How to create photoreal scenery for FSX

[scottb613]

Nice work Jim - some beautiful lighting effects... LOL - gotta love the "lobstah" on the frame... Hmm - might have to add KBHB to my list for the spring...

;)

 

Regards,

Scott

[Zoandar]

Hello.

I have a problem.

On step IV-4, when I drag the .inf file to resample.exe, resample opens for a second and then closes.

Any help?

 

EDIT:

Here's the content of the .inf file:

 

[source]

Type = MultiSource

NumberOfSources = 3

 

[source1]

Type = BMP

Layer = Imagery

SourceDir = "."

SourceFile = "Corvo.bmp"

Variation = January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

Channel_BlendMask = 2.0

Channel_LandWaterMask = 3.0

ulyMap = 39.7283134102975

ulxMap = -31.1297607421875

xDim = 5.36441802978476E-06

yDim = 4.12748808598583E-06

 

[source2]

Type = BMP

Layer = None

SourceDir = "."

SourceFile = "Corvo Blendmask.bmp"

SamplingMethod = Gaussian

ulyMap = 39.7283134102975

ulxMap = -31.1297607421875

xDim = 5.36441802978476E-06

yDim = 4.12748808598583E-06

 

[source3]

Type = BMP

Layer = None

SourceDir = "."

SourceFile = "Corvo Watermask.bmp"

SamplingMethod = Gaussian

ulyMap = 39.7283134102975

ulxMap = -31.1297607421875

xDim = 5.36441802978476E-06

yDim = 4.12748808598583E-06

 

 

[Destination]

DestDir = "."

DestBaseFileName = "Corvo"

DestFileType = BGL

LOD = Auto

UseSourceDimensions = 1

CompressionQuality = 85

 

EDIT 2:I just solved it-Ignore this post.

 

I'd like to know what the problem had been. The only time I had seen that happen was when I had made a typo in one of the names of the required 3 bitmap files. But yours seem to all be the same, so it must have been a different problem.

[archfer]

Hi Jim

 

The Bar Harbor screenshots are superb.

 

I have managed to get the latest SDK loaded per your instructions and the exclude poly's work as expected now. Some time down the line I will have to put these bridges back in where they should be. At the moment though I am still trying to get the water to look right and look as if it has varying depths. I am using zoandar's technique of placing a solid greenish colour layer where the water is but it is taking a while to get the shades right (especially since I'm using my wife's laptop and she keeps taking it back!:o).

 

Regards

 

Archie

[Jim Robinson]

EDIT 2:I just solved it-Ignore this post.

 

Welcome G_Fil_24, and congratulations on the success! I'm with Zoandar, curious to know what the problem was?

 

Thanks for the kind words on the LMs Lawrence (ha, you do have a name, found it in your profile, glad to know you BTW :) ).

 

 

Much appreciated Scott, yeah gotta have the "lobstah", that was a "must"; I think about him and drool every time I get neah the wateah mask on this project :) ! Still looking into the "lobstah" pot bouys, sawr some pics on google images of buildings that weah coveuhd with the damn things, need to fit some of this stuff into the scene somehow too:

 

http://www.cat-tamer.com/flightsim/atchmnts/261053158_0c46a79fa8.jpg

 

 

 

I have managed to get the latest SDK loaded per your instructions and the exclude poly's work as expected now.

 

Great Archie, glad to hear it. Thanks for the compliments on the KBHB shots!

 

 

Jim

[annber]

Tiberius K, Jim, or anyone that knows SbuilderX313. I just downloaded Sbuilder to my new system, which is Windows 8 and am getting a series of error messages, form the FSX SDK not found to sme Sbuilder files and image tools not found. Do you guys know if i can use SbuilderX with Windows 8??

BTW, GREAT TUTORIAL AND FEEDBACK!!!!

annber

 

I also read the posts within this threat, however, in my programs & features there is a MSXML 4.0 SP2 Parser and SDK installed, is that the SDK that SbuilderX is looking for?

If not, am I to assume that installing the SDK from my FSX disks will correct the problem and Sbuilder will then install correctly?

