FS2004 scenery in FSX

[ShezA 176]

Gurus, What's the news on the import of FS2004 style scenery into FSX?Any adjustments needed?Shez

[Holger 0]

Hi Shez,plenty! ;-)Watch this space.Cheers, Holger

[ShezA 176]

Oh no! (-: Shez

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi Shez.I may have found out how to display FS9 VTP polys and lines in FSX ( thought to have been broken ). I'll need a few days to test it, but it looks good so far.Dick

[ShezA 176]

Dick,Good to hear that.Here is what I want to find out, do the following work in FSX,1) SCASM ground polys?2) GMAX ground polygons?3) SCASM ground scenery etc.?4) Library object file formats? MDL formats?Has anyone tried to use any of my scenery (KONT, KBUR, etc.) in FSX? That might give me a clue as to how much work might be required. If it is going to be a radical amount of rejigging I might abandon it all together...ThanksShez

[scruffyduck 4]

Item 4 works - FS9 mdl objects are rendered OK in FSX except for those containing pure color materials. Unless things have changed in the retail editions then those materials are rendered black and not in the specified color. The FSX MDL format is quite different than the FS9 one.

[saabpilot 0]

Scasm buildings and 3D objects does seem to work, but must be 100% textured, e.g. no single color on the polygons or that poly will appear black.Scasm 3D objects with "tweaked" code = with nav_light, conditional jumps etc. also seem to work ok.Scasm ground polys - have to be tested more.FreeScasm compiled runways or objects - do not seem to work (= memory leak).Bjorn

[Guest planeman]

Here is your ONT in FSX. http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/158369.jpg

[ShezA 176]

Thanks Planeman. It looks like elevation issues first of all and issues with the SCASM roads (easily fixed). I am sure someone will come up with the flatten for FSX one day. It also looks like the GMAX ground is not showing. Might also be flatten related.Otherwise the biggest issue I would assume would be fps related.Shez

[arno 1]

Hi Shez,All points on your list should still work, although there can always be small parts that work out different.For the SCASM ground polygons for example I found out that the layering works a little different, so I had to change the layer numbers I used. Same for the GMax ground polygons btw, as they end up using the same code (the tool you use to create it does not matter, it is the scenery commands that you use).>FreeScasm compiled runways or objects - do not seem to work (=>memory leak).What kind of runways are this? The compiler should not make a difference at all. If I use BGLC, SCASM or FreeSC, the BGL file created should all be the same (if I use the same commands of course). I have not found problems with Fs2002 style runway commands yet.

[ShezA 176]

Thanks Arno, sounds like I may not have to spend the rest of the year doing fixes after all :)Shez

[jvile 1]

Like Holger said there are changes. The world is a new type Grid that uses alot of neat tools shipped with the SDK's.Elevations are no longer working the way FS9 did. A flatten does not work when compiled as a bgl. FSX uses a varible type flatten with the Mesh Resolution slider. When the slider is set to full left that is 305m and full right is 1m. If you look at Shez's KONT picture above you can see there is a elevation issue. At this point if the Mesh Slider is move to the right the groung texture will start to rise until it meets up with the airport textures.Where this is going to have a big impact is with FSX 3rd party scenery that try's to use a flatten under a runway texture. In the past if we added a taxiway or a Apron with AFCAD the ground texture rises up if needed and then we added a coded flatten bgl under the runway. None of this applies to FSX.If the Mesh Resolution is at a very low setting (305m) the ground shows very little definition. Any runway or taxiway will be suspended in the air if the actual default airport is a few meters higher then the scenery I am adding (a down hill slope). If the slider is moved toward 1m (right) the ground starts to take a much better shape and also rises upward to meet the new taxiways and runway textures.That is a moot point because a FS9 AFCAD file cannont be loaded into FSX because it destroys many parts of the way certain mdl's and GUID's are compiled. That is also another change in FSX.Some buildings like a control tower is part of and attached to the airport apron. This also applies to the new Jetways that FSX has for many airports. Any type new runway, taxiway and a new parking spot removes this type scenery and also deletes all airport ground traffic that runs around the airport.I did add SCASM runways to Atlanta overlaying the defaults with no memory leaks or problems. Both User plane and AI Traffic honor the BGLC op code runways perfectly.There are also missing dll's that the FSX.exe is looking for. I had to load MS Visual C++ 2005 to get the 3 dll's needed. Two are for FS.exe and one is for all the exe files that are part of the SDK's. Another small issue I am seeing is the simconnect.dll is bundled with the SDK's but all the exe files do not see it once everything is path correctly in the Sim.XML. The FSX BGLcomp compiler is the same as the one that is used for FS9 but the schema file as changed. The LAT/LON decimal format is now restricted to 2 types only. Because all my FS9 scenery is in Decimal (xx.xxxxxxxxxxxxx) I had to compile my bgl's with the FS9 compiler to avoid all the errors that said my airport scenery was more then 2000 meters from the Airport Reference Point (ARP).

