FSXA Can't override default airport background

[Lieuallen]

Can't override default airport background -- SOLVED

On my first airport, I had problems with enlarging the airport background and then surrounding it with an even larger land class polygon. I eventually just made the airport background polygon the size of the land class polygon, and deleted the land class polygon. Worked, but the ground texture isn't what I was really hoping for.

I'm now working on my second airport, and I've concluded that I really don't understand the airport background!

I am working on YWRN. The default FSX airport background (as they always do) just surrounds the runways. I've added taxiways and parking spots, so I need to enlarge the airport background. I also want to add my own larger landclass polygon around the airport, to make it blend in with the surrounding countryside better.

I've defined a polygon, and made it the Airport Background type (exclude Autogen). I've defined a larger polygon, and made it the Land Class type. Everything looks just fine in ADEX.

When viewed in FSX, however, my ADEX airport background polygon seems to be restricted to the size and shape of the default FSX airport background. I've attached two screenshots to illustrate. You can see that in ADEX, my airport background completely includes the parking places and aprons. But in FSX, you can see the airport background stops between the taxiway and the parking places (which is where FSX's default airport background stopped).

I should add that my YWRN airport BGL is placed into a folder within Addon Scenery, and it has the highest level within my Scenery Library.

Why didn't my scheme work? I've also uploaded my ad3 file (newly saved with ADEX 1.60) if that helps you help me!

Thanks so much!!

 

[glottis]

Lieuallen,
I had a quick look at your file and you have two polygons conflicting with each other,
the land class is covering the airport as well as your exclude!!
check out the attached file,
what i did was to change the airport background to "Mask Class Map Exclude Autogen"
this is not necessary to cover the whole airport you only need do the part outside the default airport where you added your parking spots,
the easy way to do this would be to slew around the default airport add markers or a boundary fence, you can see it easily enough then work from there.....
not sure using a flatten will work as you may end up with a hole in the ground
I then split your land class into two halves (you can do it in one) so it is not covering the airport exclude........
look at how i roughly did it will give you a better idea of what may help you
not sure about your tower viewpoint either!!

 

[Lieuallen]

Thanks very much for the help.

I had overlapped the landclass polygon because I'm hoping to replace the default airport background with one of my choosing (I don't like how the background changes from grassy to sandy).

I spent most of the afternoon playing with the different choices for airport background polygons. I think I'm starting to understand a bit better. At this point, my only remaining issue is although I have an exclude AutoGen polygon, I'm getting a few small bushes in the middle of my taxiway!

I've created a simple webpage to show the effects of the different airport background attributes. I'm hoping that when I finally figure this out, it might help someone else in my shoes!

http://lieuallen.mypressonline.com/ADEX/

 

[Lieuallen]

I've played around some more, and I think I've managed to find the right combination.

What worked for me was to have 3 separate layers: landclass (to match the surrounding terrain); airport background Mask Class Map (to remove the default FSX airport backgound); and exclude AutoGen (to get rid of bushes which kept popping up on my taxiway).

I'm not sure why I couldn't use a single Airport Background Mask Class Map exclude AutoGen layer, but that didn't work for me. Perhaps the AutoGen bushes weren't coming from the airport background?

Anyway, you can follow the whole sordid journey at the little website I made: lieuallen.mypressonline.com/ADEX

 

[scruffyduck]

That is very impressive. Thanks for recording it. I am looking at collecting together links to all the different tutorials and so on for ADE. I hope that I can add this to my list?

 

[Lieuallen]

I'd be very happy to be a small part of your listing. I think I'd better re-do it, though, using a different airport, so the effect of each setting is more apparent (YWRN has no AutoGen at the airport, and is on very flat terrain, so the Flatten attribute doesn't show up well).

 

[jvile]

I'd be very happy to be a small part of your listing. I think I'd better re-do it, though, using a different airport, so the effect of each setting is more apparent (YWRN has no AutoGen at the airport, and is on very flat terrain, so the Flatten attribute doesn't show up well).

FSX Accelleration SP2

You are going to find the effects of each LC poly setting do not always work as expected. There are only 2 Exclusions that work for all airports. In the ADEX Terrain poly list you see Exclude Specific. In that list the only exclude that works is the

Airport_Backgrounds_Flatten_MaskClassMap_ExcludeAutoGen

Many other Exclude Specific tags such as Airport_Backgrounds_Flatten or Airport_Backgrounds_Flatten_MaskClassMap might not remove flattens or airport backgrounds.

In the Exclude General list the tag Airport_Backgrounds does exactly the same as the above listed poly which removes the mask class map, flatten and autogen.

In the Exclude General list you also see a tag that says Everything. This will remove all the airport backgrounds but will also remove any roads coming into the airport. Keep this poly small and in the center of the airport Mask Class Map if you don't want all the roads removed.

Always condition the ground first by excluding the default Mask Class Map. Do not add another Mask Class Map over top the stock (overlayed) since this can cause the FPS to increase.

The following post shows a 4 step process that works for every airport with consistency.

http://173.233.77.148/forum//showthread.php?t=15173

 

[Lieuallen]

Jim, thank you for the very helpful link.

Jon, I've re-worked the web page to be more of a tutorial, and provide a link to the old page if anyone wants to see the example images of each kind of airport background type.

 

[scruffyduck]

Jim, thank you for the very helpful link.

Jon, I've re-worked the web page to be more of a tutorial, and provide a link to the old page if anyone wants to see the example images of each kind of airport background type.

Thanks for taking the time to do that

 

[denny927]

Always condition the ground first by excluding the default Mask Class Map. Do not add another Mask Class Map over top the stock (overlayed) since this can cause the FPS to increase.

Is a bad thing??