Jump to content

How to create photoreal scenery for FSX


Tiberius K.

Recommended Posts

It's truly fun to create your own sceneries. I'm sure a lot of simmers would like to do their own photoreal sceneries but don't know how to do it, try a bit here and there and often give up somewhere along the way after browsing several forums for weeks and months without solving some basic problems.

 

Sure, it takes a lot of time to do photoreal sceneries. But once you've got used to flying over photoreal terrain, you'll be addicted to it - there's just nothing better!

 

I don't recommend doing photoreal sceneries with a texture resolution of less than 1m/pixel or LOD15 (Level of Detail). 60cm/pixel or LOD16 is best. Why? With LOD15 you can fly as low as 1500 ft above ground and it still looks good, with LOD16 you can even go down to 500 ft above ground and it will still look mighty real.

 

You also have to consider file size. If you do LOD15 sceneries, you will need at least 0.2MB/sq km, for LOD16 sceneries 0,8MB/sq km. So if you want to do Sardinia with an area of 24,000 sq km, you will need at least 5GB for LOD15 and a whopping 20GB if you do it in LOD16! And that's just for the photoreal textures. You also have to consider mesh and objects.

 

So, one day in the near future when 250TB hard drives will be available, we can easily put the entire planet in photoreal LOD16 on one single hard drive. :cool:

 

I will use Nauru as an example for this tutorial.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 434
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

PART I - Preparations

 

 

1) Install FSX SDK SP2

(you have to first install SDK (from your FSX DVD), then SDK SP1, then SDK SP2 in exactly that order)

 

2) Install SbuilderX and latest Tile server plugins

 

3) Install ADE

 

4) Install a image editing software that can work with layers (Photoshop, Gimp etc.)

 

5) Create a folder "Nauru" on your C: drive

 

6) Create a folder "Scenery" and a folder "Texture" in your "Nauru" folder

 

7) Copy (don't move!!!) resample.exe from your "Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK" folder into your "Nauru" folder

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PART II - Getting your background image

 

1) Start SBuilderX (if you start it the first time, it will copy some files first, wait until that is done)

 

2) Create a new project

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129214[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

3) Type "Nauru" as project name, use "C:/Nauru/Scenery" as your BGL folder and then click "OK"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129215[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

4) Go to "Preferences"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129216[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

5) Choose a tile server (usually Google Satellite or VirtualEarth Satellite), check "Use GoogleSatellite" and click "OK"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129217[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

6) Go to "Go to Position"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129218[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

7) According to Wikipedia Nauru lies at about 0.52°S 166.9°E, fill in the numbers (be careful, Wikipedia shows decimals, SbuilderX uses minutes and seconds, so you have to convert it!) and click "OK"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129219[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

8) Make sure you are connected to the internet and then go to "Show Background"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129220[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

9) Now the satellite image will show up at zoom level 8, zoom in to zoom level 13 with the zoom tool in the toolbar

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129221[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

10) Go to "Add map from Background"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129222[/ATTACH]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PART II - Getting your background image (continued)

 

11) Draw a square over your island so that everything is covered by holding your left mouse button while drawing

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129223[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

12) Check "zoom = 17" on the upper right, this will give us a LOD16 background image

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129224[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

13) Click "OK" and SBuilderX will start downloading tiles (about 2000 tiles for this size), wait until it's done

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129225[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

14) Sometimes SbuilderX has a problem with downloading the last 1 or 2 tiles, if you click "OK" you will get an error message, so if that happens just click "Cancel" instead

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129226[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

15) Hide background by unchecking "Show Background", now SBuilder won't show the tiles downloading info anymore

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129227[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

16) After background image disappeared, go back and check "Show Background" again

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129228[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

17) When your background image shows up again, go to "Add Map From Background" again

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129229[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

18) Draw your square again, make sure that "Zoom = 17" is checked and click "OK", SBuilder will put all downloaded tiles together to compile your image now

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129230[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

19) When your image is compiled, you will see it at zoom level 17 (never mind if it still says zoom=13 on the lower left, once you click around on you image, it will show the correct zoom level)

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129231[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

