Creating coastlines for CFS2

[rhumbaflappy]

Hi Sander.

In some old sceneries I made using VTP1, I used some of the default textures... not line textures.... sand, lava, asphalt, concrete, grass, etc... because it didn't look too bad in the sim, and made the UV mapping a cinch!

I also made everything as "fans" because I made all roads and shorelines as polygons! ( cheated ).

Dick

 

[SdC]

Yeah although the fs2002 sdk makes a big deal about the difference between lines and poly's, the resulting ASM doesn't reflect this.
For the shorelines however it needs to be implemented neatly, because the exact texture mapping is essential. For roads it makes little difference. Streams (which have banks) also need to be mapped correctly.

 

[SdC]

I think vtp1 has a lot more flexibility than ground2k exposes.
For instance, it is possible to rotate textures in poly's (so we could for instance use the good 'ol CFS1 ground texture set again ) and we could place "photoreal" anyplace without having to edit the texture to fit the ground.
Also lines could have a randomized width variation, making streams and beaches look more fluent and natural.

 

[xavierb]

May any of the Aces team be contacted? And, btw, who are them? (ugh! I have revealed myself as a "non-so-veteran" simmer...

 

[rhumbaflappy]

I think vtp1 has a lot more flexibility than ground2k exposes.
For instance, it is possible to rotate textures in poly's (so we could for instance use the good 'ol CFS1 ground texture set again ) and we could place "photoreal" anyplace without having to edit the texture to fit the ground.
Also lines could have a randomized width variation, making streams and beaches look more fluent and natural.

Hi Sander.

You're right there! VTP1 was a very flexible way of drawing.

One thing I have noted:

Occasionally, there are artifacts created by our VTP1 lines and polys. When viewed from top-down, north oriented, they appear as horizontal or vertical lines of misplaced texture. I think I have found the source of the problem. It seems in the macro:

VTPPointXYUV	Macro	X, Y, U, V

	BYTE	X	;	// The column offset in the area
	BYTE	Y	;	// The row offset in the area
	BYTE	U	;	// The column offset into the texture
	BYTE	V	;	// The row offset into the texture


EndM

The points X and Y cannot be '0'. The span should be 1-255, not 0-255. If I use 1-255, then the artifacts disappear. The texture U and V can remain 0-255. Ground2K uses a span of 0-255, and the annoying artifacts are often present... so some decompilation of the BGL, and some editing, is needed.

Dick

 

[SdC]

Hi Sander.

You're right there! VTP1 was a very flexible way of drawing.

One thing I have noted:

Occasionally, there are artifacts created by our VTP1 lines and polys. When viewed from top-down, north oriented, they appear as horizontal or vertical lines of misplaced texture. I think I have found the source of the problem. It seems in the macro:

VTPPointXYUV	Macro	X, Y, U, V

	BYTE	X	;	// The column offset in the area
	BYTE	Y	;	// The row offset in the area
	BYTE	U	;	// The column offset into the texture
	BYTE	V	;	// The row offset into the texture


EndM

The points X and Y cannot be '0'. The span should be 1-255, not 0-255. If I use 1-255, then the artifacts disappear. The texture U and V can remain 0-255. Ground2K uses a span of 0-255, and the annoying artifacts are often present... so some decompilation of the BGL, and some editing, is needed.

Dick

Gotcha! I'm coding the LOD13 poly clipping functions right now, and that is info I can incorportate immediately . Never thought I'd know what the Sutherland-Hodgman's polygon-clipping algorithm was.....

 

[SdC]

.....
... so some decompilation of the BGL, and some editing, is needed.

Dick

Some editing????? My projects typically contain THOUSANDS of lines Yeah we definately need a new compiler! (note: cfs2autocoast.exe will be able to read sbx files, so in the future you could use sbuilder to create little projects like Iwo Jima too! )

 

[rhumbaflappy]

Gotcha! I'm coding the LOD13 poly clipping functions right now, and that is info I can incorportate immediately . Never thought I'd know what the Sutherland-Hodgman's polygon-clipping algorithm was.....

Hi Sander.

Oddly, VTP2 is also restricted to spans of 255 per LOD13... 255 * 32 = 8160.

So all VTP lines and polys deal with the spans between the 256 points. This would also affect VTP1 photoreal.

It is possible the '0' point is somehow overlapped... what I am doing is to simply replace any '0' in the X,Y with '1'.

"MaskedRider" ( Chris Westervelt ) rejected using VTP1 for his blended airfields due to the artifacts. At that time, it never occured to me the X,Y points were the problem.

Dick

 

[MaskRider]

Hiya Fellas,

Very ineresting discussion.

Finding the cause and solution to the artifact problem with VTP1's is a great find- from my limited perspective, anyway.

It will allow me to start using my normal custom ground poly textures as custom textures in VTP1s as I had always wanted to do.

I am ready to start decompiling and editing right now!

