LWMViewer2

[Guest jimkeir]

Hi all,I've been absent for quite some time now - real life stuff - but I think it's about time to let people see what I've been up to. LWMViewer2 has been in progress for ages but still isn't as polished as I want it to be. It should be mostly usable though so if you're feeling adventurous, feel free to [a href=http://www.jimkeir.co.uk/FlightSim/LWMViewer2.zip]download[/a] it and give it a go.You'll need a reasonably powerful machine, with at least a GForceFX or Radeon 9x00 graphics card. Let me know either here or by email what you think, what needs most attention etc.There's no manual yet, just a very brief readme, but there will be. In the meantime, just click stuff :)Thanks,Jim Keir

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Many, many thanks, Jim. This is sure to cause a sensation.Some people may not have followed the progress of LWMViewer up to now. The previous version is an essential utility, certainly one of the most important programs to have. It allows viewing all terrain and various AFD elements, so it is extremely useful for checking any modifications without launching FS. In addition, the educational value of LWMViewer is priceless, letting you see how things are done.This new version is something totally different. Not a simple map viewer at all, it is The Ultimate Scenery Tool!, the one we have all dreamt of. It will load and display all terrain as if you were seeing it in FS!, also the entire airport with all its buildings with the correct textures displayed on the buildings!, also all objects with all their textures correctly mapped! You can move about, pitch and bank, close and far, zoom in and out. Is that pesky building in the wrong place? Just grab it with the mouse and move it to the right place. Don't like it at all? Just select it and hit the Delete. Place other objects, change the terrain, do just about anything with this new version of LWMViewer.Incredible!Best regards.Luis

[Guest jimkeir]

Hi,Hey, you missed out the scenery database editor }( (You can drop a folder on the scenery db list, disable/enable stuff, change the order etc. and it'll edit the FS config files for you).Thanks! Nice to hear I was going in the right direction. Do remember there's lots of stuff, particularly the XML related things, that are very new and will almost certainly not work entirely yet. However, got to start somewhere and it'll be much easier to spot problems with more people trying it out.Cheers,Jim

[saabpilot 0]

Hi Jim,The program does not start at all on my computer.Just locks Windows XP in the "scanning databases - North America 10 of ???" phase.I have put all supplied files in a folder on the desktop and tried to start the application from that folder.Standard WIN XP Pro equipped machine.Any clues why this?Best,Bjorn

[Guest jimkeir]

Hi,It can take a while to start up the first time, when it goes through and creates its own scenery database much like FS does. If it's going OK you should see a lot of system activity in task manager (Ctrl-alt-delete) . North America is a particularly big one with thousands of files which need to be opened, parsed, indexed etc. The database stuff is obviously working, because it's already done 10 scenery areas.Try again and just leave it for a while. If it still locks there and there's no system activity showing, can you email me your system specs? Also, there's a tool called 'Filemon' available from [a href=http://www.sysinternals.com]here[/a] which will show you exactly what files are being accessed, if you were to try that and limit it to reporting *.bgl files it may show which one is causing a problem. It'd also show more detailed file-by-file progress. HTHJim

[nudata 10]

I am not clear about the following info. I have a Radeon 9800SE card.==================================If you're using an ATI card (i.e. Radeon) you will very probably have to edit the two .fx files in this folder.They're plain text files, and all you need to do is change the first two linesFrom : #define [PV]X_MODEL [pv]s_2_aTo : #define [PV]X_MODEL [pv]s_2_?These are the possible combinations:VX_MODEL vs_2_0, vs_2_aPX_MODEL ps_2_0, ps_2_a, ps_2_b=============================================I do not see any .FX files in the "folder". I assume that is the folder that I created to contain the 9 files from the ZIP. ???Dick Boley @KLBE

[Guest Horst]

Hello,Let the LWMViewer do the job!c.a. 1,5 hour on my machine! (I do not stopped the time)@ JimkeirWOW!Thank you very much!Kind regardsHorst

[scott967 62]