20) If you don't click around on your image, it will be already selected, if not, then go to "Select All Maps"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129232[/ATTACH]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PART II - Getting your background image (continued)

 

21) Now click the "BGL Compile" button in the toolbar

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129233[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

22) check "Copy BGL files to BGL folder" (your scenery bgl will go directly into your Nauru Scenery folder) and click "Compile"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129234[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

23) Now resample will compile your scenery, it will turn it from a BMP image into a BGL file so that FSX can use it

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129235[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

24) When resample has finished compiling your BGL file, go to your Nauru/Scenery folder. You will find there a file "Photo01.bgl" Double-click on that file and choose to always open it with TmfViewer. "TmfViewer.exe" is stored in your "Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK/SDK/Environment Kit/Terrain SDK" folder together with "resample.exe"

 

When you open that bgl file TmfViewer will show you how your scenery will look in FSX:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129236[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

25) You can check out the texture resolution and Level of Detail (LOD) of your scenery, it's LOD16 (60cm/pixel)

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129237[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

26) Now close TmfViewer and start FSX

 

27) Go to "Settings" ---> "Scenery Library" ---> "Add Area" and add your "Nauru" folder. Click "OK" and scenery library will update automatically.

 

28) Now go back to "Free Flight" and go to Nauru Airport

 

29) Now you should see your scenery, it should look like this:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129238[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129239[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

30) Since our scenery is LOD16, you should go to "Options" ---> "Settings" ---> "Display" and set your texture resolution to 60cm

 

 

Well, when looking at the result, I'd say:

 

the good news is that our scenery shows up

the bad news is that Microsoft didn't place Nauru and its airport accurately enough (which is mostly the case when it comes to islands! :rolleyes:)

 

Up to here it should have been a piece of cake. The real work starts now!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PART III - Watermasks and Blendmasks

 

 

Now it's time to work with our background image we've just downloaded.

 

First we have to copy a few files

 

 

1) Go to your "SBuilderX/Tools/Work" folder and copy all files to your "Nauru" folder

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129257[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

2) Your "Nauru" folder should now look like this:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129258[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

3) Change the name of your "L17X252609X252651Y131434Y131477.BMP" file to "Nauru original.bmp"

 

4) Change the name of your "L17X252609X252651Y131434Y131477.TXT" file to "Nauru.txt"

 

5) Delete your "Photo01.bgl" file

 

 

Creating a Watermask

 

 

Now we have to show FSX where the water is. If we don't add a watermask FSX will take the entire photoreal area as land. So we have to put a water layer over the photoreal background layer.

I will use Gimp as image editing software here, you can download it for free. Remember to save your project from time to time.

 

 

6) Start Gimp and go to File --> Open and open your "Nauru original.bmp"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129259[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

7) Add a new layer

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129260[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

8) Name your layer "Watermask" and click "OK"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129261[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

9) Lock your background layer by clicking on the symbol next to the eye icon and then click on Watermask to make sure you are drawing on your watermask layer. (if that Layer toolbar on the right won't show up later for some strange reason, go to the menu bar ---> Windows ---> Recently closed docks ---> Layers, Channels, Paths)

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129262[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

10) Choose a normal paintbrush

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129263[/ATTACH]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PART III - Watermasks and Blendmasks (continued)

 

 

11) Choose 100% Hardness (watermasks are only in black/white, which means water/no water, there are no grey scales)

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129264[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

12) Zoom into your image to 200% and start drawing your waterline - everything that is painted black will be shown as water later in FSX. To cover your entire water area will usually take a while - depending on how accurate you want to do it. Doing a watermask is usually the most time consuming part. For Nauru it might take only 30 minutes but for larger islands or atolls it can take hours or even weeks until the job is done. It all depends on length and shape of your coastlines.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129265[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

13) When you are done it should look like this:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129266[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

 

 

Creating a Blendmask

 

 

Usually you don't want the entire background image to show up in FSX, only parts of it. So you need to carve out the parts you want or cover up those you don't want. You do that with a blendmask. It's similar to a watermask where everything painted in black will be water in FSX. But when doing a blendmask, everything that is painted in black won't show up at all in FSX. The good thing about that blendmask thingy is that it does not have to be in either black or white, it can have grey scales which means you can soften the edges of your image and let it blend in with the default FSX scenery or ocean water background.

