Custom Objects with EZ Scenery for Ultimate Terrain.

[Guest haegri]

Hi. I'm a complete scenery ignoramus, so maybe some of you can bear with me while I ask some extremely dense questions!I've used Ultimate Terrain Europe with FS9 for some time, but am frustrated by the misplaced bridges. I've tried to place the Forth Railway Bridge in the correct place using EZ Scenery, but when you switch off bridges in UTE, the correctly-placed bridge disappears along with the wrong one.From the small size of the EZ output file, I guess that it doesn't make a copy of the model file, but just assigns it twice, and the UT method for switching off bridges prevents the model being used at all?Does anyone know of a way round this? I wondered if it was possible to extract the model from the original source file and put it in another file, where it could be used like any other EZ addon object?Thanks,haegri.Edit: However, if I enable QLRP4UT, I get both its repositioned bridge and my one, but not the wrong one. Is it possible that the problem is owing to where the EZ Scenery output files are located?

[meshman 109]

It's possible the exclusion file is taking out your repositioned bridge, if the layering of your file isn't setup correctly. Take your file, place it in a new scenery folder that you've activated in FS9 and make sure your new scenery folder is layered above the UT layers in the scenery library.

[arno 1]

Hi,I don't know how UT disables the bridges, but if that involved preventing FS from loading the object library that contains the bridges, then you correctly placed version of the bridge will also disappear indeed.Do you have any more information on what happens when you disable bridges? Does that mean a scenery layer is turned off? Some BGL files are copied away?

[Guest haegri]

Hi again. Thanks for replying.UT appears to disable the bridges simply by renaming a file called bridges.bgl to bridges.xxx, presumably so that FS can't recognise it. Even when disabled, however, this file still appears in the EZ Scenery menu as bridges.bgl. Its bridges can still be positioned in EZ - even though they appear as 'unnamed' with a 32-character hex number which I assume to be their GUID - but FS doesn't display the results unless bridges are enabled in UT, which displays the wrong as well as the EZ positioned bridge.I don't know whether bridges.bgl is a default file, or whether UT has extracted the bridges to this file from the default area files so that they could be disabled by this method.I've tried copying bridges.bgl and renaming it, but UT still recognises the copied file and disables it as well as the original one.The bgl file output by EZ is in the main addon scenery folder. I've put this higher in the hierarchy than the UT layers, but still no coconut - presumably because bridges.bgl is disabled.

[arno 1]

Hi,It sounds a lot like that bridges.bgl file is the object library that contains all the models and maybe also the placement of the bridges. So when it is disabled your bridges placed from the same library do not show as well.There might be one more thing you could try. If UT has a different BGL file for the placement, you could try to disable that and leave the bridges.bgl there. In that case you should be able to place those objects and get rid of the default ones.

[quantumleap 1]

Firstly, if you are trying out my QLRP4UT shareware add-on for use with UT Europe, if it is properly installed as per the (long) instructions provided, then all the misplaced/missing bridges which happen when you turn them off in UT Europe will be repositioned for you.If you want you create your own one, to replace the one I repositioned, you will need to create a separate placement BGL file, and then install it in its own scenery layer above QLRP4UT in the FS9 scenery library.Now if you are just using EZ Scenery to try and do this, and are not sure about the real technicalities underneath, you may run into some issues (as EZ Scenery utilises and places files in the general Addon Scenery folder which may then cause problems with it being moved above/below other entries in the scenery library).As for the discussion on the bridges.bgl file supplied by FS9 as part of its SP1 update, it only contains the models for the additional bridges. It contains no placement information. The placement information comes from other scenery files in the FS9 scenery library.In QLRP4UT, to get around the fact the UT Europe disables the global bridges.bgl by renaming it to bridges.xxx (when you disable bridges in UT Europe), my semi-automatic installer moves a copy of it (the .bgl version) into the QLRP4UT scenery folder for it to use. As my code excludes all the default FS9 versions before repositioning them, you do not get duplicates. If you yourself re-enable bridges.bgl in your own scenery folder, you'll need to write exclude code for every single bridge object it contains so you then won't get duplicates when they are then placed by the default FS9 scenery files.My suggestion is of course just to use QLRP4UT :-)Jeff

[Sidney Schwartz 11]

>I wondered if it was>possible to extract the model from the original source file>and put it in another file, where it could be used like any>other EZ addon object?This is how I've done that. I'm assuming you already know which bgl contains the model you want....1. Use Jon Masterson's Library Object Viewer to view the models in the bgl and find the guid number of the object(s) you want.2. Decompile the bgl using the bglxml program. You should end up with all the model files from that bgl.3. Use Library Creater to compile the extracted model(s) into a new library.Here's where to get the various programs:Library Object Viewerhttp://www.scruffyduckscenery.co.uk/BGLXMLhttp://www.scenery.org/design_utilities_a.htmLibrary Createrhttp://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/fsdevdownloads.php

