Coastline question

[Guest]

Hi late nighters,I've been attempting to use Elrond Elvish's and Jim Kanold's Ground Type Transform (GTT) utility to see if I could place some solid ground underneath the landscape I created for Honolulu International, specifically around the runway (8R/26L) that Fly! shows to be out in the ocean when in reality it sits on what looks like landfill. Using GTT I found that a couple of the tiles I've been sinking in are actually land, not water. In fact I sink not as I come up on these tiles but more towards the middle of them. Is it possible that some of the tiles are not simply land or water but a combination of both? Or does the coast.pod somehow overide the globe.pod? I tried changing the texture to grass but this made no difference. Also tried changing some of the adjacent water tiles to land but continued to sink in the same spot.To give a specific example, one tile that exibits this half and half quality is Globe (143,143), Tile (43,30). According to GTT the tile is filled with a tropical forest but towards the middle it turns to mush.Any help with this would be much appreciated. Thanks.Don

[Guest Colins2]

Don,Please check the following post, It should answer your question.http://ftp.avsim.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboa...rum=DCForumID19You can get the program and manuals on my site.ColinMy Hangar Site

[Guest]

Thanks Colin. I have read the above post and downloaded the Terrashape program and manuals but I still don't get it. Am I to understand that for ground on or near the coast to be experienced as solid I have to have two things in place: 1) the underlying texture in the GLOBE.POD must be a land type and 2)the Fly! coastline, as defined in the COASTLINE.POD must extend beyond the underlying tile. I expected #1 but not #2. I'd assumed that if the underlying texture was designated as a solid it would be experienced that way regardless of what photorealistic scenery or terrascenery I put on top of it. If that were true I wouldn't need to edit the Fly! coastlines but could ignore them as they would be covered over. But, at least for Hawaii, it doesn't seem to work that way. You don't say it specifically in the manual, at least not for my humble brain, but is it the case that for ground to be solid both #1 and #2 above must be true? I will try Terrashape and the CAD program I just downloaded this weekend and see if edited coastlines are the missing ingredient for solidity. Really appreciate that you've given us such a great tool so late in the game, there are so few with your talent still attending to Fly!Don

[Guest Colins2]

Hi Don,If you just want to 'see' ground in a TerraScene'd area, then you don't need to do any more than render the area with your accurate coastline data.If you want to see ground in generic scenery, then you will have to change the underlying texture with Ground Tile Transformer.This works well, but it will change the complete tile and you will have a square blocky coastline and you will still 'sink' if you land on it!The way that Fly!2 displays the generic scenery is dependant upon the coastline polygons defined in the pod file as I explain in the manusl. The example that I detail, of Nice, is a good one to explain the process. It sounds complicated, but it is logical when you 'see' the files in a cad program.The coast polygons have to be defined as ground before you can land on them.Once you have changed the coastline polygon file, and the default texture (using GTT) then the default generic scenery should be accurate and you will be able to land/taxi as you would expect.From what I found when researching all this data, it is not TRI's fault. In the case of Nice, for example, the coastline just isn't there in the GSHHS data, neither is it there in the DCW data. I copied (very roughly) from a more up-to-date map of the area.I made no real attempt to be very accurate as the ROTW guys will probably TS the area anyway.Hope this helpsColin