSA and created very satisfying scenery's with those payware packages. I have also been very impressed and pleased with the creativity and realism I've been able to add with FSSC, Traffic-Tools-2, AFCAD2, Move-it, GMAX, and the wonderful Project-AI Products...I'm using XP-Pro on my Engineering workstation, with 2gb ram, P4-2.8gb processor and twin 180gb drives, used for my work, and the only freeware package I can't seem to run after installing is Ground2k4... and which I've read so much about... Oh well...There's only a couple programs here that you guys are using that I haven't learned yet, but I have to agree with you, that we all have been very blessed to have all the wonderful folks, who for many years now, have shared their code writing talents with us... for free.The Project-AI, Airline packages as well as Lee Swordy's AFCAD2 files have completely enhanced my FS experience personally...Bob

[Guest Larrycx]

Bob, Thanks for your post. I had started another thread asking what tools like LMVIEWER were out there and crying about XMLs complexity. Your post in this thread re some freeware tools and what they would do is what I really wanted. I am new at this stuff. I have paid for FSUIPC mainly for its joystick controls. I have changed my home airport (99V in Colorado runway from gravel to asphalt and made it wider like it is today with AFCAD freeware. I did buy "Real Scene" which is not a tool and installed it in FS2004. It really helped bring out the local terrain in these mountains. I can fly by familiar landmarks that I used to use before I lost my FAA medical.Right now I want to add some of the houses here in the Crawford, Colorado Airpark. Looks like GMAX and/or ground24K might work. I will add those to my downloads. I guess I will be adding a 2nd hard disk to this I thought OK 40G system. Might as well bring RAM up to 1G from 512M too.Larry Costa :)

[Guest bnick]

Larry - Thanks for the kind words... Regarding ram upgrades...I was blessed last year with being able to retire at the ripe old age of 53 from AT&T with 34.5 years service doing fiber optic engineering. Since I left Engineering and teaching AutoCad, I started a PC/Server maintained business which grew slowly last year, but has gained 2 to 3 clients a day since the new year... and I have installed new ram in almost every PC I've worked on... The super low price of ram today makes it foolish not to upgrade and this is really fast DDR ram...I see so many, XP Home, PC's, with only 128mb of ram and they barely move... For $40 I'm adding another 128mb stick and it makes a world of difference to their owners, XP Home, hungers for at least 256mb... $60 will buy a 256mb stick kicking 128mb owners up to 378mb and 256mb owners jump to 512mb... $80 buys a 512mb stick... 1gb sticks are still a bit spendy but if a person has 512mb already they are only $80 away from 1gig... I needed to increase mine to 2gb because of the 340mb GIS-AutoCad/ArcView, telecom drawings I'm still designing for Engineering groups on the side... It's a cheap way to make FS9 run very smooth along with a good videoboard...I loaded Gmax-1.2 this week and struggled with it for 3 days before I finally created my first bgl which I still cannot see in FS9... It's a very cool program and after one learns how to rename the original plugins file, Makebgl.exe to Mkmdl.exe, then install MDL Commanders, mdlcommander.exe and rename it Makem.exe and then ultimately use, Middleman13beta3's, file called Makemdl.exe... I was able to create a BGL using all 3 files together... It was enough to drive me to drink, I thought I was going crazy until I saw the 3 of those files somehow working together create a BGL that hopefully is appearing somewhere in the FS9 world... and my Lat/Longs were perfect.Last... I just have to say I create my 3D models really fast in AutoCad2002 then use the 3DSOUT command to export a 3DS file Gmax can import, once it's done I export an "X" file which somehow my 27 flavors of Makebgl.exe converts into I bgl I still can't see in FS9...See my attachment of the simple parking garage with Trusses and glass cover which connect to our Terminal... I know it's very simple but I'm just starting to use Gmax... http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/59790.jpg

[Guest bnick]

Can one of you guys help me...I finally am able to view my scenery that I created in Gmax and bgl'd into my Addon Scenery directory... Problem was creating in Gmax inches instead of Meters... I had created my parking Garage 500" x 300" and until I almost taxied over it in a Baron I would have never found it... Once converted to Meters I appeared properly sized within FS9... but... I see no textures in FS9. They are present in Gmax and appear to be checkmarked as saved when I export an "X" file which is then read of course by my 27 flavors of Makemdl.exe and somehow created into a bgl with no embedded textures... I know the 4 simple textures are in the FS9Textures directory as well as in my Addon SceneryTestTexture directory so FS9 should be easily seeing them. Somehow they are not becoming embedded within my new bgl's... I know I've read of this problem happening to others but since I wasn't creating bgl's out of Gmax at the time it was of no importance to read those threads... I will now attempt to research them again...Thanks for any help one or more of you can provide...

[bob.bernstein 0]

Have you converted the texture files to dxt1 or dxt1+alpha format? you pretty much want to do that. also, what pixel size are the textures? You'll want either 256x256 or twice that.Bob Bernstein

[Guest bnick]

Thanks Bob, I've got the DXTBMP program and I'll check the size also... Wish me luck...