 

 

14) Add a new layer and name it "Blendmask", and click "OK"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129267[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

15) Now lock your watermask layer (because you don't want to accidentally screw up the watermask you've just created) by clicking on the icon next to the eye and then hide your watermask by clicking on the eye icon, your black watermask should disappear and your background image should now shine thru again.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129268[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

16) Choose Hardness 50% or 75% for your brush

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129269[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

17) Zoom in to zoom 33% and start painting black the parts you don't want to see later

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129270[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

18) When you are done with your blendmask, it should look like this:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129271[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

19) Now delete your background image layer and then your watermask layer (right click)

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129272[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

20) Export your blendmask

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129273[/ATTACH]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PART III - Watermasks and Blendmasks (continued)

 

 

21) Choose your "Nauru" folder as destination folder and name your file "Nauru Blendmask", choose under select file type "Windows BMP image" and click "Export"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129274[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

22) Check "Do not write color space information" under Compatability Options and "24 bits" under Advanced Options and then click "Export"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129275[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

23) After your blendmask has been exported go to "Undo Remove Layer" so that your watermask layer will show up again''

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129276[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

24) Delete your blendmask layer and make your watermask layer visible again

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129277[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

25) Now export your watermask layer to your "Nauru" folder as "Nauru Watermask" in the same way you've just exported your blendmask layer, when you are done, close Gimp.

 

 

 

Satellite images usually look a little pale in FSX, so it's better to add a little more contrast.

 

26) Open your "Nauru original.bmp" image file with Gimp and go to "brightness-contrast"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129278[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

27) Check "Preview" and play around with that contrast slider until you are satisfied, usually setting it to 10 is enough, then click "OK" and export your image to your "Nauru" folder as "Nauru.bmp" in the same way you've done it with your blendmask and watermask layers before.

 

 

Now we are ready to compile our new scenery bgl file!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PART IV - Working with resample.exe

 

Now we want to create our scenery bgl with watermask and blendmask. We have to use resample.exe and write a code for resample.

The numbers that are used here are the numbers of my files, so don't use them. Your numbers should be slightly different.

Only use your own numbers, use my numbers only as orientation!!!!

 

 

 

1) Open your Notepad and copy this (that's the standard resample code for photoreal images with watermask and blendmask) and save it as "Nauru.INF" in your "Nauru" folder.

 

 

[source]

Type = MultiSource

NumberOfSources = 3

 

[source1]

Type = BMP

Layer = Imagery

SourceDir = "."

SourceFile = "Nauru.bmp"

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

Channel_BlendMask = 2.0

Channel_LandWaterMask = 3.0

ulyMap = -0.487512

ulxMap = 166.904955

xDim = 5.2577237215909090909091E-06

yDim = 5.2348547149122807017543E-06

 

[source2]

Type = BMP

Layer = None

SourceDir = "."

SourceFile = "Nauru Blendmask.bmp"

SamplingMethod = Gaussian

ulyMap = -0.487512

ulxMap = 166.904955

xDim = 5.2577237215909090909091E-06

yDim = 5.2348547149122807017543E-06

 

[source3]

Type = BMP

Layer = None

SourceDir = "."

SourceFile = "Nauru Watermask.bmp"

SamplingMethod = Gaussian

ulyMap = -0.487512

ulxMap = 166.904955

xDim = 5.2577237215909090909091E-06

yDim = 5.2348547149122807017543E-06

 

 

[Destination]

DestDir = "."

DestBaseFileName = "Nauru"

DestFileType = BGL

LOD = Auto

UseSourceDimensions = 1

CompressionQuality = 85

 

 

 

2) Now open your "Photo01.INF" file with Notepad, it should look something like this:

 

[source]

Type = BMP

Layer = Imagery

SourceDir = "."