[Jim Robinson]

I have no experience with Win8 Annber, but you need to have the FSX SDK installed apparently for SBuilder to work. If you're using FSX Gold check out this post for instructions on installing the SDK:

 

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?250762-How-to-create-photoreal-scenery-for-FSX&p=1739167#post1739167

 

Once you have the final version of the SDK installed see if you still get those errors. If SbuilderX still squacks about the missing files, I would try moving SBuilder.ini out of the SBuilderX313 folder and re-starting SBuilderX. I think that will trigger SBuilder to re-copy the needed files from the SDK folder.

 

This must be the problem Archie was having BTW, apparently SBuilderX copies files like resample.exe, bglcomp.exe, bglcomp.xsd, Imagetool.exe, etc. into the SBuilderX\Tools folder from the SDK rather than supplying them within the installer. That would explain why Archie's bglcomp.xsd didn't have provisions for excluding extrusion bridges if he was running the RTM version of the SDK.

 

Jim

[annber]

Thanks Jim, I have the Gold edition which includes the acceleration disk, I will follow those instructions tomorrow and will report back, hopefully it will solve the problem.

[Jim Robinson]

Here's a trick that might be worthwhile mentioning. You've probably noticed in SBuilderX when selecting in poly mode that occasionally the transparent yellow poly will cover up your shoreline or whatever making it difficult to see where your next point should go. Go into Edit > Preferences and click the button marked "INI File" which will open your SBuilder.ini in Notepad. Scroll down to [Polys] and find "DefaultPolyColor=80FFFF00", the first 2 digits control the opacity, the last 6 control the color. I changed mine to 20FFFF00 which makes the poly much more transparent but yet still opaque enough that you can see it.

 

Lots more things to play with in there, "AskDelete=False" (select an object, press delete, it goes away without the confirmation prompt), "ShowDonation=False" (gets rid of the donation splash screen), "LonIniCenter=xx.xxxx/LatIniCenter= xx.xxxx" (sets the default lat/lon for new project), "DecimalDegrees=True" (self explanitory), "CenterOnMouseWheel=False" (mouse zoom centers screen at mouse position - I didn't like that one but it sorta works), etc., etc. Might be wise to make a backup of the SBuilder.ini before you get too carried away :) .

 

Jim

[Zoandar]

Welcome G_Fil_24, and congratulations on the success! I'm with Zoandar, curious to know what the problem was?

 

Thanks for the kind words on the LMs Lawrence (ha, you do have a name, found it in your profile, glad to know you BTW :) ).

 

 

Much appreciated Scott, yeah gotta have the "lobstah", that was a "must"; I think about him and drool every time I get neah the wateah mask on this project :) ! Still looking into the "lobstah" pot bouys, sawr some pics on google images of buildings that weah coveuhd with the damn things, need to fit some of this stuff into the scene somehow too:

 

http://www.cat-tamer.com/flightsim/atchmnts/261053158_0c46a79fa8.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Great Archie, glad to hear it. Thanks for the compliments on the KBHB shots!

 

 

Jim

 

Jim, I tried to PM you, but the forum says you have exceeded your storage allotment for PMs, and you'll have to clear it out before you can receive any more messages.

 

Best Regards,

 

Z

[Zoandar]

Here's a trick that might be worthwhile mentioning. You've probably noticed in SBuilderX when selecting in poly mode that occasionally the transparent yellow poly will cover up your shoreline or whatever making it difficult to see where your next point should go. Go into Edit > Preferences and click the button marked "INI File" which will open your SBuilder.ini in Notepad. Scroll down to [Polys] and find "DefaultPolyColor=80FFFF00", the first 2 digits control the opacity, the last 6 control the color. I changed mine to 20FFFF00 which makes the poly much more transparent but yet still opaque enough that you can see it.

 

Lots more things to play with in there, "AskDelete=False" (select an object, press delete, it goes away without the confirmation prompt), "ShowDonation=False" (gets rid of the donation splash screen), "LonIniCenter=xx.xxxx/LatIniCenter= xx.xxxx" (sets the default lat/lon for new project), "DecimalDegrees=True" (self explanitory), "CenterOnMouseWheel=False" (mouse zoom centers screen at mouse position - I didn't like that one but it sorta works), etc., etc. Might be wise to make a backup of the SBuilder.ini before you get too carried away :) .

