RAF buildings for Rnwy12 object placer

[cj75s]

Hi all,

I am a seasoned flight simmer. From fs5 to fsx I've flown them all but have recently gone back to FS9 Flight sim 4 because I want to create a post WWII scenario

which is workable on my rig, which struggles a wee bit on FSX. So I chose FS9 which works fine for me giving about 30 fps.

 

However I find the need to use rwy12 Object Placer to fill my scenery with just ex WWII images and objects.

 

I have found that its difficult to use Rwy12 OP with RAF buildings found on Flightsim.com. I have downloaded FS9Hangers etc and tried to create an xml file and have placed the texture (.jpg or sometimes ,bmp files) into the correct places but still the images do not show up in Rwy12 menu!

how can I do this, anyone??

thank you Flightsim.com for providing this forum space.

thank you all in advance of your answers.

cj75s

 

[chris_eve]

It might be easier to use a different object placement program ... take a look at ADE https://www.scruffyducksoftware.com/airport-design-editor or even SceneGenX.

Personally I use EZ Scenery, but that's long since discontinued and you need a serial number for it, so you can't just download it from a "reputable" source  

[michaelkalinowsk]

Have you considered ADE (Airport Design Editor)?

[cj75s]

I do use ADE a lot to create airfields MS omitted. How could I use military objects in ADE? Maybe I should trawl through the help files.

 

I do have EZ Scenery for fsx and thought it should be valid for FS9 as well but it tells me I have an invalid licence although I do recall I had bought it yonks ago for FS9 before FSX came on the go. Unfortunately I have no longer got that licence.

 

Where can I find SceneGenX? is it payware?

 

Thanks for your replies guys.

 

[johnhinson]

Just for info . . .

 

EZ Scenery does not seem to mesh well with modern operating systems and requires you to re-enter your registration code each time you use it. I think it is fine otherwise and I use it from time to time.

 

According to Flight1, Instant Scenery 3 "might not work" on Windows 8 or higher and they do not offer support on the product, although they will still gleefully take your money for it. I have not been able to make it work on Windows 10. You can download a demo first to see if it will work for you.

 

John

[defaid]

On 3/20/2023 at 8:39 PM, cj75s said:

 

 

but still the images do not show up in Rwy12 menu!

 

 

Hi.

 

When you say 'don't show up', do you mean just the thumbnails or that they aren't listed at all in the Category and the Object to Place dropdown lists? If the former, is there an appropriate thumbnail in ../Rwy12/img/

 

If the latter, what were the files you downloaded? I've just done a quick trawl through my libraries and I don't have one called FS9Hangers.

 

D

 

 

[johnhinson]

12 hours ago, defaid said:

If the latter, what were the files you downloaded? I've just done a quick trawl through my libraries and I don't have one called FS9Hangers.

 

This one, I suspect.

John

 

 

[defaid]

From Runway12's tutorial document:

 

"... enables you to place static objects into FS9 without having to understand a thing about scenery programming."

 

Yeah, right. Unless the dev has uploaded only half of what you need. TBH, this upload is Linux/sourceforge quality: not much use for the 999 in 1000.

 

On the assumption that John is correct, I had a go. Initially, the library didn't show up for me either. In Runway12's tutorial there's a section called "A Word to Scenery Designers". It states that an upload must include what this one doesn't. I have a word for such scenery designers.

 

***

 

Here's what you have to do:

 

Extract the zip's contents and declare the new folder as a new scenery layer. 

I extracted vol2 then vol3 then vol4 to the same folder, overwriting. I did not add the folder to /Addon Scenery/ as I have my own folder & layer structure.

 

     /scenery/ should contain 4 × bgl and 4 × txt files
     /texture/ should have 490 items
    /Textures to change alert stripe color/ uh, not interested

 

The dev could also take some lessons in economical naming of folders & files...

 

***

 

As you've found, you'll have to make the xml for each bgl. This is almost certainly where things have gone wrong. Notepad doesn't save as xml. Word and Wordpad do but what I did was to copy an existing xml to desktop then rename & edit that. Notepad is ok for that task. Here's my xml text for the smallest of his bgls. If you use it, you'll need to edit the thumbnail path & name for each instance.