SourceFile = "Nauru.bmp"

Variation = All

NullValue = 255,255,255

SamplingMethod = Gaussian

ulyMap = -0.49712511018201

ulxMap = 166.905670166016

xDim = 5.36441802978516E-06

yDim = 5.36419057532689E-06

 

[Destination]

DestDir = "."

DestBaseFileName = "Photo01"

DestFileType = BGL

LOD = Auto

UseSourceDimensions = 1

CompressionQuality = 85

 

 

3) Now replace the red parts in your "Nauru.INF" file with the red numbers from your "Photo01.INF" file. With my numbers it now looks like this:

 

[source]

Type = MultiSource

NumberOfSources = 3

 

[source1]

Type = BMP

Layer = Imagery

SourceDir = "."

SourceFile = "Nauru.bmp"

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

Channel_BlendMask = 2.0

Channel_LandWaterMask = 3.0

ulyMap = -0.49712511018201

ulxMap = 166.905670166016

xDim = 5.36441802978516E-06

yDim = 5.36419057532689E-06

 

[source2]

Type = BMP

Layer = None

SourceDir = "."

SourceFile = "Nauru Blendmask.bmp"

SamplingMethod = Gaussian

ulyMap = -0.49712511018201

ulxMap = 166.905670166016

xDim = 5.36441802978516E-06

yDim = 5.36419057532689E-06

 

[source3]

Type = BMP

Layer = None

SourceDir = "."

SourceFile = "Nauru Watermask.bmp"

SamplingMethod = Gaussian

ulyMap = -0.49712511018201

ulxMap = 166.905670166016

xDim = 5.36441802978516E-06

yDim = 5.36419057532689E-06

 

 

[Destination]

DestDir = "."

DestBaseFileName = "Nauru"

DestFileType = BGL

LOD = Auto

UseSourceDimensions = 1

CompressionQuality = 85

 

 

4) Save your modified "Nauru.INF" file and close all Notepad files.

 

4) Now drag and drop your "Nauru.INF" file onto your resample.exe file, resample should now start compiling your bgl file

 

5) When resample is done, move your new "Nauru.bgl" file into your "Nauru/Scenery" folder and delete the old "Photo01.bgl" file there.

 

6) Now start FSX, go to Nauru and have a look, it should now look like this:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129279[/ATTACH]

 

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129280[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

Blendmask and watermask look good. But FSX default terrain is still visible. That means we cannot use the default water polygon and have to create our own water poly (which is often the case). To make the default terrain disappear and still keep all elevation data, we just have to draw a few polygons with SBuilderX.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PART V - Working with SBuilderX - Polygons

 

 

 

This is the part only a few simmers understand. It might be a little confusing in the beginning, but once you know how FSX works, it should be clear what we are going to do here.

 

There was some default terrain looking thru. We have to get rid of that. We could just draw a exclusion polygon over the entire island area but then all terrain would be gone, there wouldn't be any elevation data left which means our island would be flat as a pancake and wouldn't even show up on our GPS.

 

So we have to replace the default FSX hydro poly for the entire Nauru region with our own custom hydro poly. First we have to find that default poly.

 

 

1) Go to your "Nauru/Scenery" and double-click on your "Nauru.bgl" so that you can see it with TmfViewer:

 

2) On the lower right (below the mouse pointer) TmfViewer shows you to which default hydro poly your scenery belongs, it says: Dir#1104, File#9232 which means that poly is located in your "Microsoft Flight Simulator X/Scenery/1104/Scenery" folder

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129286[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

3) Go to your "Microsoft Flight Simulator X/Scenery/1104/Scenery" folder on your C: drive and look for file cvx9232.bgl

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129287[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

4) Move (not copy, it has to disappear from it's original folder!) your cvx9232.bgl file to your Nauru folder, double click it and have a look at it in TmfViewer, you will see your island in the upper part of the grid:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129288[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

5) Zoom in and have closer look:

You will see that this poly is not only a hydro poly, it does not only tell FSX where the land and where the water is (water here means elevation = 0 ft). It also includes a airport flatten poly and shorelines (with waves!). And - the worst! - this poly does not really match the original shape of Nauru.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129289[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

6) Now zoom out and select "QMID Grid Level 7"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129290[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

