Is there a case for an improved autogen?

[Guest tonyc]

Why can't we look at autogen and see if someone can add more features to it? I like the idea of populating the scenery as I fly.tony

[Guest Steve Brown]

Yes this would be wonderful Tony.I would love to help in the modelling for this!http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/92791.jpg http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/92799.jpg SteveMy Websitehttp://www.wrexhamspace.orghttp://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/ysomdesign/banner.jpg

[Guest laurentC]

Hi there,Autogen is an old tool some people played with some time ago (can't remember all of them). Some autogen add-in were really good but haven't been developped anymore ...The development of such an add-in is not a matter of fact, but it needs a lot of time to be implemented. I would like to try to expand what I did many months ago ... but I'm working in an other BIG project with AITraffic and it takes yet enough of my spare time.Richard and TRI left a chunk of code that only waits to be developped.Cheers,laurentC

[Guest laurentC]

... but, you know what ? It's a great idea fo a project if many of you have 3D objetct to place to the ground ... let's think about it some time.The first thing to do would be to collect all the stuff that has been done yet, see what can be improved and where, then prepare a tool that allow one to tweak the placement and frequence of the 3D objects to the ground according to the scenery type (gentex or user) ... That sounds right ?laurentC (rotw)

[Guest Steve Brown]

I have made 30 buildings (flats) as of today. Im now working on smaller buildings all low poly ;-) SteveMy Websitehttp://www.wrexhamspace.orghttp://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/ysomdesign/banner.jpg

[Guest laurentC]

Hi Steve,That's fine ! Just keep in mind that we need some low poly object for cities that are more typed than USA or Australian ones (european, sud american ... and other countries). The challage is with very few polygons to create the feeling of typed countries pattern ... and trees.Cheers,Laurent (rotw)http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/92959.gif

[Guest laurentC]

If you agree, I will propose a project for development here and see what can be done ...L.

[Guest laurentC]

Hi again,I revisited AVSIM library and take a new look at :The Super Quickgen, version 2.0Authors: Bj

[Guest tonyc]

Well, Laurent, the Super Quickgen is a great program. And for the time it was created, it did a great job. We need a bit more fluidity with how scenery pop ups( if you recall, this is a Richard Harvey issue from the first day the sim came out). Also, the water areas have models, lots of them, in the water. I believe I removed Super Quickgen after teleporting to the island of Corsica, at Campo dell'oro. I would like to try simple experiments, for example, to see how we can populate the landscape with trees( or more correctly, vegetation), so many that the landscape appears more uniform with vegetation.. I will install it again and fly with it for a while, to refreshen my memory.tony

[Guest Steve Brown]

Great. :-) Before my FS9 disks were ruined I studied how the microsoft guys made their models. My FS 2002 works great though and I can copy those kind of buildings and ideas. My models are more frame rate happy now after my friend Andrew Thomsen told me about how to deleate areas not seen and used on buildings, and its made a big difference ;-) Though Im still having problems with Welding, I noticed that when putting them into Fly2 there is an option to weld for you. Anyway, what I make I will put in a pod and send them to you if you like Laurent.The models that are not used I will add to my next models pod, so its no problem.If anyone has textures I can use for this project please send them too me at wasp@brown8506.freeserve.co.uk I have broadband so no worries.What Im looking for!Fronts of houses, buildings, shops... head on is best, but I can correct this if the angle isnt too high or to the side.Some of you guys have sent some great pictures already, thankyou.SteveMy Websitehttp://www.wrexhamspace.orghttp://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/ysomdesign/banner.jpg

[Guest laurentC]

Ok !If we want to get another autogen, we first need to define our goals.I noted that water problem and fps fluidity were ahead of the list ; have you other request ?Also : Ken Salter (our forum moderator, eh, eh !) made a great work with his autogen. We should ask to him if we can improve his work prior to reivent the whell, should we ?Steve, among all the tricks I can imagine to reduce the fps drop, there's the swap technique between hide and low poly models.Aircrafts and 3D objects have this opportunity hard coded yet with tags parameters (even if we use them not very often). You should then, prepare sets of hight and low quality models. Hight model are models that one can recognize by VFR while low model are only shapes of object that popups in the horizon line. This way we can have few hight models around the aircraft and a lot of small fps object far away. Who cares about trees shape in the horizon, eh, eh ?Laurent

[Guest laurentC]

... Another thing : we can swap between two models (hight and low) but we can't get rid of them. One must be loaded ! So the trick is to have a void object (a transparent surface) that is uploaded in place of the oject we want to remove from the scene. A sort of decoy ...I used the ScenGen program this afternoon and, besides it is prepared with many trees, I maintain a good fps (I've got an 'old' PC AMD 1700 with a middle class graphic card !).I think that what we need is this program with some modifications to manage popup models and avoid water : do you agree with me ?laurent

[Guest tonyc]

I agree, but on the fps issue.... the pop up approach that FLY2 uses with autogen does create some unusual "stutters", even with very powerful cpus like mine--amd 3200. I recall taking the citabria and doing a tight figure eight turn. Those autogen models( and I had everything at maximum) did interfere with the "fluidity" of the scene.It's that "real time" approach that FLY2 uses for scenery generation. Also, what Msfs has is overall more dense feel to the scenery, and the autogen models , therefore, don't look like homeless children. In Fly2, I believe that the challenge is to create "generic" models that literally paint the scenery. This is why perhaps autogen could perhaps become FLY2 answer to a more dense and real scenery as we go lower in altitude.I agree also that defining the goal and the possibilities of a Super Quickgen 2 would be the first steps.tony

[Guest Steve Brown]

OK I think I understand you. I will try a few things tonight for low poly far off models and see if its what you are after. Does this mean that we need 2 of every model or will we get away with a dozen or so low poly objects?SteveMy Websitehttp://www.wrexhamspace.orghttp://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/ysomdesign/banner.jpg

[Guest laurentC]

Think that a pool of various generic object with low poly is enough to work and see what's coming up ... Nothing looks more than a two story building that another two story building (or three) in the horizon !Tony's idea is a good idea : we must give some complexity to the ground at low altitude. It's tha whole thing that matters, not the details ...Laurent