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MSFS20 Is 'terraforming' available in ADE?
- Thread starter jgarnold
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=rk=
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Terraforming must be conducted within the DevMode interface. It will not accept any keyboard input whatsoever. A great convenience for crayon users, despite the fact that almost any hand drawn airport can have slight wrinkles, where the hand elevated runway does not exactly meet the hand elevated terrain mesh to four decimal places, when the gizmo for the center of the mesh, is approximately one half mile or more, from the gizmo for the runway. As to "two way editing," that should be unaffected, ADE reflects changes made in DevMode.
Although Jon does a great job accommodating all the various Asobo contrivances, I cannot imagine how he could possibly un dumb down terraforming, such that it would work within something so sophisticated as ADE. They made it so we could move mountains with a gesture and now we want to go back to using slide rules. If they'd just allowed us to use either input, fingertip controls, or extremely precise keyboard control, we could perform remote surgery, imo.
Presumably, one could comb through the airport XML, find the entries that correspond to each airport element, runway and elevation polygon to equalize the numbers, or, somehow be lucky enough to get the elevations matched within two decimal places, call it good enough.
Although Jon does a great job accommodating all the various Asobo contrivances, I cannot imagine how he could possibly un dumb down terraforming, such that it would work within something so sophisticated as ADE. They made it so we could move mountains with a gesture and now we want to go back to using slide rules. If they'd just allowed us to use either input, fingertip controls, or extremely precise keyboard control, we could perform remote surgery, imo.
Presumably, one could comb through the airport XML, find the entries that correspond to each airport element, runway and elevation polygon to equalize the numbers, or, somehow be lucky enough to get the elevations matched within two decimal places, call it good enough.
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No - sorry
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Backup your original ADE project first or create a copy of the project to open in Dev Mode. I suspect that adding terraforming in Dev Mode would be lost of you open the revised project in ADE.
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I am resurrecting this thread in order to learn some things.
To recap, I successfully built an airport project using ADE.
TO add some terraforming I opened the (ADE created) project in MSFS Devmode and added some polygons (terraforming, water exclude and water) did a build and that all worked successfully.
I understand that if I open that project in ADE I would probably lose the polygons added with DevMode HOWEVER is there anyway I can add a NEW model the the project retaining the existing polygons with Devmode as when I added the new model and opened in Devmode I got errors (it didn't like that I had copied the folder containing my new model into the PackageSources folder). Do I (Can I) rebuild the 'library' (.bgl) separately? Would that fix my problem?
To recap, I successfully built an airport project using ADE.
TO add some terraforming I opened the (ADE created) project in MSFS Devmode and added some polygons (terraforming, water exclude and water) did a build and that all worked successfully.
I understand that if I open that project in ADE I would probably lose the polygons added with DevMode HOWEVER is there anyway I can add a NEW model the the project retaining the existing polygons with Devmode as when I added the new model and opened in Devmode I got errors (it didn't like that I had copied the folder containing my new model into the PackageSources folder). Do I (Can I) rebuild the 'library' (.bgl) separately? Would that fix my problem?
=rk=
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ChatGPT is an excellent resource and beyond being able to answer any flight sim related question as well or better than anyone here, it does this through natural conversations of interrogative and reply.
rk: I understand that if I open that project in ADE I would probably lose the polygons added with DevMode HOWEVER is there anyway I can add a NEW model the the project retaining the existing polygons with Devmode as when I added the new model and opened in Devmode I got errors (it didn't like that I had copied the folder containing my new model into the PackageSources folder). Do I (Can I) rebuild the 'library' (.bgl) separately? Would that fix my problem?
ChatGPT: It is possible that when you added a new model to the project and opened it in DevMode, the errors you encountered were caused by the copied folder not being properly referenced in the project. Rebuilding the 'library' (.bgl) file separately may help to fix this issue, as it will ensure that the new model is properly included in the project. To rebuild the library, you may need to use a tool such as the SDK's Model Converter or a third-party utility. Additionally, you can check with the devmode developer community or the X-Plane developer documentation for more information on how to properly add new models to a project and rebuild the library.
Amazing, considering I did not use the terms "Asobo," "Microsoft Flight Simulator," or "MSFS," although there had been a significant delay, presumably the question burned extra carbon. The answer is strikingly similar to the one I provided on your parallel thread.
rk: I understand that if I open that project in ADE I would probably lose the polygons added with DevMode HOWEVER is there anyway I can add a NEW model the the project retaining the existing polygons with Devmode as when I added the new model and opened in Devmode I got errors (it didn't like that I had copied the folder containing my new model into the PackageSources folder). Do I (Can I) rebuild the 'library' (.bgl) separately? Would that fix my problem?
ChatGPT: It is possible that when you added a new model to the project and opened it in DevMode, the errors you encountered were caused by the copied folder not being properly referenced in the project. Rebuilding the 'library' (.bgl) file separately may help to fix this issue, as it will ensure that the new model is properly included in the project. To rebuild the library, you may need to use a tool such as the SDK's Model Converter or a third-party utility. Additionally, you can check with the devmode developer community or the X-Plane developer documentation for more information on how to properly add new models to a project and rebuild the library.
