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Guest mtom

Custom Landclass

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Guest mtom

Hi all.I was wondering whether anyone could tell me whether it's possible to custom make landclass for FS? I don't mean photo scenery, but a new set of ground tiles with associated autogen that could be used in addition to the default landclass classifications as VTP ground polys.The reason I ask is that I've produced a collection of ground tiles using a set of default tiles (one's with associated agn files) so as to replicate scenery in my local area. This works really well, both as landclass and VTP polys. However, because the new ground tiles are based on a default set of tiles, it necessarily replaces all landclass that uses bitmaps with these file names. This means that my new tiles show up in all these unusual places in the FS environment. It'd therefore be nice if these could be used as an addition rather than over-ride exisiting ones.Any thoughts?Cheers,Matthew.

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Guest christian

Theoretically yes, pratically no.You could rewrite the lclookup table and define new landclasses. The problem is that this a central table that doesn't allow for multiple instances and havoc would be caused if people would suddenly distribute modified lookup tables because they all wouldn't be compatible with each other. For that reason the lclookup table isn't documented very well in the FS communnity.Cheers,Christian

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Hi Matthew,yes, you can use custom landclass tiles with a local landclass file. All you need to do is place the new set(s) of tiles in a texture subfolder parallel to the scenery subfolder in which you place your landclass file.The two caveats of this approach are that you need to make sure that all classes called by your local landclass have complete seasonal texture sets in the texture subfolder (otherwise you may end up with a memory overflow CTD) and that you can only make custom agn files for those classes that have agn files in the default SceneryWorldtexture folder (the other classes, mostly vegetation types, have hardcoded agn placements).Cheers, Holger

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Hi Holger,I'd be interested to know if it is possible to do what you talked about, the way I understand it, namely creating a NEW landclass, giving it a totally unique landclass number and a set of textures. So for instance, I'd like to define:Landclass 300 - harsh desert rock, (specify 5-7 brand new texture variations), (specify default autogen, if any), (specify transition bitmaps)... and so on.Is that possible? Can you point me in the direction of how to acomplish what you talked about in your post?Thanks,


P3D SpacePort Team

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Hi Christian,>You could rewrite the lclookup table and define new landclasses.>The problem is that this a central table that doesn't allow for>multiple instances and havoc would be caused if people would>suddenly distribute modified lookup tables because they all>wouldn't be compatible with each other. For that reason the>lclookup table isn't documented very well in the FS communnity.I sent you an e-mail through this forum about a week ago regarding this topic. Did you get it?


P3D SpacePort Team

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Hi Misho,assigning new numbers can only be achieved (if at all) with changes to the lclookup.bgl. There are a few poeple who know how to do that but I'm not one of them ;-)However, you can create your own textures that use the existing landclass numbers. By carefully choosing classes using Arnaud's or Joachim's EXCEL tables that show seasons, number of textures per set, autogen fixed or flexible, etc., for each class, one can create entirely new texture sets. And those sets don't have to match the original type at all. For example, you could use one of the urban classes, make your harsh desert rock textures, add custom cactus autogen, and place those tiles via a local landclass file."Local" doesn't necessarily have to be restricted to a small area, it just means a landclass file with one or more classes that have custom textures in an accompanying texture subfolder. If you had global data on the distribution of harsh desert rock then there's no reason you couldn't create a global landclass file that places just those classes.Interestingly, FS does manage to distinguish between those local landclass files and the global set that uses the generic textures. Thus, the original urban area set of our example can coexist with the local desert rock replacement that uses the same class. In fact, they can sit on neighbouring tiles though the blending may not be optimal.And if one custom set doesn't provide sufficient classes then you could probably have two or more separate custom class sets, each in its own folder structure.Finally, those transition bitmaps are used in local folder structures too; thus, if you know how to edit those then you could make and add your own versions as well. Hope that helps.Cheers, Holger

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Thanks Holger, I understand now how it works. Basically, it is the case of precedence - if the texture sets are found in the "local" scenery folder, then they are used. If not - the "world" textures are used. That is actually very interesting.Where I was getting with this is that I need to re-define actual class properties, namely, I want to completely remove the built-in autogen (trees and shrubs). I guess there is no way to deactivate that on the existing landclass with "new" textures (now known as "custom landclass" :) )...


