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Lat and Long Accuracy

C

cantwin

Messages
37
Hello again,

I'm trying to place light effects in my scenery,I've used TcalcV2 and Eaglesoft DG Scenery Placement tools. I get the height right, but the centers are all off. Nothing in the scenery file is due north,south, east or west. Is there any other tool out there that is more accurate? I have tried to compensate with both of them, but the closest I can get is within a foot.

Thanks
 
You should be able to get closer than that. I can get down to about 1cm. FS lat/lon values are capable of resolving very small distances. If the program you are using is only giving you a resolution of 1ft then as far as I know most scenery placement tools will do better than that.

Also if your program is creating xml then you could use the bias element to tweak it. Bias is an optional element in xml scenery placement which means you can adjust the lat, lon and altitude of an object in decimal meters. It is described in the bglcomp sdk.
 
Well I use my own program LOM which can place effects. The current release version has a placement error however.

Sbuilder can also place effects. Arno's Object Placer XML will also place effects for you. It is easier to get on with than SBuilder so I would suggest trying it if you haven't already
 
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I do use object placer to install my effects. However the problem I'm having is the exact locaton. Checked to see if the effect I was using was offset, but it isn't. Eaglesoft has cross hairs that I put exactly were I want it, but the co-ords, are just a little off, not the same evertime, meaning I can load the co-ords,check to see were it shows up, delete the bgl, create a new bgl with the same co-ords, and its still a little off only in a different postion.When I use the same co-ords 5 times in a row, each time their off center, but not the same.
 
OK then another way is to use the Bias Element in the SceneryObject element. You will have to do this by hand I think. The latest development version of LOM does allow you to tweak bias via the GUI but it is still being tested at the moment.

This is from the bglcomp sdk

BiasXYZ

This element is used to add an X, Y, Z bias in meters to the placement of an object. The
acceptable range for of values is unbounded, but it is recommended that biases only be
applied for small distances. If this element is used inside of a SceneryObject it must
come before any instances of AttachedObject, Effect, GenericBuilding,
LibraryObject, Trigger, Windsock. This element is not allowed to contain
other data and must be terminated with ‘/>’.

<BiasXYZ
biasX=”0”
biasY=”0”
biasZ=”0”/>
Click to expand...

To try this manually:

Create the bgl as near as you can then use something like the FinneyGround CrossHair plus 'Aircraft' It is acually a set of three ruler poles one in each plane. I use it to work out how much out something is in each of the three planes.

You need to be facing north so that you can work out the lat, lon and altitude errors.

You need the xml code for the object you want to move. After the closing '>' of the SceneryObject attributes but BEFORE the start of the SceneryObject you need to add the bias. The code below is a library object but the only difference foran effect is that <effect/> Element replaces the <libraryObject/> Element in the xml


<FSData version="9.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="bglcomp.xsd" >
<SceneryObject
lat="26.0260194465913"
lon="-81.0349735306653"
alt="0"
altitudeIsAgl="TRUE"
pitch="0"
bank="0"
heading="0"
imageComplexity="NORMAL" >

<BiasXYZ biasX="0" biasY="0" biasZ="0" />

<LibraryObject name="E990F24CFFFB4F89B7C084FF9868D766" scale="1" />
</SceneryObject>
</FSData>

The line in Bold is the Bias Element. These are set to zero but each one is a floating point value in meters. biasZ is latitude (positive goes north); biasX is longitude (positive goes East); and biasY is altitude (positive goes up)

Add this line into your xml and changes the values to the amounts you want to move your effect. Thne you need to manually compile the xml by dragging it over bglcomp.
 
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lat and long

A stupid question, how did you get the co-ords in your last post? I tried the Captains cross hairs but got the same result. I also recalibrated my joystick.
The bad thing is, when I go to check the lights position, even though there 6 inches off I still get the same co-ords. I'm trying to put a light effect in an eight inch box. Height is perfect, but its either left, right, in front of, or behind the box, not very real looking.
 
Well my co-ordinates come from FS via FSUIPC and my own program. You can specify coordinates in both ways (If that is the question you are asking me)

Well if you are 6 inches off then it may be to do with the accurary of the tool you are using. I had a similar problem with LOM - I was anywhere between zero and 50 cm out even though the co-ordinates were the same. Then I found that I wasn't reading the last little bit of co-ordinate data :o

You should be able to get rid of the 6 inches with the bias element.
 
Lat Long

I came to the same conclusion, no tool will be that accurate. So I placed all the light effects, went back in the game, figured out what I had to move, opened the same xml, added the lines, but it won't compile. Had four places past the decimal point, knocked them down to two, it still won't compile. Looked at the xml quite a few times and can't figure were I went wrong. So I am attaching my xml, if you could look at it and tell me what I'm doing wrong it would be greatly appreciated.
 

Attachments

You have to remove plus signs (+) from the XML. There is no such symbol defined in schema. In addition there is one place where biasy instead of biasY is used. XML is case sensitive.

Here is your file after correction.
 

Attachments

I must say I don't really understand why you have a problem when using tools to read the coordinates from FS. I place most of my objects with my own ObPlacer XML tool and it reads the coordinates in decimal form with 14 digits behind the dot. Never had a problem with objects not appearing where I want it.
 
Lat and Long

To scruffyduck - tweaked with the biasxyz, came out close enough. Never tweaked anything before, thanks for your time and patience.

To Stranger - thanks for checking out the xml for me. Didn't know you couldn't have plus signs. Used what you sent back and it works. Thank you very much.


To arno - I do use your object placer program, also your library program, which have helped ME out beyond MY wildest dreams, can't imagine designing without them. I use the eaglesoft cross hairs to get my co-ords. The sad fact is I don't how you guys get the other co-ords with all the numbers past the decimal. If it weren't for your forums, you would have to change the name to the cantwin help line. Going from FSDS2 to V3 was hard because of all the options I can't do now. So I have to try to copy what ALL you guys do. Please be patient, I'm doing the best with what I got left.
 
Hi,

I don't know if I understood you correct, but I am not reading the coordinates from FS myself. The tool is doing that for me, all I have to do is click the mouse. If you try to copy-paste the coordinates as shown on screen in FS, then it will not be very accurate indeed. But any tool that uses FSUIPC or FsConnect to connect to FS directly, should be able to read them much more accurate.
 
You can make much more accurate position reading in FS by adding line
DISPLAY_FRACTIONAL_MINUTES=0
to the [MAIN] section of FS9.CFG. In this case Lat/Lon format will be switched to ddd mm ss.ffff where ddd - degrees, mm - minutes, ss - seconds and ffff - fraction of second. This will give accuracy of about 3mm at the equator.
 
Lat and Long

I posted a reply late last night but it hasn't shown up, so I'll repeat it. This was before Strangers last post. I used object library placer manually. I don't make a scenery library for buildings because I make them myself and no two are alike. With the buildings in place I would add the extra's cars,barriers, trucks, static planes etc. If I didn't like the way they looked or there location I would just delete the bgl from the scenery file instead of going through the process of altering a xml with a lot of objects. Before I wrote the reply last night I put two barricades in my scenery, and I used the object placer connected to the fs to place my light effects. Two per barricade. I should have done this from the start, I didn't have to tweak anything. But I did learn alot more. Thanks to all for all your help. And to Stranger, your last post was what I was looking for.
 
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