LWMV 2 abended while building the data base.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/130352.jpgI am open posting this, due to the nature of the problem. The file it is choking on is from Shez' KSNA and is an XML taxisign file SNAtaxisign.bgl. This file also chokes NewBGLAnalyze and BGLXML, but works in FS9 and SGX44. It appears the problem is that the file in the Airport element is setting the ident attribute (KSNA) but the name, city, state, and country attributes are not set (or maybe set to a null string). SGX44 was able to import the file and generate an XML file. When I edited to fix the airport element, all other utilities were happy with it.AFAIK, it is not required to set the airport attributes, other than lat/long/alt/ident. There are actually 2 versions of this taxi file. This one was provided as an "update" with a readme that said it was changed to avoid an unspecified problem with AFCAD.Removing this file allowed LWMV2 to complete the database process, but like I said, I think this is a legal file.Is there a preferred way to place taxisigns in scenery? I had to help another user who was getting problems from Shez' KBUR taxisigns.scott s..

[TonyB 1]

I am getting a similar error when processing the FlightScenery FlightZone 01 Rhode Island scenery. It is choking on the taxi signs.Tony=http://www.flightsim-bevs.com]

[Tabs 2,790]

Jim,Thanks for releasing this!I'm having trouble getting started with it though - I'd like to edit the landclass around Tucson, AZ. I open up the FSG mesh file for Arizona, but all I see is white on the screen - are there other things I need to load in to do this?Thanks,

[toprob 105]

Looks like this might be what we've been waiting for......however, I can't start it -- "this application failed to start because ATL71.DLL was not found."I have a FX5900.-RobinVisit the Windowlight forum on Avsim... everything you need to know about New Zealand flightsim sceneryhttp://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...forum=203&page=

[Guest jimkeir]

Hi,OK, a few things to sort :)Scott and Tony, any chance you can send me a copy of an XML file that causes problems? I suspect it's failing on one of the missing attributes but it'll be much easier to spot if I've got the file to test with.Dick, that reference to the FX files shouldn't have been there. They are shader programs for the graphics card and are built in to the program anyway. I made it check on disk for newer versions, in case updates are needed, but for now the standard ones should be fine. As far as I know they work on ATI cards too. I can post the shaders if anyone's interested.Ryan, I suspect you've just not moved to the loaded area - you need to do this yourself for now. In the list of open files (F7) double-click on the mesh file you loaded and it should get drawn. Having the white background means it's loaded the mesh OK but there's nothing to display on screen.Robin, that file (ATL71.DLL) is one of Microsoft's standard libraries so I thought it would be part of Windows. It's redistributable so I'll include a copy in the archive tonight - I can't guarantee the copy I have here is the correct version, and the laptop I use at work doesn't have powerful enough graphics to run it :)Horst, 90 minutes? Whoa! Takes about 10 for me. FYI it's scanning the FS scenery library, then going into each file it finds to suck out some basic information about what's in it, what area it covers etc. All of this is put into an mdb database which you can read using Access, or anything that uses ODBC. Might be useful for other programs. Unfortunately ODBC connections can be rather slow - I'll try and find a way of making it more efficient. How long does it take to start after the initial build? Also, can you give me you machine spec?Everyone, thanks for giving it a go, and it seems having the patience to wait for the initial load! Cheers,Jim

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Only the atl70.dll was present on my machine, but does it come with Windows or did some unknown program place it there behind my back?Anyway, a search of my hard disk turned up atl71.dll in an old install folder of Jasc - lucky because I uninstalled PSP a long time ago!http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/130386.zipPlace it in your Windows/system32 directory, I guess.Here is a screenshot of the loaded scenery at the location of my house - this is what I see from the back porch:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/130387.jpgExcept for the "Hollywood Hills"-type sign that I made so that I can find my way back home.I repeat, this is not a screenshot of FS, it is LWMViewer. Incredible!Best regards.Luis

[TonyB 1]

Email sent! :)Tony=http://www.flightsim-bevs.com]

[saabpilot 0]

I get very much the same error message as Scott reports above.The app starts but aborts almost immediately with the following message:Visual C++ Runtime Library - Runtime Error.-"The app requested the Runtime to terminate in an unusual way."I have downloaded and installed the latest MS "VC Toolkit" also the 2 dll:s referred to above are in my system.Best,Bjorn