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BGL file format question

B

Bolli

Messages
3
Hi
Im not sure that this is the forum to put this in, sorry to any moderators if its not

I'm looking for help with the FS BGL file format.
Im trying to make a game that runs as a real-time airline simulator, that allows the user to run a virtual airline on their computer.

The problem i have is gathering data about the airports. I'm struggling to make a routine that gathers the data from the BGL files.

Any help on the file format would be greatly appreciated
I have read the wiki page, and i dont really understand it enough to get it to work.

Bolli
 
What information are you trying to gather? I used a small utility a copuple of days ago that gave me all the airports, runways, taxiways, etc from every active file. Now I will need to get in and pare down the data to what I need.
 
The Wiki provides details of what we know about hte bgl format. Depending on what you need it might already be available. For example ADE has a file containing basic information about airports. Alternatively there are already some decompilers available.
 
sorry, im not very good at explaining things.
What im struggling with is making a part of my own program so the user can simply say to update the list, so that if they add extra airports, then the list can be updated.

im a bit bamboozled by it.

Bolli
 
OK

So you are trying to write a decompiler to decompile the airport files in FS9 or FSX or both??

Perhaps a bit more information. You say that you want users to be able to add airports to a list. Are you providing a starting list of all stock airports in FS? If so then is your user going to update that list somehow if they add addon or modified airports to their system? what data are you trying to collect (or allow the user to collect)? Is it just name and location data or do you want to include runways, parking spots and so on?

First the bgl format is documented as far as we are able (I presume you have a copy of that information) - bearing in mind that it is a Microsoft proprietary format and while they do not stop us hacking it they do not support or help us. The formats are somewhat different depending on whether we are looking at FS9 or FSX.

If you are writing a decompiler then you will need to read your way through the bgl file - it consists of a header followed by section headers and pointers that point to the actual records that contain different data types. One of the data types is the Airport (airport header) and this then contains information about most things at the airport. Depending on what you are after - some things are not actually in the airport record (navaids, taxi signs, buildings for example). Writing an accurate decompiler can take a while!

What language are you writing in? In my decompiler for example the information is stored in an object tree and that can generate spacial data (such as in ADE) or xml code.

I am not sure if I am telling you something you already know or I am helping at all??
 
Sorry I didnt reply sooner
I'm going to try a new method of getting the data through some premade lists ive found on the internet

thanks anyway
 
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