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Overlay Editor Tutorial Part Seven By Paul Mort Hello and welcome to Part 7 of my series of Overlay Editor tutorials. This time around, we will focus on the more advanced features of Overlay Editor and how we can use these features to build even more convincing sceneries. Ground Texture Library For the purpose of this tutorial, we are going to have to use my new Ground Textures Library, which you can find in the FlightSim.Com file library. This library was created as I found it necessary to create additional textured polygons. In all, I created over 60 of them and packaged it up as a library. Once you have downloaded and unzipped the library, go and place it in your X-Plane Custom Scenery folder. When done, open Overlay Editor and in the right hand pane, you should see that the Ground Texture Library is now available. Curved Bezier And Polygons Well...that's a mouthful to start with! Don't worry though, as all will be explained. In a nutshell we will be looking at how to use curved ground textures and how to border them with the appropriate boundaries. Boundaries can come in the shape of fences, walls or even hedges. Ground Textured Polygons When it comes to being creative with your scenery design, the ground textured polygon is a very handy tool to use. Imagine a person lying in their bed and then having a thin patterned sheet thrown over them. The sheet, because of gravity, will shape itself to the contours of that person. Well, applying a textured polygon to the ground works in pretty much the same way, it will hug the contours of hills and valleys alike. Right, let's go and cover the ground with some large pebbles. Later on in the tutorial we will border this area with a hedge (Figure 1). Figure 1 Selecting the 'Pebbleslarge' polygon and pressing enter will place the item in your main scenery development window. Remember that from altitude, the patterns will be invisible and just appear as colored (reddish). As you zoom in however, the textures will become visible. Polygons Situated around the polygon at each corner you will notice four grab handles (nodes). These can be moved (left click and hold) in order to manipulate the shape of the polygon. To create more nodes so as to refine your shape as needed, click on a node and then select the icon in the top menu. This will create a new node in an anticlockwise position (Figure 2). Figure 2 If we so desired, we could simply drag this new node to the right and create a pointed shape, however, for the purpose of this tutorial, a curved section will be created. This is done by using a bezier curve. Bezier Curves It is possible to create primitive looking curves by using numerous nodes in short succession, but this is time consuming and the results are nowhere near as pleasing as when the bezier tool is used. This is done by selecting our new node, dragging it to the right (Figure 3) and then, while the node is still selected (will be white), click the 'Add Curve Control Handle' . Figure 3 Adding A String Object For Borders String objects in Overlay Editor, as you may recall, are objects such as taxi lines, fences and hedges. Many of these can be manipulated by bezier curve option but in cases where the bezier curve is not an option, another way must be found. One possible solution is to create many nodes in short succession, as shown below (Figure 4). Whilst this method lacks the 'smooth' finish when the bezier curve option is used, it is nevertheless plausible. Figure 4 Making Your Own Ground Textures Producing fine ground textures of your own is quite a simple task as long as a few mandatory rules are adhered to. Firstly, a suitable texture must be obtained. Your best bet here is to use either Google or Bing image search. Look for things like 'Brick Texture' etc. Secondly, make sure that the image you use is not copyrighted. Once a suitable image has been found, create a white.png canvas (Gimp, Photoshop, etc) which is exactly 1024x1024 in dimension. I say exactly because you can't afford to be even one pixel out. Depending on the size of your original image (mine were 256 pixels squares), paste these images onto your white canvas so that they fill it. In my case it took sixteen of my images. Figure 5 Make doubly sure that each square image lines up perfectly with its adjacent image by zooming in and checking. When you're happy with the result, save the image as a .png file and with a relevant name, such as 'GrassStriped.png'. Load the image back up again and make certain it is actually 1024_1024 pixels square. If it's not then you'll have to crop it to that dimension. That's part one done! Each ground texture contains two files (the texture and polygon (.pol) file.) Part two is simple. In a text editor such as Notepad or TextEdit, create a text file as shown below, substituting your file names as required. A 850 DRAPED_POLYGON TEXTURE Grassstriped.png SCALE 12 12 LAYER_GROUP taxiways 1 SURFACE Grassstriped Then save this as 'GrassStriped.pol' The 'Scale' parameters adjust the size of the image, so if the texture looks too big to be natural when viewed, decrease this value (make sure both are the same value). The Layer Group configuration ensures that 'Runways and Roads' have a higher priority to the polygon. This means that our new polygon will not draw over them. Keep both files together, as as one file won't work without the other. And that's it. That's how to create custom ground textures. When you get used to the procedure above, it's actually really good fun! That's all for now. I'll be back next time with more Overlay Editor tips and tricks. Paul Mort pmort76@gmail.com Read other articles in this series -
