Scenery NEWB FS9

[scottb613]

Morn'n Folks,

Well - I've been using MSFS for ever - and - I finally took the plunge on my first real scenery effort... The right tools make all the difference...

I'm using Instant Scenery 2 and ADX and I seem to have figured out how to use both fairly well and - so far - I am pretty pleased with my first attempt... LOL - thanks to all those EZ Scenery content creators...

I have a few questions if you have a moment:

1) What controls the airport boundry ??? I'm pretty familair with ADX now - but - I haven't figured out how to control that region that has the base airport texture - that separates it from the rest of the global texture coverage... It's the lighter green grass texture... The airport I am working on is actually slightly larger than what is defined by default... I'm assuming if I make that region larger the resulting coverage will be automatically flattened as well ???

2) The landclass on my project need some changes as it has what looks like some kind of town coverage where there is no town in real life... What tool would I need to see the landclass used and possibly make some minior modifications ??? Am I getting in over my head with this ???

3) In ADX - do the little arrows on the taxiways mean anything ??? Some sort of directional control ???

4) On models built by others - that do not have night textures and seem to glow in the dark at night - is there a way to add night textures without the source code for the shape ??? Are night textures built into the shape - or - simply an alternate texture applied by FS9 ???

5) Anyone seen a shape library that has decent snow plows and/or mowing equipment ???

6) Can ADX place any of the EZ Scenery libraries or just ones made for ADX ??? I haven't figured out how to get the additional libraries loaded - if so...

Anyway - that's my start - and - I would appreciate ANY help provided...

Thanks...

Regards,
Scott

[StringBean]

Morn'n Folks,

Well - I've been using MSFS for ever - and - I finally took the plunge on my first real scenery effort... The right tools make all the difference...

I'm using Instant Scenery 2 and ADX and I seem to have figured out how to use both fairly well and - so far - I am pretty pleased with my first attempt... LOL - thanks to all those EZ Scenery content creators...

I have a few questions if you have a moment:

1) What controls the airport boundry ??? I'm pretty familair with ADX now - but - I haven't figured out how to control that region that has the base airport texture - that separates it from the rest of the global texture coverage... It's the lighter green grass texture... The airport I am working on is actually slightly larger than what is defined by default... I'm assuming if I make that region larger the resulting coverage will be automatically flattened as well ???

You are referring to the airport background. In the download section of www.fsdeveloper.com you can get SBuiilder. There is a different version for FSX and FS9. You can modify/create airport backgrounds in SBuilder that have the added benefit of excluding autogen. You can also use SBuilder to create a flatten much the same way as you create an airport background, in FS9 they are 2 seperate elements.

2) The landclass on my project need some changes as it has what looks like some kind of town coverage where there is no town in real life... What tool would I need to see the landclass used and possibly make some minior modifications ??? Am I getting in over my head with this ???

You can also modify landclass with SBuilder.

3) In ADX - do the little arrows on the taxiways mean anything ??? Some sort of directional control ???

They indicate the direction of the link and are most useful if you want lines and/or lights on one side only.

4) On models built by others - that do not have night textures and seem to glow in the dark at night - is there a way to add night textures without the source code for the shape ??? Are night textures built into the shape - or - simply an alternate texture applied by FS9 ???

Some are, some not so much. You can make a copy of the texture and add _LM to the end of the filename and see if they show up at night. If they do then you can edit the *_lm.bmp to look like night.

5) Anyone seen a shape library that has decent snow plows and/or mowing equipment ???

I will keep me eyes open, I saw a lawnmower type tractor somewhere...

6) Can ADX place any of the EZ Scenery libraries or just ones made for ADX ??? I haven't figured out how to get the additional libraries loaded - if so...

Scenery libraries are scenery libraries. To work with them in ADE9X you need to add them into the Library Object Manager. Trust me when I say you are better off using Instant Scenery. ADE9X gives you nothing in terms of object placement that you you don't get in IS.

Anyway - that's my start - and - I would appreciate ANY help provided...

Thanks...

Regards,
Scott

peace,
the Bean

[scottb613]

Hi Bean,

Thanks for taking the time - it seem that no matter what forum I enter - you are there providing help to others...

Greatly appreciated - sir...


Regards,
Scott

[scottb613]

Morn'n Folks,

OK - first hurdle overcome - I used SBuilder and changed the landclass and the fictional misplaced village vanished...

Thanks...

Now to my next question in SBuilder... Exclusions... I believe I found the answer - so to start - I'm just looking for some confirmation... I need to trim an edge off the default airport footprint... I spent a few hours trying to shave an edge without luck... The exclude function seems to work - however - it doesn't come anywhere close to matching the defined poly of the exclude... After tons of searching - I found a post that alluded to the fact as excludes on the base texture can only be done in large blocks... Is that true ? I'm assuming what I need to do now is exclude the entire base airport - draw a new poly to define the airport and use a landclass file to texture the new layer - does that make sense - LOL - before I waste more hours... So then the defined poly excludes would then work on my own layers - or - am I always stuck with these huge blocks in FS9 ?

Finally - for now - is there a way to convert the default autogen trees into objects for placement in Instant Scenery ? I've noted some trees in various EZ Scenery libraries - however - many don't have seasonal textures - or - don't match up with the surrounding scenery very well...

Regards,
Scott

[StringBean]

I have had success adding to a default airport background, however when reducing the size of one I get the best results be excluding the default and building a new one from scratch. The exclude poly does not have to be real accurate, it just needs to encompass the entire airport background, most of the time a simple rectangle will work as long as you don't bump into another airport.

The Sbuilder help file actually says that you should always exclude the default and create a new one. I think this might have to do with FS trying to draw the background on more than one layer, which might have a negative impact on FPS (more of a problem on hardware that was current when FS9 was released than current hardware).

Also note that you can draw polys in SBuilder with far more detail than what FS can draw in the sim due to the texture resolution limits. I found this out after creating some beautiful polys in SBuilder and being unhappy when I viewed them in the sim.

FYI, if you look in your terrain.cfg for \\ Airport Backgrounds you will find a list of about 18 different textures FS uses for airport backgrounds that have the added benefit of excluding autogen. When you choose a texture for your poly these can be found when you select "Assembled" and you will see the [Texture.nnnn] which matches the terrain.cfg.

When you draw your new airport background poly set it to a layer higher than the default (I usually set my AB to 20 and any other elements like roads and such above 20) and FS will exclude the default and draw yours.

As for the trees, you might want to look at agtrelib.zip in the library.

peace,
the Bean

[scottb613]

Hi Bean,

All your advice has worked perfectly... I'm getting the hang of SBuilder... I have excluded the original airport footprint - changed the landclass to remove a misplaced village - then selectively excluded inappropriate buildings - modified some more landclass to provide some required farmland - flattened some hills that were causing me an issue down one edge of the airport - I've built my new airport footprint to line up with UT roads - and - then expanded the regions necessary to match the prototype...

Overall it starting to look more like my home airport that I know so well...

Now I've got to go back to ADEX9 and modify the AFCAD to take advantage of the more accurate footprint...

Is there a tutorial on how to add a photo image background floating around somewhere ?

I think I have the big picture.... I found the site that provides the Google Maps image and the respective MSFS coordinates but I don't know what resolution or format to use for se with SBuilder... I would assume I somehow import a big rectangle shot and then start trimming the unwanted parts with excludes or additional polygons ? I didn't see anyplace to enter coordinates in SBuilder... If it's just an image it would probably require manual seasonal swaps to get it to change - as ts not a landclass - right ? Not sure I really want to go the photo route - but - at a minimum it should help me accurately pace all the buildings - right ???

Regards.
Scott