I was wondering first off whether G2Kv4 generates source files that are or can be saved? If so, where are they?

Chris

 

[rhumbaflappy]

Hi Chris.

For decompiling all LWM and VTP use Jim Keir's LWMViewer 1.3:

http://www.jimkeir.co.uk/FlightSim/LWMViewer.html

I wouldn't use version 1.4b, as it's a beta with some problems, and version 2.0 is also a beta.

For an ASM editor, you can use notepad, but large files need something beefier... I use the editor with Visual Studio C++ Express Edition ( incredibly fast for huge files ).

Dick

 

[xavierb]

As a text editor, I recommend UltraEdit, which is shareware. If you want a good freeware one, Notepad ++ (http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm) would be my choice.

Best regards,

Xavier

 

[MaskRider]

Hi Guys thanks for all the info.

WRT LWMViewer- yep, I've been usin it for some time- mainly just to check my coastline polys for spikes and such. Version 1.4B, too. At least that what I've been using on the new computer- I may have 1.3 on the old one.

In any event I now have both on the new one. Did some decompiling with it. Works fine.

WRT a more powerful text editor- I downloaded the 45 day free trial version of UltraEdit. Pretty cool program, for sure. Most likely I'll end up forkin over the dough!

Until later,
Chris

 

[SdC]

Hi Dick,
I received your vtp1fix tool, but my replies to you bounced after a few days:

<.....@....>: delivery temporarily suspended: connect to
mail.charter.net[209.225.8.224]: Connection timed out

What I tried to say is that it is a LOT of code for a simple problem!!! But it works great!
Here's my interpretation of the solution; save as .vbs file, then you can drag-and-drop the ASM file (or files) on it and it will create a _fixed.asm file. The only limitation is there should not be period "." in folder name (like "c:\myscenery\test.1\blabla.asm").

Option Explicit
Const ForReading = 1
Const ForWriting = 2
Dim objFSO,  objShell, objSourceFile, objDestinationFile, objArgs
Dim strText, strFile, strArg
dim strX, strY, strCoords
set objArgs = WScript.Arguments
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
for each strFile in objArgs
    Set objSourceFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile (strFile, ForReading, True) 
    Set objDestinationfile = objFSO.CreateTextFile(replace(strFile,".","_Fixed."), True)
    do while not objsourcefile.AtEndOfStream
      strText = objSourceFile.ReadLine
      if instr(strtext,"VTPPointXYUV") then
      	'Get all coordinates
      	strCoords=right(strtext,len(strtext)-instr(strtext,"VTPPointXYUV")-11)
      	'Strip away the coordinates from original string
      	strText=left(strtext,instr(strtext,"VTPPointXYUV")+12)
      	'strip away the X
      	strX=left(strcoords,instr(strcoords,","))
      	strcoords=right(strcoords,len(strcoords)-instr(strcoords,","))
      	'Strip away the Y
      	strY=left(strcoords,instr(strcoords,","))
        'Leave the UV
      	strcoords=right(strcoords,len(strcoords)-instr(strcoords,","))
      	strtext = strtext & replace(strX," 0,"," 1," ) & replace (strY," 0,"," 1,") & strcoords
      end if
      objDestinationFile.writeline strText
    loop
    objSourceFile.Close 
    objDestinationFile.close
next
WScript.Quit

 

[rhumbaflappy]

Hi Sander.

My code was a bit long.

I don't know why the mail was bouncing... I've been getting emails from all over.

For everyone else:

The code Sander is refering to is a program to correct VTP1 code from Ground2K or from LWMViewer. I discovered a bug in CFS2 that doesn't read the zero values for X or Y positioning in VTP1 polys and lines. I made a program to change those values from 0 to 1 in the ASM ( or BGS ) files, so they may be recompiled and artifacts are then removed from the sim.

I'm attaching the Net 2.0 executable... the code is too bulky to include!

Dick

 

[SdC]

Hi Dick,
Do you mind if I re-post your file on the SOH Design forum? I'll post both versions (mine has evolved a bit since the above post) so people will have a choice , with a small tutorial.
Cheers,
-Sander

 

[rhumbaflappy]

Hi Sander.

Yes, repost it if you like.

I suspect there are only about 3 of us that actually use this.

Dick

 

[SdC]

Even so.... nice to have a link ready in case anyone ever asks
I posted the article here: http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?p=406791#post406791
and will also re-post that on my own site.

 

[SdC]

.....

.... about 3 of us ....
Dick

You, me, Crashaz, Maskrider, Mar.g, gary20, Nooma - that I know of.
Not all on active duty, but they may want to fix their work anyway.

 

[crashaz]

Ahhh it's good to be back.... reporting for active duty!


Came over to look at FSX XML for my designing PHP for FSX (hmm new name PHPX!! LOL)


This is a great thread fellas.... always good to see great minds at work.