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Overlay Editor Tutorial Part Six By Paul Mort Hello and welcome to part six of my series of tutorials covering Overlay Editor. If you've followed my tutorials from the beginning of the series, I think you now have enough knowledge and artistic talent to make a start on creating a modest airport. To run through this process, let's have a look at an airport I created a while back, VT15 Savage Island Airport in Vermont, USA. I've chosen this airport as it's not a particularly complex scenery. Savage Island was created by using a combination of overlaid images (in Overlay Editor) and Google Earth. Figure 1 below shows Savage Island in all its glory. Figure 1 When viewed in Overlay Editor, the airport looks like this (Figure 2). Figure 2 The first thing to note is the red box surrounding the island. This, as we've learned from previous tutorials, is called an Exclusion Zone and should ALWAYS be the first thing you add to your scenery. In this case, the exclusion used is a 'forest exclusion zone'. By applying this, it will prevent any unwanted tree objects (be it from freeware/payware packages) from interfering with our own custom scenery. Next we check to see if there are any suspicious buildings, inappropriately placed roads, power lines or railway lines that might interfere with our scenery. If there are, then we apply the appropriate exclusion zone. In the case of Savage Island, none were required so the only one used was the forest exclusion zone. Before attempting to add any buildings to a scenery, I always find it good practice to sort out any vegetation requirements. This is personal preference, and you may decide to do it differently, but for myself, I find it works well. Figure 3 shown below shows where the custom forests for the scenery are to be placed. As you can see the from the image, the green polygons are areas assigned to forests, with the one selected, being highlighted in pink. The great thing about the Forest Polygon is that rather than place all the trees individually (a highly laborious task), the polygon automatically places the right quantity of trees in the selected area. The forest type used for this particularly area comes the MisterX_Library and is the temperate wet/mixed forest type. Figure 3 Background Imagery Function To aid us in the placement of forests, we can use the Background Imagery function from the Overlay Editor menu. This allows us to superimpose an aerial photograph under our scenery allowing us to see exactly where forests (if needed) should be situated (Figure 4). Figure 4 By adjusting the forest polygons to match the map we can now, in effect, draw around the wooded areas. Once done, we can zoom in and see the result (Figure 5). Figure 5 By looking at the X-Plane version of Savage Island we can see that it's made of two separate built-up areas, with each one containing many different types of buildings. If you've ever been to the real Savage Island, or seen it on maps, you'll know that in reality it's pretty much devoid of any buildings. Yes, there's a house and small hangar but that's really all there is. In comparison, our X-Plane rendition looks rather built-up and dare I say it...fictional...and to all extent and purposes it is. Now, there will be some who would say that this is wrong, it's not accurate, but I'm more of the opinion of...let it be fun, let it be enjoyable. The great thing about Overlay Editor and its many object libraries (3D People, The Handy Object Library, etc.) is that they give you control over how much realism or fantasy you wish to apply. So for all those traditionalists out there...this is OUR Savage Island (Figures 6 and 7)! Figure 6 So much is going on at Savage island these days... basketball, a hot tub party, cars and even animals! Figure 7 Object placement within Overlay Editor has been covered in previous tutorials, so there's no need to go over it again. If you're unsure of how this is done, then I recommend having another read of tutorials 1 to 5. One thing I will mention however, and one that relates to large structures, such as hangars, terminal buildings, etc., is, place them on concrete polygon. By doing so, they look far more realistic (Figure 8). Figure 8 As you can see, creating scenery in X-Plane is not especially difficult, it's just more time consuming. In fact, because of the tools available, scenery creation is relatively easy (compared to some other simulators I've used). The most important thing to remember is that creating scenery should always be fun. Mistakes? Yes, we've all made them, but you know what, making them means you can enjoy the learning process just that little bit longer! See you next time and have fun with scenery design. Paul Mort pmort76@gmail.com Read other articles in this series -
