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FSXA Sloped Terrain?

William123

William123

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61
Hey Everyone,

I'm new here in this community FsDeveloper :D:D
I already managed to make Ground Polygons after following the tutorial of the year 2014, and I'm thinking to make a slopped terrain too using gPolys. I would like to ask which is the best way to make it:

1- To export the slopped terrain using FSX BGL (XML) and attach a platform to it?; or:
2- To export it using the gPolys wizard with MCX without checking the two checkboxes above?

I would also like to know if I have to use sloped flattens? and how can I fit them to my Slopped Terrain modeled in 3ds Max?
 
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Welcome to FSDeveloper ! :cool:


What methods you use to create your scenery might in some cases be determined by personal preference, and in other cases by limitations of the FS SDK and 3rd party utilities.


If you do not require extremely high resolution ground textures draped onto the terrain at your airport (where you will need to be relatively close to the ground and/or while taxiing in order to see such textures), it may be more practical to simply use custom terrain mesh with- or without- a super-imposed "sloped flatten" ...textured with custom photo-real aerial imagery via a FS SDK Resample work-flow.

If you do require extremely high resolution ground textures draped onto the terrain at your airport (where you will need to be relatively close to the ground and/or while taxiing in order to see such textures), it may be more practical to use G-Polys ...textured with custom photo-real aerial imagery via a 3D model > MCX > G-Poly wizard work-flow.


FYI: Another option is available to convert your 3D terrain model to a "sloped flatten" if you first accurately Geo-reference it in MCX: :wizard:

http://www.scenerydesign.org/2013/04/flattens-from-3d-objects/


You can then simply use custom terrain mesh with that "sloped flatten" super-imposed on local terrain mesh ...textured with custom photo-real aerial imagery via a FS SDK Resample work-flow. :idea:



PS: Some additional pertinent considerations:

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/can-ade-polygons-be-used-for-a-sloped-runway.435624/


Hope these ideas help with evaluating your options ! :)

GaryGB
 
Thank you so much for the details GaryGB! You really gave me interesting ideas in this domain :D
I'll try this one :stirthepo & Will be back soon :wave:
 
Okay I exported my Slopped gPolys made & modeled in 3ds Max using ModeConverterX gPoly wizard (without checking the 2 check-boxes). Now I imported the new compiled BGL and re-exported it as FSX Flatten CVX BGL. I moved those 2 BGLs to my FSX; I see:
* The slopped gPoly is OK
* The Flatten CVX isn't OK. It sounds like it did a flatten on altitude 0.0m; I can also see that the Terrain is fitting the elevation 0.0m (Sea Elevation)

Is anything wrong here!? :(
 
Hi again:

After importing a 3D model made in 3DSMAX into MCX for purposes of making a "sloped flatten" (notice there is only 1 "P"), one should follow Arno's instructions in his Blog page linked above:

http://www.scenerydesign.org/2013/04/flattens-from-3d-objects/

"Simply model the shape you want and export it to a MDL file. Then you import the MDL into ModelConverterX and enter the coordinates of the reference point. Next under export scenery you will find the new format 'FSX flatten BGL file' and this will use shp2vec to create the flatten BGL from your object."


Once the 3D terrain model created in 3DSMAX is imported to MCX, do not export it as a G-Poly (or it will be flat as seen above).


Note that Arno says to:

1.) Export to a MDL

2.) Import that MDL

3.) Enter the coordinates of the reference point


FYI: The "reference point" is usually the central datum of the bounding box for the entire 3D model (unless you have modeled the terrain object with one of its corners < ex: the NW corner > ...at the origin of Axes in the 3D modeling program).

For a rectangular tile of terrain mesh intended to be used as a sloped flatten, IMHO, it is better to model and/or manually align the terrain object with its NW corner at the origin of Axes in the 3D modeling program ...prior to importing into MCX. :pushpin:


The FS rendering program will then read and use the reference point (aka "RefPoint") inside the BGL ouput by MCX as the Geographic location at which to place the sloped terrain flatten in the 3D FS world at run time.


Hope this helps a bit more ! :)

GaryGB
 
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