A new utility for AutoAsm

[Guest Slacktide]

I've written a utility to optimize LWM ASM files created by Autoasm. Looking at the asm source, I noticed that when Autoasm writes a large LWM area, it fills each empty LOD13 square in a water area with a water polygon that takes up the whole square. What this program does is replace the empty water polygons with an AreaFill1x1. Then, it checks if there are four AreaFill1x1s that can be assembled to create an AreaFill2x2. Next, it checks if there are four AreaFill2x2s that can be replaced with an AreaFill4x4, and so on until AreaFill16x16. This should improve scenery load times and refreshes.Some before and after screenshots of a test area in LWMviewer...Before:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/86908.jpgAfter:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/86909.jpgThe BGL size before was 117K, after was 69K.You can download a beta version of my utility from:http://www.slacktide.org/~dan/LWMcleaner.zip

[Guest cwright]

That's an excellent idea. Adding area fills was something I never quite got around to doing! Best regards, Chris

[Guest Slacktide]

Once I do a bit of work polishing it up, you can feel free to distribute it in your AutoAsm program, if you want to. I also have a similar idea for VTP lines, to remove redundant points. Say you have a straight section of line in a LOD13 area, with 10 points on the line. The middle 8 points are not needed, and removing them will not harm the scenery resolution. Shouldn't take too long to program, but I'm flying off for a 2 week vacation this evening. I might be able to futz around with programming during part of the trip, but for at least one week I'll be out of range of the Internet, electricity, and indoor plumbing.Dan

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi Dan.You may want to look at your results using map mode or the GPS gauge.We found early on that areafills misbehaved in FS9. The defaults are fine, but our addons are not. It's not a coding problem, but a bug in the sim.The cure for this is to not use areafills, or to only use them if you are going to replace the default BGL.Dick

[nudata 10]

I have used AutoASM for several months (beta stuff). Thanks for the program. I usually disable FS2004 scenery BGLs that cover the AutoASM'd area so should be ok for me.Also, thanks for the Firefox link. Looks good!Dick Boley @KLBE

[Guest cwright]

Dan, as I said, the main reason I didn't add area fills was that I never got around to doing it. But I did have at the back of my mind the possibility that area fills might not work properly in FS9. Dick's post confirms that. However, if area fills can be used then I'd be happy to include it in the next AutoAsm release, perhaps in late September. Auto point culling depending on the straightness of the line is on my list of to do's, but it won't be for quite a while. Don't forget to use the REDUCE facility in AutoAsm - as well as improving FS performance, sometimes reducing the number of points can actually make lines look better! However, I won't be adding new features to AutoAsm for a couple of months (the main thing holding up the full release is documentation). But of course I will try to fix any bugs that may crop up. I have another very important project to complete in the next week or so. Also I'm spending some time with Far Cry - the scenery creation tools provided on the CD with that game are pretty amazing. I'm even thinking of adding some Far Cry support to AutoAsm! Best regards, Chris