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FSXA FSDreamTeam Invisible Apron

O

Omar

Messages
21
Country
pakistan
Hi all,

I hope you guys have seen FSDreamTeam's New York JFK scenery for FSX. If you look at how they made the photoreal ground, it's clear that they used the Resample tool instead of making a Gmax ground polygon because if you fly around it, you can see the "blurries" and the scenery starts loading and becomes sharper. Also, they have used Apron Paths for taxiways and only the runways have default textures (there are custom groundpolygons on top of them). But when I taxi in any part of the airport my tires don't kick up any dirt.

So here is my question: How could they make the whole area an "invisible" apron without placing any Afcad aprons or taxiways and also no Gmax groundpolys to hide any Afcad textures?

Please tell me if you know the answer because I want to use this method on the airport that I'm making.

Omar
 
Hi,

Omar said:
So here is my question: How could they make the whole area an "invisible" apron without placing any Afcad aprons or taxiways and also no Gmax groundpolys to hide any Afcad textures?
Click to expand...

I think using a TaxiPath has the same effect to prevent dirt from wheels, so it could be due to that.

For other areas where there is no TaxiPath it could be that they used some old SCASM code to make the ground smooth. I know that is what I did in some projects, but maybe they have found another way as well...
 
Thanks Arno for your reply.

Is there any easy tutorial or forum post out there that tells how to use the SCASM code to make the ground smooth?

I have never used SCASM before and I read the "Runway related commands" online doc and it was quite confusing but I can get the hang of it.

I have one question: I read that SCASM is for FS5 till FS2000. So it is possible to make the invisible aprons/runways/taxiways for FSX using SCASM?

Omar
 
Last edited:
Isn't there anyone who knows how to use this technique? If anyone does then please please tell me I really need to know how this works. My project is at a standstill right now. Any help will be really appreciated.

Thanks,
Omar
 
Hi Omar,

In my ModelConverterX tool there is a special function that can make the required SCASM code from the Aprons defined in a BGLComp XML file. That is what I used in that other project. It was the only (easy) way I could find to make things smooth.

You are right that with SCASM you can only make BGL files according to the standards till FS2002 (and partly for FS2004). But with backwards compatibility they still work in FSX as well. Of course when there is an official way in the FSX SDK to do things, that is always better.
 
Thanks a lot Arno for your reply,

Could you tell me more about how you used your tool ModelConverterX to make the invisible apron? I'm really sorry for asking so many questions it's just that I don't have any experience with this stuff.

By the way, I searched in the FSX SDK but couldn't find the official way of doing this. Can anyone lead me in the right direction?

Thanks!
Confused
 
Last edited:
Omar said:
Could you tell me more about how you used your tool ModelConverterX to make the invisible apron? I'm really sorry for asking so many questions it's just that I don't have any experience with this stuff.
Click to expand...

Do you have an BGLComp XML file of your airport that contains the aprons you want to become smooth? If so you can load that into the converter tool in ModelConverterX and it will create the SCASM file for you.

Omar said:
By the way, I searched in the FSX SDK but couldn't find the official way of doing this. Can anyone lead me in the right direction?
Click to expand...

I am not aware of a official FSX way to do this either, that is why I used the older techniques for now. Any new suggestions are always welcome of course :).
 
Hello Arno,

I understand your method and here's what I did:
In Airport Design Editor, I compiled my airport with the aprons and saved the XML file. Then I started ModelConverterX (awesome tool by the way) and used the XML Apron to SurfaceType converter tool to convert the aprons in the XML to a SCA file. Here's what it gave me:

Header( 1 24.9121263250709 0 0 0 )
LatRange( 0 24.9121263250709 )
Area( 5 24.9116203598678 67.1800454556942 22 )
RefPoint( 7 : 0.1 24.9116203598678 67.1800454556942 v1= 2000 v2= 2000 )
SenseBorder( :t0
-3187 3533
-388 -5972
902 -4202
)
:t0
SenseBorder( :t1
-3187 3533
902 -4202
1336 -2481
)
:t1
SenseBorder( :t2
-3187 3533
1336 -2481
1305 -833
)
:t2
SenseBorder( :t3
-3187 3533
1305 -833
1067 328
)
:t3
SenseBorder( :t4
-3187 3533
1067 328
633 1431
)
:t4
SenseBorder( :t5
-3187 3533
633 1431
185 2175
)
:t5
SenseBorder( :t6
-3187 3533
185 2175
-547 2817
)
:t6
SenseBorder( :t7
-3187 3533
-547 2817
-1307 3205
)
:t7
:st
SurfaceType( 0 20000 20000 0 )
EndA

Area( 5 24.9026709515601 67.1482621505857 22 )
RefPoint( 7 : 0.1 24.9026709515601 67.1482621505857 v1= 2000 v2= 2000 )
SenseBorder( :t0
-1848 3043
-36 -3461
2712 -6293
)
:t0
SenseBorder( :t1
-1848 3043
2712 -6293
-827 6711
)
:t1
:st
SurfaceType( 0 20000 20000 0 )
EndA

Area( 5 24.9011938259011 67.1681841007022 22 )
RefPoint( 7 : 0.1 24.9011938259011 67.1681841007022 v1= 2000 v2= 2000 )
SenseBorder( :t0
16009 24891
-28144 12333
-25004 -2515
)
:t0
SenseBorder( :t1
16009 24891
-25004 -2515
-15520 -9122
)
:t1
SenseBorder( :t2
16009 24891
-15520 -9122
-9306 -13242
)
:t2
SenseBorder( :t3
16009 24891
-9306 -13242
-4793 -8729
)
:t3
SenseBorder( :t4
16009 24891
-4793 -8729
7831 -5066
)
:t4
SenseBorder( :t5
16009 24891
7831 -5066
10186 -5851
)
:t5
SenseBorder( :t6
16009 24891
10186 -5851
12737 -880
)
:t6
SenseBorder( :t7
16009 24891
12737 -880
16073 -1600
)
:t7
SenseBorder( :t8
16009 24891
16073 -1600
19932 9782
)
:t8
:st
SurfaceType( 0 20000 20000 0 )
EndA
Click to expand...

I compiled the SCA file using SCASM and placed the BGL in my Addon Scenery\scenery directory but I don't see any aprons and the area where I placed them still kicks up dirt.

Do I have to edit some things in the SCA file or is there another error? By the way, I also tried adding the "Surface 1" command underneath every RefPoint command but I still couldn't see any aprons.

Thanks a lot,
Omar
 
Hi Omar,

The compiled SCA file will not give you any visible aprons. For that you still need the BGL file you made with ADE as well. But the code should make the aprons smooth, at least that is what it did in my project...
 
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