FSX BglComp ExclusionRectangle - Help needed

[Guest UlfB]

Hi,I've tried to exclude all objects in a small area with the following xml code (I've omitted the FSData tag and xml prolog).It doesn't remove the default FSX autogen objects. Has the behaviour of exclusions changed in FSX? I've placed the exclusion bgl file with a lower priority than my custom scenery folder, but with higher priority (above) all other scenery entries.It might be the coordinates that are faulty. I've manually converted the FSX coordinates, for example: "N55 45.20" to decimal "N55.75333", which is 55 degrees plus 45.20 / 60.Any help will be appreciated :-)EDITED: Sorry for this post - I found the answer in other posts. Autogen must be disabled with Shp2Vec.exe.Ulf B

[Guest UlfB]

Hi again,After looking into the SDK on the tool Shp2Vec.exe, I must say that it seems to be a pretty complex task to exclude autogen objects for a small area. This feels like a giant step backwards compared to FS2004, at least for an amateur like me.Ulf B :-(

[veldthui 0]

So how do you do it?I am creating y local airfield that does not exist in FSX and have got it working perfectly (runways anyway) except that FSX keeps putting trees in the middle of the runways.I have the deluxe version so do have the tools but cant see how to exclude the area.

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Yikes! Ulf, it seems that BGLComp excludes no longer remove FS X autogen. Only Shp2Vec excludes can do that. I haven't tried excluding with BGLComp yet, but from what I have read, this is the new behavior.This is a shame because it is much easier and quicker to use BGLComp and most people are already familiar with it.Well, too bad. But, I shall put together a quick tutorial on excluding using Shp2Vec and put it in this forum, probably this week-end for anybody who is interested.Best regards.Luis

[Guest jimjones]

Resampled photoscenery seems to kill autogen too. Wonder if an invisible photo would to the job? :)

[Guest UlfB]

Luis,A tutorial would be wonderful and save me a lot of time. For now I'm giving my scenery building a rest. Thanks a lot for all help and comments. This is a good community :-)Ulf B

[GHD 21]

>> I shall put together a quick tutorial on excluding using Shp2Vec.I'm sure many people will be happy to hear this. It has taken me about a week to master the method. Might I add another small point. Exclusion polygons exclude normal autogen but not annotated photographic scenery (.agn files).George

[DougMatthews 0]

>>> I shall put together a quick tutorial on excluding using>Shp2Vec.>>I'm sure many people will be happy to hear this. It has taken>me about a week to master the method. >>Might I add another small point. Exclusion polygons exclude>normal autogen but not annotated photographic scenery (.agn>files).>>George>Autogen annotated onto photographic scenery should be excluded by the same mechanism as normal autogen. Unfortunately, due to an unintended side-effect of an optimization, this is currently broken. We are looking into it.-Doug

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

I feel for you, George. It took me a long time to understand it all, and I still have my doubts!I guess the only way to remove annotations for the moment is through the Annotator - open the file and delete! Ouch!Best regards.Luis

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Up till now, I had not had a chance to make any excludes using BGLComp.I received a message from Edgar Knobloch gently urging me to look more closely at this. Thank you, Edgar, for your tact.I had read some comment, I believe it was by Doug Matthews on another forum, confirming that autogen could only be removed by a Shp2vec file, an FLX (Airport Background) but that doesn't flatten, only removes autogen. But, I am probably wrong and it was most likely just a misunderstanding.There is some interesting behavior concerning XML excludes created with BGLComp.Here is a simple exclude: It seems to follow the example given in the S.D.K. and yet an error was generated:INTERNAL COMPILER ERROR: #C2628: Exclusion contains extra flags. The option 'excludeAllObjects' cannot be combined with other flags.INTERNAL COMPILER ERROR: #C2031: Failed element parse INTERNAL COMPILER ERROR: #C2032: XML Parse Error! Element tree follows:Very interesting, since the S.D.K. explicitly states: excludeAllObjects -- Boolean indicating whether all objects are excluded. If this is set to TRUE, then all the following exceptions are ignored, and need not be entered into the xml file.It does not mention that the other keys should not be entered.But, this is not the problem, just a misunderstanding. After removing those keys, the bgl compiled fine.What was the result?http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/161031.jpgEverything seems to be gone. Except for some objects in a higher layer in the scenery library.Removing the exclude brought trees and houses back.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/161032.jpgToo many houses. This is really just the sparsely habited countryside, but the new ground textures have so much more autogen than before that it looks crowded! I shall have to change the land class.So, XML excludes seems to work just fine.It came to me, though, that I have the xml autogen file turned off. I do not know how the new autogen works, and do not recall any explanation on this from the FS Team. Yet, in spite of having the xml autogen turned off, I still get autogen buildings, and plenty of trees on the forest land class (that normally did not have an annotation in FS 9).So, I turned on the xml autogen and saw something strange, to say the least.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/161033.jpgThe exclude seems to work, but not on those trees at the top that appear in the area of the exclude.Fine, time for the big guns. I turned on all the autogen, xml and non-xml, and pushed the slider to Extremely Dense and saw this:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/161034.jpgThe exclude seems to work up to about a longitude of -70.0924. Great, except that I specified -70.10 in the xml file. All those trees and buildings should not be there at all.So, I slewed around the exclude area and found: - North limit of exclude is N18.4899 instead of N18.50 - East limit of exclude is W70.0049 instead of W70.00 - could not measure the Southern limit of exclude, as I miscalculated and placed it in the Caribbean, but I imagine it is the sameWhy does the exclude work well, except towards the edge? No idea. But, it certainly removes everything, except objects on a higher scenery layer.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/161035.jpgDid the excludes made in the previous version show the same behavior? I never noticed, in any case.Anyway, the moral of the story seems to be: don't believe everything you hear, test, test, test. And thank you, Edgar, for pointing out that this does in fact work.Now, why does Ulf, or anybody else, have problems with xml excludes? Would they please post the xml code so that we can take a look?Thank you.Best regards.Luis

[Guest UlfB]

Hi Luis,This is my code, that doesn't work.<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> The rectangle is a pretty small area on the Swedish coast, where I want to clear all autogen before placing other buildings there.Ulf B

[Guest UlfB]

Hi again,Funny thing. If I make the exclusion rectangle larger it works! This needs some further testing.Ulf B

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi Luis.It almost looks as if a whole LOD13 must be within the exclude, or it doesn't work. But even that is not precise. Perhaps some autogen overlaps those bounds with some sort of refpoint that is still within the adjacent LOD13 area?Dick

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Could be, Ulf. But, I have not had problems with the size of an exclude and have made some that are very small. Although that was with FS 9.On the other hand, I think that it is Jon Patch or Matt Fox who has pointed out a problem with the example in the S.D.K. document. It seems that the line in the section Scenery File Format<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

I was coming to that same conclusion, Dick. It is very strange, indeed.What makes it even stranger is that the exclude removed normal autogen, but not the forest trees (that have no annotation).And then, when xml autogen was activated, the exclude removed that within the exclude, but not at the edges.I shall take a look in TMFViewer and see if there is a relevant grid somewhere along there that might explain clipping.As for a reference point, that autogen is pretty far from the Bounds I chose, but then we have not been told anything about the new autogen, so who knows?Best regards.Luis