hjwalter

Hi All, Not a very big deal but with my recently installed Fairchild Warthog, when applying it's brakes on the ground while moving, the nose dips down as should be quite normal but in external view, the nose wheel sinks through the runway/taxiway surface and that's not very realistic to watch in replay mode. Most probably some kind of suspension error in the first "contact point" entry in the plane's aircraft.cfg file. However, when parked and/or when taxiing, all three wheels are correctly on the ground and without issues. Does anyone know how to fix this nose wheel issue ? Thanks in advance and regards. Hans

Chris_eve, Thanks for your reply but .... nope ..... my strange white blotches were not caused by some, as you call it, "demo-ware", which was showing me what happens when the related payment is overdue. After a heck of a lot of "messing around", primarily in your advised directions but without any form of success, I suddenly began to find additional issues, which were in no way related to photo or other forms of scenery, e.g. certain keyboard combinations no longer worked as they had always done. This caused me to almost immediately dig up and re-install an eight year old FS9.cfg backup file and PRESTO, all blotches were suddenly gone !! Not only that but my graphics card suddenly began showing better detailed pictures !! How these automatic FS9.cfg "updates" had taken place in the not too distance past, certainly beats me and the only thing I can now think of is that they had taken place as part of some automatic (scenery) installer, maybe even a graphics card driver update. Anyway, all's well that ends well but automatic installers in whatever form should always remain highly suspicious. Regards Hans

Hi Guys, In some of my "countryside" photo sceneries I see many small white rectangular blotches appearing as I fly towards them and then disappearing again when I get closer or fly over them. Untextured (farm-)buildings maybe ? On closer inspection theey are almost all positioned in rectangular lighter coloured photo-terrain "plots" and when I directly slew down onto any one of them my slew-plane strangely enough (partially) disappears under what looks like a transparant rectangular shape. Could these be in my FS9 not (yet) existing world texture files ? If so, how do I disassemble the related photo BGL file(s) in order to find out which world textures are being called for ? Greatfull for any advice. Regards to all and long live FS9. Hans

Hey Guys, In the above posts there are so many different and complicated opinions raised that it becomes very difficult to make out what the general recomendations should be. So, these are my own general recomendations and which are based on my many years of fantastic FS2004 experiences: 1. I've understood that in this thread we are in fact only talking about textures used by FS2004 (FS9) and which are almost exclusively in the BMP format and not in DDS (= FSX). 2, Textures which are viewed from strongly varying distances, e.g. those used for scenery objects and for AI aircraft, should all be mipped and can be saved in any format depending on user detail preferences and of cause on his/her PC hardware capacities but DXT3 remains the basic norm for all of these. 3. Mipping remains generally necessary in order to prevent PC graphics hardware from constantly having to fully render scenery and AI aircraft textures, which are so far away as to be out of sight anyway. 4. Alpha channels remain necessary but can sometimes become problematic when called for by older SCASM based (BGL) files. 5. Because flyable aircraft are never viewed from greater distances their (normally DXT3 format) textures need not be mipped. Long live FS2004 !! Regards to all. Hans

Hi all, After systematically disaasembling the BGL files of my GCLA airport, I found quite some flattens at different elevations, some of which were even overlapping each other. The original author had most probably run up against the same problems as I did and in the end had just decided to leave it "as is" and as long as the complete (photo) apron remained usuable without "fall throughs". Anyway, after much "messing around" with the BGLs concerned and not finding any definite "fix-all cure" I decided to just mask the problem areas with some of my library file trees, bushes, buildings, etc. so that I could at least keep using this beautifully situated airport for VFR flying around the picturesque CanarySim Islands. The GCLA airport scenery itself is now no longer conform it's original reality but it al least now looks better. but only as long as detailed "scenery inspections" are not made. Long live FS9 and especially because of all it's maintenance and improvement possibilities. Regards Hans

Airbasil_1 Thanks very much for your reaction but after firstly (test-)trying the BGL meant for the La Palma (GCLA) airport and by following the author's instructions, my problem sadly still persists. Trying it in other (default) scenery areas, e.g. in the "World" folder, did not produce any positive results either. At my Heirro airport (GCHI) there were no issues but that was because I was obliged to reduce the complete airport's elevation and it's surrounding coastal area (= a large flatten) to zero feet, quite some time ago. Most probably for the same issues as I now have at La Palma. However, because of the jagged La Palma coastlines, clifs, etc. and the airport's unique position on sloping terrain, this would, in my opinion, spoil the beautiful La Palma scenery far too much. My fight goes on, at least for the time being. Regards Hans

