I want to design scenery....

[Guest christianholmes]

Ok, so does everybody else in this forum...I work fulltime, have 2 kids, and I am taking real life flying lessons.I downloaded 1 meter aerial photographs of my local airport (Tweed New Haven- KHVN).I simply don't have time to learn SDKs and a million different programs. I just read about the Abacus EZ-Scenery and it looks great, but it doesn't "create" airports. The runways and taxiways in the default airport are OK- I want to put my aerial images under that, and then put objects on top of it.Is there a program to create airports with photographs easily?Also, what is the deal with GMAX? The website says it's no longer available... How do I get it?

[Guest abent]

Gmax is on your FSCOF CDs. Not sure which one but browse them and you'll find it. I think a lot of people are using SBuilder to place aerials, but I personally have no experience with that program.Adam

[arno 1]

Hi Christian,GMax is indeed on your FS CDs.If you want your photo below the default airport you will have to use the mesh techniques (these are limited to a resolution of 4.8 meter per pixel). You could do this with the resample tool of the terrain SDK or with SBuilder.If you want a higher resolution (the 1 meter for example), you will have to use different techniques, but these can only be place on top of the default airport, so then you will have to design the total airport again.

[Guest christianholmes]

Hi, Thanks! OK- I do want to use the 1 meter. I figured if I made it a big textured object, then it would work right?So, assuming I make an exclude for the airport, can I create a polygon the size of the airport, texture it, and then put runways and buildings and other things on top of it?

[scott967 62]

I think the problem is in putting the runway on your object, at least if you want to use the MS runway design commands, which provide parameters to handle all the aspects of the runway (markings, lighting, visual guidance, etc). Arno probably could give much more insight into this. You might want to check out scenerydesign.org.scott s..

[Guest Bell206freak]

I do not use Sbuilder to place aerial images as ground scenery tiles.I use PhotoSceneryMaker. It's by far the easiest out there and it utilizes the FS2004 Terrain SDK.

[arno 1]

Hi Christian,Yes, if you want to use the 1 meter photo that is indeed the approach to take. You will probably have to split your photo into a few parts, as the maximum texture size in FS is 1024x1024. After that you need to make a grid of polygons to place these photos. This can for example be done in GMax.As I wrote above, these polygons will cover the default runway, taxiways and aprons. It is not possible to get these Fs2004 XML style elements on top of the polygons you need to place your photo. So you will have to redesign these parts of the airport.You can probably use the arpons and taxiways as visible on the photo (depending on how many aircraft, etc are on the photo, you might want to clean the image a bit). All other elements you will have to draw again. This can for example be done with a tool like FSSC or Airport for Windows. These use Fs2000/Fs2002 commands, which can be used on top of your photo.