Jim Robinson

I remember Guillows - and Comet, Sterling, Jetco, SIG, Carl Goldberg, Balsa USA, etc. Model Airplane News, RCModeler, silkspan, the AMA publication, K&B, Fox, Cox, Kraft... Somewhere around here I have one of the first Tower Hobbies catalogs ever printed, '79 or '80 I think. Anyone know what a "tee dee .051" is? I've got one, and a "pee wee .020", Fox .35 "Stunt", McCoy .19, Top-Flight 9-6 nylon props... Remember the "Perfect" hardware displays? Profile fuselages with stunt tanks strapped on with rubber bands? Pactra "dope" in Stearman Red and Cub Yellow (all my adolescent friends thought I was a doper and couldn't believe you could buy that stuff in a hobby shop!). Testors dope smelled like banannas. X-acto knives - I grew to hate die-cut parts but SIG pulled it off. Claude McCullough is probably dead now. Maxey Hester started messin' around with Hazel Sigafoose after Glen died and they're probably both dead now too... Not sure how that all keeps FSX interesting but thanks for the trip down memory lane! Gawd, those were the days, no? :)

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? 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

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.

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

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

This must have some value! The odds have got to be astronomical! When I checked "New posts" this morning I was awarded this amazing searchid! (and then I was kindly allowed to read the new posts) https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/search.php?searchid=4100000 Shouldn't I win a prize or something? :)

The XML I got from ADE after placing an example of "Terminal Small Gray" at a random location, just right click and "show XML". Probably the best rescource in the FSX SDK is on the "Compiling BGL" page under Scenery Objects > GenericBuilding incidentally, autogen buildings are similarly generated but not quite the same. The texture numbers relate to a specific texture sheet located in the Flight Simulator X\Texture folder, in the FS9 bglcomp SDK there was a spreadsheet "Generic Building Textures.xls" that connected the texture numbers to a texture filename but I don't see a cross reference in the FSX SDK although admittedly I didn't look very hard. According to the FS9 sheet texture #64 is "sky_tb_tan3_4.bmp" for example and it's FSX counterpart "sky_tb_tan3_4.dds" appears to be (one of) the texture(s) actually used when you place a copy "Terminal Small Gray" in FSX, therefore I believe for the most part the FS9 list would also work as a reference for FSX generic buildings. The FS9 Bglcomp SDK can be downloaded from the downloads section over at fsdeveloper if you want to look at it. Jim

Generic buildings aren't the same as library objects so it could be a difference in ADE versions but it has nothing to do with the sim itself. Generic buildings are just an arrangement of coordinates in the XML script the airport is ultimately compiled from. The xml code for a generic building basically defines the size of the object and which portions of some default texture sheets should be applied to the walls and roof of the building. Here's the XML for "Terminal Small Gray" for example: scale="1" bottomTexture="64" roofTexture="9" topTexture="51" windowTexture="57"> roofType="FLAT" sizeX="79.86" sizeZ="49.99" sizeBottomY="10" textureIndexBottomX="1024" textureIndexBottomZ="512" sizeWindowY="0" textureIndexWindowX="0" textureIndexWindowY="0" textureIndexWindowZ="0" sizeTopY="5" textureIndexTopX="1024" textureIndexTopZ="640" textureIndexRoofX="256" textureIndexRoofZ="256"/> That's all there is to it, there are no libraries that contain these objects. More info on the texture sheets and how they are applied in the FSX SDK. ADE comes with a set of pre-defined generic buildings which are stored in the Airport Design Editor 9x\FSX\GenericBuildings folder so the discrepancy you're seeing is simply because you don't have the pre-defined .gnb file for "Terminal Small Gray" in that folder for whatever reason - could be a difference in ADE versions. There are generic building libraries available and ADE also has the capability of saving generic buildings found at other airports into the folder mentioned above for use at other airports made by ADE. Jim

No, a waterclass won't turn land into water, all it does is change the water textures used in a given area. You'll need to exclude some water polys and rebuild them so they match the photoreal coastlines. That's pretty well been covered in this thread ad naseaum although I am not in agreement with the tutorial that disabling default .cvx files is the proper way to go about this. If you're interested, I came into the thread here with my thoughts on reconstructing hydro polys: https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?250762-How-to-create-photoreal-scenery-for-FSX&p=1736660#post1736660 Also here's another thread where I explained the process: https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?256500-First-project-with-FSBuilder-X-and-first-problems At this point I'm bailing out of this thread as there seems to be some perceived "ownership" issues, if you need help in the future start another thread or PM me. Jim

Your feather edge is extending out to the edges of the imagery, make your blend a little smaller or use a larger chunk of imagery. One thing you can do is check the color of the blend mask at the very outer edges of the imagery with the eyedropper thingy. It should be pure black (0,0,0 ~ #000000) all the way around. If there's even the slightest bit of white (i.e 1,1,1 or #010101) you'll see the hard line at the edge of the imagery. That looks kicka$$ BTW :) Jim