 

Jim

 

Wow! Given my feelings about most programmer "default" settings is that they were on crack when they chose them, THANKS!! If you have more of these solid gold tidbits, by all means keep them coming!! :D

[Jim Robinson]

Jim, I tried to PM you, but the forum says you have exceeded your storage allotment for PMs, and you'll have to clear it out before you can receive any more messages.

 

Best Regards,

 

Z

 

Well sure enough there were 50 PMs in there, no wonder everyone's been so snobbish for the past 6 months :) . Thanks for the heads up, all clear now - fire away.

 

Jim

[Zoandar]

Well sure enough there were 50 PMs in there, no wonder everyone's been so snobbish for the past 6 months :) . Thanks for the heads up, all clear now - fire away.

 

Jim

 

PM'd.

 

Now I'm gonna play with Sbuilder.ini and try some of your tweaks. One of the things I have always hated is how I need to zoom in to see details while creating a hydro-poly, but then I can't see the next segment of shorline coming up until I click really close to the edge of the visible image, and it jumps forward. I can't right-click and re-center the image in the middle of making the poly, because that ends the poly (something I would LOVE to change!!) I think I will like the 'center on scroll wheel' option. I'll try that first.

 

Edit - OOooh! I LIKE that! I had not realized it at first, but once I started using the center on scroll wheel I quickly recalled that is the same way TurboCAD (my CAD program) works, and so it just comes naturally to me to do that when I want to zoom in on something. Thanks!! It made creating my current hydro-polys a lot easier.

 

So, is there a setting that prevents a poly from losing its transparency when you have edited the settings in its properties? It seems redundant to me to have to set the transparency AGAIN simply because I have defined it as water and set its elevation.

[Jim Robinson]

So, is there a setting that prevents a poly from losing its transparency when you have edited the settings in its properties? It seems redundant to me to have to set the transparency AGAIN simply because I have defined it as water and set its elevation.

 

Well, you can tick the box "Use this color" on the properties dialog while you convert it from polygon of type none to a hydro poly, but then all your polys will be the same transparent yellow, so that's not much help. I guess a quick .ini edit to set "DefaultPolyColor=200000FF" (transparent blue) might be a solution when working with hydro polys alone...

 

Wait a minute... Ha! Yes there is, in the SBuilderX313\Tools folder you'll find a file named "Polys.txt" where the default colors of all types of polygons are defined. I've been using "Hydro_Generic_Bay_Harbor_Perennial" which had a default color value of "FF0000C0". I changed that to "Color=780000C0" and now by default my hydro polys have a transparency of 100 on the slider within the program which is what I've been manually setting them all at previously.

 

Scroll through polys.txt until you find your preferred polygon type, mine looked like this after the edit:

 

[Texture.195]
Name=Hydro_Generic_Bay_Harbor_Perennial
Color=780000C0
Guid={8F1CD843-CAB1-434A-9E78-A6A1DAD4ED2E}
Textures=000b2su1
Type=HPX

 

Jim

[Zoandar]

Well, you can tick the box "Use this color" on the properties dialog while you convert it from polygon of type none to a hydro poly, but then all your polys will be the same transparent yellow, so that's not much help. I guess a quick .ini edit to set "DefaultPolyColor=200000FF" (transparent blue) might be a solution when working with hydro polys alone...

 

Wait a minute... Ha! Yes there is, in the SBuilderX313\Tools folder you'll find a file named "Polys.txt" where the default colors of all types of polygons are defined. I've been using "Hydro_Generic_Bay_Harbor_Perennial" which had a default color value of "FF0000C0". I changed that to "Color=780000C0" and now by default my hydro polys have a transparency of 100 on the slider within the program which is what I've been manually setting them all at previously.

 

Scroll through polys.txt until you find your preferred polygon type, mine looked like this after the edit:

 

[Texture.195]
Name=Hydro_Generic_Bay_Harbor_Perennial
Color=780000C0
Guid={8F1CD843-CAB1-434A-9E78-A6A1DAD4ED2E}
Textures=000b2su1
Type=HPX

 

Jim

 

Sorry, but this (second suggestion) didn't work. I changed the setting to Color=780000C0, but as you can see here, once I set the poly as Name=Hydro_Generic_Bay_Harbor_Perennial, and closed the properties dialog, it came back with the typical opaque blue polygon. I would like to not have to go back in a second time and set the transparency, which is what I always have had to do.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]141713[/ATTACH]

 

The one I used as a test for this settings change is the polygon in the upper right (which is only temporary). The other larger polys are the ones I am using here, and have already been re-set to a transparency of 25.

