Terrain Textures

[Guest jhfisk]

I have just recently done some work with the afcads of KPWM and KMHT for FS2004 and the changes, in particular at MHT, have been quite drastic, and the terrain now looks quite unrealistic. I have tried to figure out how to edit it using the Terrain SDK and several programs, but it is all greek to me. Does anyone know of a Tutorial/Program that spells it out in layman's terms so that a non-experienced "designer" like myself can understand? Any help/advice would be very much appreciated. I apologize if this is not the correct place to be posting this.

[scruffyduck 4]

JustinI assume that you are trying to change the look of the terrain around your scenery. This can be done using a program which allows landclass to be altered, or created VTP polygons. I use SBuilder to do mine, but there are other tools. If you want to change the look of the airport Polygon - that is the grassy looking area around the airport - then you need to use an exclusion polygon that excludes it. It is in layer 7 of the terrain. In SBuilder I create an exclusion poly for layer 7 that covers the existing airport. What you will then find is that the underlying landclass (city, etc, etc) will now extend over the airfield.I then create a now polygon containing the landclass (usually a grass) to replace the original. If the area surrounding your airport is wrong (for example I have just created Pan Am Field {Miami] as it existed in 1938 and I changed the surrounding dense city blocks into a much less populated area) then it requires another landclass polygon (or maybe several)which has the landclass you need. I fit these in around my airport polygon to get a good fit) but I could cover the area and use layers to get them to show in the right orderTo add a bit to the complication you need to make sure that the layer of you new landlass is higher than the original (which is usually in layer 4) so that it covers it.If that all sounds like gobblygook then let me know and I can go back over it. I am currently creating a tutorial on how to do this (using SBuilder) and will publish it over on my scenery site - http://www.scruffyduck.plus.com

[Guest jhfisk]

JonThank you very much. If I hit any snags I will be sure to contact you. Thanks again.

[Guest jhfisk]

Okay, It didn't take me too long to hit a snag :-roll. I downloaded SBuilder, but I cannot figure out how to use it. It is probably really simple, but all that you wrote earlier was quite complicated. So I appreciate any extra help here. I have just added rwy 17/35 to KMSP also and that needs some improvements also. Thanks very much.

[scruffyduck 4]

Hi JustinMost people seem to hit a wall in starting SBuilder. Exacly where have you gotten to? Have you managed to install it and get it running. A lot of people have problems with the initial load of textures and get a file missing error - the program is not very good at trapping errors and that is frustrating :-) Scott Gridley over at Freeflow.com has written a couple of tutorials on SBuilder and they are on the forum there. The support forum for SBuilder is http://www.ptsim.com/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=18If you cannot get it to start because of thebase texture loading problem I can help out.

[Guest jhfisk]

JonI am able to get it to start. It installed the textures and all of that. When I first started it, an error came up that said that TABCTL32.OCX was missing. I went to google and found it, put it in the main directory and now SBuilder works just fine from what I can see. I will scan through that forum you suggested to look for a tutorial. Thanks again.

[scruffyduck 4]

Glad you got it runningI should have my tutorial on laying out airports done in the next day or so - I'll let you know when it is ready in case you want to give it a try also

[scruffyduck 4]

JustinMy tutorial is now posted. I notice that you have found the new one from Scott over at Freeflow. Mine uses similar techniques but you may find it of interest.You can find it at www.scruffyduck.plus.com in the 'Other Stuff' section

[Guest jhfisk]

Great. Thanks very much, Jon. I will definetly try that.