New land not showing in map and GPS

[Guest apwright]

I'm currently redrawing the islands of Kiribati so that they are more realistic. In most cases this means getting rid of FS9's version.To delete the existing islands, I use Ground2k4's (v.5.33) exclude to eliminate the old coastlines and then I place a big LWM water poly over the unwanted landmasses. I can then draw the new islands with no problem, and they appear properly in FS. BUT the new land doesn't appear in the FS map or GPS display.What am I doing wrong? Is there a way to have this new land appear in the map and GPS? When I add the missing airstrips, they look as if they're in the middle of the ocean!Thanks in advance for any help. I'm very new to scenery building!Regards,Adrian WrightLGTS

[scott967 62]

If I'm not mistaken (maybe some one else can chime in) the map and GPS only use the default scenery areas, and don't look at any addon areas. What UTUSA does, is to provide an installer that renames the default bgl files with XXX extension, and then copies its own versions into the default areas (meaning, regional scenery folders such as scenerynamcscenery).scott s..

[Guest christian]

This is a bug in FS2004. For the map and GPS FS2004 only uses the default landclass file in the base folder. Your coastlines etc should get updated, but if the default landclass file says a square is water than the map will use that info, even if you have a custom landclass file that fixes the problem.Christian

[Guest apwright]

Scott & Christian,Thank you very much for your replies - although they were not the answers I would have wished for!Oh, well. Nothing to be done.Thanks again & best regards,AdrianLGTS

[edgarone 0]

Hello Christian,I am just curious: What effect has the landclass here?I am aware, that you need both for an island: LWM-land mask and landclass.But it seems to me, Adrian just changed the LWM data (draw a big water mask, to hide the old island, and draw a better island with a new LWM land-mask on top).If he doesn't change the default landclass (use default landclass with new LWM land mask), shouldn't Adrian be able to see the island with the new shape in the GPS?Un fortunatley I have not much experience with island in GPS, I rather cut new LWM lakes and rivers in continental land - which shows up in the GPS.Cheers,Edgar

[edgarone 0]

Hello Adrian,did you already find a way to resolve your problem?I just want to confirm, that after you "deleted" the old island with a water LWM polygon, did you redraw the new shape with a land LWM polygon, right? A simple VTP polygon is not enough.When you see the island in the sim, can you land on the ground with an helicopter, or do you sink in like water?Best regards, Edgar

[Guest apwright]

Hi Edgar,I haven't resolved the problem of land not showing in the map/GPS. Looks like it's unresolvable - at least at my skill level.As to my method - yes, the new shape is drawn with an LWM land poly, and is "hard".Attachment 1 shows an incomplete Ground2k4 project.The big red poly surrounding everything is LWM water to get rid of FS's default islands. (The default coasts are erased with G2k4 excludes.) It has to surround everything because polys aren't allowed to cross.The islands are drawn as LWMs with VTP2 coasts on layer 9, then the airport poly, roads and villages are VTPs on layer 10 and up. (This was just an experiment - I'm going to redo the villages as landclass so they blend in better).Attachment 2 shows what looks like in FS9 until now.Now I'm trying to work out how to make reefs and sandbars connecting the islands with FS's default textures... but that's another story!Hope this helps,Regards,Adrian

[edgarone 0]

Hi Adrian,having another look at my own files I must admit, that I have the same problem, even on land: creating a lake with an island in it - the island is not displayed.So either it is not possible in map view to display a LWM land polygon at all or the GPS map view cannot display combination of land and water LWM polygons. The test would be a new island in a default water area - displayed in map view or not.I am sorry, Adrian, I have no idea, how to solve it.There is a way to fill whole areas with land or water (the LWMDataAreaFill...x... commands), but there are some problems with them and map view as well.Best regards, Edgar

[Guest christian]

The problem is that you are ok as long as there is default landclass existing at you new islands location. I'm just talking about my Cook Island experience. Those islands were very badly defined with the original coastline and the correct coast would extend over water class areas, in which case the coast doesn't show in map view.Christian

[Guest christian]

>Now I'm trying to work out how to make reefs and sandbars>connecting the islands with FS's default textures... but>that's another story!To save you some frustration: the only way this works is without water effects (reflactions/animations) and it doesn't look any good in my opinion. Another FS2004 limitation. The only way to get this working is by having a gridded water class. Doesn't look nice either but better than non-reflective water (in my opinion).Christian

[Guest christian]

>having another look at my own files I must admit, that I have>the same problem, even on land: creating a lake with an island>in it - the island is not displayed.Don't just overlay polygons, this also gets rid of the elevations on your island. Instead cut the water polygon into 2 halves along the island. This way you don't need to make an extra island polygon (the island should sit in the seam of the 2 polys). This will avoid any problems.>The test would be a new island in a default water area ->displayed in map view or not.I tried this in my Cook Island scenery and no it doesn't display.Christian

[Guest apwright]

Thanks, Christian.Looks like too much trouble for me! I think I'll just draw the islands and leave the rest to the imagination.Just found your Cook Islands on SimMarket. Looks great! Time to dust off the credit card again!Regards,Adrian