You probably need to use the lasso tool with a feather of around 200-300px to make your blend mask for the water. Just make a big roundish selection area that loosley folows the shoreline but several hundred yards out onto the water. That'll make the transition more gradual although you may find you need a larger piece of imagery to spread that transition out on. The feather edge needs to be completely confined within the imagery coverage area or else you'll still have a hard line showing at the edge of the imagery. Also you could select your water mask area and put a selective color adjustment layer over it (which limits the adjustment to the water only), figure out which waterclass texture FSX is using in that area (345b2su1.bmp?), get that into PS and match your PR water to it. Another option would be to make a small waterclass .bgl with SBuilder that changes the color of the default FSX water in that area to something that better matches your PR water. Jim

You've got hidden files showing but you don't have file extensions turned on. I see you have two files in that folder named "OLBIA", one appears to be OLBIA.inf and the other appears to be OLBIA.txt judging by the file icon & "type". There's no "OLBIA.BMP" which is what your .inf is looking for according to the DOS resample window, see the screenshot I edited in the quote, it's circled in red. Is "OLBIA original" your main imagery source? If so change "SourceFile = OLBIA.BMP" to SourceFile = "OLBIA original.BMP" in the [source1] section of your .inf. Also get in the habit of using an "_" (underscore) instead of spaces in your filenames. Otherwise make sure the filename is enclosed in quotes in the .inf or you'll get an error. Jim

Putting on my Sherlock Holmes hat... In the screenshot you posted above your .inf is looking for "OLBIA.BMP" but from what little I can see of your explorer window there is no "OLBIA.BMP" that I can see assuming the files are sorted by name. Let's repeat: http://www.cat-tamer.com/flightsim/atchmnts/olbia.jpg Turn on the file extensions like I told you to. Have a look at my last post above re: using .tifs and incorporating the alpha & blend masks as channels in the .tif. It'll make your life a lot easier and also make me feel a little better about the hour or so I spent putting that together for you. Jim

If I were you annber I would go to using .tifs now that you're using PhotoShop. With a .tif you can embed the water & blend masks right into the main imagery source as alpha channels and forget about the multi-source BS. Here's a quote from another thread: Then you need to edit the .inf something like this, note the lines in red: [source] [color="#FF0000"]Type = TIFF[/color] Layer = Imagery SourceDir = "." SourceFile = "L17X81280X81305Y94878Y94903.[color="#FF0000"]tif[/color]" Variation = All [color="#FF0000"]NullValue = 0,0,0[/color] SamplingMethod = Gaussian ulyMap = 44.4357410376762 ulxMap = -68.37890625 xDim = 5.36441802978516E-06 yDim = 3.83122366525947E-06 [Destination] DestDir = "D:\MSFS\Addon Scenery\KBHB Bar Harbor\Scenery" DestBaseFileName = "KBHB_Bar_Harbor_Photo" DestFileType = BGL LOD = Auto UseSourceDimensions = 1 CompressionQuality = 95 I usually loosely mimic the blend mask area with a pure black layer overtop of the main imagery, that, with NullValue = 0,0,0 renders the blended out part of the imagery as "missing data" and therefore reduces the size of the compiled .bgl somewhat. The only caveat is that you need to "replace color" on the remaining part of the imagery, replacing any black with 1,1,1 or else you'll have transparent specks all throughout your PR where a black tree shadow for example was rendered transparent. The landclass textures underneath will show through in all of these specks and it looks awful . To export a .tif: First save what you have as a .psd so you can open and edit it again if desired. Then ctrl+click the black "null zone" layer's icon in the "layers pallette" (F7) to select it, invert the selection with CTRL+Shift+I. Do "layers > flatten image". I usually do some sharpening at this point so with the selection still intact do "filters > sharpen > unsharp mask" and set "amount: 50", "radius: 1.0", and "threshold: 0". With the selection still intact do "Image > Adjustments > Replace color". Click on the black outer blend area to set the color to be replaced to black, "fuzziness "0", and set the "lightness" slider to +1. Click OK and there's no more pure black in the imagery. Do CTRL+D to deselect and then "Save as" > "Format: TIFF" and then "Image compression: None" on the export dialog. Here's a quick imagery source that you can open in PS to help understand what I mean: http://www.cat-tamer.com/flightsim/atchmnts/KEYW_key_west_sources.zip I make no claim that this is an example of quality work, lol. It's a chunk of LOD15 to keep the file size down, and I spent a total of about 5 minutes on the blend & water masks. The adjustment layers are just there to show you what's possible, double click any adjustment layer's icon in the layers pallette to make adjustments to them. Check the channels pallette to see the blend & water masks. I always keep these selection areas as a hidden color fill area in the .psd, that way if you ever need to load a selection you can do it with ctrl+click on the layer's icon in the layers pallette. (the water for example, say a week from now you decided to adjust the water color without adjusting the land too) Note that you can vary the opacity of any adjustment layer to decrease/increase it's effect, you can also "erase" parts of them with the eraser tool if you find they're too strong on one part of the imagery and not strong enough on another. Random hint: use the "magnetic lasso tool" ("width: 10", "edge contrast: 100%", "frequency: 100") to do your water masks, you'll be amazed how well it works :) Jim

