Help needed in making traffic

[jdyoung 0]

Hello gang!I have been simming since FS98 but am completely new to the design aspect. I have read the beginner's guide to scenery design at the top of this forum to get a feel for what I'm in for. For my first attempt at enhancing FSX I would like to add vehicle traffic to main highway that currently does not have any. I have the deluxe version FSX and have installed the SDKs. Using TmfViewer I have located the correct bgl and can see the vector information for the roads currently in place. I have written down the path for this bgl file.Now that I have the correct bgl file, my questions are:1. What program(s) do I need to use (download) to correctly add the traffic? I realize I need to add the new traffic then recompile it to insert it back into FSX but I don't know how to do that. 2. I noticed from the TmfViewer that I could view the points along the road - represented as lat/lon points. Do I need to go back and record those to use?Thanks in advance. JohnKPRB

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi John.Try this thread:http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho..._id=32859&page=Dick

[jdyoung 0]

Thanks for the link. The reply on this thread was "To get the automobiles, draw a line and compile it as FWX." My question is, what do I use to draw this line and compile it?Thanks!JohnEdited for spelling!

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Hello John,I have added a thread on creating autogen excludes with Shp2Vec. If you can have a look, the techniques and information there are also valid for creating freeway traffic.Freeway traffic source files (the shapefiles and the xml) have a FWX prefix in their name.The freeway traffic xml file has this content:<?xml version="1.0"?>And the dbf (database file) has the following fields:- UUID -- the unique identifier for each shape, in GUIUD format- NumberOfLa -- this is the number of lanes, and can be from 1 to 9- TrafficDir -- the direction of flow for traffic, and the options should be.......F -- one way flow from the origin of the line.......T -- one way flow to the origin of the line.......B -- traffic both ways, but this does not presenly work, so make 2 lines flowing different ways for 2-way traffic.I used SBuilder to draw a line on a background image. This was a screenshot of the relevant location in TMFViewer, cropped to the grid, and with coordinates obtained within TMFViewer:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/161238.jpgThen, I just drew a simple line over the roads in the image. When exported as BLN, I converted the line to a shapefile with BLN2SHP, modfied the dbf file to indicate the number of lanes and traffic direction, and compiled with Shp2Vec.If you have any problems, please just ask here and we shall be glad to help.Best regards.Luis

[jdyoung 0]

Luis,Many thanks for the information. I will give your method a try.Since my original post I have discovered the free utility FSX KML available through www.innovasoftware.com/fsx/fsx_kml_103.zip. The manual is available here: http://fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php?title=FSX_KMLIt uses Google Earth to place path points to create a road, traffic, shoreline or airport boundry - then runs a batch file (utilizing the SDK tools) to convert them to a bgl file. I have created some traffic using this program. One caveat - the roads in Google Earth do not always match up with the roads in FSX (gasp!). The result is traffic that strays and much tweaking to gain the correct (or close to correct) path. It can become quite time consuming to accurately place traffic if the data does not match. It would be easier to have a view of the FSX roads and draw in my traffic there. Hence, your method looks promising. I appreciate your explanation and look forward to creating in FSX.Edit: I get an installation error with SBuilder when initially loading that says I am missing 055B2SU1.BMP from my Scenery/World/Texture folder. I made a copy of a bmp from that folder and renamed the copy 055b2su1 in an attempt to complete the install. I then get the message: Run Time error '53' File not found and the program dumps back to the desktop. Any ideas? :-zhelpRegards,JohnKPRB

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Hello John,I am not really sure, but it seems to me that the error 53 has something to do with Regional Settings in Windows. This error appears when the decimal separator is set to a comma, instead of a period (what a barbaric idea! I get confused looking at all those numbers with commas for thousands.)You might try that and see if it works.Best regards.Luis