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Luis' terrain.cfg problem

W

Wildfire563

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unitedstates
In some recent work I've been doing, I realized a problem I have with autogen bleeding through custom textures is related to Luis Feliz-Tirado et. al's replacement terrain.cfg file. Has anyone else noticed this (both Ray Lunning and I have the problem)?

Is there a fix to this? Any thoughts Luis?

Thanks,

Thomas

P.S. This isn't really a mesh issue I realize, but there is not a terrain subforum in the terrain/mesh forum. How about creating one?
 
Hi Thomas.

I can't quite picture what you mean by autogen bleeding through... and how are you making custom textures? Are these photoreal vectors?

If they are vectors, then I'm assuming you mean this Terrain CFG Texture:

//Community additions
// Land Class Polygons - Custom Seasonal
[Texture.383]
Name=LandClassPoly_Custom_Seasonal
Color=FF00C000
guid={D9F92F38-10C5-45F6-A704-7C19EC182759}
Textures=CUSTOM_SEASONAL
ExcludeAutogen=No
RenderToTexture=Yes
RenderPriority=30000
Water=No
Click to expand...


You'll note, the ExcludeAutogen is No... this is because you should provide your own autogen file. Meanwhile, old autogen can be excluded by using another vector with the Terrain CFG Texture:

// Airport Backgrounds (FSX) - ExcludeAutoGen
[Texture.264]
Name=Airport_Backgrounds_ExcludeAutoGen
Color=FFFFFF00
guid={6C0C6528-5CF1-483A-A586-2C905CF2757E}
FlattenMode=none
LandClassRemapType=none
ExcludeAutogen=Yes
RenderToTexture=No
RenderPriority=200000
Water=No
Click to expand...



"mesh" in this instance is more of a generic term to mean terrain features... more of a European concept. This term also includes elevational mesh. So, you're in the right forum.


Dick
 
Hi Dick,

actually, Thomas is talking about something else, Dick, and I can confirm that there appears to be an issue with the use of the modified terrain.cfg.

The project that Thomas is talking about as well as my own project add custom entries to the terrain.cfg via an installer/configurator.

For some reason custom-textured polygons don't respond to the ExcludeAutogen parameter in the terrain.cfg. Thus, in addition to the polygon with the custom texture definition we have to add a duplicate of the same polygon of the type "Airport Backgrounds (FSX) - ExcludeAutoGen" (ID 246, GUID {6C0C6528-5CF1-483A-A586-2C905CF2757E} )

For both or our projects, if we add our additional entries to the default terrain.cfg this approach works as intended (see screenshot of the gravelbar below). If, instead, we use your modified terrain.cfg as a base then the autogen of the underlying land class file shows through, that is the autogen exclude isn't working (see second screenshot).

I've attached the two versions of the terrain.cfg with the entries of my project. I did a side-by-side comparison, first checking for the obvious issues (duplicate GUIDs, incorrect parameter specs for the entries being used, etc.) but I can't find anything wrong with it.

What I haven't tested yet is whether perhaps the data stream inside the terrain.cfg might be responsible for the issue though I can't think of a reason why that would make a difference. Moreover, combining Thomas' project and mine in a terrain.cfg based on the default .cfg works just fine too.

sooo... what might be the issue here???

Cheers, Holger

http://www.hsandmann.com/images/misc/VPlus_custom_sandbar_with_default-terrain.jpg

http://www.hsandmann.com/images/misc/VPlus_custom_sandbar_with_mod-terrain.jpg

http://www.hsandmann.com/images/misc/Terrain_cfg_mods.zip
 
Hi Holger.

Thanks, that clears it up for me. I'd have to spend a weekend over it, but I have noticed inthe file "terrain_mod_plus_VPlus.cfg", as well as terrain.cfg Luis and I have used, there is an oddity.

Line #6012 contains a space " " at the beginning of the line. It also appears in the cfg luis and I use... so that is where it comes from. I wonder if this line that begins with a space is messing up further numbered entries?