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Overlay Editor Tutorial Part Five By Paul Mort Hello and welcome to Part 5 in my series of tutorials on Overlay Editor. In this tutorial we are going to look at an essential part of Overlay Editor, one that isn't always used but one that should always be included in virtually created scenery; that being the mysterious 'Exclusion Zone.' So What Exactly Is An Exclusion Zone? Well, as you're no doubt aware, there are many X-Plane sceneries available which enhance the look of the default X-Plane terrain. These include regional, country and world improvements and come in both freeware and payware guises. These enhancements really do make a tremendous difference to the often sparse world of X-Plane, but they do have one caveat...they tend to invade your workspace. If that space happens to be your custom scenery, then sorry, you'll just have to make room for that new industrial estate! Let me give you an example. One of the most impressive scenery enhancements an X-Plane user can have (apart from HD Mesh) is the World2XPlane add-on which uses Open Street Map (OSM) data to populate a particular area. These areas include most of Europe and the US and are available to download at the World2XPlane web site. As mentioned above though, as much as I consider World2XPlane a must have add-on, it does on occasion like to 'paint' or rather, intrude into your work area and because of this, this is where our wonderful exclusion zones come into play! Upon opening Overlay Editor and navigating to the library pane (right hand panel) we can search for available libraries. By default, the Exclusions library is included with X-Plane and once located, you'll see that it contains eight types of exclusion zones, each one performing a particular function (Figure 1). Figure 1 When creating a new scenery, I've found that adding exclusions to your area is a good starting point. I would suggest a minimum of one object and one forest exclusion zone. In the example below (Figure 2), you can see that we have created a single object exclusion box which will act as a 'no go' area for any buildings or objects. This will prevent any unwanted objects from springing up and wrecking our day. We can do the same thing with a forest exclusion box, which prevents any trees or vegetation from appearing in the selected area. If you need to also exclude roads, rail networks or power lines from the area, then you simply use the Roads, Railways & Powerlines' Exclusion option. One feature sorely missing from the exclusion zones option, is the ability to create a custom exclusion shape (no node or rotation option) as you are limited to pretty much squares and rectangles. To create an exclusion in the shape of an 'L' would mean creating two rectangles, which if we had nodes, would be far simpler and versatile. An easy way to think of exclusion zones is as forcefields; they keep out the...undesirables (Figure 2). Very Star Wars! Figure 2 When adding exclusion zones, make them a little larger than necessary. Remember the wise words of Confucius: 'It is better to have a slightly bald landscape, than trees growing out of buildings.' Er...yeah! Remember, any exclusion zone created will have zero impact on any objects or forests you add yourself. In our never ending quest for scenery perfection, a good practice to get into is to fire up X-Plane and check your new scenery. Whatever you do, don't wait until it's finished! Like any good artist, constant checking is vital. When checking, if something looks out of place or not quite right, ask yourself 'Would this happen in real life?' If the answer is no, then it's back to the drawing board you go. Figure 3 below, shows a magnified view of our runway. As you can see, there are roads leading directly towards it. Now, I don't know about you, but I'd be a tad bit concerned if I was coming into land and saw numerous vehicles approaching the runway (have I paid my car tax?). Apart from this, having vehicles this close to the runway looks unrealistic...especially when they suddenly just disappear! Figure 3 As you can see in Figure 4, a Roads, Railways & Powerlines exclusion zone has been placed where we think the roads should end. This is great in that it cuts back on the roads but unfortunately it leaves lots of roads with dead ends. What we need to do here is to join them up so that they look more believable. There are two ways in which we can do this. The first is to draw a tarmac polygon between the roads, but this has the disadvantage of being devoid of AI traffic. A far better solution to the problem would be to use Overlay Editor's Roads, Railways & Powerlines library (not to be confused with the Exclusion Library). Roads are string objects, which mean they can be lengthened and new nodes added. By doing this, our roads can now be joined together (Figure 4). Figure 4 Now we have something approaching reality! Well, there you have it...exclusion zones. I know we've spent a whole tutorial on them but I think it's a worthy topic. Remember, as mentioned at the beginning of this tutorial...every new custom scenery SHOULD contain at least one exclusion zone. By utilizing this feature, you are, in effect, future proofing your scenery for whatever changes might occur to that particular area. See you next time and have fun with scenery design. Paul Mort pmort76@gmail.com Read other articles in this series -