7) You will see that one default hydro poly has exactly the size of one QMID 7 square. Since we have to replace the entire default hydro poly, we have to replace it with a poly of the same size. Which means we will have to create a hydro poly in SBuilderX with a size of one QMID 7 square.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129291[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

8) Before we start drawing the new hydro poly we have to resize our Nauru background image so that SBuilderX and ADE won't crash so easily later. Start Gimp and open your "Nauru.bmp" file. Then go to "Scale Image"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129292[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

9) Set width to 3500, click "px" on the right, Gimp will automatically calculate hight, and then click "scale"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129293[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

10) After resizing your image you export it to "SbuilderX/Tools" folder as "Nauru.bmp" in the same way you've already done it with all the other image files and layers. Then you copy (not move!) your "Nauru.txt" file into that same "SbuilderX/Tools" folder. Both files have to be in the same folder and have to have the same name, if not SBuilderX can't calibrate the image automatically.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129294[/ATTACH]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PART V - Working with SBuilderX - Polygons (continued)

 

 

 

11) Start SBuilderX and open your Nauru project.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129295[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

12) Selext "Add Map From Disk", go to your "SbuilderX/Tools" folder and choose "Nauru.bmp"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129296[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

13) You should see your image now. We have to replace the entire QMID 7 square, so choose "QMID Grid Level 7"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129297[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

14) Zoom in a bit, choose the polygon tool in the toolbar and start drawing a random polygon by clicking your left mouse button. When you are done click your right mouse button.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129298[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

15) Right-click on a polygon line and select "Fill to QMID7".

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129299[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

16) Now your polygon should fill out the entire QMID7 grid. Then we will turn this generic polygon into a hydro poly.

Right-click again on one of the poly lines and choose "Properties"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129300[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

17) Choose "Hydro_Default_Perennial" (just hit the "H" key on your keyboard) and click "OK"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129301[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

18) Now your poly has turned blue and you won't see your image anymore. Right-click again on one of your poly lines

and choose "Set Transparency"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129302[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

19) Set your transparency level to 35 and click "OK". Save your project.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129303[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

20) Now you can see your image again. Zoom in to zoom=15

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129304[/ATTACH]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PART V - Working with SBuilderX - Polygons (continued)

 

 

21) Now select your polygon tool and start drawing a polygon along your coastline by left-clicking. (you can zoom in and out with your mouse wheel). It doesn't matter in which direction (clockwise/counterclockwise both work). When you have come full circle, click your right mouse button again to close the poly.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129305[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

22) Your poly should now look like this:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129306[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

23) The poly usually looks a bit rough. But you can smooth it out a bit. Right-click on one of the poly lines and select "Smooth"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129307[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

24) Type "25" as minimum distance and click "smooth" and then "OK". Be careful, if your poly has about 800+ poly points, SBuilderX sometimes crashes. So save your project before your smooth a large poly. I recommend saving your project often. When SbuilderX crashes or some tool doesn't work as it should, just exit SBuilderX and reload your project and continue.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129308[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

25) Poly points might have doubled, but it looks much much better. So far our QMID7 square is water only, which means all terrain data is lost. We have to cut a hole into the hydro poly so the terrain beneath can be shown. So right-click on one of your poly lines and select "set as hole"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129309[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

26) Now your courser says: "Click to select parent poly". Our parent poly is our blue QMID7 poly. So zoom out and left-click on one of the poly lines and a hole will be created.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129310[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

27) Your yellowish poly will turn transparent when the poly hole has been created. Save your project

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129311[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129312[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

28) Now start FSX and have a look at the area without the default hydro poly. You will see that there is no water anymore, only terrain.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129313[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129314[/ATTACH]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PART V - Working with SBuilderX - Polygons (continued)

 

 

30) Now it's time to compile our hydro bgl that we can lay over that terrain. Close FSX, choose "select all polygons" in SBuilderX and then click "BGL compile". If it doesn't compile click again on "select all polygons".

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129315[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

31) Check "Copy files to BGL folder" and then click "OK". Your poly will be compiled (takes only a second or two).

