RSorochak

In thinking about when I've used SBuilderX in the past, I don't think it creates layers. You simply draw one polygon, etc, over the next. So you'd create the coastline poly and, then, the deepwater poly all on the same layer and export them in a format that FSET can use? Just not sure what that would be. Unfortunately, I'm away from my home computer and can't check any of this out.Rich

Sorry, Eric, but I'm not the one to ask. I've never used SBuilderX for that. GHD is the person who said that he used it to create coastlines. If I knew, I'd be more than happy to help.Rich

That's too bad. I was hoping it was something simple like that. Unfortunately all I have are dim distant memories of GE, KML, and how they apply to FSET. So, assuming you're naming the lines and/or polygons correctly, I'm not much help.Rich

Stupid question...but I notice that the website provides KMZ files. You are exporting those out of GE as KML for use in FSET, aren't you? Just making sure it's not a simple oversight that's causing the issue. I've had more than my share of them over the years...Rich

Looks like you're trying to download tile versions that might no longer be on their servers:For the [service 1] ServiceUrl, try: g=172 :for the versionFor [service2] ServiceUrl, try: v=1.8 :for the versionThere might be even more current version #s now but those still work.Neither TP nor FSET are better. They are designed to do different things. If you want to fly over photoscenery without altering the tiles in any way, then TP will probably be your better bet. If you want to add water effects, alter coloration, seasonal changes, etc to the imagery, then FSET is what you should be using. TP is for the more casual user. FSET is for someone who wants to get more involved with scenery creation.Rich

Ahhh...OK. I ran across it once and bookmarked it but never really looked to see how fine the coastlines could be marked. I had already stopped using KML files for coastlines by then.Rich

Haven't really looked into this myself but is this of any help: Build Google maps polylines and polygons from templates ?

I'm a bit confused. Are you just altering the scenery BMP or are you also altering the Blend and Water Mask BMP? Not sure why just altering the scenery BMP would cause an issue.Rich

Tried installing this but when I start the sim with it as the selected aircraft, there's an immediate crash (with sparks flying, etc) and the sim resets only for the aircraft to crash again...and again...and again...and again...I have a feeling I should be switching to it after starting in another "aircraft".Rich

Thanks. DIdn't know this existed. I'll have to look into it.Rich

:( Congratulations! It looks like you're now on your way. Enjoy!Rich

Oh, for the TIFF files, you might find that you'll have to change: Layer = Imagery to Layer = NoneIt's been a long time since I settled on the formatting I use but I believe I had issues with TIFFs set to: ImageryRich

You missed this line from my previous example. Add this to the end of Source1: You have to tell the program which source is the water reflection source. I'm not sure if it's critical but I always place the night mask 2nd, the blend mask 3rd, and the reflection mask (LandWaterMask) 4th. I notice that you're not using a blend mask here, though. So, add the change above and try it, if it works great. If not, try changing the order of the night mask and reflection mask. If you do, though, change "2.0" to "3.0". Otherwise it'll be trying to get the reflection information from your night mask.Rich

So it was the FSX water setting that was causing the oddity?Rich

I wonder if it has something to do with the sharp, narrow indentation for the river. As an experiment, if not too much trouble, you might want to try a mask that cuts straight across the top and see what happens. Again, it's been a long, long time since I've used any of this. So that's simply a WAG on my part.Rich

Unfortunately, to my eye, everything looks OK. But it's been so long since I've used GE with FSET that my opinion doesn't mean much. I've forgotten most of what I knew at one time. Hopefully someone else will be able to pick up on something.Rich

Give this a try instead. I've added some notes in red. You can delete them from the file.Not sure if you plan to keep FSET's filenames. I abbreviate and alter mine to make it easier to keep track of things. You might want to start the Blendmask TIFF's name with BlendMask to read: BlendMask_N059230257_N058445235_E016180557_E017372748.tif. And do the same thing with the WaterMask. There's nothing magical about the name as long as the file name and its name in the INF file are the same so that the Resampler can retrieve it when it needs it. Altering the names to something that makes sense will allow you to keep your sanity in long term. Hopefully I haven't missed anything.Rich

In my experience, the only time the resampler won't run is when there's an error in the INF file. First check to make sure the directories and file names are correct in the INF. If that's not the problem, then post what you have in the INF and I'll see if I can spot the problem.Rich

