FS2004 How to edit Airports

[Flugsimulatorpilot]

I have made a textured ground poly (satelitte Background). I have an old airport which hasn't got a satelitte Background, so I decided to make one. My problem is that the taxiways of the airport havn't got the same position as the taxiways of the aerial Image. So I downloaded ADE and opened a file called AF2_Eddn... Now I can see all the taxiways and can change there positions. In FS9, however, these changes do not show any effect. What is my mistake? I hope anybody can help me.

 

[GaryGB]

IIUC, you do not see any of the replacement airport BGL displayed in FS9 at run time ?

That may be due to having named the replacement BGL with the same name as the original one (AF2_Eddn); that may allow FS9 to still load the original with top display priority from another (forgotten) physical ex: backup location which has not yet been disabled.


Alternatively, there may be custom Taxiway textures that are displayed on top of the "AFCAD-2 type" XML objects generated by the airport BGL which ADE9 has created as a replacement for the original "old Aerosoft German Airports 1 (EDDN)" ...which you referred to previously as the area of interest for your current project here:

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/th...-background-for-a-airport.434062/#post-710954


If indeed there are custom Taxiway textures that are displayed on top of the "AFCAD-2 type" XML objects generated by the airport BGL which ADE9 has created as a replacement, they may be loading from BGLs coded in SCASM (or may even be FS SDK Resample custom photo-real land class using transparency to allow other airport texture types to show through from below).

It is possible that if there are any custom taxiway textures from the original "old Aerosoft German Airports 1 (EDDN)" still being displayed on top of the replacement airport made in ADE9, such textures may actually be SCASM-derived, and cannot be excluded by the BGLComp-type XML-derived BGLs which ADE9 uses when it copies / imports the selected original airport, and writes out a new version of a 'replacement' airport ...using 'FS9-format' BGLComp XML.


I suggest that you may need to further analyze the different BGLs loading at the "old Aerosoft German Airports 1 (EDDN)" by first temporarily disabling that entire 3rd party add-on from being displayed, so that you can see what the replacement airport made in ADE9 is actually providing ...and able to display in FS9 at run time without the Aerosoft EDDN loading.

Then try going back and re-activating BGLs from the "old Aerosoft German Airports 1 (EDDN)" 1 at a time to see what impact they have on the airport as displayed at run time in FS9.


FYI: It is not un-common for some 3rd party add-on airports from Aerosoft developers to use custom Taxiway / RWY and other "airport ground object" textures that are actually SCASM-derived, and thus cannot be excluded by the BGLComp-type XML-derived BGLs which ADE9 uses.

In addition to the above step-by-step process of adding BGLs from the "old Aerosoft German Airports 1 (EDDN)" 1 at a time to see what impact they have on the airport as displayed at run time in FS9, one can also attempt to determine what type the other BGLs are: SCASM-derived, or BGLComp-type XML-derived; if SCASM-derived, it may be that ADE9 cannot "exclude them" and you will have to use other special methods to exclude them from display.

Before we even discuss de-compiling BGLs for the "old Aerosoft German Airports 1 (EDDN)" to determine their type and function, please tell us:

* How many BGLs are there in Aerosoft German Airports 1 (EDDN) \Scenery sub-folder (along with the AF2_Eddn.bgl file) ?

* What are all the BGL file names in that folder ?

GaryGB

 

[Flugsimulatorpilot]

Hi Gary,

the Install Wizard of the old German Airports 1 copys some files into Scenery/BASE/Scenery. The files in it are probably LC files; they are named for example
>> EDDN_LC... .bgl. <<. It copys some textures into the main texture folder of the sim and creates a folder aerosoft with the Subfolders GA1 Airports or so and another one called Gmax_librarys. It adds both of them to the scenery.cfg of the sim. Unfortunately the old German Airports 1 contains a lot of airports which are not seperately in subfolders (how the newer ones). All Bgl files of the Airport are in the same folder; in GA1 Airports Subfolder Scenery. But they are named with EDDN, etc.

GaryGB said: FYI: It is not un-common for some 3rd party add-on airports from Aerosoft developers to use custom Taxiway / RWY and other "airport ground object" textures that are actually SCASM-derived, and thus cannot be excluded by the BGLComp-type XML-derived BGLs which ADE9 uses.

I think you're right. If I load the AF2_EDDN....bgl into ADE I cannot see all the taxiways the Airport really has in the sim. I've already tried a week ago deactivating some bgl's in the folders and when I remember right one or more of the exlude Bgl-files are responsible for the taxiways. But I will have a closer look to it. But with which Program can I edit them? When I load such a file into ADE it says that it contains not an airport.

Flugsimulatorpilot

 

[GaryGB]

I think you're right. If I load the AF2_EDDN....bgl into ADE I cannot see all the taxiways the Airport really has in the sim. I've already tried a week ago deactivating some bgl's in the folders and when I remember right one or more of the exlude Bgl-files are responsible for the taxiways. But I will have a closer look to it. But with which Program can I edit them? When I load such a file into ADE it says that it contains not an airport.

