Autogen Buildings & Trees on my custom-created airport EGGV adfter ORBX TE GB Central Installed

[Sengl1er]

Hi there. Can you help please. I have P3D 4.5 Hotfix2 installed with ORBX EU England, Scotland & Wales. I have also created a fictional airport (EGGV) near where I live in
the Borders about 16 miles west of Berwick Upon Tweed. The flight sim is working perfectly and I have also successfully installed my own military AI aircraft flying schedules
bertween EGGV, EGQL, EGQS and EGQK.
Last week I also installed ORBX True Earth Great Britain South, Central and North and this is also successfully installed WITH ONE MAJOR EXCEPTION - I cannot suppress the
True Earth autogen of buildings and trees (only) on my custom EGGV airport.
I am using ADE : Application 01.76.6715.14291, Engine 04.75.6712.18978

My custom airport EGGV actually straggles over the two ORBX TE GB Central Lod15 files Central_4712_2262_LOD15.bgl and Central_4712_2263_LOD15.bgl. With these two files active there is autogen over my airport. If I block these two files (ie. ORBX EU ENG or SCOT, located below in the scenery config file, now coming into effect for only these two LOD areas), there is no autogen over the airport.

Is there any other exclusion poly I need to use with ORBX True Earth? Attached are three files showing the ADE airport, the ORBX TE autogen on EGGV (third file) and second file showing no autogen (with the two LOD15 files blocked).

 

[GHD]

You possibly could add some objects underground with autogen suppression set to true.

 

[Sengl1er]

You possibly could add some objects underground with autogen suppression set to true.

Sorry, but I do no understand your reply!

 

[GHD]

Position on one of the buildings. In ADE, add a scenery object (the larger the better) and set its altitude say -50m AGL and set autogen suppression to true

Repeat for the other buildings and treees..

 

[Sengl1er]

Hi and thanks for the reply. If you look at the difference between EGGV2 (what I wish to achieve) and EGGV3, it is not just buildings and trees. NONE of the ORBX TE scenery (other than over runways, taxis aprons etc) are suppressed. The whole airport background exclusion seems to have been ignored. If I configure the scenery.cfg file for ORBX EU ENG and SCO, the exclusion IS activated.

 

[GHD]

I am soory I cannot be of help. I refuse o have any Orbx sceenery on my systems (FSX or P3D).

 

[tgibson]

Unfortunately, ORBX uses their own scenery layering system and it is often very difficult to remove their objects.

 

[Tim Collins]

I've found that the Orbx True Earth series of products uses a photoreal layer that will sit on top of airfields created in ADE. It's particularly a problem for airfields which aren't in the original sim, or have been misplaced either by P3D or by Orbx. However, some third-party products seem to be able to overlay the Orbx layer, but how they do it I'm not sure. It's prompted me to remove True Earth GB (South) and make do with the older Orbx regional products instead.

 

[Sengl1er]

I've found that the Orbx True Earth series of products uses a photoreal layer that will sit on top of airfields created in ADE. It's particularly a problem for airfields which aren't in the original sim, or have been misplaced either by P3D or by Orbx. However, some third-party products seem to be able to overlay the Orbx layer, but how they do it I'm not sure. It's prompted me to remove True Earth GB (South) and make do with the older Orbx regional products instead.

Thanks for your update Tim - we are in the same boat exactly, and a layering issue is what I also am thinking. My custom airport is in the Scottish Borders but in ORBX world it is part of TE Great Britain Cenrtral. The problem is exacerbated by the fact one cannot decompile the CSX files for any airport. I have tried BGLVIEWER but the contents of the ORBX CSX files for airports look pretty standard.
From several hours experimenting with ADE, it looks like ADE can FLATTEN the TE Scenery but no EXCLUDES seem to have effect on excluding the TE Scenery, or Buildings and Trees. I know I can make GRASS aprons to cover the TE Scenery (albeit the color of the apron grass is awful!) but not much point in doing if my taxiways, aprons etc are dotted with buildings and trees.
I am wondering if ORBX are using a modified version of ADE????? where they change (ie lower) the Layer ID???
Maybe if ARNO sees this, he may wish to comment?

 

[Tim Collins]

Yes, as yet this is a bit advanced for me - but I know it can be done! Even the old UK2000 VFR series of airfields will sit on top of the Orbx TE scenery (though you often have to turn off Orbx's attempts at the same airfields). But often I'm trying to recreate airfields that are no longer in service. TE is great in that it'll have some sort of representation of the disused airfield I'm trying to resurrect, but it shows over my version, which is NOT helpful!!

 

[Sengl1er]

Tim - I have managed to fix this problem! First of, you need to download the FREE FSEarth Tiles program. See

on how to download and use.
Essentially, FSEarth Tiles can down load free True Earth photoreal scenery. So ...
1) Download the True Earth scenery around your airport. If you simply compile as per FSEarth Tiles the result is in Fig1. All we have done is replace the ORBX TE GB photoreal with True Earth photoreal. The difference, however, is you can edit the bmps with Photoshop. Firstly, I uses Image, Adjust Brightness to get Virtual Earth to blend with TEGB.
2)Take a screen copy of just TEGB with your airfield on top. (Fig 0.) Copy this into a new layer in Photoshop and scale, move, transparent to see thru this layer onto say the Spring bmp. Make the new layer opaque and use polygonal lasso tool to make a selection round the perimeter of your airfield. Hide this layer to reveal the Spring layer and with the selection still active, use the Clone Stamp tool to define an (green) area and begin to clone within all the airfield perimeter (ie inside the selection). You are making grass like texture so use opacity 90% to get variation effect than just uniform green. If you recompile you will get the result in Fig2.
3) Now bring i the Mask bmp (Fig3) and make another Mask bmp (Fig4) with feathering on the selection. Feathering will male the airfield perimeter blend in with TEGB. Recompile this will give result in Fig5. THE DESIRED RESULT!
4) FSEarth Tiles also creates seasons bmps. So, bring in the Summer, Autumn and winter bmps. Copy the Spring airfield mask for each. Use Image, Hue to make the grass slightly less green for Summer and brownish for Autumn. Winter,simply cover the airfield with snow effect - see web for examples.

TEGB has only one season, so winter airfield looks odd with TEGB - you could just use a copy of the Autumn bmp. However, if not using TEGB, your airfield will fully support the 4 seasons.
Let me know if you need any clarification.
John

 

[Tim Collins]

John, that’s great! I do have a copy of FSET somewhere on my system. I don’t have Photoshop, but I’m pretty sure Affinity Photo will be able to match those various techniques. Looks like I have a project for this week....!