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FSX Odd discovery in the mouth of river Elbe

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germany
As I didn' t find a thread reporting anything similar this might be a unique discovery: Flying above the mouth of river Elbe I realized some sort of seams in the water - one going W/E, the other heading N/S.

seam_01.jpgseam_02.jpgseam_04.jpg

Just as I, AI-ships don' t like these seams either. They really stumble over them - but they survive ...

Is there any tool which might enable me to erase the two lines? Or did anybody of you solve the problem already and could provide the community with a corresponding file?

Thank you very much for your help!
 
The problem is that the water isn't flat, I had the same problem at Gooimeer. You need to create a flatten polygon.
 
Hi George:

I was curious if this may be related to "the new FSX feature to automatically change water textures to rock textures on slopes steeper than a specific threshold" that Holger refers to in this thread: :confused:

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6204&highlight=Terrain.cfg


In my own experience, I've come to see that the Richard Ludowise (RL) / Luis Feliz-Tirado (LFT) "Terrain.cfg Fix or Mod" offers quite a bit to the FS community, particularly in enabling considerable retro-compatibility for legacy format FS scenery usage in FSX. ;)


Yet I still am not clear on just what further conclusions may have been drawn on this issue of Pro-and-Con allowing/implementing edits to the default FSX Terrain.cfg, as I personally have not yet seen additional discussions on the matter to identify a consensus that the end user might abide by. :stirthepo


I'm curious what observations you would have on this subject, as it seems use of the RL / LFT Terrain.CFG Fix is a "quick solution" to this same issue in the default scenery in multiple parts of the world just as it was when problems identified with FSX default terrain mesh around London first triggered widespread awareness of the shortcomings incurred with this new FSX feature set for automatically changing water textures to rock textures on steep slopes... which, IIUC, applies here at the River Elbe due to yet another global terrain mesh anomaly.


Thanks for any input on this outstanding matter involving decisions the end-user might occasionally have to make regarding the FSX Terrain.cfg file. :)

GaryGB
 
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The problem is that the water isn't flat, I had the same problem at Gooimeer. You need to create a flatten polygon.

That sounds as if I could use ADE just as well. ADE offers a 'flatten polygons' tool.

But, to be frank I have no idea how to get 'there'. I am pretty familiar already with ADE, but opening an airport file is something different than opening the file/files which is/are covering precisely the affected area.

Is anybody able to guide me there? How or where do I find the corresponding files for that area?

Once gain - thanks for your help!
 
Hi Gary,

The Dick Ludowise / Luis Feliz-Tirado Terrain.cfg fix fixes the problem of rocks being displayed in places where they shouldn't be ie. when water is not perfectly flat as shown above. It does not flatten the water, one needs to create an shapefile polygon flatten to prevent AI ships from "clambering over" these humps in the water.
 
Hi Jan:

I flew a "reconnaissance mission" in the PBY Catalina from Nordholz (EDXN / ETMN) near the mouth of the River Elbe where it is joined by a river North of Neuhaus an der Oste and saw terrain anomalies such as the Elbe Helgoland Bight "sea level" being (-) 8.75 Meters MSL (below sea level !). :eek:

However, these are harder for me to see since I personally use the RL/LFT Terrain.cfg fix... which does not allow the "rocky" anomalies at sharp terrain slopes (Ex: edges of mesh or water tiles) to be rendered in my FSX water areas.

Sorry, but I was not quite able to identify the location of your screenie due to what may have been a less accurate rendering of real world terrain by FSX scenery as rendered on your particular system installation in that region.


Perhaps if you post the coordinates from your aircraft at the intersection of the N-S and E-W lines you see in FSX we can better evaluate the situation there.

Once your aircraft is in position, just press Shift+Z several times in FSX to display the flight parameters on screen, and you should then be able to get the coordinates to post back here in this thread.


