Jump to content

How to create photoreal scenery for FSX


Tiberius K.

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 434
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Hi,

Sounds like things are moving right along. Congratulations!

I discovered that the newest Google tile server didn't work but the next oldest one did.

Let me fill you in on what I'm trying to do. Rather than an island I'm trying to include a small town that doesn't exist by default. The vector data, railroad tracks and roads, are good. You wouldn't know it from the default scenery but the town, Castroville CA, is completely surrounded by agricultural fields. I, too, got to step 30 and after checking things out decided I'm going to have to address the wrong landclass issues before proceeding. The next steps in the tutorial involve blending the new scenery with the existing. There's a program called EZ landclass that makes modifying the default fairly simple. I fooled with it a while back but now I'm going to have to learn it again.

Jim F.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jim, Question how did you get an older version of google earth in Sbulider? And another, Have you ran into a situation that after you have typed in your N/W positions and go to show back ground it comes up to a different area ? If so do you know how to keep that from happening ?

 

Regards

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi,

After clicking on the "Tile Server plugins" link in my version of the tutorial I went to the last page and downloaded V144; I tried V145 first but that didn't work for me. I deleted the original GoogleServer.dll from the Tiles folder and added the new dll.

As far as the area data, I went into Google Earth and on the Tools tab I selected Options and decimal degrees for the Lat/Lon data. I then went to the area I wanted and put a Placemark at the center of the area. From the Placemark data I highlighted the, now decimal, location data and Copied the info into SBuilder location data. I just noticed that in my tutorial I said that when the data is entered and OK is pressed the data will change to the DMS format. I think that's what happened yesterday when I did it. I recall when I first went through the tutorial when I enterd the dat in DMS format it would change the data and jump to the wrong place. I think after banging my head a few times I decided to make my own tutorial and add notes. I'll recheck my tutorial and try to make this clearer.

I checked the South Padre Island area in Google Earth and recalled that EZ Land Class can not only modify Land Class but Water Class as well. That might be of help to you.

Jim F.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why don't you just use SbuilderX for landclass, you've already got a map down to use as a guide? Just use the landclass tool (or waterclass) and click in some landclass tiles wherever needed (the default landclass just shows through wherever you haven't added tiles in your SBX project). SBX has some nice previews for the landclass varieties, just select a landclass in the landclass dialog and then click the preview icon for a full size image of the landclass texture you're about to apply.

 

Jim

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi,

It seems likely that your question is rhetorical but I'll try to answer anyway. The only familiarity I have with SBX is what I found in this tutorial. If I was aware of this capability I would have suggested it. I wasn't intentionally withholding information. I've never been a big fan of rhetorical questions anyway. Especially, ones that start with "Why don't you just...". I'm just trying to be helpful.

I will investigate SBX. Thanks for the heads up and if you know of any tutorial regarding SBX could you please provide it?

Jim F.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

SBX landclass tutorial: select landclass tool, scroll through the list of available landclasses and choose one that sorta fits what you're seeing in the imagery, click to insert tiles overtop map. Put city tiles over city areas, grassy tiles over open areas, and forest tiles over forested areas. Then menu: Select > all land tiles, and compile with "copy BGLs to BGL folder" ticked.

 

Check result in sim, open SBX project again, select & delete all land tiles, try some other landclass values, repeat until you finally settle on something that's "not quite exactly what you wanted but probably as close as you're gonna get"... :)

 

Jim

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Jim,

Just a quick question: Do I have to create a Photoreal map to do this, or can I just use the the background as a reference as to what land class I'd like in a specific area? And then create a bgl with the new landclass data for the area.

Jim F.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes the background will work fine, it doesn't need the imagery to make a LC .bgl. When you click "compile" SBX will make a .raw file and an .inf in your Tools/Work folder and then use resample.exe to compile the LC .bgl similar to compiling a photoreal. The .raw file contains the LC data, there will be one .raw file for every QMID 7 cell that your landclass ends up in so if your affected area is on a QMID 7 boundary it's possible that you may end up with 2 .bgls in your scenery folder. You can manually edit the .inf to multi-source those into a single LC .bgl if desired.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm back. First Jim F. Thanks for the info on google earth will give that a try. What happened I missed up my computer so back had to do a lot of cleaning and unstalling/reinstalling etc.. Will try to get some work done today. Thanks again.

