FSX:SE Generic Building draw distance

[Robertium]

I've been having a lot of fun lately using Whisplacer to put a bunch of skyscrapers, buildings and other objects in seemingly random places. Mainly I've been using the generic building tool, which allows me to customize the shape, texture and dimensions of the building, and it works great. However, I've got a slight annoyance.

It's not just with Whisplacer, it also happens with the generic buildings in the default scenery as well- they disappear after a relatively short distance.

Here is an example: Three generic buildings and two from the object library (the nuclear plant and the smaller blue skyscraper)

As I travel further away, I gaze back at them- everything is still there.

After a few more seconds, pof! The generic buildings have disappeared, leaving only the library object buildings visible.

Now, I understand that this is normal- 32 bit sims like mine would crash if they had all of it loaded like that for extended periods of time. However, I was wondering if I could extend the draw distance for generic buildings, so that they disappear about the same time as the library object buildings. A brief search of certain keywords on some other forums showed that I could tweak the "LOD radius" in the .cfg. The problem is, I don't want to overload my simulator and I'm not sure what other effects that would have, or if it would even fix my problem. Anyone know of a way to do this, or is it just wishful thinking?

 

[GaryGB]

Hi Robert:

AFAIK, one cannot control Generic Building draw distance via XML-source code in BGLComp XML placement BGLs.

IIUC, FS 3D model visibility can only be controlled in SCASM API and MDL objects.

http://www.ptsim.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2375



You may try using MCX' MDLTweaker feature to increase BoundingBox size on Generic Buildings converted to MDLs:

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/generic-buildings-disappear.20095/


Otherwise, you may wish to make custom 3D building models in Sketchup and texture them using default FS textures.


BTW: You might check out if this may work to convert custom FSX Generic Buildings to MDLs via MS Flight format:

MS Flight converted most if not all Generic Buildings into "procedural" objects:

"The procedural buildings replace all forms of autogen 1\generic building from FSX."


An ex-MS Flight developer "StoneLance" added a feature to do the same in his "Flight Toolkit"

http://flighttoolkit.com/?p=78

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/conversion-questions-using-the-flight-toolkit.434521/

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/flight-docs-terrain-system.431225/


I am not certain whether MCX can import the MS Flight 'procedural' 3D models from "Flight Toolkit".


Hope this helps.

GaryGB

 

[arno]

The generic buildings are generated on the fly by the scenery engine, so you can't easily convert them to mdl objects.

I'm not aware of a way to control their drawing distance either, that's determined in the scenery engine.

 

[GaryGB]

Hi Arno:

[EDITED]

I have yet to find any info online here as to whether MCX can- or can NOT- work with scenery objects in MS Flight format.

[END_EDIT]

Can MCX import the MS Flight 'procedural' 3D models converted from Generic Buildings using "Flight Toolkit" ?


GaryGB

 

[arno]

Hi Gary,

If I remember correctly Flight uses similar file formats, but given the lack of an SDK for it I never added full support in MCX.

I also don't see how using Flight objects would help for this problem. That will not help the developer in making his scenery, even if he has Flight. Using such objects would mean you can't distribute your work anymore.

 

[GaryGB]

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/generic-building-draw-distance.446177/post-830783

Hi Gary,

If I remember correctly Flight uses similar file formats, but given the lack of an SDK for it I never added full support in MCX.

I also don't see how using Flight objects would help for this problem. That will not help the developer in making his scenery, even if he has Flight. Using such objects would mean you can't distribute your work anymore.

[EDITED]

Hi Arno:

Sorry for any confusion arising from how I worded my sentence; I have edited my post above in an effort at greater clarity:

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/generic-building-draw-distance.446177/post-830782


To further explain what I was alluding to above:

As a person who never downloaded / used MS Flight, I had the < possibly incorrect ? > impression from reading threads about the "Flight Toolkit" and related discussions with ex: rhumbaflappy and/or 'FS-Tester' about converting FSX scenery content, that "Flight Toolkit" might be used to convert FSX Generic Buildings to some sort of MS Flight MDL.

Hopefully MCX could then convert that MS Flight MDL back into FSX MDL format.


Thus, in this case, I am describing use of "Flight Toolkit" to convert one's FSX format custom Generic Buildings produced via ex: SBuilderX and processed as FSX SDK BGLComp XML source code via stonelances' special 'ContentConverter' tool, then converting it back via MCX into a FSX MDL format that the end user can use with the MCX MDLTweaker to edit the BoundingBox.


After a review of the threads linked above, IIUC, "ContentConverter" may be used to convert FSX default and custom Generic Buildings.

[END_EDIT]

GaryGB

 

[Robertium]

Hm, that seems like a way to "cheat" this is by simply modeling 3D buildings elsewhere, with the same height and dimensions and then using FSX textures for them.

Hi Robert:

Otherwise, you may wish to make custom 3D building models in Sketchup and texture them using default FS textures......

Hope this helps.

GaryGB

Of course, it requires more work than simply clicking a few buttons in Whisplacer and typing a few values. I guess I'll be doing that, then.

If there is no way to change their drawing distance, then that's fine. Alternatively, I could just point the camera in the other direction

 

[GaryGB]

Hi Robert:

Technically, in Sketchup, there is a way to use Components to create ready-to-use building types that can be more easily assembled as "Generic Buildings".

One can also just use the self-tiling feature of mapped texture Materials on Sketchup 3D models fitted to some initial Guide Lines / Points on Faces, so that resulting texture maps are displayed based on standard sizes in Meters used for various FSX Generic Building heights / widths ...via BGLComp when such objects are otherwise rendered at run time in FSX as XML-derived objects.

Hope this helps with exploring your options.

GaryGB

 

[Shaun]

You can make the object much bigger. I put another small object in the model a fair ways away from the others and increases the models size and stops this from happening.