Amazing, considering I did not use the terms "Asobo," "Microsoft Flight Simulator," or "MSFS," although there had been a significant delay, presumably the question burned extra carbon. The answer is strikingly similar to the one I provided on your parallel thread.
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Thanks Rick. As you are probably aware I also asked a similar question in the Devmode forum and when "it's all boiled down" I just need to know how to add a NEW model to an existing project. I am sure it can be down as I'm sure lots of other people have created a project and later on wanted to add a new model. It's easy (to me ) using ADE (but I would probably loose my polygons added using Devmode which Jon believes would happen) but I just need to be educated on how it is acheived in Devmode.
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<jgarnold> I think I did something like what you are trying to do in MSFS about a year ago, but the details about how I did it are a bit dim, sorry.
I hope I undertand your question correctly, and apologise for the lack of detail. If you want more I can get it when on a different computer.
You need to put your new model in a personal MSFS object library and include that library in the dev mode scenery editor.
I have a pet project that has evolved over many versions of FSX and MSFS in the shape of a fictitious old WW2 flying-boat base at Rathmines, near Newcastle NSW.
It started in the good old days of ADE for FSX and was so, so easy at that time. All objects came from the many public libraries available in those days and they included a launching ramp on which amphibious aircraft could launch and retrieve. The ramp was less than perfect, but worked. There was no such thing as terraforming then of course.
When MSFS came along I converted my Rathmines FB base with some difficulty and one of the casualties was this launching ramp. So I designed a new improved model to MSFS standards. This took months and was a nightmare using Blender and others programs until eventually I got a good model with Sketchup that went into my own MSFS model library, and then into the dev mode project / scenery editor. I could then add it to my airport in dev mode. Terraforming was then available and after a few dozen hours it worked properly.
To my surprise my model library was included automatically in the dev mode scenery system so I can use that ramp plus a few other of "my" things like marker buoys in any future MSFS projects. So the breakthrough seems to be to build your own MSFS object library with your new model in it, which will appear in the dev mode list of object libraries.
I have alwys found that once "converted" to the MSFS SDK or dev mode scenery system, a project is best left there and not modified again in ADE. Hopefully that will change in time and we will be able to switch back and forth - I still prefer ADE for new projects.
I hope I undertand your question correctly, and apologise for the lack of detail. If you want more I can get it when on a different computer.
You need to put your new model in a personal MSFS object library and include that library in the dev mode scenery editor.
I have a pet project that has evolved over many versions of FSX and MSFS in the shape of a fictitious old WW2 flying-boat base at Rathmines, near Newcastle NSW.
It started in the good old days of ADE for FSX and was so, so easy at that time. All objects came from the many public libraries available in those days and they included a launching ramp on which amphibious aircraft could launch and retrieve. The ramp was less than perfect, but worked. There was no such thing as terraforming then of course.
When MSFS came along I converted my Rathmines FB base with some difficulty and one of the casualties was this launching ramp. So I designed a new improved model to MSFS standards. This took months and was a nightmare using Blender and others programs until eventually I got a good model with Sketchup that went into my own MSFS model library, and then into the dev mode project / scenery editor. I could then add it to my airport in dev mode. Terraforming was then available and after a few dozen hours it worked properly.
To my surprise my model library was included automatically in the dev mode scenery system so I can use that ramp plus a few other of "my" things like marker buoys in any future MSFS projects. So the breakthrough seems to be to build your own MSFS object library with your new model in it, which will appear in the dev mode list of object libraries.
I have alwys found that once "converted" to the MSFS SDK or dev mode scenery system, a project is best left there and not modified again in ADE. Hopefully that will change in time and we will be able to switch back and forth - I still prefer ADE for new projects.
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My project has at least 50 'models' all needing placement to match the real world.
I agree with that however my project was originally created using ADE as I was completely familiar with it having used it a lot for creating FSX airports.
It was only about 12 months after I created the project that I needed to use terraforming to correct incorrect (MSFS) terrain elevations and ADE cannot do that so, on suggestion from Jon or someone else, I opened the ADE created project in DevMode and found that I could and so I added some terraforming build the project successfully and copied the package to the community folder and it all worked.
I think it would be a mistake to now use ADE to modify a project updated with DevMode but can't find a method to 'build' a new model into the model library. Anyway after thinking about it I will try one more approach and if that doesn't work I will use my original project (before I added the terraforming polygons) to add the new model and then open that in DevMode to add the terraforming polygons again. My reason for resurrecting this thread was to try and prevent me having to work out where the place the vertices of the polygons again as it took some time before just to get them placed correctly.
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Thanks nemoz
I have decided to rebuild my project using ADE from scratch using a copy of the project before I added the terraforming with DevMode building my new model with the ADE and User Model Manager then I will add the terraforming back in with DevMode.
I will make a note though of what you advise.
I have decided to rebuild my project using ADE from scratch using a copy of the project before I added the terraforming with DevMode building my new model with the ADE and User Model Manager then I will add the terraforming back in with DevMode.
I will make a note though of what you advise.