[ShezA 176]

Jim,Thanks for the insights. So is there any way to flatten the ground at 1m resolution I wonder? If not then the only option is to abandon all ground scenery projects and concentrate on buildings only.The other issue is with your comment on the FS9 AFCADs. If these do not work then it could very difficult to do scenery for AI.Anyway, these issues have been tackled before on previous releases. I am sur ethe gurus will work on it. I also think ACES are more responsive and will help out.RegardsShez

[jvile 1]

ShezI am still trying to fiqure out how to do many things. When I increased to 1m resolution the land came all the way up to the runway which was about 50 ft so it could match with the rest of Atlanta's elevaton. When the animated highway traffic reached the 50 ft increase in elevation of the runway it climbed up over the runway hill and went across the runway instead of under it.I am still tearing apart the SDK's to see how FSX uses a flatten properly in conjucntion with this new Mesh Resolution slider. SDK's are vaque in how things work in conjunction with each other. Holger and I spent a lot of time working out FS9 issues a few years back so we may have to pay each other another visit.Concerning AFCAD, I am seeing more problems then what we first expected. I am writting FSX xml (call it a Temp FSX AFCAD) so I can report to the fsdeveloper group that is working toward utility/scenery tools.At the present moment if the 3rd party airport is not going to use the FSX default animation then a AFCAD can be made in FS9 and copied to FSX. However there are some problems with that technique because the AFCAD program by default uses delete Airport element statements. This means when the AFCAD is designed using the FS9 AP*.bgl which is 5 year old data (freq., ILS data, companion approach data, runway numbers, taxiway designations, etc.) and copied into FSX it blocks all the current NAVAIDS, Jeppesen data, etc. and inserts what came from FS9. Some of if not all airports in FSX are using a more precise placement of scenery including ground texture aprons. So far, all the airports I have worked with are destroyed (airport texture scenery lat/Lon wise) if I copy a FS9 AFCAD into FSX. AFCAD is telling FSX not to use any of the default airport scenery (excluding approach, buildings, taxiway signs) and use what the AFCAD has on the grid. Everything at this point including taxiways/taxiway signs are no longer aligned as an example. I do see AFCAD working with many small GA type airports where there is no animation or moving Jetways because those type airports use minimum apron textures. Just copy over to FSX and then see what does not align.I am decompiling AFCAD's and piecing element statements into my bgl's so AI will work correctly at large airports like KATL. What we need more then anything else at the present time is a decompiler so we can see how FSX is constructed at the airport level. AFCAD's can be hand written in XML (waiting on tools) once we can see all the element statements in the Logical numbering of the scenery folders.There is another small problem and that is sorting through the Logical matrix grid that FSX now uses instead of a Region scenery type bgl file. I have the matrix fiqured out so I can find the airport files but it is tedious based on the FSX new world grid. Anyway, I do have alot of it sorted out and still waiting to see some of Reggie's work. The model data that we were compiling in FS9 such as your Jetway mdl's are not recoginzed by the FSX BGLCOMP compiler. Error messages are saying those are not FSX mdl's. The element line statements also require removing the name="b5dee8749cbd1c549016f1ad5c7f6a00" but the sourcefile= line must stay. My work around (as a temp) was to compile using FS9's BGLcompiler and then copy the scenery into FSX. That part still works.Its only been a couple of weeks since FSX hit the streets in some areas but I think airport scenery updates into FSX is going to take more time then designers first thought.

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Hello Jim,The grid that FS X uses is not very complicated and finding the location of any particular file is particularly easy.Launch TMFViewer and load the image-globe.bgl first. Then, just point the mouse at the region of interest and read the status bar for name and directory of the bgl file.I have not yet had any problems with AFCAD files in FS X, although, of course, they do not have the new FS X features like airport vehicles, jetways, fences, etc. But, that can all be added by hand.Nor have I had any problem with flattens, but then I keep mesh resolution at 38 meters. There really does not seem to be any reason to push this setting down to 305 meters - at the least, I would imagine that everyone would have it at LOD 9, and increase resolution according to need and desire (and computer performance.)By the way, the new BGLComp only recognizes GUIDs in registry format - that is {8-4-4-4-12}.Best regards.Luis