You're quite welcome. Let me know when you have your first set of masks done. I'll have you send me some information. You'll need to alter the appropriate INF file(s) in order to compile the masks into the BGL. How many sections are you dealing with, anyway? The area in the images at the top of this thread doesn't look very large. So, hopefully, not many.Rich

I'm at work now and realized that, I think, we are talking about two different things. I think you said "water mask" which is actually adding water reflections to the photoscenery. But you also will need a blend mask which is what the deep water/coastline business is all about.I only have a few minutes now but... Essentially you go about making the two in the same way as described above. The trick in the blend mask is to make the blended area random. For that you will need to work with the brush menu and, if you can't find something that gives the effects you want, go online and find some that will work for you. I tried a few hundred before I found some that produced an effect I liked. In both the water mask and the blend mask, white allows the photoscenery to show in all it's glory. In a water mask, however, you are only dealing with black and white. Black is the water reflection. It's all or none.The blend mask, however deals with black and white and the shades of grey in between. White is the photoscenery and black is FSX scenery. FSET makes a uniform transition, no matter how much you play with the settings. In Photoshop you can completely randomize it by using black, white, and a layer for each.In it's simplest form, make a layer for white and a layer for black. Make sure the color (black or white) on those layers overlap. Then delete the photoscenery BMP, flatten what's left (the flattening will give you shades of grey where they overlapped), and save it as a TIFF.More, if you need it, later.Rich

I have Photoshop CS3. Assuming the work area looks the same, open the scenery BMP in Photoshop. Select Layer/New/Layer from the menu at the top. Select the "Brush" tool from the tool menu on the left and right-click. From the context menu, select "Pencil Tool". Set the diameter and shape you want from the menu in the top left corner and make the foreground color "black" (hover your mouse over the two color boxes you see toward the bottom of the tool bar on the left and you'll see which is foreground and which is background. If the two boxes are already black and white, click the curved arrow to switch their positions, if you need to.Now zoom in on your image and trace the shoreline from one edge of the image to the other. When done, select the Gradient Tool from the tool bar on the left and right click. From the context menu, select "Paint Bucket Tool". Hover it over the ocean area and click. The entire area should fill in with black. Next delete the background layer and "flatten" the layer you have left. That will fill the non-black area in with white. Save the resulting black/ white image as a TIFF file. That's your watermask.You'll next have to make some changes to a text file but I'm late for work and will have to pass that info on later.Photoshop has a steep learning curve but the results are well worth the effort. My instructions sound easy but I'm sure you'll need to dig into the manual to figure out how to make some of what I'm taking about happen. There are more advanced ways of using the program to create a water mask and blend mask that look more natural but that's more than I can pass on in a short note. You can see what you can do with it in some of my scenery. If you search the file library here at AVSIM for "Rich Sorochak", my Kauai scenery should pop up. The download is broken up into five files. That scenery will give you a good example of where this program can take you. The results will be much more satisfying that what you can produce with Inkscape.Rich

IIRC, the tool needed to be 2 pixels wide to work well. And, if there are sectional joins, you have to make sure those lines overlap. I prefer Photoshop myself. It's what I use to create both water masks and blend areas. If I have an opportunity soon, I'll see if I still have Inkscape installed (I'm away from my computer for the next day or two). Maybe it can be used in a similar manner.Rich

You should be able to install the SDK anywhere you want. Timelines depend entirely on how large the area is and how compressed you want each BGL file to be. The BGLs, once the are tiles are downloaded, usually take from 1 to 5 minutes or so each to generate. It depends on whether you are including masks, seasons, etc in the BGLs.Rich

It's the AreaFSXMasksInfo_xxxxxxxxxx.inf that is used.Rich

Well...your scenery most likely compiled because "CompileScenery" is set to "Yes" in the FSET INI. You're probably not looking for it in the right place. Unless you changed the locations, open FSET and read the location listed and look for the BGLs there.If need be, you can recompile the scenery using resampleFSXSP2.exe (assuming we're taking FSX). Drop each Area.inf file (or is it AreaMasks.inf? I'll have to check when I'm home again) on it to compile its BMPs (Summer, Seasons masks, etc) into a BGL file.Rich