I don't know Annber, it looks like resample choked on the main imagery .bmp rather than the water or blend mask. Did you work with that one in Gimp, save it, etc? My guess is a format problem but I'm Gimp illiterate so I don't know what to tell you to do differently. One unrelated thing I would suggest is to go into "Control Panel > Folder options", click on the "View" tab and tick "Show hidden files, folders" and also untick "Hide extensions for known file types". That'll let the file extensions show in the explorer window which should eliminate some confusion. I'm wondering if "OLBIA.bmp" doesn't actually exist, i.e. did you save it as "OLBIA.xcf" instead (which appears to be Gimp's native format)? Also if you're just starting out in Gimp I would switch to PhotoShop instead. (they call it "Gimp" because it's lame :) ) . Adobe recently made CS2 available to the public but I've been using it for years. I can tell you what to do in PS but I'm afraid I'm lost with Gimp. Get the one 2nd from the bottom on this page: http://www.adobe.com/downloads/cs2_downloads/index.html There's a keycode next to the download link to unlock it with. Jim

I wouldn't use "Legacy" anything for FSX, those are FS9 style polys I believe. I suppose they'd work, I've never tried them. Why would you want to use a non-flattening poly BTW? Basically you'll need 2 excludes, one for shorelines (Exclude_All_Shorelines) and another for hydro polys (Exclude_All_Water_Polygons). Those need to encompass an entire QMID11 cell, it's best if you just turn on QMID11 grids in SBX and right click, "Fill to QMID11" for each of the excludes. Then you need to re-draw all water polys within that excluded QMID11 cell to match your imagery and tag them with "Hydro_(something)" and set an elevation for each poly if any are other than sea level. You don't really need shorelines under your photoreal, but chances are you'll see areas outside the photoreal coverage area where water meets land abruptly if you don't add those too. That's easy though, just select your new hydro poly, right click, and choose "make line", then tag the line with "Shorelines_(something)" and you're done. Jim

Can't really tell what you're trying to do Annber, open the photo .bgl in TMFViewer? Is it the TMFViewer located in "SDK\Environment Kit\Terrain SDK"? (I mean you're not trying to open it with the FS9 version of TMFViewer, right?) Jim

The only thing you can do with the color mismatch is get the sources into PhotoShop and try to make them match better. That's not so easy unfortunately, especially with the hard line delineating the two sources. You might be able to use larger sources so that they overlap, get them to match as well as you can in PS, and then do feathered blend masks on each to hide the line somewhat. I've never done that so I'm not sure how well it would work. You could also put the two overlapping sources together in PS, match & blend as necessary, and then re-write/re-calculate the .inf so you could resample the composite of the two sources as a single source. That may give you the best result but it'll be a little more involved. Don't know of a way to obtain any better imagery, SBX has access (actually google, virtual earth, and yahoo have access) to commercial imagery in most cases so my guess is you won't find anything better than what's available on those servers. You could try googling around for something better, try "South America GIS" for example. Jim

Probably just go into the Latin VFR scenery folder and disable the photo .bgl so you're only using the new one you made with SBuilder. You can of course use the annotator to add autogen to your photoreal, Tiberius has covered that process at some point in his tutorial, check back a few pages for that. If Latin VFR has autogen try copying the .agn files from their texture folder into your own (or put your photoreal .bgl into Latin VFR's scenery folder), there's a good chance it will align just fine on your new photoreal, that would save you a lot of work. Jim

It doesn't make any difference what zoom level you are at on the screen, but on the "add map from background" dialog you'll see radio buttons where you can specify which zoom level for your map. Sometimes you have to be zoomed to a certain level on screen to make a specific zoom level available, I presume that is due to the number of tiles it would take to fill the screen and the "cannot make map" memory limitation you ran into earlier. Each zoom level appears to be twice the resolution of the previous, i.e. if a given area makes a map that's 2000px wide and 2000px tall at zoom level 12, the same area will generate a map that's 4000 x 4000px at zoom level 13, 8000 x 8000px at zoom level 14, etc. The maps you make are stored in the "D:\MSFS\SBuilderX313\Tools\Work" folder BTW, with filenames like "L18X149844X149848Y279782Y279785.BMP" etc, along with a .txt file of the same name bearing the coordinates of the map. Jim

I just tried that and was able to make a map at zoom=16, apparently there is no higher resolution than that. Were you trying to add a map at a zoom level above 16? Jim

Yep, exceeded memory capacity. You can do it with multiple maps and if you still want a single photo .bgl you can multi-source the .infs together outside of Sbuilder, see this thread: https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?256346-How-to-merge-multiple-photo-sceneries Jim

Just put googleserver.dll into the tiles folder bare, let it overwrite the on that's already there from the Sbuilder install. That's probably your problem I think. I don't think there's any difference between the .dlls in the .zip but I used the one outside of the "code" folder. Jim