Help please on Ground2k

[Guest pks1414]

Somebody put me out of my misery please. I have tried to get my head round Ground2k and I am sure it will suddenly click into place, however I would love to finish my project before FS18 comes out:-) All I am trying to do is add what can only be described as an extremely 'tatty' looking grey concrete apron at the front of a couple of hangers and have it blend into the grass ( at the real airfield it has just worn away with use. And a taxiway( and I use that term loosely) which is simply dark gravel over the top of the grass that has been there for years. The Airfield has been constructed using AFW and the trouble is is I use the polygon tool in there with textures I get these beautiful clean lines. How do I achieve this in Ground2k and which is the best absolute useless users tutorial around for people like me whose eyes glaze over with some of the techy terms....newbie is an understatement :)

[Guest oldraisin]

Please use a name so we can be a little more sociable.About your question, I am not an expert in Ground2k. But you might try a utility I uploaded, file name PolyBSetup.zip. If you construct your polygon in FS Scenery Creator, which is simple to use, and free, or FS Architect 2002 which is payware, then PolyB can convert it to a VTP2 polygon. This technique is limited to the landclass textures, however. Otherwise, I think you are into painting your own apron and blending area. Some of more experience folk here may have some better ideas, so wait and see what they say. If you use PolyB, read the help files accessed from within the program.Best regards,Jim

[Guest pks1414]

Thank You Jim,I will have a go with that. The textures that are currently filling the polygons are DTX1 (I think) and someone suggested I may want to try using Alpha channels (eyes glazed over at that stage :) )Will definately have a go at your suggestion though. You wouldn't think that it would be so difficult. I have got over the hurdle of building stuff with Gmax at last, I've even cracked AFW (to a point) but this last bit???Anyway thanks for respondingRegardsPaul

[Guest oldraisin]

Paul,Played around a little before I left for work. When I get home this afternoon will upload a screenshot.Used FS Architect, but FS Scenery Creator or other would work fine, and PolyB.Basically, I made an uneven edged polygon and textured it as a VTP2 polygon using a gray texture which looks a little like gypsum or old snow, I think it was number 136. Then I placed another polygon over it, slightly smaller, also with an uneven edge (many points) textured with a FS9 concrete texture, intended to be similiar in color to the landclass texture on the first polygon. (there is a good landclass catalog/viewer in PolyB and also the download contains a similar stand alone viewer so you can find the right texture to use) The VTP2 polygon blended with the general background, and the concrete texture looked enough like the landclass texture to blend in. I thought I would use a gravel like texture in another polygon mostly covered up by the other two, but I had to come to work.......work always interferes with the important things in life.:DBest regards,Jim

[bob.bernstein 0]

ground2k takes a bit to get used to but its not that hard.Your frustration is all that came thru in your post. I'd be willing to assist if you ask specific questions.Bob B

[Guest oldraisin]

Paul,Here is the example I mentioned, the crumbling apron is 3 polygons. First is the concrete with some FS9 concrete texture and a couple of psuedofenestrations. The holes are really elongated invaginations with very small necks.Second is the polygon with gray landclass texture #136.Third is the polygon with blending green/brown landclass texture #126.Made this with FS Architect 2002.So, this was all done just with 3 polygons, no custom textures.Regards,Jim http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/73971.jpg

[Guest pks1414]

OldraisinThat is exactly what I want :) I have my airfield sitting on a Seasoned Texture Polygon created in AFW, the textures that uses are from various sources, would I still be able to sit this on top?Thanks againPaul

[Guest pks1414]

Bob,Thanks for replying, yes it was getting a bit frustraiting x( Initially, and I am still not sure, which version I should download, I have now seen V.2.32, so I am going to clear everything off and get that.Entering the initial coordinates blew me away. I know them exactly but it kept coming up with error (N52 08.428 W001.50.853)it let me put first but not the second.What bitmap should I use? I had FS9 open at the time I was assuming that it would read in the bmp from those coordinates.As you can see confusion was an understatement :) I am going to try the Ground 2k for beginners, however I am also going to try the solution that oldraisin has given meThanks againPaul

[Guest oldraisin]