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Overlay Editor Tutorial Part Four By Paul Mort Hello and welcome to Part 4 of my series of Overlay Editor Tutorials. If you followed my last tutorial, you will be aware that this time, we will be getting in touch with our artistic side and looking into what turns an average scenery into a good one. It's All In The Detail During our everyday lives the finer details, which make the world more interesting, are usually taken for granted; they are just there...so what. However, where creating scenery is concerned, we need to create these often overlooked details so as to create that added interest. For some reason, we are far more observant of what's being displayed on our screen than we are in real life. As we learn and progress through the different stages of scenery design, our knowledge of what's possible will increase and as such, so will our artist flair. Starting From Scratch In the previous tutorial we mentioned X-Plane's apt.dat file. This, if you remember, contains all the basic information regarding an airport's runways, taxiways, aprons and roads. To load up an airport that has not yet been edited, we click the 'Go to Airport' icon which looks like this ... A selection box, as shown below, will then appear and this is where we can select our airport, either by name or its ICAO code (Figure 1). Figure 1 Once the airport is loaded, a pictorial representation is displayed on the screen. This includes; runways, taxiways, aprons and roads (represented as thin white lines). As you can see, however (Figure 2), the airport is devoid of objects; it is, to all accounts, a blank canvas. Being empty however allows us to populate it with whatever objects we see fit. Figure 2 The Magic Button (Background Image) This 'magic button' is what puts the 'Overlay' in Overlay Editor. By clicking on this icon, we are able to superimpose an exact, real world image of our airport, on top of the pictorial representation as shown in Figure 2. This is extremely useful to a designer as it serves as a guide or stencil for the placement of our chosen objects. Upon clicking on the icon, we are presented with a box (Figure 3) which gives us a choice of which type of 'Overlay' we require, and also how transparent we'd like it to be (opacity). Figure 3 As you can see above, we have chosen to use the Microsoft Bing overlay and have set the opacity at 50%. If we now look at our selected airport, we can see the buildings, roads, trees etc. as they would be in real life (Figure 4). Figure 4 By using the mouse scroll wheel (if available), we can zoom in to reveal more detail. Considering most airports have been around for a few years, it may be a good idea to start with the topic of weathering. Grasslines, Foliage And Textures I have always found that the RuScenery library contains a good source of weathered buildings and vehicles. An example of this is shown in Figure 5 which shows an old man leaving an old and rather weathered WC. To create the effect of weathering, RuScenery's Grassline object has been used. Figure 5 To add a bit more weathering to the scene, we can use the Pavement Cracks polygon from the CDB Library. This removes the freshly laid concrete look and gives the area an even more weathered feel (Figure 6). Figure 6 Why not experiment with various foliage and textured polygons such as gravel to break up those boring ground textures and create pathways (Figure 6). Figure 7 I find experimenting with various textures and objects one of the most exciting parts of scenery design. 3D Characters With the recent introduction of 3D characters (particularly The 3D People Library by David Marshall), we are no longer limited to flat, lifeless 2D caricatures. As good as 2D people were, the need to place them next to a building (anything less destroyed the effect) severely limited their usefulness. Now, with the advent of 3D people, we can finally use them to their full potential and really bring sceneries to life. 3D people can be used to create virtual conversations and used wisely, can greatly add to the atmosphere of a scenery (Figure 7). Figure 8 Well, that's all for this tutorial. I hope it's inspired you to get creative and make a start on a scenery of your own. Don't be afraid of making mistakes, that's how learn. In the next tutorial, we'll be covering more ways to bring credibility to your sceneries. Remember, it's not just a collection of hangars, creating scenery is an art. Paul Mort pmort76@gmail.com Read other articles in this series -