[Jim Robinson]

You must have done something wrong, I've made 30 water polys since I posted that and I haven't had to set transparency on any of them since the edit. Of course if you change the setting for Hydro_Generic_Bay_Harbor_Perennial in polys.txt and then come along and tag your next poly "Hydro_Generic_Canal_Channel_Perennial" instead of "Hydro_Generic_Bay_Harbor_Perennial" you won't see any effect, are you sure you're changing the right one?

 

Jim

[Zoandar]

Um,

 

DUH!! :foreheadslap:

 

In my eagerness to try your suggestion, coupled with the fact that I have always 'just pressed the H key' as the tutorial recommends, when setting the water type, I had never actually looked to see there are no less than SIX types of Hydro style and 5 of them all start with Hydro_Generic_. I got lazy and just copied what you had typed, pasted that into Notepad's "Find", and did indeed change THAT one. But............ that one is not the one I normally use. :) By pressing H, I use Hydro_Default_Perennial, because it closely matches the water color in Lake Erie as rendered by FSX before applying any modifications.

 

Your trick DOES work! I have now applied that "78" prefix to all 6 of the hydro listings. And as I use any other types of polygon, I'll do the same.

 

Thanks!

 

While we're on the subject of hydro polys, I've been wondering which one would provide the closest to 'clear' (as in the least amount of coloration) water for FSX? I am working on the east side of Lake Saint Clair, which has some really nice looking colorations in a huge estuary. I decided to try to preserve those colors when I did the scenery there, so I applied a gradient edge to my typical 273d2d green coloration in GIMP that I place under lake water, and faded into using no added coloration at all for the bottom of the lake/river where these interesting color patterns emerge. I figured the Hydro_Default_Perennial color would have enough impact atop the natural coloration that it might not turn out looking the way it should, and began wondering what type of water would have the least impact. You may recall when I posted how to make FSX rendered water match up with the muddy greenish brown water in some photo imagery of upstream rivers, I was perplexed until I realized that the typical Hydro_Default_Perennial water is, in essence, blue. I wanted pea soup green, or close to that, and only when I realized I in fact needed to add a shade of yellow to the bottom of the river did I end up with the green color.

 

But here, it seems to have worked out fairly well, on the part I have done so far.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]141723[/ATTACH]

 

Still, I am curious for future use which water color has the greatest clarity.

[Jim Robinson]

I don't think the designation of a water poly has anything to do with what the water actually looks like, not sure, and I can't find any documentation on the differences, but I think it has to do with things like whether the water freezes over in winter and maybe some other things of that nature.

 

To change the look of the water you'll need a waterclass adjustment. I would find a spot offshore somewhere and set up a test. Make a waterclass and add a few squares of each of the available types, maybe systematically with "001_Shallow Inland Water, Blue" in the upper right hand corner, "002_Deep Inland Water, Blue" next to it and so on until you have a square representing each one. Slew over it in the sim and choose the one that best fits your project. With the test project open in SBX slew over the one you want, then "View > Show aircraft" in SBX. Right click the waterclass under the aircraft and get it's value

 

EDIT: BTW, press "H" twice, or three times etc. to move through the different "Hydro_XX" variations.

 

Jim

[Zoandar]

I don't think the designation of a water poly has anything to do with what the water actually looks like, not sure, and I can't find any documentation on the differences, but I think it has to do with things like whether the water freezes over in winter and maybe some other things of that nature.

 

To change the look of the water you'll need a waterclass adjustment. I would find a spot offshore somewhere and set up a test. Make a waterclass and add a few squares of each of the available types, maybe systematically with "001_Shallow Inland Water, Blue" in the upper right hand corner, "002_Deep Inland Water, Blue" next to it and so on until you have a square representing each one. Slew over it in the sim and choose the one that best fits your project. With the test project open in SBX slew over the one you want, then "View > Show aircraft" in SBX. Right click the waterclass under the aircraft and get it's value

 

EDIT: BTW, press "H" twice, or three times etc. to move through the different "Hydro_XX" variations.