Flugsimulatorpilot

SCASM BGLs can be de-compiled by BGLAnalyze version 3.1 and/or ScDis version 2.3, edited, and re-compiled via SCASM.

The VTP BGLs can be copied, "Appended" to SBuilder for FS9, edited, and re-compiled via BGLC_9.

Additionally, VTP BGLs can be copied, opened in Jim Keir's LWMViewer, de-compiled to ASM files (with a 'BGS' file extension), edited, and re-compiled via BGLC_9

But before you consider doing that, I must again recommend a review of my initial suggestion:

I suggest that you may need to further analyze the different BGLs loading at the "old Aerosoft German Airports 1 (EDDN)" by first temporarily disabling that entire 3rd party add-on from being displayed, so that you can see what the replacement airport made in ADE9 is actually providing ...and able to display in FS9 at run time without the Aerosoft EDDN loading.

Then try going back and re-activating BGLs from the "old Aerosoft German Airports 1 (EDDN)" 1 at a time to see what impact they have on the airport as displayed at run time in FS9.

BTW: If and when a time comes to further investigate the other BGLs loaded by Aerosoft German Airports 1 (EDDN), it would also be important to know exactly what files were placed into ex: [FS9 install path]\Scenery\BASE\Scenery.


PS: IMHO, it is best NOT to edit or over-write original files from MSFS default and/or 3rd party add-ons such as Aerosoft German Airports 1 (EDDN).

Rather, it is a better practice to first back-up such original files, disable them if possible or otherwise create excludes for them, then substitute replacement files for them using scenery layers which have a higher display priority in MSFS.

GaryGB

 

[GaryGB]

Hi Again:

Jim Vile recently posted a somewhat updated version of his excellent "4-part process for modification of existing airports"; while written to be applicable to FSX using FSX SDK methods, the conceptual overview of the workflow could / should also be applied to FS9 (using different FS9 SDK and 3rd party FS utility methods more specific to the legacy FS9 code base).

IMHO, a review of Jim's tutorial is highly recommended for those working on airports in any version of MSFS:

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/landclass-visibility-problem.15173/

< Thanks again, Jim ! >

GaryGB

 

[Flugsimulatorpilot]

Hi Gary,

I found the BGl File which is responsible for the taxiways. It's EDDN2-FS9.Bgl. However, I am unable to view it. When I try to load that file into ADE, it says the same as before.

 

[GaryGB]

I'd recommend first reviewing Scott Smart's excellent tutorial: "Modifying Default Airport Terrain with SBuilder" (for FS9)

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/attachments/airport-background-tutorial-pdf.13311/


If further detailed work on the airport background and/or other FS9-format Vector Textured Polygon ("VTP") land class textures used to "cover" the airport RWYs / Taxiways / Aprons is still needed, it may be possible to achieve this by utilizing the source code de-compiled from the SCASM BGLs via BGLAnalyze version 3.1.

FYI: BGLAnalyze version 3.1 de-compiles SCASM BGLs into a *.SCA source code ASCII text file that, IIUC, is a modified form of Assembler source code intended to be interpreted / compiled by SCASM.

Thus, the *.SCA or *.SCM file format is not BGLComp-type XML.


The SCASM front-end to the BGL coding and compilation process allows a somewhat more "friendly" set of terms and structure to be used with what on the back-end becomes IIRC, Assembler scripted macros.

ASM coding in a native ASM format is more complex, and is best undertaken by experienced programmers.


When the SCASM compiler processes the SCA (or SCM) source code into a BGL, it has been reported that the code and/or its functions and features are essentially identical to that created using native ASM BGL coding and/or the XML-based FS SDK compilers.

Although it is possible to discern airport-type code structures within SCASM source code and make "simple" edits, it is a learning process which involves substantial complexity and many obscure considerations which must be borne in mind when attempting to modify airports, especially when they are Aerosoft legacy format airports written in SCASM.

Due to the complexity of working with SCASM and ASM programming code, MS Game Studios "ACES" FS development team converted the SDK to a XML-based front-end beginning with FS9 for what IIUC, is otherwise mostly still the same type of back-end internally within FSX-era compilers (...and within the BGLs they create).


If you decide to try a workflow different than that in Scott Smarts "Airport Modification" tutorial above, I don't recall whether Lee Swordy's AFCAD version-2 can directly import FS8 or FS9 legacy format SCASM airport BGLs or the source code output by AFCAD version-1.

So, it may be best to initially attempt to import the *.SCA (or *.SCM) SCASM source code into Airport for Windows version 2.6 (aka "AFW") to see if you can display the legacy airport properly, and then try to edit and compile a SCASM-based substitute replacement for the airport in that program.