Hi all ye technical FS9 experts, I have the beautiful CanarySim scenery of the Spannish Canary islands but one of them is causing problems which I just cannot seem to get solved. It concernes the La Palma island with my seperately added GCLA airport, which is mainly based on a satellite photo image and is, simply said, projected on the undulating slopes of the La Palma mountain and correctly on top of the default GCLA. The airport itself works as it should in the standard FS9 aeronautical sense but a seemingly unsolvable issue stands out in a very unrealistic way. The basic problem is caused by the underlying sloping and undulating mountain scenery protruding through the photo scenery in some areas and especially in the sloping area l between the airport and the sea. I've been experimenting with flattens in the problem areas because these only effect the underlying mountain scenery and not the photo scenery above it but even allthough such flattens do seem to work correctly they in fact cause worse problems, i.e. that the airport's (photo) apron is no longer "hard" in some areas and also that it can suddenly become transparant in unexpected places, showing the (flattened) mountain scenery below it. On top of that, some previously saved flights now suddenly initiate at the flatten elevation and no longer on the apron. I've also tried creating an apron at the airport's elevation (107 feet) via the Afcad program but that doesn't even show up, let alone that it hardens the (photo) apron or block it's transparancies. Suggestions anyone ? Regards and a happy new year to you all. Hans

Bilif, I assume you are (still) using the correct color black and also that you have given the .bmp texture file concerned an alpha channel, before saving it in the DXT3 format, without mips. Probably needless to say but alpha channels are only actually created when the correct color black has been used. Hans

A very interesting thread/subject indeed. However, I've always been lead to believe that the extremely complex real aircraft aerodynamics just cannot simply be scaled down to e.g. that of a much smaller exact scale model, let alone to that of an FS aircraft, which doesn't even have real air of different densities to fly in. FS aircraft are designed to perform ..... LIKE ..... real aircraft but only visibly on different screen types, which in my mind automatically means that FS aerodynamics may never be directly compared to those of real aircraft, even although very much effort has quite obviously gone into making them visibly perform in a very realistic manner, mostly based on combined AIR file and aircraft.cfg "aerodynamic" parameters. Long live FS9, independent of real world Oswald and other factors !! Hans

Have you tried plugging your throttle quadrant and your switch panel into the USB ports on the rear side of your Saitek yolk ? Hans

I've really latched on to FS9 right from it's very beginning and have added huge numbers of addon airports/airfields/scereries/aircraft from all over the world since then. I have improved and expanded most of these to my own liking, have deleted everything which I regarded as being unnecessary ballast and am in general still very happy with my whole setup. My Win7 64bit is still the very original from the installation discs, my machine has never had any internet connections and it still seems to be loving it all by keeping up running very smoothly. FS9 realistic enough ? Any addon, which in this regard is not up to my own realism standards I immediately improve it by making it as realistic as possible myself. However, I must also admit that the combination of "technical simming know how" and the (sim-)flying itself, seems to need far more brain power than when I would have been a real world pilot. However, I regard all that as being part of this fantastic hobby and which has kept me off the streets and out of sleasy bars for many years !! LOL. Having said all that, migrating to a newer sim and only because of "better realism" would entail me becoming obliged to depart from my beloved FS9 and having to eventually delete the whole thing, also from my brain, the idea of which I just cannot get my brain to accept ........ yet. Moreover, it's my opinion that all these newer sim versions have become just too commercial for me. Long live FS9 !! Hans

Thanks chris-eve for your lesson. Even after more than 20 years of experience with editing and/or improving my own personal FS9 (airport) sceneries, I often run up against new (and higher level) impossibilities and this one was certainly one of them. Thanks again for your very clear explanation. Hans

Thanks for all your reactions and/or comments ....... BUT ....... via my "antique" Afcad program, any created ground polygons, e.g. aprons, terrains, grass, etc. can show up on top of just about anything and that includes ground covering satellite photo scenery areas. However, the single remaining problem with the Afcad program is the very specific program bound texture set, which by any realistic means, cannot replace the far more subtle and for larger areas made SBuilder textures, e.g. for whole airport terrains. Does anyone know how Afcad manages to do this, while the far more modern SBuilder program cannot ? SBuilder doesn't even have a selectable option, e.g. for a higher or "on top of" scenery layer. Regards Hans

Hi all ye technical experts, The terrain of one of my addon airports is covered by a separate photographic satellite scenery, which is part of the much larger scenery area around it. I would very much like to create a better looking airport terrain polygon via the SBuilder program, as I have already done successfully for many of my other airports/airfields, which do not have such "cover all" photographic satellite scenery. However, I suspect strongly that my newly created SBuilder polygon stubbornly remains hidden beneath the satellite scenery and have already spent many hours in unsuccessfully trying to make it visible above the satellite scenery. I believe that there just must be some simple way of getting my newly created polygon visible above the satellite scenery but HOW ?? Anyone please ........ and thanks in advance. Hans

