SceneGenX Tutorial

[Guest Atunall]

I was wondering if anyone had a good SceneGenX Tutorial? I am still having problems setting up the background bitmap, getting everything aligned correctly etc.What is the best way to get everything set up, and what are some good pointers to make sure you get everything in the right place, right headings, etc.Thanks ahead of time,AJ

[arno 1]

Hi,At this moment I think there are no real tutorials yet. SceneGenX is still developing fast and most people are still learning the tricks themself :).For placing the background image, I usually make sure I have for example a runway or something else in the image I know the exact size of. By then also placing that runway in SGX it is possible to scale and move the image till it matches the runway exactly.For the rest there are no real things you need to setup I think. But Rhumbaflappy reported in the past that if you try to load a background image for a big area (so not only an airfield or so), the placement is not 100% correct. This is because of a conflict between doing calculation in meters (old Airport for Windows style) and doing them in lat/lon (new XML style). Tom was looking into that, but for now it seems best to use it only on small areas.Hope this helps a bit :),

[wsieffert 0]

The easiet way to setup a background bitmap is to download a bitmap that is oriented to true North. If you cannot find one, then use a screen saver and take a top-down picture from the flight simulator with the aircraft in the slew mode. Prior to taking the picture, press the spacebar to orient the aircraft to North. Size the screen to fit the entire airport on the screen using the +/- keys. Change to full screen mode to eliminate the menu bars and take the picture.Once the picture is saved, open SGX. Enter all the airport data, especially the airport reference point under Sections, Airport Data. Lay down several runways, since they are known lengths. Make sure you don't allow SGX to impose the default MAGVAR during scenery design. Use the MAGVAR found with AFCAD or other means (Note: AFCAD will indicated a MAGVAR opposite what SGX uses, therefore AFCAD MAGVAR = -4.5, use 4.5 in SGX).Once you have the runway or other reference points located, add the background bitmap, use the scale and arrow buttons to move the bitmap over the runways or reference points. It will take some time to accurately place the bitmap but will be well worth the effort.As Arno and Dick have indicated, you don't want a bitmap that extends to large areas around the airport since it induces errors.W. Sieffert

[Guest Atunall]

Finally got everything set up correctly, everything seems to be going well.What is the best way to add parking lots, roadways etc. inside the airport perimeter? I was thinking about using Ground2k4 around the airport for surrounding highways etc., but I definitely need some higher res roadways, parking lots etc. for around the terminal building and control tower.What is the best way to do this?Thanks again,AJ

[wsieffert 0]

Those are interesting questions. FS2002 and earlier allowed ground polygons that designers used to place such objects. You could get great detail for parking lots and roads. FS2004 abandoned this method using strickly the terrain methods used in FS2002 for most of the roadway systems you see if you look down from above or photoreal for the select airports MS decided to enhance.FS2004 can still read and graphically show the FS2002 method. However, there have been drawbacks in using the FS2002 method. They are:Loss of shadow when taxiing an aircraft over the ground polygons.Problems with altitude matching between the default FS2004 rendered scenery and the FS2002 rendered scenery. At times, AI and User aircraft are plowing below the surface or floating above the surface.Loss of airport elements, runways, taxiways, aprons in the top-down mode at different altitudes (use the +/- keys to vary altitude).Loss of progressive taxi line below the ground polygons.Decrease in FPS with the added ground polygons.No promise MS will continue to support this method in future flight simulators.Until recently, tools to easily modify the terrain scenery under, near, or around the airport modification haven't been available. The tools, such as, SBuilder, LWMViewer, and Ground2K4 are still coming of age for modifying the areas of the airport property.W. Sieffert

[arno 1]

Depending on how your road should look you could try to make it with an XML apron. You can not map the texture on it, but if your road as no markings I think you can get the desired result.Other alternatives are the VTP roads with the lower resolution or using the old style roads again, but I would not encourage you to do so. Although not all drawbacks mentioned above happen, as long as you use a proper LayerCall.

[Guest Atunall]

Guys,Thanks for the input. Since then I've gotten my airport looking pretty good. As far as the roads go, my guess is that I will have to use the XML aprons for my parking lots etc., probably using the default Tarmac texture, since that seems to be dark like roadways / parking lots. Then I will use Ground2k4 to create VTP roads around the airport, much like the default KSEA looks.On a side note, I just tried sticking in some XML aprons using SceneGenX, and after compiling to BGL and putting it in, I looked at the airport and there was ... nothing. Wondering if there is a problem with the aprons?Also, do the SceneGenX generic building macros work? I tried this earlier, didn't seem to work either ... I am probably missing something.Anyway, will make sure to continue responding to this, I am sure I will have many more questions in my quest to build an excellent XML scenery for Portland-Hillsboro. ;)Thanks again,AJ

[wsieffert 0]

Yes the Generic Buildings work. Please open your project in SceneGenX and check the data you inputted into the Airport Data and Scenery Data section to ensure you are compiling to the correct LAT/LON location. Please check your BGL file and ensure it has data, i.e., the size of the file is bigger than zero.W. Sieffert

[Guest Atunall]

Checked both Lat/Lon, they seem to be working correctly. File is 140 kb. I also have the Locan in the same file, was just testing to see if the Apron showed up. Locan shows up in the correct position ... but no Apron. Hmmm ...AJ

[wsieffert 0]

Hi AJ,I don't know why an apron texture shouldn't show up. Are you building a ficticious airport in an area that might require a flatten to level the ground? If so, try FSTUtilities - http://www.fs-traveler.com/welcome.shtml or some other flatten utility to make your flatten.Have you tried to place a runway to see if it shows up?W. Sieffert

[arno 1]

Another suggestion, is your apron maybe placed very far from the center of the scenery (the coordinates set for the airport in the properties). I think the airport elements are not shown in that case.Sceneryobjects (like library objects) are not seen as part of the airport and thus are shown.But this is only a wild guess :D.

[Guest RollerBall]

Hi all,I've just completed (and uploaded elsewhere) a little fictional STOLport that I created wholly in XML using SceneGenX called Brentwood-EGBX. I had no major problem with it - every feature worked fine albeit with one or two small blips that were quite easily overcome.Tom has done a brilliant job here. He is well on the way to having the definitive GUI XML programmming tool I think.I'm very impressed at how he has managed to make coordinate delimited stuff (eg jetways from DFW available) as I thought these were a no-no. I'd like to know how to extract mdls like that from the sim - I think the tool for doing it is included in the package but I haven't tried yet.So if you are having problems - persevere because everything in SceneGenX does work as it should. It looks as though it will make AFCAD obsolete IMHO.My next problem (see separate thread) is how to program ILS approaches. Now that I do find tough :-hmmm