 

Jim Robinson

 

Glad to see you join in on this, Please stay in touch here..

 

Regards

Link to comment
Share on other sites

SBX landclass tutorial: select landclass tool, s

Jim

 

Hello,

 

I am revising Land and Water class tiles generation. Next release of SBuilderX will Export/Import/Append this type of projects.

 

Regards, Luis Sá

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guy's Been fighting this tooo long. I have managed (and do not know how I did it) to get two maps running in FSX. When all goes well with Sbuilder and my map is in a folder on my C drive, when I go to FSX scenery library - add area - Nav to C drive and click folder it pops up in the small square and hi lighted in "directory " I click OK and close that box then click the other OK. The black bar runs but map does not show up.. Any Help ??

 

Regards

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello,

 

I am revising Land and Water class tiles generation. Next release of SBuilderX will Export/Import/Append this type of projects.

 

Regards, Luis Sá

 

That's great news Luis. I'm already able to "append class raw" though in fact I've used SBuilder9 to generate landclass from a class map and then imported the result into my SBX project. Will there be a new format (other than .raw) for these LC exports/imports in the new version?

 

 

Guy's Been fighting this tooo long. I have managed (and do not know how I did it) to get two maps running in FSX. When all goes well with Sbuilder and my map is in a folder on my C drive, when I go to FSX scenery library - add area - Nav to C drive and click folder it pops up in the small square and hi lighted in "directory " I click OK and close that box then click the other OK. The black bar runs but map does not show up.. Any Help ??

 

Regards

 

That sounds like the Win 7 scenery library bug? Try this - when you add an area in the scenery library after you click the OK button, left or right click (whichever works) in the white area surrounding the scenery & texture folders in the windows explorer dialog. That should return you to the scenery library and you should see your newly added area at the top of the list.

 

Jim

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes the background will work fine, it doesn't need the imagery to make a LC .bgl. When you click "compile" SBX will make a .raw file and an .inf in your Tools/Work folder and then use resample.exe to compile the LC .bgl similar to compiling a photoreal. The .raw file contains the LC data, there will be one .raw file for every QMID 7 cell that your landclass ends up in so if your affected area is on a QMID 7 boundary it's possible that you may end up with 2 .bgls in your scenery folder. You can manually edit the .inf to multi-source those into a single LC .bgl if desired.

 

Thanks for the info but I think I'll do a little flying. It seems that modifying the scenery isn't my cup of tea.

 

Jim F.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

If your using SBuilderX and go into Edit/Preferences you'll see a list of available servers. If you check the last few posts in this thread you'll see some problems I had and how I dealt with them. If you're using some other application the server list still might be of some value.

Jim F.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Hi Nivek,

Rather than "exactly" I'll try briefly:

 

The "Software Development Kit" (SDK) is a collection of programs related to Flight Simulator X. Versions are included, but not installed by default, with all versions of FSX other than the Standard.

It contains information about how FSX works.

It consists of programs which modify how FSX works.

It can be used to create add-on components.

 

That's about as concise as I can be without getting bogged down in details. If any of this sounds like something that would interest you I suggest installing it and checking it out.

Jim F.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Everyone had great posts on this. Wonderful!!! SbuilderX now has a 64 bit version that works fine. the google dll seems to be doing well also. I've taught over 9 people how to do photoreal each in about 20 minutes. pm if help is needed.

Free of charge but trip to Hawaii would be nice. Bob

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi jyd,

I'd very much like to learn the procedure you're using. I like to fly cross country in short hops and when I see a runway in the middle of a brown or green square it detracts from the simulation. What I would like to see is the appropriate landclass in the area surrounding the airport and photorealistic scenery in the immediate airport area. Rather than PMing you I'd like to see a new thread started so that everyone can benefit and not hijack this tutorial.

A few days ago a submitted a link in the Painter's Workshop forum to a tutorial I created about basic re-painting of aircraft. I tried to make it as straight line as possible. There were many alternative procedures but I wanted to concentrate on the basics. I asked for feedback but I haven't received any replies yet. I'd like to create a similar one for photoreal scenery and from your post it seems that your the go to man. If any of this holds any interest for you please let me know. From your post it not only sounds like you have the expertise but are willing to share it.

Jim F.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

Announcements


×
×
  • Create New...