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129316[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

32) If your file doesn't show up in your "Nauru/Scenery" folder then it's probably in the "SBuilderX/Scenery" folder. Your bgl file should have the name "CVX_Nauru.BGL". Move it to your "Nauru/Scenery" folder, change the name to "CVX_HYDRO.BGL". Double-click it and it should look like this:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129317[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

33) Zoom in a bit and you will see that it looks way better than the default FSX hydro!

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129318[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

34) Now start FSX again have a look:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129319[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129320[/ATTACH]

 

 

Looks more and more real!

 

 

 

Next we will do some shorelines because we can't see any waves yet and some water class because there is a reef that doesn't belong there so we will clean it up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PART VI - Working with SBuilderX - Shorelines

 

 

 

Shorelines - if they match your photoreal background - can really enhance your scenery. Shorelines come with a wave effect which will let your scenery look more alive. So let's add some shorelines and waves to Nauru!

 

 

1) Open your Nauru project in SBuilderX

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129339[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

2) Deselect All Polygons. That will give you a clear view of your image.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129340[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

3) Zoom in and select the Line Tool.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129341[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

4) Now start drawing a line around your island by left-clicking, when you are done click your right mousy button.

You have to draw your line counterclockwise, if you draw it clockwise, wave direction will be reversed (your waves will

go from the shore into the ocean instead of from the ocean onto the shore!). If that should be the case later, you can

select reverse under Properties and change your wave direction easily and anytime.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129342[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

5) You don't have to draw one single shoreline around the entire island. Some parts of your island just don't need a wave

effect. You can draw as many shorelines as you want.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129343[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

6) When you are done drawing it should look like this:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129344[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

7) So far your lines are just lines. We have to turn them into shorelines. Right-click on your on one of your lines and

select Properties

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129345[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

8) Select Ocean White Sand Perennial because Nauru has white sandy beaches and click "OK". Now do the same

thing with every other line you've just drawn. Then save your project.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129346[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

9) When you are done, select All Lines

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129347[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

10) Now click BGL Compile and your shorelines will be created. Your bgl file will have the name "CVX_Nauru.BGL".

Rename it to "CVX_SHORELINES.BGL". If your file isn't in your "Nauru/Scenery" folder then it is probably in your "SBuilderX/Scenery" folder, so if that is the case just move it into your "Nauru/Scenery" folder.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129348[/ATTACH]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PART VI - Working with SBuilderX - Shorelines (continued)

 

 

11) Double-click on your "CVX_SHORELINES.BGL" file and have a look at it with TmfViewer. You will see your shorelines as yellow lines.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129349[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

12) Now we want to see how it looks like in FSX. Start FSX and go to Nauru, it should look like this now:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129350[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129351[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129352[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

Waves are clearly visible. Wave direction oki-doki desu. Shoreline blends perfectly with our background image. Looks good!

 

Now we will do something about that reef that doesn't belong there by adding some water class tiles.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PART VII - Working with SBuilderX - Water Class

 

 

When you look at our scenery in FSX you will see a reef on the upper left of Nauru that isn't there in reality. So we will clean it up by putting some water tiles over it.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129353[/ATTACH]

 

 

1) Open your Nauru project in SBuilderX

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129354[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

2) Zoom in and select the Water Class Tool

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129355[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

3) Select "054_Deep Ocean Water, Class3, Tropical" (that's the default water class for the Nauru area) and check "49" at Brush Insert Size, then click "OK"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129356[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

4) Now click around the island until it is filled out with water class tiles and select All Water Tiles

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129357[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

5) Click BGL Compile.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129358[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

6) After your bgl file has been compiled, it will have the name "WC_9232.bgl". Move it to your "Nauru/Scenery" folder if it's not already there. Then double-click it and open it with TmfViewer, the area painted green represents the water tiles we've just added:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129359[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

7) Now start FSX and have a look:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129360[/ATTACH]

 

 

That reef is gone. Everything clean now.

 

 

Now it's time to finally do something about that runway. We will whip it into shape with Airport Design Editor (ADE).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PART VIII - Working with Airport Design Editor (ADE)

 

 

Now it's time to deal with that runway.

