Avoiding Collisions with Runway?

[Guest pecrowther]

I have uploaded an airport "Tinian North 1945" to the file library. In order to create a runway that conforms to the terrain, I have designed the runway as a model using FSDS and have laid this model on top of the terrain.People attempting to use the airport for the first time have received an error message indicating that collision with another aircraft will occur, with the result that the program refuses to load. Since there are no other aircraft on the runway, I assume that the program thinks that the user will "collide" with the runway (which is an object, just like an aircraft).You can avoid this problem by starting at another runway (e.g. Tinian West), slewing to a takeoff point on Tinian North and saving that flight. You can then takeoff by loading that flight.Is there a way to avoid the initial "collision" error message? I designed the runway object without checking the box for "Scenery Crash Detection" and, on FS2004, I have set the realism settings on "Easy" with "Ignore crashes" checked.Thanks,Philp.s. For anyone using the scenery, I should have added the instruction that you have to turn off "Scenery Crash Detection", or you will "crash" with the runway. (Anyone have a way around this?)

[Guest sapper42]

Gday Phil, you would be better creating this RWY texture as a VTP2 polygon with either SBuilder or Ground2K4 ( i pressume its a dirt strip ) or you will need to hand edit the FSDS code, Arno has some tips on how to hand edit the FSDS code on his website so that the FSDS Poly merges correctly with the ground.rgds Jeff

[Guest pecrowther]

It's a huge asphalt strip with four runways of 8500 ft and several taxiways and parking aprons. If I remember correctly, VTP2 did not give me the kind of resolution I needed.Thanks, Phil

[arno 1]

Are you sure you have disabled the crash detection everywhere in FSDS? There is a main crash detection box in the project preferences and each object (part) has its own checkbox in the part preferences. To be sure there is no crash detection at all both must be off.Just curious, as far as I know you can not make a sloped runway with FSDS, because the hard surface is always flat. How did you solve that? Or does the plane just drive over the mesh that is below?

[Guest pecrowther]

Arno,I double-checked, and crash detection is off for all parts. Until that problem is fixed, I am advising people to: A. Go to Tinian West. B. Slew (or fly) north to Tinian North and go to an appropriate take-off location. C. Save your location, using "save flight"From then on, they can go direct to Tinian North, using "load flight". The program does not give an error message.Also, they will need to turn off collision detection - or you end up with a building crash.Your last guess was correct. You are taxing on the mesh - except for the southwest corner where I had to build up the terrain, using a landable surface. Fortunately, the underlying mesh is fairly flat. I conformed the model to the mesh manually. For example, each runway includes about 60 polygons. I manually set the height of the polygon to about 1/2 foot above the terrain. (The whole runway model includes about 3,000 points and 1,300 polygons) Although you are "sinking" into the runway, the effect should be the same as if your tires are flattened on the surface - like they would be in real life.Phil

[Holger 0]

Hi Phil,you probably know this: The new LWMPoly3 code allows for sloped hardened surfaces, as described in the Terrain SDK. This doesn't help you with the model of the RW (FSDS or VTP2) but would create a perfectly smooth, sloped base for it.Cheers, Holger

[Guest pecrowther]

Holger,I used LWMPoly3 for an initial attempt at this runway and, you are right, it would have made my job a lot easier. (I may still use it for some of the "bouncier" sections of the runways). I would certainly recommend LWMPoly3 to anyone else using FSDS to create a runway - since my method is fairly time-consuming. However, for this version, I was curious to see if I could get away with using the "raw" mesh.Thanks, Phil

[arno 1]

You could also use the AttachScript of the new GMax. This also allows you to make a sloped platform. And in GMax you don't have the resolution restriction of the VTP polygons.But when you have already got it working with the underlaying mesh, that might not be needed anymore of course :D.

[Guest pecrowther]

ArnoI thought about that, but:1. I haven't learned gmax yet (although for what I am doing, it shouldn't have been a horrible task).2. I didn't know if that would slow things down with a lot of additional computations. (Perhaps not if it only computes the slope for the object that you are on.)There are a few shortcomings with my approach:1. At night, the lights are not steady. (But perhaps there is a way to create an fx that works better.)2. AI traffic will not work on a sloping runway. (But I suspect that gmax will not solve this problem.)Perhaps, if we can spoil people with realistic sloping runways, MS will modify their program to accomodate them.Phil