 

Jim

 

Thanks, Jim, but the problem with using waterclass tiles in SBX is that they are only square, and usually far too large. Ever seen a square body of water in the natural world? :) Goes back to what I said about the default choices programmers make. ;)

 

I am not aware of any way to use one of those by drawing a polygon. AFAIK you can only "place" the squares constrained by the QMID grid and the too few choices for size. I've used them a couple times when necessary. But I much prefer the ability to draw the poly point by point, and with the smoothing option one could, at least in theory, create the shape of any lake or pond or stream. But I've not played with the other hydro-poly choices. I do know they look different in the preview window. Some are bluer, some greener, and some browner like muddy river water after a rain. I'll play with them and let you know what I discover.

[Zoandar]

I did not have much success. You are right, Jim, that the poly types you can define, such as Hydro_Generic_Canal_Channel_Perennial, have absolutely no affect on their appearance in the waters of non-seasonal FSX scenery. The only way I was able to make the water look different (short of changing the underlying coloration, of course) is to try using water class segments, which are limited to squares of a few ranges in size, and oddly centered not on the middle of QMID grid blocks, but on the crosshairs of them?? Why did they choose to do that??

 

So here is a shot of some water class (WC) blocks applied to Lake Saint Clair. Muddy outflow water on the left, and shallow tropical ocean water on the right.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]141752[/ATTACH]

 

This appears to have some potential when it comes to trying to create the kind of effect which can be seen on my shot posted earlier of the East side of this lake. However, in trying to constrain the surface to only display such coloration within the boundaries of a drawn polygon, I can find no way to create a shape which would allow the WC coloration to be seen inside it, and excluded around the outside of the shape. Is there a way to do that? In the exclusion lists of both the poly tool and the exclude tool I did not see any mention of any water classes which could be excluded.

 

Unless there is some way to do that, the only method I can see for creating such an effect as seen in the estuary on the other side of the lake, if one does not have the coloration in the satellite imagery itself, is to artistically paint the colors onto a layer in the pre-compilation bitmap.

[Jim Robinson]

Well if you tucked the waterclass tiles back in along the shorelines so just the edges stick out into the water, and then staggered them a little to break up the straight line it wouldn't be so obvious, would it? Failing that, waterclass the entire lake in the desired water color and use your photoreal to give you the irregularities you seek. A large area low-res photo water overlay could also be an option. I posted a link to my Maine thread in the screenshots forum several pages back, I guess you missed that. You'll see where I did exactly that. I don't think WC was ever intended for precise water coloration in such relatively small areas, remember, the ACES team had to create the entire planet, in this case I guess they used a wide brush. They gave us the option of photoreal water and blend masks in FSX though which was a huge leap forward from FS9.

 

Jim

[Zoandar]

I suppose if the area were large enough it might work. But when dealing with, for example, an estuary shaped like the SBX screen shot I put in post # 164, I can't imagine making that work with large square blocks. I would probably try to do it from the artistic approach instead, using colored base layers.

[Thunderchicken]

I have created 3 small islands not far from where i live. The problem is that these islands is not in the default scenery so there is no elevation data on them. What tools is used to create this and are there any tutorials on how to do it?

[Zoandar]

Are the islands fairly flat with a single elevation, or are they hilly and/or have mountains or cliffs on them? If they are simple in regard to elevation, you may be able to do it with polygons in SBuilderX. I have worked with setting elevations on inland lakes this way, but I have not tried creating an island.

[Thunderchicken]

One of them are pretty equal in elevation but the others are not, they are hilly with cliffs.

[Zoandar]

I'm afraid that would be beyond my current skill set. Perhaps Jim or one of the others here could help you. Sorry I could not do more. My only guess is that the elevation for those sort of islands would be coded into the CVX file that FSX uses for that QMID 7 grid square. I don't know of a way to edit such a file. The only thing I would know how to do is to try to make polygons in SBX using land-class for the individual areas and set their elevation. Even thinking about trying that seems like an involved process. However, since you created these islands from scratch, it might not be that bad, because you could literally terraform the island to whatever shape in elevations you wanted. But I've never used the land-class tool in SBX, so I can't be of much help as far as specifics on how to do it.