[Guest haegri]

Thanks guys! This forum is a mine of information. I'll have to sift through what you say and try out some of your suggestions.Sydney, I'd already downloaded some of the files you suggest with the vague idea of doing something similar, but hadn't got round to trying them yet, as I'm unfamiliar with the scenery technicalities and wasn't quite sure what to do. Your step-by-step instructions will be invaluable.Quantumleap, the info about how you got round the UT disabling system is similarly invaluable. I did try out QLRP4UT a while ago but didn't use it for some reason that I can't remember. I don't think it was just because it was shareware (I'm Scottish :-) ) - I seem to remember it re-positions two bridges in Scotland, in the Forth, and doesn't do the others, such as the those in the Tay, around Inverness, and North Connel. Is that right? Understandably if you were doing the whole of Europe you couldn't do everything. It's because I live in Scotland that I'd like to sort some of the less prominent bridges, and I appreciate all the advice from the experts.It actually occurred to me to copy the bridges.bgl file as you suggest, but I imagined it would need texture files along with it.Can I ask some more questions while I'm at it?I was trying to make some bog-standard concrete docks, but the only ones available seem to be restricted to the Seattle area. At any rate, EZ won't use them anywhere else. So - (a) is it possible to extract these so they can be used elsewhere, and (:( in any case, does anyone know of dock scenery (just big concrete slabs) that could be used to build up solid docks and piers? I couldn't find any on avsim.Now I'll have to learn to use these utilities (sigh). I'll be back pestering you guys if - when - I get stuck.

[quantumleap 1]

>I seem to remember it re-positions two bridges in>Scotland, in the Forth, and doesn't do the others, such as the>those in the Tay, around Inverness, and North Connel. Is that>right?Correct, because Microsoft do not supply custom models for these bridges i.e. they only supply Forth road and rail bridges and none other in Scotland. As I am not a 3D modeler of any real skill, and therefore was not going to create any new object models but only reposition those specific ones which Microsoft supplied, I limited what I delivered.JeffP.S. Sidney did not cover the legalities of his technique for disassembling and repackaging the models out of someone elses work. While I'm sure it is OK for your own personal use, if you then provided them as a part of a posting to other users (whether freeware or payware) it would most likely constitute copyright infringement unless the original model carried an acceptable re-use policy with it.

[Sidney Schwartz 11]

>P.S. Sidney did not cover the legalities of his technique for>disassembling and repackaging the models out of someone elses>work. While I'm sure it is OK for your own personal use, if>you then provided them as a part of a posting to other users>(whether freeware or payware) it would most likely constitute>copyright infringement unless the original model carried an>acceptable re-use policy with it.Sorry for being unclear about that. I thought we were talking about the default FS9 scenery objects...that's what I was referring to. If they were created by a third party, then you should certainly get permission before distributing any modified versions.

[Sidney Schwartz 11]

>I was trying to make some bog-standard concrete docks, but the>only ones available seem to be restricted to the Seattle area.>At any rate, EZ won't use them anywhere else. So - (a) is it>possible to extract these so they can be used elsewhere, and>(:( in any case, does anyone know of dock scenery (just big>concrete slabs) that could be used to build up solid docks and>piers? I couldn't find any on avsim.If you can locate the bgl that the objects are in, you should be able to extract them using the method I described. Be aware, though, that some default scenery objects are autogen objects, not library objects. That means they don't really exist anywhere in a library and you wouldn't be able to extract them. I'm not familiar with these docks you're referring to...can you upload a screen shot of one?

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Aside from some of the autogen buildings (and trees in FS 9), all autogen objects are in library bgls.In FS X, these libraries are in the Global directory.Best regards.Luis

[Guest haegri]

Here's a screenshot of the sort of thing I mean - it's from Seattle.bgl. Just what I'm looking for to build typical concrete piers and docks, but EZ says it doesn't work outside the Seattle area.As to the legalities, it's only the default MS scenery I'm thinking of at the moment.Quantumleap - you mention that Microsoft does custom models only for the Forth bridges, but the UT switchoff switches off a lot of others as well. How does this happen?

[Sidney Schwartz 11]

Is this close enough? You'll find this and a bunch of very similar ones in fs9_custom_buildings_ss_1.zip, here in the Avsim libraries.Sidney Schwartz KPDX

[Guest haegri]

Yup - that's the sort of thing. I searched for 'docks' and things like that, but I think this is actually some sort of shed? Doesn't matter what it's supposed to be, as long as it does the trick!Thanks,John.