 

 

1) Start ADE and select "Open Stock Airport"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129393[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

2) Look for Nauru, and click "Open"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129394[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

3) Now you can see Nauru Airport:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129395[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

4) Since that airport lies in the ocean and not on our island, we have to move everything. But that's annoying and default aprons etc. probably aren't correct anyway so we delete everything and start from scratch, that's much faster. Now delete every object you can see by left-clicking on it and pressing your delete button on your keyboard except:

- default runway

- tower

- ID

- NDB

Your airport should now look like this:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129396[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

5) Save your airport (CTRL+S)

 

6) Now we need to know where to place that runway. So right-click with your mousy on the yellow airport background and select "Add Image".

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129397[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

7) Now add your resized "Nauru.bmp" from your "SBuilderX/Tools" folder and add the coordinates from your "Nauru.txt" file in your Nauru folder.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129398[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

8) You should see your background image in ADE now. Save your project again (CTRL+S).

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129399[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

9) Left-click on your runway and drag and drop your runway to the spot on the image where it is supposed to be. You will see that this runway is too long and it's direction is a bit off.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129400[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

10) Now you have to play around with runway length and heading until your runway fits precisely onto your image runway. I've already done that for you so just double-click on your runway and a "Properties" window will open. Enter "6820.0" as runway length and "130.25" as Heading, set your surface to "Asphalt" then click "OK"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129401[/ATTACH]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unbelievable. Great tutorial. I'm sure a lot will benefit from this. :) :)

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o176/ragtopjohnny/NewSig.jpg

http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-greet013.gif

Checkout my new Facebook Page!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Airplane-Porn/1505438883035386

HP Z820 Workstation Intel Xeon 3.30ghz 8 Core Processor 2TB Hard Drive 16 gig of Ram 1125 Power Supply and 2 Gig Nvidia Geforce GTX 970. (YIPPPIE!!!!!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PART VIII - Working with Airport Design Editor (ADE) (continued)

 

 

 

11) Place your runway correctly and then right-click on your runway and select "Lock Object". Now you can't accidentally move your runway.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129435[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

12) Drag your ID onto your runway and your tower next to the parking spots:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129436[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

13) Now run "Fault Finder", fix all faults, close fault finder and then save your project (CTRL+S) compile (CTRL+C) your airport BGL file. Choose your Nauru/Scenery folder as destination folder.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129437[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129438[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129439[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

14) Start FSX and have a look at your runway, looks ok from far away:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129440[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

15) Let's add the two Taxiways. First you must create a runway link. Select "Add Runway Link" in the toolbar.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129446[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

16) Now left-click (hold it) on your upper runway end and drag your mouse pointer to the lower right runway end. There should be a black line. Align it with your runway center line. It should look like this now:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129442[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

17) Now we add a taxi link. Select "Add taxi link" and draw two taxiways by left-clicking on your black runway link line and dragging your mouse pointer to the parking area.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129441[/ATTACH]

 

 

18) It should like this now. You will notice that our taxiway width needs some adjustment.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129443[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

19) You do that by double-clicking on the blue taxi link line. A new properties window will open.

Set "Width" to 85 ft, check Center line and lights and click "OK". Do the same with your other taxi link.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129444[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

20) Now your taxiways should look like this:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129445[/ATTACH]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PART VIII - Working with Airport Design Editor (ADE) (continued)

 

 

21) We will have to add an apron now or else your airplanes will park on dirt. Select "Asphalt" as apron surface and then

select the "Add Aprons" tool and draw your apron.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129460[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129461[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

22) Click the "Add Gate" tool and put two gates onto your apron.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129462[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

23) Now select your "Add Apron Link" tool and draw a path from your taxiway node to the center of your gates.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129463[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

24) We still have to add two aprons at every runway end. Select "Asphalt" as apron surface, select the "Add Aprons" tool and start drawing your aprons.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129464[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129465[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

25) One last thing we have to do is to adjust our airport area altitude. Runway altitude has to match airport area altitude. We do this with a flatten polygon. Zoom out and select "Add polygon"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129466[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

