How to create photoreal scenery for FSX

[Tiberius K.]

PART V - Working with SBuilderX - Polygons (continued)



11) Start SBuilderX and open your Nauru project.





12) Selext "Add Map From Disk", go to your "SbuilderX/Tools" folder and choose "Nauru.bmp"





13) You should see your image now. We have to replace the entire QMID 7 square, so choose "QMID Grid Level 7"





14) Zoom in a bit, choose the polygon tool in the toolbar and start drawing a random polygon by clicking your left mouse button. When you are done click your right mouse button.





15) Right-click on a polygon line and select "Fill to QMID7".





16) Now your polygon should fill out the entire QMID7 grid. Then we will turn this generic polygon into a hydro poly.
Right-click again on one of the poly lines and choose "Properties"





17) Choose "Hydro_Default_Perennial" (just hit the "H" key on your keyboard) and click "OK"





18) Now your poly has turned blue and you won't see your image anymore. Right-click again on one of your poly lines
and choose "Set Transparency"





19) Set your transparency level to 35 and click "OK". Save your project.





20) Now you can see your image again. Zoom in to zoom=15

[bthiago]

You guys are the best. I wish I could build some sceneries myself.

[Tiberius K.]

PART V - Working with SBuilderX - Polygons (continued)


21) Now select your polygon tool and start drawing a polygon along your coastline by left-clicking. (you can zoom in and out with your mouse wheel). It doesn't matter in which direction (clockwise/counterclockwise both work). When you have come full circle, click your right mouse button again to close the poly.





22) Your poly should now look like this:





23) The poly usually looks a bit rough. But you can smooth it out a bit. Right-click on one of the poly lines and select "Smooth"





24) Type "25" as minimum distance and click "smooth" and then "OK". Be careful, if your poly has about 800+ poly points, SBuilderX sometimes crashes. So save your project before your smooth a large poly. I recommend saving your project often. When SbuilderX crashes or some tool doesn't work as it should, just exit SBuilderX and reload your project and continue.





25) Poly points might have doubled, but it looks much much better. So far our QMID7 square is water only, which means all terrain data is lost. We have to cut a hole into the hydro poly so the terrain beneath can be shown. So right-click on one of your poly lines and select "set as hole"





26) Now your courser says: "Click to select parent poly". Our parent poly is our blue QMID7 poly. So zoom out and left-click on one of the poly lines and a hole will be created.





27) Your yellowish poly will turn transparent when the poly hole has been created. Save your project







28) Now start FSX and have a look at the area without the default hydro poly. You will see that there is no water anymore, only terrain.

[Tiberius K.]

PART V - Working with SBuilderX - Polygons (continued)


30) Now it's time to compile our hydro bgl that we can lay over that terrain. Close FSX, choose "select all polygons" in SBuilderX and then click "BGL compile". If it doesn't compile click again on "select all polygons".





31) Check "Copy files to BGL folder" and then click "OK". Your poly will be compiled (takes only a second or two).





32) If your file doesn't show up in your "Nauru/Scenery" folder then it's probably in the "SBuilderX/Scenery" folder. Your bgl file should have the name "CVX_Nauru.BGL". Move it to your "Nauru/Scenery" folder, change the name to "CVX_HYDRO.BGL". Double-click it and it should look like this:





33) Zoom in a bit and you will see that it looks way better than the default FSX hydro!





34) Now start FSX again have a look:






Looks more and more real!



Next we will do some shorelines because we can't see any waves yet and some water class because there is a reef that doesn't belong there so we will clean it up.

[Tiberius K.]

PART VI - Working with SBuilderX - Shorelines



Shorelines - if they match your photoreal background - can really enhance your scenery. Shorelines come with a wave effect which will let your scenery look more alive. So let's add some shorelines and waves to Nauru!


1) Open your Nauru project in SBuilderX





2) Deselect All Polygons. That will give you a clear view of your image.





3) Zoom in and select the Line Tool.





4) Now start drawing a line around your island by left-clicking, when you are done click your right mousy button.
You have to draw your line counterclockwise, if you draw it clockwise, wave direction will be reversed (your waves will
go from the shore into the ocean instead of from the ocean onto the shore!). If that should be the case later, you can
select reverse under Properties and change your wave direction easily and anytime.





5) You don't have to draw one single shoreline around the entire island. Some parts of your island just don't need a wave
effect. You can draw as many shorelines as you want.





6) When you are done drawing it should look like this:





7) So far your lines are just lines. We have to turn them into shorelines. Right-click on your on one of your lines and
select Properties





8) Select Ocean White Sand Perennial because Nauru has white sandy beaches and click "OK". Now do the same
thing with every other line you've just drawn. Then save your project.