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Overlay Editor Tutorial Part Three By Paul Mort Welcome back to Part 3 in my series of tutorials covering Overlay Editor. In our last tutorial we looked at how to manipulate objects in Overlay Editor. In order to have control over our collection of objects, we first need to know how to find them, how they are structured and importantly, how and where to add new items. Figure 1 The directory structure for a scenery package, in this case EGFP Pembrey, can be seen above (Figure 1). You can see by the location bar at the top that the whole package resides within X-Plane's 'Custom Scenery' folder (along with all the other sceneries we have created or downloaded). Also located in this folder are the libraries and objects (even one-off items) used to render the scenery. The objects folder highlighted in blue contains all the objects we have added to this package only and will be supplied to the user when published, making it self-contained. Figure 2 As you can see from Figure 2, every scenery object (.obj) has its required texture file (.png / .dds) in order to be correctly rendered. This texture file may not always share a common name. In the example of the third item down on the objects list; 'Helicopter', does not share its name with its texture file. A simple way to find out the name of an object's texture file is to open the object up in a text editor (Notepad, for example). The object's required texture file name will then appear at the top of the document (Figure 3). Figure 3 Here we can see that our 'Helicopter' object pairs up with the 'static206b.png' texture. To add, or not to add, that is the question... If we look back at the list of items contained in our objects folder, we can see three items from the JB_Library. They are: Hangars 28, 105 and 110. All three are required for this scenery. Why is this important? Well, here is where we have a choice to make. If we did not include these three items and their corresponding textures, we would have to inform users that they would need to download the entire JB_Library (621 items, 240 Mb) in order for the package to work. For those who already have the library that's fine but downloading over 240 Mb for just three items is wasting space on your drive, especially if you're not a developer and may never use it. My rule of thumb... It's entirely down to personal preference as to whether you add selected items from a library into your objects folder. You can do this or you can inform users that they need to download the entire library. As a rule of thumb, I usually add objects if there are ten or less from a single library. In the example of the CDB Library (which I use extensively), the amount of objects I use on a scenery can be many and so for this reason, I don't add the objects from that library but rather, make it a requirement to have the CDB Library. This is mentioned in the scenery description. Searching for objects and libraries... For this example, let's go and open up EGFP. You can download this scenery here: egfp_-_pembrey_airport_wales_v1_1.zip Figure 4 On opening Overlay Editor and loading our scenery package, we are presented with the view above (Figure 4). Click as shown to open the Libraries and Objects pane. This is where we can browse all our installed libraries for objects. Another way is to do a global search by simply typing the name of the object in the search box ('forest' for example). The Libraries and Objects box also contains an 'Objects In This Package' category which will display a list of all the objects we have included in the package's own 'objects' folder. Any selected object is displayed as a thumbnail at the bottom of the screen. Sometimes however, you might see your object displayed with this kind of texture (Figure 5). Figure 5 This is a classic sign that the object's texture file is either corrupted or missing. If you notice this error, then your best bet is to check that the texture is present. In the example above I have deliberately removed the texture file. After restoring the texture and pressing the reload icon: our object thumbnail is displayed as it should be (Figure 6). Figure 6 By left clicking on any object in our scenery (main view pane), you'll notice that the object turns a very pretty pink color. In the right view pane, you can then see that Overlay Editor tells you which library it comes from (Figure 7). Figure 7 Well, that's it for this tutorial. In part 4 we will look at the importance of object placement and the finer details of scenery design. We'll also look at how to use 3D people and how to fashion them in such a way so as to convey a virtual conversation. Remember, your scenery is more than a collection of hangars. It should tell a story. See you next time. Paul Mort pmort76@gmail.com Read other articles in this series -
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Overlay Editor Tutorial Part Two By Paul Mort Hello and welcome to Part 2 in this series of tutorials covering X-Plane's wonderful (and free) scenery creation tool, Overlay Editor. This tutorial assumes that you have you have downloaded Overlay Editor and placed the application in the main directory of X-Plane. So that we can get a better understanding of what follows in this tutorial, please go ahead and open up Overlay Editor. Understanding Viewpoints When building a scenery it is extremely important that all viewpoints and perspectives are available. Viewing an object or multiple objects from different angles, enables the designer (you) to place them in their desired positions. Having the right viewpoint also helps in finding objects which may have been place incorrectly or by error. Shown below are the keys and mouse controls used to manipulate the various view (Figure 1). Figure 1 Using the above functions allows us the freedom to roam and explore our virtual X-Plane world. Understanding The Different Types Of Objects Before we start creating our first scenery (next tutorial) let us first look at the different types of objects used in Overlay Editor. Conveniently for us, Overlay Editor places colored symbols next to our objects in the display pane (Figure 2). Figure 2 Standard Object Color code The blue color code represents standard objects which can be placed, moved and rotated, but not sized. Tutorial One explains how to manipulate these objects. Strings and Polygons Color code These objects, when placed in a scenery have the ability to be moved, rotated, sized and shaped. When placed in a scenery and then selected, small white dots become visible. These white dots are know as grab handles. Any of these grab handles can be selected by a single left click. By keeping the mouse button held down, these grab handles can then be shaped as required (Figure 3). Figure 3 String Manipulation The images below (Figure 4 and Figure 5) show how the manipulation process works. Figure 4 Figure 5 Polygon Manipulation The process for polygons works in much the same way (Figure 6 and Figure 7). Figure 6 Figure 7 Now, suppose we need to cover an area of ground (which has many different sides and edges) with a polygon of concrete; how would we do this? Well help is at hand because Overlay Editor allows us to easily add more of these grab handles, known as 'nodes'. As mentioned previously, when selected, these nodes, as we will call them from now on, turn from pink to white. With the node selected, look for the icon that looks like a green cross in Overlay Editor's menu bar: Clicking on this icon will create an additional node and one that will always be anti-clockwise to the node already selected. So as to easily manipulate the polygon, we can add as many nodes as required. By selecting a node (remember it turns white) and keeping the mouse button down, we can then drag the node to our specified point (Figure 8). Figure 8 Producing A Curve On A Polygon So far in this tutorial, we have only discussed how to produce straight lines on polygons, but what about if we needed to produce a line which is curved? Well again, Overlay Editor makes it extremely easy to do this. First we add a new node, following the procedure above, and place it in the center of where we wish our curve to be (remember we can add as many curves as is needed). With the center node selected, we now need to look for the following symbol in the men bar: By selecting the above symbol, you'll notice that it produces a curve control handle on our selected node. We now have an additional node on either side, giving us three nodes in total. By experimenting, we can now use our nodes to produce an acceptable (in most cases) bezier curve (Figure 9). Figure 9 Exclusions Color code Exclusions zones are definable areas which, as the name suggests, allow us to draw boundaries over certain objects. There are numerous types of exclusion zones, with each one performing a particular function. The ability to remove certain 'default' objects (roads, trees, power lines, etc.) that 'leak' into a custom made scenery is most useful and one that we will be discussing in the next tutorial. Well, that's it for this tutorial as I don't really want to cover too much and cause a brain overload (easy in my case). The key to getting the most out of Overlay Editor is to practice and explore. Don't worry about making mistakes as sometimes it's the best way to learn! Practice, explore but above all else, have fun! See you next time in part three. Regards Paul Mort pmort76@gmail.com Read other articles in this series -
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Overlay Editor Tutorial Part One By Paul Mort Hello and welcome to a new series of tutorials showcasing the features of Overlay Editor, a wonderful tool used in the creation of X-Plane sceneries. Overlay Editor is the brainchild of Jonathan Harris, known in the X-Plane word as 'Marginal'. His software allows you to create (with relative ease) X-Plane sceneries which range from small dirt strips in the back of beyond to full blown international airports located next to a metropolis. Over the course of these tutorials, you will discover not only how to create your first basic scenery, but also additional sceneries which contain that added 'wow' factor. So What Is Overlay Editor? In basic terms, Overlay Editor gives us (the developer) the tools to either create a new scenery from scratch or enhance an existing scenery which is always located within your X-Plane Custom Scenery folder. The great thing about X-Plane is that it has a very modular layout