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arno

mini DTM runway project - sloped runways

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Guest christian

I was wondering if there are a few people here that would like helping me taking FS2004 to the next level.I've just finished a 20m mesh for NZ and the detail is just incredible. However, a side effect is that the flat runways look a bit stupid. I've been contemplating over this a while.My idea is to build a highres mini-mesh for the runways. I have a few thoughts on how this could be achieved, but the whole method needs testing and input from other bright minds in this forum. So I thought maybe I can get a group together to solve this.OK, here it goes. My idea really is to build something more advanced than just sloped runways, but runways that have a whole elevation profile, ie, they could be shaped arbitrarily, eg ___/ or __/_/_.Mostly as designers we wouldn't have a profile, but the SRTM may be of help, as it provides us at least with 75m point measurements. I guess, this is problem no1 that needs testing. Is SRTM really accurate enough to do this kind of thing (ie if the noise it to big we wouldn't model the actual profile, but the noise). I have a profile drawing of the Cook Islands and I can also crosscheck with contour lines and spot heights. I've done this once and it looks like for Ryan's Creek in NZ SRTM is nice supplementary data.The real challenge though is to draw a non flat runway over the terrain, I see that this can only be done by mixing gmax and mesh.The mesh alone poses a few problems. Since it uses CLOD it changes with distance which may be hard to work with. A work around would be to define the whole runway with lots of little flattens (style 3). This way one could build a small micro mesh that is stable.Then one needs to import those point locations into gmax (we know the location of the grid points, so it should be possible to build some sort of automatic approach for this). With the help of the points one can then build a mesh in gmax and draw a runway on top. This also has the advantage of being able to draw nicer runways or runways with rounded ends, etc... Then one would load the gmax runway on top of the mini mesh. The gmax runway would show the hard surface, the mini mesh would actually supply the ground resistance.I have no clue if this can be done without getting z-buffer fighting, and I don't know what happens if we take off from (or land on) indulated runways, but I think it may be worth to give it a shot. I'm sure that if we split the work we may actually get this working.Any takers?Cheers,Christian

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Hi Christian.As long as gmax is used, why not clone the surface and make an attached platform... no need to harden the surface.Dick

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Hi Christian,Interesting, I certainly will follow this (and help where I can).Dick, the platforms in GMax are not really suitable for this. If you use too many in one area you get strange crashes of FS on exit. And also there is a limit of the amount you can use in one MDL file (compilation will fail).So I don't think the platforms can be used to make very detailed local mesh. I think it would be better to let the mesh scenery do the altitude and then have your GMax model follow the shape of the mesh very well. The visual maybe needs to be put 10 cm above the mesh or so to prevent zbias trouble. I want to test this idea for some time already, but haven't come to it yet.


Arno

If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can't be done.

FSDeveloper.com | Former Microsoft FS MVP | Blog

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Hi Christian,neat ideas and a very worthwhile project!I once did a few tests of non-flat runways using sloped LWM3 polys as a base. The biggest drawback for me (not being an airfield designer) was the inability to incorporate AI traffic and the associated loss of the standard ground textures and objects. I can drape VTP2 polys over the surface (at 4.8m res) but adding taxiway lines etc. is another matter. Perhaps the GMax approach will make this easier though it won't help with the AI issue.Cheers, Holger

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Guest christian

Hi Holger,you can actually still use the default runways (yes, I did think this through). The only thing you need to do is to define the runway as transparent (which is possible). And then you can add the rest of the AI stuff.In regards to the actual surface, yes, VTP2 polys aren't suitable due to the low resolution. That's why I came up with the gmax idea. Once you have a gmax mesh, all you need to do is to draw the surface as a texture. This has actually some advantages of the default visuals as well. Some runways have turning bays and the side line follows the bays. You can't do that with the default. All you really need is to design some basic elements and then shuffle them together...Cheers, Christian

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Guest christian

OK, it looks like I got the right people interested :)I guess the next step will be for me to upload something to start off with. I'll see what I can come up with over the next few days.Cheers, Christian

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Guest luissa

Hi Christian,I would be happy if I could get a walkaround for the simpler problem of a runway with different altitudes at the ends. The runway built-in command has the (X Y Z) parameter for the location of its center and the heading parameter. It would be nice if, in a future version of the sim, a pitch parameter was added.Therefore one needs to draw, with gmax or else, the complete runway elements, and call it using some kind of TransformCall().I hope to add to SBuilder the feature of handling slopped polygons which will help in creating slopped runways. Another thing that I would like to do is "breaking the 4.8m/pixel" in photographic scenery. My actual problem is that I am not able to read the Mesh. I am sorry for referring to SBuilder but it is easy for me to explain my ideas in its context. SB has a GUI to make photo scenery. Basically it slices (resamples) a background bitmap and generates BGLs that call VTP squares. As with the MS resampler the resolution is limited to 4.8 m/pixel. If I was able to read the altitude of the mesh I could also draw a list of textured triangles. I would use a test based on the distance to switch OFF the display of these triangles. Because the texture used for the triangles is the same as the one used for the "4.8 photographic" scenery I expect admissible display switching.So I am interested in following your project,Luis

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Hi Luis,That is also the idea we are trying out with the NL2000 Team at the moment. We are still in the progress of adapting our own scenery design tool for it, but what kind of trouble did you had with reading the altitude data?Some time ago I just loaded some altitude data in MatLab to make some plots of it. I guess it depends on the format used, but that data was very easy to read. Just a RAW file with altitude points.


Arno

If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can't be done.

FSDeveloper.com | Former Microsoft FS MVP | Blog

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Guest luissa

>... but what kind of trouble did>you had with reading the altitude data?Hi Arno,Say that I have a bitmap from which I want to generate "4.8m res" photo tiles. There is no problem. Either the MS resampler, SB or other, can create the photo tiles and calling BGLs.Supposing that the bitmap is an high-resolution one, I would like to create VertexList()s and DrawTriList()s to "break the 4.8m res". The trouble is that I am not able to read the altitude from the BGL. So I am not able to fill the VertexList()s. This has been discussed here before. Jim Keir once publish a programme that did just that but then it removed it. Regards, Luis

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Hi Luis,Ah yes, now I remember. For the NL2000 project we will be using custom altitude data as well (as the default mesh is not really accurate), so therefore we have not tried to read default BGL files.


Arno

If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can't be done.

FSDeveloper.com | Former Microsoft FS MVP | Blog

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Guest pecrowther

Christian,I ran into the same problem with my Tinian airfield. I ended up making the airstrip as a FSDS object with the runways broken into segments of about 100 feet long. I manually adjusted the points so that the runway would be the minimum distance above the terrain (ideally less than 1 foot). Nevertheless, the aircraft still sinks into the runway because it is really sitting on the underlying terrain.I have considered converting the runway to gmax and hardening the tops of each of the segments. Would that enable the aircraft to taxi on top of the runway?If so, could anyone walk me through the process of hardening a surface? I have read the MS explanation and am not quite "getting it". (I can't figure out how to display the box grid around the segments.)Phil

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Guest pecrowther

Luis,Thanks. I'll take a look at that. I had considered overlaying the grid with a few sloping LWM Poly 3s but was never able to decide how many (or how few) Poly 3s to use and how to best fit them with the underlying terrain.Phil

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Guest pecrowther

Misho,Looks interesting. Maybe I can import my runway into the mesh module. Are the surfaces on the object hardened?Phil

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