9) When you are done, select All Lines





10) Now click BGL Compile and your shorelines will be created. Your bgl file will have the name "CVX_Nauru.BGL".
Rename it to "CVX_SHORELINES.BGL". If your file isn't in your "Nauru/Scenery" folder then it is probably in your "SBuilderX/Scenery" folder, so if that is the case just move it into your "Nauru/Scenery" folder.

[Tiberius K.]

PART VI - Working with SBuilderX - Shorelines (continued)


11) Double-click on your "CVX_SHORELINES.BGL" file and have a look at it with TmfViewer. You will see your shorelines as yellow lines.





12) Now we want to see how it looks like in FSX. Start FSX and go to Nauru, it should look like this now:









Waves are clearly visible. Wave direction oki-doki desu. Shoreline blends perfectly with our background image. Looks good!

Now we will do something about that reef that doesn't belong there by adding some water class tiles.

[Tiberius K.]

PART VII - Working with SBuilderX - Water Class


When you look at our scenery in FSX you will see a reef on the upper left of Nauru that isn't there in reality. So we will clean it up by putting some water tiles over it.




1) Open your Nauru project in SBuilderX





2) Zoom in and select the Water Class Tool





3) Select "054_Deep Ocean Water, Class3, Tropical" (that's the default water class for the Nauru area) and check "49" at Brush Insert Size, then click "OK"





4) Now click around the island until it is filled out with water class tiles and select All Water Tiles





5) Click BGL Compile.





6) After your bgl file has been compiled, it will have the name "WC_9232.bgl". Move it to your "Nauru/Scenery" folder if it's not already there. Then double-click it and open it with TmfViewer, the area painted green represents the water tiles we've just added:





7) Now start FSX and have a look:




That reef is gone. Everything clean now.


Now it's time to finally do something about that runway. We will whip it into shape with Airport Design Editor (ADE).

[Tiberius K.]

PART VIII - Working with Airport Design Editor (ADE)


Now it's time to deal with that runway.


1) Start ADE and select "Open Stock Airport"





2) Look for Nauru, and click "Open"





3) Now you can see Nauru Airport:





4) Since that airport lies in the ocean and not on our island, we have to move everything. But that's annoying and default aprons etc. probably aren't correct anyway so we delete everything and start from scratch, that's much faster. Now delete every object you can see by left-clicking on it and pressing your delete button on your keyboard except:
- default runway
- tower
- ID
- NDB
Your airport should now look like this:





5) Save your airport (CTRL+S)

6) Now we need to know where to place that runway. So right-click with your mousy on the yellow airport background and select "Add Image".





7) Now add your resized "Nauru.bmp" from your "SBuilderX/Tools" folder and add the coordinates from your "Nauru.txt" file in your Nauru folder.





8) You should see your background image in ADE now. Save your project again (CTRL+S).





9) Left-click on your runway and drag and drop your runway to the spot on the image where it is supposed to be. You will see that this runway is too long and it's direction is a bit off.





10) Now you have to play around with runway length and heading until your runway fits precisely onto your image runway. I've already done that for you so just double-click on your runway and a "Properties" window will open. Enter "6820.0" as runway length and "130.25" as Heading, set your surface to "Asphalt" then click "OK"

[Ragtopjohnny]

Unbelievable. Great tutorial. I'm sure a lot will benefit from this.

[Tiberius K.]

PART VIII - Working with Airport Design Editor (ADE) (continued)



11) Place your runway correctly and then right-click on your runway and select "Lock Object". Now you can't accidentally move your runway.





12) Drag your ID onto your runway and your tower next to the parking spots:





13) Now run "Fault Finder", fix all faults, close fault finder and then save your project (CTRL+S) compile (CTRL+C) your airport BGL file. Choose your Nauru/Scenery folder as destination folder.









14) Start FSX and have a look at your runway, looks ok from far away:





15) Let's add the two Taxiways. First you must create a runway link. Select "Add Runway Link" in the toolbar.





16) Now left-click (hold it) on your upper runway end and drag your mouse pointer to the lower right runway end. There should be a black line. Align it with your runway center line. It should look like this now:





17) Now we add a taxi link. Select "Add taxi link" and draw two taxiways by left-clicking on your black runway link line and dragging your mouse pointer to the parking area.




18) It should like this now. You will notice that our taxiway width needs some adjustment.





19) You do that by double-clicking on the blue taxi link line. A new properties window will open.
Set "Width" to 85 ft, check Center line and lights and click "OK". Do the same with your other taxi link.





20) Now your taxiways should look like this: