Improving Coastlines

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Hello Bodo,Congratulations, you have come very far. It is always difficult to realize that one must create a very large coast to replace the default - it is so much work.About your questions, let's see:1. The LOD grid and the QMID (quad mesh identifier) grid are essentially the same thing.In previous versions of FS, we referred to a LOD grid. This is just a grid of quadrants that becomes progressively smaller - for example, a LOD 5 quadrant is divided in 4 parts and each part is a LOD 6 quadrant. A LOD 10 quadrant is divided in 4 parts and each is LOD 11, etc. The LOD grid was used to delimit the maximum size of terrain elements. For instance, a road that spanned more than 1 LOD 13 quadrant was automatically cut at the boundaries of the quadrants, and only each separate part was coded for that particular quadrant. This breaking up of code was more efficient for the FS engine.In FS X, the LOD grid has been supplanted by the QMID grid. There is no particular difference between the 2 grids, except in the naming - add 2 to LOD to get QMID. So, LOD 5 is QMID 7, LOD 9 is QMID 11, LOD 13 is QMID 15, etc.You should be able to find the extents of the QMID grid in the Terrain S.D.K. documentation.While in previous versions of FS, terrain elements were broken down relative to a LOD 13 grid (which is quad 15 now), this has changed in FS X.In FS X, terrain elements are delimited by the quad 11 grid (which was LOD 9). So, all Hydro Polygons are broken down into separate quad 11 parts, as are roads, and shorelines, and streams, etc.There are some exceptions: freeway traffic lines are limited by the quad 15 grid, perhaps because of their specific function that might be more code-intensive.And Hydro Polygons have a maximum size of quad 11, but can be broken down into smaller parts all the way down to quad 15. The size of the Hydro Polygon will depend on the curve of a coast, how complex it is, and how it impacts on the geometry of the quadrant, I suppose, but the FS Team does not reveal the inner workings of the game so that is just supposition.This does not mean that you cannot draw terrain elements as big as you want. On the contrary, you can make any element any size and not worry about it. Shp2Vec will handle the necessary separation of the code into the quadrants for you.2. To display a QMID grid in TMFViewer, go to the menu and select that qmid value. You can also display a LOD grid (even though it is no longer used) and if you display a quad 11 grid and a LOD 9 grid, you will see that they are the same.3. How did I know your Hydro Polygon was quad 11? I displayed a quad 11 grid and saw that the grid lines fell exactly on the lines of the Hydro Polygon.4. When you right-click on a terrain element in TMFViewer, you will get a GUID for it. GUID is Globally-Unique Identifier. GUIDs are subsets of UUID, which is a Universal Unique Identifier.They are 32-character hexadecimal values. In FS X, all GUIDs must be in the so-called "Registry" format, that is, {8-4-4-4-12} with the "curly braces" around them.UUID (and GUID) are supposed to be unique numbers, because of the way that they are generated: a combination of network address, timestamp, random elements, etc. An interesting aspect of UUID is that it was part of the Open Software Foundation project - and yet Microsoft has adopted this as a standard for pretty much all their software!All FS X terrain elements are identified by a GUID (in fact, all elements of the simulator properties are identified by GUIDs). These terrain GUIDs can be found in the terrain.cfg file, a very, very long file.I have put together a more condensed, hopefully more easy-to-read list of terrain GUIDs that can be found in the Avsim library, along with the Modified Terrain.Cfg that Richard Ludowise and I put together. You can find that here:http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID...scen&DLID=932895. In SBuilder for FS X, you can display the QMID grid. By displaying the quad 11 grid, you will more easily be able to see the necessary extent of your Hydro Polygon - it must extend at least that far.To display a QMID grid in SBuilder, go the the View menu.By the way, you should not draw a Hydro Polygon over land, because nothing will display over it. Make sure that your Hydro Polygon represents the real extent of the water, and nothing else.SBuilder for FS 9 was able to import the default terrain files, so we could see exactly what we were removing and replacing.Unfortunately, the FS developers have not revealed the format of the FS X terrain files, so we are not presently able to look inside them. So, SBuilder will not show the default coast.You will have to keep an eye on the display in TMFViewer while you make corrections in SBuilder.6. Hydro Lines (beaches) have a wave effect attached. The effect is only on 1 side of the beach texture, so you must draw this line in the correct direction in order to get the wave effect to display on the right side.Hydro Lines should be drawn clockwise around the Hydro Polygon, that is to say, the Hydro Line must keep the water on the right-hand side.Best regards.Luis

[Guest Catalano]

Hello Luis,back from a visit in a spanisch restaurant and some food-shopping I was hoping to find help from you. And what can I tell you - I found much more. Again an excelent description which really helps a lot.You are really "sehr nett"!!!! I am very happy to have someone like you. I have seen your answers in other groups - that is really a bunch of support you spent for us all.Thanks again.Now I will do some work on a new clockwise coastline and you can hopefully spent some more time to get your projects ready.All the best for you.Bodo