Paul,Yes, shouldn't be any problem. I have read, and it seems to be true, that FS reads bgl's in a directory in alphabetical order of their file name. So if you have many of them in a directory, that's the way they get read. I think that is important if they are in the same layer. So when you place one on top of the other, the bottom one should come first in the alphabet. Maybe the gurus out there can confirm that, but I found that to be true as I made this scenery example with one polygon on top of the other.By the way, the texture I used for the top, but any concrete should do, was ctgranite2.bmp. You need to download PolyB just to get PolyView, a stand alone viewer, so you can see what landclass textures to use on your polygons in the future. If you use FSSC or FS Architect, PolyB will be useful also (the two programs come together). You can probably do all this just fine in Ground2k, but the learning curve may be different.Hope this helps. If you have any problems with the effect let me know.Regards,Jim

[Guest pks1414]

mmmm...tried redoing my Airfield in FSSC, yes it is that small. Not good, although I could get to name polygons (which I couldn't for some reason in ASW) I could not get the flattens right or the excludes, in fact none of it worked, even though the altitude setting in ASW was okay, it wasn't in FSSC.It looks to be an easy program to work with, I just couldn't figure out what was going wrong. So unless someone can tell me how to name Polygons in AFW (they seem stuck on Poly 1/2 etc) I assume I am scuppered.Frustrating isn't it this Scenery building, by the way here is wjhat I have so far

[arno 1]

Hi Paul,>That is exactly what I want :) I have my airfield sitting on>a Seasoned Texture Polygon created in AFW, the textures that>uses are from various sources, would I still be able to sit>this on top?No, you can't place mesh polygons on top of polygons created with AFW (or FSSC). The mesh scenery is always drawn first. So this would only work if you also have the ground polygon placed with mesh polygons.

[Guest Tony_A]

Ground2K was never intended or able to "do" areas as small as aprons. To make your local airport in FS9, which I presume is the version you are using, you should use G2K to change broad areas of the land surface in and around your airport. It's a brillaint program do use to do this. If you are more concerned with really nitty gritty detail, then G2K was never designed to do this sort of work. You mention another word "blend" - you have the start of the magic with that. You can blend G2K "BIG BROAD TEXTURES" with much more precise overlaid textures ((put in with AFCAD2 (best way to do it)) or AFW or with G2K itself)). Hey, it's a bit like painting, you have to experiment and find your own style. You won't find any one program that does it all the way you want to see it, Keep plugging away at it and keep trying to find new brushes to work with..........Tony

[Guest oldraisin]

Arno,Many thanks for helping out here, I am not an experienced scenery designer and forget things like that. I guess I figured everyone made their aprons with landclass texture, but not true, obviously. Everything from photorealistic to plain old polygons out there for aprons. So the answer for Paul would be to use a mesh scenery (VTP2 polygon) for the apron, but then I think that is difficult in AFW, or isn't it. Looked at that program, and decided it just wasn't as simple to use as FSSC or FS Architect. Doug Pouk is busy on the 2004 version of FS Architect, and hope to see it soon.Actually, Paul could edit the polygon name in the scasm file directly to make an easy VTP Polygon with PolyB, come to think of it.Best Regards,Jim

[Guest oldraisin]

Hi Paul,Be sure to read Arno's note and my reply to Arno. I am much less capable than Arno at this sort of thing.The only way to change that polygon name may be to directly edit the scasm file. In PolyB, after a reset or program start, the scasm file on the left is editable, but you will lose your changes with another Reset. If you edit the scasm file itself, however, that will work. It seems cumbersome, however, because you would have to reedit the file every time you changed something in AFW and wanted to go look at your scenery again. It may be in order to look at other programs. In the freeware category, maybe AFCAD or FSSC. I don't know much about AFCAD but it has a good reputation.You might make your apron polygon in FSSC, which is free, well written, and has a very short learning curve, and then used PolyB on it to get a VTP2 polygon. Then you would have a good base on which to place your AFW structures (after deleting the apron polygon in AFW)and other FSSC structures and polys, API macros, etc.Tony's comment about a number of brushes is very pertinent here (another voice of great experience speaking).Best regards,Jim.....off to work

[arno 1]

That is correct AFW (or FSSC or Architect) can not make mesh scenery at the moment (I think only AFW has a very limited capacity to do so, but not really easy). So when using one of these "old" tools you can not combine it with VTP polygons.Do you have more information on the new Architect? Is there a feature list or something like the available. I am curious if it will be a really Fs2004 format tool :).