Also, please state whether you are using any add-ons that cover that area, and if so, which ones... (Ex: Helgoland or Germany scenery packages, FS-Global Terrain Mesh, FS-Genesis Terrain mesh, Ultimate Terrain Europe etc.).


PS: Other interested FSDeveloper pilots conducting aerial surveys may also wish to fly out of St. Michaelisdonn (EDXM) which might be a bit closer. Uhm, well, that's assuming many folks here still do some flying instead of just scenery tweaking... (remember flying, guys?) ;)


BTW: The Aerosoft PBY Catalina is a truly FABULOUS aircraft... and highly recommended for inspecting "water anomalies" ! :cool:


Hope this helps! :)

GaryGB
 
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Hey Jan,
I would do the poly/shp flattening with sbuilderx as it is easier to just select a location.
You could do it with ade but you would need to edit an airport nearby. Move to the effected area and make it flat. Put your airplane on one end of the offending rocks so that you can see were to start your flatten and then move your plan to the other end so you know were to end it (ADE uses simmconect so that you can see were your plane is in fsx in ade). Compile and get the cvx_ file that is created and add that to fsx (not the airport bgl as the goal is editing the the water not airport).

hope that makes sens.

Saen
 
Hi Jan:

Perhaps if you post the coordinates from your aircraft at the intersection of the N-S and E-W lines you see in FSX we can better evaluate the situation there.

Also, please state whether you are using any add-ons that cover that area, and if so, which ones... (Ex: Helgoland or Germany scenery packages, FS-Global Terrain Mesh, FS-Genesis Terrain mesh, Ultimate Terrain Europe etc.).

PS: Other interested FSDeveloper pilots conducting aerial surveys may also wish to fly out of St. Michaelisdonn (EDXM) which might be a bit closer. Uhm, well, that's assuming many folks here still do some flying instead of just scenery tweaking... (remember flying, guys?) ;)


BTW: The Aerosoft PBY Catalina is a truly FABULOUS aircraft... and highly recommended for inspecting "water anomalies" ! :cool:

Hi Gary!

Thank you very much for your recce mission and your very helpful answer! btw.: I am a great fan of recce flights as well as I was busy in a mixed (fighter/recce) naval air wing during my military service.

- coordinates
seam_05.1.jpg
At this position (heading 270°) the seam running W/E is right in front of you and the other one running N/S is precisely in your 9 o' clock.

seam_06.jpg

- add-ons
A very good point indeed! Naturally I did some test flights in that area again to find out if any of the addons might be the reason for these seams.

But first of all - here is my sim:
FSX with Acceleration
addons installed (which might have an impact in that area):
German Airfields 1
German Airfields 2
Helgoland FSX

As a first step I unchecked all boxes of the above listed addons in the Scenery Library of FSX.

For each successive flight I then checked one of the previously unchecked boxes again and – ta taaa!

The seam which runs N/S obviously is caused by ‘German Airfields 2’. It also creates a similar (but short) seam in the southern entry of the Kiel Kanal.

seam_07.jpg

I' ll post a link to this thread at the aerosoft forum.


The other one running W/E never disappeared. So that one seems to be part of the default FSX scenery.

For your information – the slope of the E/W one is facing towards the south. So it is much easier to locate it when you approach it from the south.

- EDXM St. Michaelisdonn
EDXM is beautifully located but offers a pretty short RWY (700 m) only.

- Aerosoft' s PBY Catalina
A very attractive bird, I think so too! But not on my list of acft I want to purchase ...
I would have bought a Ju-52 for instance and I already bought Aerosoft' s Twotter. Hmmmm :-)

@ Saen
Thank you very much also for your help, Saen!
That was exactly the kind of technical assistance I had hoped for - a very good guide!
 
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You can see the problems if you check the ground altitude with TCalcX at various positions along the river.

-5.6295m



-4.7666m



-9.1407m



-5.8207m



West of the first shot, the elevation is zero.
 
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