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> 
<objectsLibrary>
<category name="dlf_lib_AlertHangars_Black_FS9 - D. French">
            
    <obj name="FS9_Black_Alert Hangar SS door ext CLOSED"
            guid="F5065C0E4C5F604B164D678510F8A07E"
                image="d french stuff\thumbnail.bmp"/>
    <obj name="FS9_Black_Alert Hangar Center Bldg"
            guid="AD15BC2A426AE8CD834A5E853F780D7D"
                image="d french stuff\thumbnail.bmp"/>
    <obj name="FS9_Black_Alert Hangar SS OPEN"
            guid="DA380131406C8248CAA01FAF8D5F83B5"
                image="d french stuff\thumbnail.bmp"/>
    <obj name="FS9_Black_Alert Hangar SS PARTIAL"
            guid="88A3C84F497A808ADDF16A8DF3D2C191"
                image="d french stuff\thumbnail.bmp"/>
    <obj name="FS9_Black_Alert Hangar SS door ext OPEN"
            guid="A105015940B07282A6AA518BFFEFD59E"
                image="d french stuff\thumbnail.bmp"/>
    <obj name="FS9_Black_Alert Hangar SS CLOSED"
            guid="CE0693B0431DD16D6770B5828C4E66F5"
                image="d french stuff\thumbnail.bmp"/>
    <obj name="59 FIS Bat Logo Sign"
            guid="FAE5AEDA4B6F8002605C0E9E07FB47C8"
                image="d french stuff\thumbnail.bmp"/>
    <obj name="FS9_Black_Alert Hangar SS door ext PARTIAL"
            guid="DC2EC7E847AF1DDFE9E1CEAA672BF161"
                image="d french stuff\thumbnail.bmp"/>
    <obj name="59th FIS Rocketry Champs sign with legs"
            guid="A034E0DF41AB19DEF35F2D96BFFFF562"
                image="d french stuff\thumbnail.bmp"/>
    <obj name="59th FIS Rocketry Champs sign"
            guid="AE63D8FA4D1FC92DE867698D2EEBD4CE"
                image="d french stuff\thumbnail.bmp"/>
</category>
</objectsLibrary>    
 

And below is a very short template for the other, much larger bgls. Stuff you have to edit starts & ends with ##. There's also a single empty entry (copy & paste is quicker when you don't have to select or delete first). Things you'll have to add are:

 

          name of the library bgl you are adding
          developer name
          object description taken from the text file that has the same name as the bgl
          hex object id taken from the text file that has the same name as the bgl
          filename & path of the thumbnail

 

Don't forget the header info.

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> 
<objectsLibrary>
<category name="##library bgl name## - ##dev name##">
            

    <obj name="##the description taken from bglname.txt##"
            guid="##the hex id number taken from bglname.txt"
                image="##subfolder\filename.extension starting from ../Rwy12/img##"/>

 

    <obj name=""
            guid=""
                image=""/>

</category>
</objectsLibrary>    
 

The completed xml goes in the folder that contains ObjectPlacer.exe (Rwy12's root directory).

 

Make a thumbnail - I just used a magenta & yellow bitmap as a placeholder. Thumbnails go into an appropriately-named sub-folder of the /img/ folder in Rwy12's root directory. A placeholder will have to suffice until you've created some FS9 scenery and had the opportunity to slew & get a good look at what's actually in the bgl.

 

 

 

That's all I did.

1. Extract zips

2. Declare new folder as a new scenery layer
3. Edit/make xml and add it to the Rwy12 root folder
4. Make thumbnail and add it to a img sub-folder
---
5. Create some scenery.
6. Get some proper pictures for thumbnails.

 

D

[defaid]

In case you're wondering, it's "custard".

[cj75s]

Well to cut a long story short I eventually got EZscenery to work with FS9 and at no cost. I finally have got MAIW objects and Classic WWII buildings etc. However what I am missing are Aircraft models of that era. I have tried using Library maker but so far all the models I try it tells me are invalid and to only use FS9 or FSX models. Anyone know where I can find FS9 only WWI aircraft models, i.e. models that haven't originally been designed for 2002 or earlier, just dedicated 2004 models. OR can I use FSX static models in FS9 scenery?

?

Thanks for all the replies. Very interesting.

 

cj75s

[Tom Gibson]

And you cannot use FSX aircraft or scenery of any sort directly in FS9.

[Tom Gibson]

Keep in mind that native FSX models can use BMP textures too, if the author wants to.  It's unusual, I'll agree, but mine do.