Possibly you will understand this better than Google could attempt to translate (Google can't access this page):

http://www.wcm.at/forum/showthread.....html?s=18f8d465e8db19f1b6ab4dd94638986f&amp;



Airport for Windows is still available to download via flightsim.com (...Install v2.1 then upgrade to v2.6):

http://simviation.com/fsdesign_scenery1.htm


BTW: It may be possible that for certain purposes FS2004 Scenery Generator X (aka "SceneGenX" or "SGX") may be used to import SCASM source code, edit, and output BGLComp-type XML and/or BGLs ...which might then be imported into ADE9.

CAVEAT: SceneGenX has limited usefulness for creation of Airport and other scenery of any substantial size, due to having based its calculations on Meters rather than Geographic Arc Degrees, so it can only be used for very small project areas before inaccuracies of size, orientation, and placement become evident.

SceneGenX can still be downloaded via flightsim.com (...Install v5.7 then upgrade to v6.1):

http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/fslib.php?searchid=37366956

If the above search result web page will not display in your web browser, go to:

http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/fslib.php?do=displaysearch

...and search for these file names:

sgx57fi.zip

sgxb61u.zip


PS: Scott Smart's comments on use of Airport for Windows and SceneGenX :

http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/archive/index.php/t-141168.html


Hope this helps !

GaryGB

 

[Flugsimulatorpilot]

Hi Gary,

thank you for the detailed instructions. I think for me it would be easier to create a new airport with ADE. So i have to open the stock Airport EDDN and make my changes. I compile it to a new scenery folder which I add to the scenery.cfg. But how can I change the VTP Layer of the Airport? When I use VTP Layer 4 for my ground poly Aerosoft EDDN shows over it, but the edited default airport doesn't? So how give I this airport a higher priority. I saved the modified bgl into FS9/My EDDN/Scenery and it has priority 1 in the Scenery Library.

 

[GaryGB]

I think for me it would be easier to create a new airport with ADE. So i have to open the stock Airport EDDN and make my changes.

That may result in loss of all approach / parking / other information pertinent to the complex Aerosoft EDDN airport you paid for !


I suggest that you work with the ADE9 airport imported / converted from the Aerosoft "AF2_Eddn" you mentioned in this thread:

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/how-to-edit-addon-airports.434142/


FYI: "AF2" means it was created in and/or is otherwise compatible with AFCAD version-2 and is intended for use in FS9.

GaryGB

 

[GaryGB]

But how can I change the VTP Layer of the Airport? When I use VTP Layer 4 for my ground poly Aerosoft EDDN shows over it, but the edited default airport doesn't? So how give I this airport a higher priority. I saved the modified bgl into FS9/My EDDN/Scenery and it has priority 1 in the Scenery Library.

Depending on how the VTP BGL is coded, it may still display with a priority higher than the airport RWY / Taxiway / Apron objects created by ADE9 ...regardless of where the ADE9 or VTP BGL are positioned within the FS9 Scenery library.

Part of this is due to the internal VTP "layer" number; and IIUC, part of it is in the way the SCASM code itself is written.

I would have to research this further to better understand how best to remedy this issue, but I'm not sure how successful this inquiry would be without knowing exactly what code was used in the Aerosoft BGLs.

This is why I recommend first following Scott Smart's "Airport Modification" tutorial above; IMHO it may be your best option to achieve your goal, and this will require some relatively 'hard' work to do so for FS9 ...as compared to doing so for FSX.

[EDITED]

PS: Notice especially the "higher" VTP layer nunbers for certain polygon types which Scott discusses in the above tutorial.

Some more references regarding VTP layers for various types of FS scenery objects / facilities:

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/custom-land-class.426177/

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/tutorial.426486/

http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/archive/index.php/t-165171.html


Note that the default VTP layer number for airport boundaries (aka "Airport Skirtings and Parks") are typically "4" or "7":

If one were to change display priority so that VTP G-Polys did not display on top of the default FS9 format AFCAD-2 or ADE9 RWY / Taxiway / Apron objects, one might have to use a VTP layer with a lesser number than "4" or "7"...but this may conflict with other lower VTP layers of scenery content (ex: water).

If you prefer to display the default FS9 format AFCAD-2 or ADE9 RWY / Taxiway / Apron objects textures instead of the higher-resolution custom photo-real ones in your airport G-Poly, you may need to "cut holes" in the G-Poly, or otherwise create the G-Poly in multiple 'segments' ...to allow the default default FS9 format AFCAD-2 or ADE9 RWY / Taxiway / Apron objects textures to "show through to the top".


Also, please refer to this tutorial on use of "Ground2K" for an explanation of the various VTP layers ..and how to "exclude" them:

http://library.avsim.net/search.php?SearchTerm=Ground2K for Beginners&CatID=root&Go=Search

[END_EDIT]

Hope this helps a bit more with the learning process !

GaryGB