Hey Guys, No reactions whatsoever ...... yet ?? Am I the only armchair pilot who still flies this Tu-144 or who has kept an interest in it ?? I also fly the Concorde, which also flies very well, on some fronts even better than the Tu-144, but because it's technically so much more advanced, it's far more "work" and stressfull to fly. Hans

The freeware and extremely high-tech FS9 version of this aircraft was made by a team of Russian experts who were (in-)directly involved in the real world developement of this sadly ill-fated aircraft but once you get used to it's metrical basics in FS9, e.g. Kms per hour, meters per second, instead of knots, feet, ...... and ...... it's Russian analog panel, it has most certainly become one of my all time favorites to fly. In my mind, it also remains one of the highest technical FS9 masterpieces ever and with the Concorde following closely behind. Hans

ScottishMike, In my own FS9 I have solved the "sea walls" problem at El Hierro airport by making a series of fairly large flattens at zero feet at both ends of it's runway. It's not really true to real life but approaches now at least look a lot better. However, more of such flattens are really necessary in order to cover the rest of the island. Havn't got around to that (yet). Regards Hans

Basil, I have sent you a private message also containing my new flattens. Cheers Hans

Airbasil_1, I have sent you a private message. Regards Hans

Airbasil_1, Do you still have the originally downloaded zip file ? If you can firstly confirm this in this thread I will send you a private message containing my e-mail address, so that you can send me the file as an e-mail attachment. Regards Hans

Airbasil_1, What's the file name of your problem airport and from where did you download it ? If it's freeware I would like to download and temporarily install/test it myself, to see if I have the same problems and of cause, to see if I can somehow correct the issues. I will then report back in this thread. Regards and take care. Hans

Wel Guys, This SBuilder program did open a whole new world of possibilities for me but as far as shorelines and their directly related wave effects are concerned, the program does seem to create a "playground" for technical diehards and I'm certainly not one of those ......... yet. However, my wave effects on TVSB's apron etc. have now been taken care of and I've strongly "tropicalised" (= masked) the whole island by planting palm/coconut trees and mangrove-like strokes along all the island's shorelines/beaches and where they used to be. Too bad for beach loving tourists but great for VFR flying !! Erik, Yes, I have also found out that getting rid of wave effects can only be done for the whole world and not locally. Thanks to all of you for your kind help and always remember: Never drink alcohol while flying because sooner or later the earth will suddenly rise up to kill you !! Hans

Hi Guys, Thanks for all your help. After many hours of messing around with SBuilder I finally succeded in deleting (or subduing) the necessary shorelines and with them, their wave effects on my (test) TVSB airfield. However, I must admit that at this point II don't really know how I did it because during much of my "trial and error work" they had quite suddenly and unexpectedly disappeared, although hgschnell's above diagrams evidently did get me going in the right direction. Now to repeat the procedure a number of times in order to "get the hang of it" for possible later use at other airfields with the same problems. What I did notice though was that my SBuilder exclude polygon, although much smaller in size, in fact excluded the shorelines in a far greater area but that could have something to do with the default scenery "blocks" about which I have been reading elswhere. Anyway, I'm certainly very happy with this intermediate result and will now make attempts at re-drawing the shorelines, which now end too far away from the airfield. Bernard, Your suggestion also sounds very good and I will certainly try it, especially if it can be done locally ...... via one of those SBuilder exclude polygons. Thnaks again Guys, Hans

Thanks Tom and Hgschnell, For me this is a fresh and very logical sounding direction for me to look into because I could find nothing in SBuilder itself in any way related to editing default files. It will certainly keep me off the streets and out of sleasy bars, at least for the forseeable future (LOL) and I'm already looking forward to the final solution to my into a test case elevated problem. Thanks again Guys and I'll let you know how I fared. Hans

hgschnell, I went through your "airport-background" tutorial a few times more and am now able to further edit (= improve) their terrains, in other words, to create VTPP files. Also works great for covering up default weeds, trees, etc. but sadly, not for any shorelines !! However, I'm still looking for a method/procedure to edit (= get rid of small pieces of shoreline in) my HL931270.bgl file. Could you therefore please explain a little further by what you mean by "append" this file. Could this possibly be a function hidden away somewhere within SBuilder ? If so, I havn't been able to find it ........ yet. I also tried to dis-assemble my HL file via the SCASM program but this only produced a "BGLAnalyze MFC Application has stopped working" appcrash message, containing a lengthy and seemingly abruptly ended "asm" file. Trying to (test) re-compile this file, via the SCASM compiler and without any edits, only produced a message that a basic DOS method should be used. However, this didn't work either. My last resort is now to delete this whole TVSB airfield and any programmed flights to and from it but before I actually do so I would certainly like to learn how to edit default files in general and specifically my now hottest HL931270.bgl one. Regards and thanks in advance for any help you could be able to supply. Hans