P3D SpacePort Team

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Guest mtom

Hi Fellas. Thanks for the replies.Christian, yes I understand what you are saying here. 'You're right Chief, it would be KAOS'.Holger, I tried your suggestion but have not had any luck. I suspect that I'm missing something.This is what I've done:I've edited the bitmaps and annotation files for ground tiles that constitute LC 120. These cover the tiles 048b2*. I've created sets for all seasons and night covering the total number of tiles in the default collection.I've placed the tiles, agn files and autogen texture sheets in a local TEXTURE folder.In G2K4 (v5.33) I've placed a VTP2 ground poly in an area using the SU varient of the tiles in the 'Other Textures' facility.I've compiled a BGL file and placed this in the local SCENERY folder.The scenery area is activated in FS9.Now, when I open up in the location, I see the VTP ground poly, but no autogen. There are no trees on the ground tiles. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong here?Cheers,Matthew.

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Hi Matthew,sorry, I thought you were trying to place your textures as landclass, not as a landclass-textured VTP2 polygon. The two are different and you can't use the VTP2 approach in this manner; if you select as texture for the VTP2 poly a landclass it will *always* use the texture set and agn from Sceneryworldtexture. If you instead use custom textures, as you seem to have done, you're restricted to one bmp file per season and the polygon will not have autogen.Thus, I'd suggest you place your area of interest via a custom landclass file, i.e., using the "LC" button in G2K4. If the area with your custom texture is supposed to have a clearly defined boundary then you can place custom VTP2 polys, with default landclass textures (not custom textures!), on top of those areas that are not supposed to show your custom texture. Sort of the inverse approach to placing a poly.Hope that's not too confusing ;-)Cheers, Holger

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Guest mtom

Fantastic Holger! LC option is loads better than VTP polys. Excellent tip!! Just few matters I'm not clear on.I'm assuming it's best not to have normal landclass BGLs in the scenery containing a custom LC BGL? Having a TEXTURE folder associated with a SCENERY folder containing normal LC BGLs is a no no, isn't it? I thought it caused memory leaks. I suppose the custom LC files could be located in normal scenery area SCENERY-TEXTURE folders?Also, is it possible to get custom textures on autogen trees? We can edit the default 'trees*' texture sheets located in the main TEXTURE folder, but that affects all autogen. I've not seen how this could be done with the existing annotation tools, although I might have missed something. The reason I ask, is that you imply it might be possible when talking about cactus in a custom desert area.Thanks again Holger. That's a significant development.Cheers,Matthew.

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>assigning new numbers can only be achieved (if at all) with>changes to the lclookup.bgl. There are a few poeple who know>how to do that but I'm not one of them ;-)Hi Holger, thanks again for your help. Re: the above... can you point me in the direction of someone who knows the lclookup.bgl structure and/or had success dissasembling it and modifying it? I know it would make a mess of things if people started modifying it left and right, but I have a very specific case I need to adress...Thanks,


P3D SpacePort Team

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Guest mtom

Hi Holger.Got a problem with getting autogen trees to stick on the edges of two forest LC sets I've made.I converted LC 120 (dry irregular suburbs/048b2*.bmp) so as to produce scrub coverage and I've converted LC 38 (fields/005b2*bmp) so as to produce mixed forest.Both merge with other LC, but not with each other. There's a bare strip between the two areas where the autogen trees from the LC 38 ground tiles do not resolve. The trees on the LC 120 show up properley.So I tried an alternative to the LC 38 tiles: LC 94 (green irregular/010b2*bmp). Now the opposite is occuring. This time there's a bare strip between the two areas where the autogen trees from the LC 120 ground tiles do not resolve. The trees on the LC 94 show up okay.The converted tiles comprise new BMP files and edited AGN files using the default M files. They are used in a local activated scenery area with SCENERY and TEXTURE sub-folders. The BGL file uses only these new LC sets.Any ideas how I might be able to solve the problem?Cheers,Matthew.

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