26) Now draw your polygon by clicking along the airport ring road. Your last click will open a properties window. Select "Flatten" as Tag and 21 ft as Altitude and click "OK"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129468[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

27) Your airport area should look like this now.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129469[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

28) Now we have to make sure that airport background and runway have the same altitude. Go to "Change Airport Altitude"

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129470[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

29) Set your airport altitude (this means runways, taxiways and aprons) to 21 ft like your airport background area.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129471[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

30) Save your project and compile your airport bgl. Start FSX and have a closer look:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129472[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

OK, no floating runway, looks quite good for an extremely basic airport. We might have to adjust our flatten polygon borders and altitude a bit later because there is some water flowing uphill. But so far it's ok, we can land there without falling off the runway and that's enough

for this tutorial.

 

What's missing now are some trees for this green island and maybe some objects for our immediate airport area.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You guys are the best. I wish I could build some sceneries myself.

 

Anyone who has FSX installed and a internet connection can create photoreal scenery. Just follow the tutorial and if you get stuck somewhere just post your questions in the scenery design forum.

 

 

Unbelievable. Great tutorial. I'm sure a lot will benefit from this. :) :)

 

I hope so. Now you have it all together at one place. You don't have to browse thru dozens of forums anymore to connect the dots. Creating photoreal scenery isn't difficult at all. When you've done a few sceneries yourself you will see that it's actually a piece of cake. Later your biggest challenge will be to get good satellite images.

 

 

Thanks for the great tutorial! This should be sticky'd!

 

You're welcome. Yes, it should be sticky'd. But it's not finished yet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PART IX - Working with Autogen Annotator Tool

 

 

 

Now we want to place some trees on our island. We do that with the Autogen Annotator Tool.

 

 

1) Go to your "Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK/SDK/Environment Kit/Autogen SDK/" folder and double-click "Annotator.exe"

 

2) Now there will be a bunch of windows on your screen. Close the "Properties" window, the "Find Results" window and the "Find" window.

 

3) Go to your Autogen Configuration Editor and open "autogendescriptions.xml" - it's in your "Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK/SDK/Environment Kit/Autogen SDK/Autogen source xml" folder.This xml file contains our trees.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129645[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

4) There will be a new window, "Vegetation groupings".

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129646[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

5) Here you can choose the trees you want to put on your scenery.

There is a catalog of all trees used in FSX. You should study it carefully and then select the trees that fit your region.

You can choose via groupings or regionalizations. We choose some small coconut palm trees

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129647[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

6) Now open your Nauru.bgl file with Autogen Annotator Tool. Select "All", otherwise you might not see your bgl file.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129648[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129649[/ATTACH]

 

 

7) Now you can see your island. You can zoom in with your mouse wheel and move it around as long as you have selected "pan" in the control panel.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129650[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129651[/ATTACH]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

PART IX - Working with Autogen Annotator Tool (continued)

 

 

8) Now zoom in where you want to plant your trees, select the type of tree you want to put there in the vegetation groupings window, click "set Guid" in the control panel.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129635[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129636[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

9) There are two different ways to bring your trees onto your island. If you have to cover a large area, you can just draw a polygon (select "Polygon Region" in your control panel, then left-click your polygon onto your island and close it with right click). That's fast but unfortunately not very accurate along the edges.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129637[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129638[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

10) I suggest you do it "by hand", it's more accurate and you can correct it more easily later.

So choose the type of tree you want to put there in the Vegetation Groupings window, select "set Guid" in the

control panel and start drawing little squares by holding your left mouse button.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129635[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129636[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129639[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129640[/ATTACH]

 

 

 

11) To move around use the "pan" tool in the control panel. You can choose as many tree types as you want. If you want to add other types of trees, just select them and draw some new squares above the other ones.

When you are done, it should look like this:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129641[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129642[/ATTACH]

 

 

12) Now save your newly added autogen (CTRL+S), it will be automatically saved in your "Nauru/Texture" folder.

Start FSX and have a look:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129643[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]129644[/ATTACH]

 

Looks okay.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

Announcements


×
×
  • Create New...