in terms of where everything is located. Sceneries, as mentioned, always go in your Custom Scenery folder and aircraft always go in your Aircraft folder. There are no other locations where additional 'user' files are stored (except plugins), but that's a different topic. The upshot however of having a layout like this, is that it's very easy to keep everything under control, which includes your scenery. To create a scenery, X-Plane first has to find the airport data which will be used as a foundation for our scenery. X-Plane holds this information in the form of a database and this is where the information (apron and taxiway layout) of thousands of airports is stored. The basic layout of each airport is known as the .apt file. This .apt file contains only concrete foundations, taxiways, local roads and taxiway markings. This is our foundation, our starting point, and where the developer can add additional buildings, etc. Where To Get Overlay Editor The first thing we need to do is download and install the software. You'll find the download for Overlay Editor here (Windows, OSX, Linux): http://marginal.org.uk/x-planescenery/tools.html Once you have unzipped the file a good place to move it to is your X-Plane directory. This keeps everything in one place. When first opening Overlay Editor, it will ask you to locate your X-Plane directory. Once done, it will then load into the opening screen. To open an unpopulated airport and create one from scratch, we need to click on the menu icon labelled 'Go To Airport' (Figure 1). Figure 1 With this done we are then presented with a dialogue box in which we can select our desired .apt file either by airport name or by ICAO code. When an airport is selected, you'll see that the longitude and latitude of the airport is also shown (Figure 2). Figure 2 Once an airport is selected (depending upon the complexity of the chosen airport) you will be presented with a view of the .apt file. This can range from a just a simple grass strip to a complicated tangle of runways and taxiways. Figure 3 shows what a typical medium density airport .apt file looks like. Figure 3 To zoom in so as to see more detail, you can use your mouse wheel. If you have a clickable mouse wheel, then you can zoom and also drag the view around to suit your needs. Libraries To create sceneries you need objects and these are found in X-Plane's numerous libraries, which in turn are located in X-Plane's Custom Scenery folder. Some of these libraries should (if you're an X-Plane user) be quite familiar to you. The most popular are OpenSceneryX, RuScenery, R2 Library, The Handy Object Library and the JB_Library. There are many more but naming just a few keeps things simple for the time being. X-Plane's default object library comes with the sim, but the ones mentioned above all need to be downloaded. These can be found in the FlightSim.Com file library, under X-Plane Scenery Libraries. First Steps For this initial exercise we are going to place our first object. If you haven't already done so, make sure you have selected an airport (.apt) as shown above. Any airport will do, but one with a simple layout is probably best for now. Right...let's go and place our very first object onto our already opened .apt file. In this case, we want to choose a hangar. Over to the right and slightly under the menu bar is quite a large selection box (Figure 4). Figure 4 This box is usually empty if nothing is selected in the search box found above. However, if we type 'hangar' in the search field, then you'll see that the selection box becomes populated (Figure 5). Figure 5 As you can see there are quite a few hangars to choose from (this is the great thing about X-Plane's ever increasing object library). Lets select the 'JB_hangar 101' from the JB_Library. Once selected it will create an icon to indicate what it looks like. If we now go back to the map we can use our scroll wheel to zoom in on our .apt file. As we zoom ever closer to the ground you will notice a symbol becoming larger and larger (Figure 6). Figure 6 This symbol shows us where, in the scenery, our object will be placed. Clicking on the green cross in the menu bar will now place our hangar (Figure 7). Figure 7 As you can see (Figure 8), even though our hangar has been placed in the scenery, it is wrongly orientated. To get it lined up correctly in the 'D' shaped area we need to move and rotate it. Figure 8 To rotate the hangar we use the following keys (Figure 9). Figure 9 Before we can move the hangar or rotate it, we need to make sure that the object is selected. To do this we left click on it. You will know when the hangar is selected as it will turn pink (what a lovely color), and only now is it ready to be moved or rotated. Figure 10 Figure 10 shows our hangar now nicely orientated. Well, that's it for this, the first in a new series of tutorials based around Overlay Editor. I hope you found it both informative and interesting. Next time, we'll deal with more advanced object manipulation and views. Thanks for reading. Regards Paul Mort pmort76@gmail.com Read other articles in this series -
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