FSX Convince me

[robystar]

Hi all,

Working on a photoreal scenery, I womdered if somebody could tell me what the advantages are of SbuilderX compared to ADE when making coastlines for instance.
What I mean is this: see attachment.
Now, if some Sbuilder user can tell me that it is a lot easier in that program than to do this time consuming stuff in ADE, I would be more than happy to get to work with Sbuilder.

Yours (once in a while).

Roby

 

[GHD]

Hi Roby,

I assume you mean SBuilderX rather than SBuilder

I use the watermask tiff in SBuilderX to create hydro-polys. It is much easier to zoom right in in SBX than it is in ADE.

 

[robystar]

Hello George,

No, it is not about the watermask.
I make the watermask tif with Gimp.
But then I have to exclude the ocean perennial hydro polygon because it does not fit the real world (well the Google Earth or Bing maps one) and start making the new shoreline either with ADE (that is what is shown) or with SbuilderX (I don't know how to work with yet).
The attachment shows only a small part of an island (Ofu, American Samoa so as not to be bothered with it if it goes wrong) I have been working on for hours, making only this part of the shoreline. (And ADE hangs sometimes, selects the whole outline so that I have to start all over again when I try to add a vertex and the whole shoreline has moved)
Therefore it would be a major advantage if SbuilderX would make it easier in outlining this rocky coastline. Especially because the downloaded extra mesh is not detailed enough to get the water flat (if you know what I mean).
But as I do not know SbuilderX (although you have said several times that you advise to use it instead of ADE) and hate to have to learn to use another program when ADE can do most of the tasks that SbuilderX does, I asked in fact how you would do it in SbuilderX and if it is easier/faster than in ADE.

Roby

 

[GHD]

I asked in fact how you would do it in SbuilderX and if it is easier/faster than in ADE.

There are two ways of working with SBX, both of which are much faster than ADE.

Either, bring up the background image using either GE or VE and draw a polygon around the coast.

Or. load in your tiff (for which you know the calibration from the .inf file) and again, draw a polygon around it.

Here is an example where I have loaded the watermask tiff into SBX:



All I needed to do was draw a polygon slightly inside the white areas.

 

[robystar]

G'd evening George,

I am not sure I understand (as usual). "Either you draw a polygon around the coast'? and that is what you do in ADE, or "you import your TIF watermask and draw a polygon around it" which is not what you can do in ADE (well, you could), but in both cases you have to draw the shoreline again.
Now, the difficulty is that the ocean hydro polygon has to be very exact in order to have it flatten the terrain at the coast so that no water is either say 10ft high up the land or flattens the mesh 10ft inland. And that requires a whole lot of vertices.
In ADE you have to add vertices one by one at the exact spot while slewing and dragging the new vertex to that spot. How would you do that in SbuikderX? If it is the same procedure, I do not see why there is an advantage of using the latter because the work load and time would be the same?

 

[GHD]

In SBX, you need not be connected to FSX so there is no slewing.

Either the tiff or the background (GE or VE) is displayed directly on the SBX screen. You can zoom in and add/drag vertices just using the mouse.

Here is an example from Bermuda (which is crap in both GE and VE )

Tiff:



Satellite:



One more feature. Polygons can be clipped to QMid boundaries.

 

[rhumbaflappy]

Small vectors around airports can be done just fine with ADE. But larger areas of terrain need either a GIS program, or SBuilderX.

One problem with vectors in FSX is that you'll need to exclude the default water and the shorelines ( beaches ). The excludes may exclude up to the border of the QMID 11. If your photoreal doesn't match the QMID 11, then you'll need to rebuild part of the water and shore to match the old vectors from your photoreal to the QMID 11 border.

A screenshot from TMFViewer can be cropped to the QMID 11 bounds, and the "mapped" a background in SBuilderX, as a guide. This map is also handy to create exclude polys.

As George wrote, draw the new water slightly inside the photoreal edge... it doesn't need to be super-accurate. From the edge of the photo to the QMID 11 border, try to draw the water and shorelines to match up to the default water and shorelines.

You can also slew around in SBuilderX if you like, but it's not usually needed.

Dick

 

[scruffyduck]

ADE is not intended for extensive terrain work. For that I would certainly recommend SBuilder. Terrain tools in ADE (as Dick rightly says) are most useful for working within or alongside the airport boundary.

 

[robystar]

Hi,

And thank you all but the problem is that I have to learn how to use XbuilderX before really knowing if it is easier than ADE. I would still have to put the vertices in place so as to have an accurate shoreline and is that process easier than in ADE? Do you add a vertex by just clicking and you have a new one at the right spot without having made the whole polygon yet or do you have to make a polygon and drag the vertices to their location? In the latter case, I still do not see the advantage.
Sure I can import my TIF, but then what? I get a bunch of options to choose from and I haven't the faintest which one.
Guess I will finish my island in ADE and then give the next one (there are plenty) a go with SbuilderX.

Roby

 

[GHD]

And thank you all but the problem is that I have to learn how to use XbuilderX before really knowing if it is easier than ADE.

We all had to learn, and, yes, it is much easier than ADE.

And, you do not need to import your tiff, you can use GE or VE images directly without knowing how it is done.

 

[robystar]

Hi George,
I do not think you get my point.
I aprreciate everything you have taught me, you know that, but what I want to know exactly is how the procedure is to draw those shoreline vertices in SbuilderX and I do not think I have the answer yet. Must be my lack of trying to convey what exactly I mean.
In ADE you can load your background image as well, exclude the water and put in the new waterline but then the agony starts of making the new water line fit the real world one.
In ADE, having imported a satellite bmp, e.g. (I do not do it because it takes up too much memory), you draw a polygon as close as possible to the real world shoreline and then start to refine it by adding vertices and dragging them to the right spot. Is that different in SbuilderX then?
Sorry if I am a bit slow in understanding.

Roby

 

[GHD]

Is that different in SbuilderX then?

No, it is exactly the same, the only difference is that one can zoom in much further than in ADE and the vertices don't change size.

If you are not willing to give it a try, you will never know whether it is better than ADE.

 

[robystar]

I did not say that. On the contrary, I said I will try it on the next island as this one is almost finished and I do not know whether the two are compatible.
Would be kind of a mess to have half the island as an ADE bgl and the other half made with SBX.

Thanks for explaining so extensively,

Roby

 

[GHD]

I do not know whether the two are compatible.

The only possible compatibility would be to import the bln file from ADE into SBX.

 

[Rcnesneg]

I think the answer is that ADE is only used with an airport. SBX can be used anywhere.

Correct me if i'm wrong, but i don't think ADE can place photo-real airport backgrounds. is that correct?

 

[robystar]

Hi,

That is correct in as far as placing the photoreal background in the scenery. But you can use a photo as background to make your airport and surroundings.
For finding and resampling the photoreal image I use FSEarthTiles.