In our terrain.cfg, the line number is 5606... and there is an extra amount of additional lines that probably shouldn't be there.

It's just a guess right now.

If your reading this Thomas, could you check your CFG, that is combined with ours, to see if this extra space preceeds your numbered entries? If so, try deleting the line with the unwanted space, and maybe trim the excess blank lines, and see if it cures the problem?


Dick
 
Hi Dick,

well spotted but removing all instances of " " in empty lines doesn't seem to make a difference.

I've since also tested placing the autogen exclusion polys in a separate folder with higher display priority but that didn't prevent the autogen objects from showing up either.

I'm going to try a few other things and will report back.

Cheers, Holger
 
Thanks Holger, and thank you, Thomas.

I have reproduced the problem. I'll still need to explore the solution.

For anyone following this:

Adding new entries for polys with new textures to the terrain.cfg is allowed, but the exclusions we expect from using the default landclass poly entries do not occur with our own textures.

So we need to add a duplicate poly to our vectors, that is an exclusion of the autogen "Airport Backgrounds (FSX) - ExcludeAutoGen" (ID 246, GUID {6C0C6528-5CF1-483A-A586-2C905CF2757E} ), as Holger noted above.

But with the alternate terrain.cfg that Luis and I provided, the autogen does not exclude.

Here's the entry I added:

// MyTest One
[Texture.389]
Name=MyTest_One
Color=Color=FF00C000
guid={BFF1B84D-03BE-4cbb-98E6-05517AE6DDD1}
Textures=test_wi.bmp,test_hw.bmp,test_sp.bmp,test_su.bmp,test_fa.bmp,test_lm.bmp
ExcludeAutogen=No
RenderToTexture=Yes
RenderPriority=30000
Water=No
Click to expand...

It works fine with the default terrain.cfg, and fails to exclude autogen with the one Luis and I have promoted.

I'll work this out this weekend.

Dick
 
Last edited:
Hi Thomas and Holger.

The original terrain.cfg has this:

// Airport Backgrounds (FSX) - ExcludeAutoGen
[Texture.264]
Name=Airport_Backgrounds_ExcludeAutoGen
Color=FFFFFF00
guid={6C0C6528-5CF1-483A-A586-2C905CF2757E}
FlattenMode=none
LandClassRemapType=none
ExcludeAutogen=Yes
RenderToTexture=No
RenderPriority=200000
Water=No
Click to expand...

Luis and I evolved this:

// Airport Backgrounds (FSX) - ExcludeAutoGen
[Texture.264]
Name=Airport_Backgrounds_ExcludeAutoGen
Color=FFFFFF00
guid={6C0C6528-5CF1-483A-A586-2C905CF2757E}
FlattenMode=none
LandClassRemapType=none
ExcludeAutogen=Yes
RenderToTexture=No
RenderPriority=20000
Water=No
Click to expand...

The RenderPriority of the exclude poly has been lessened to 20000... so it doesn't appear to be working, and that seems to allow the autogen to remain.

Changing that value back to 200000 in the altered terrain.cfg seems to work.

But I think we need to come to some conclusions about render priorities and about autogen. Note, there is a flatten priority that is a separate issue, and seems to work as advertised.

Dick
 
Hello Dick,

sorry I didn't respond any sooner; was offline for the last couple of days.

So there it was, staring me in the face the whole time: the difference a "0" can make ;-)

The change isn't documented in your files so I assume it was unintentional?

According to the terrain.cfg SDK the class with the highest value for renderpriority is "most likely to appear" (love that subtle ambiguity; in fact, I have noticed that it really isn't all that reliable) thus it makes sense to me to give autogen excludes - and the airport backgrounds class in general - the highest value.

The question is how to deal with this? Even if you upload a new version it's likely that many people will miss out on it. Thus, I may just create a separate autogen exclude entry for my projects to avoid compatibility issues.

Thanks for helping out spotting the problem!

Cheers, Holger
 
Me again,

FYI below is the summary of my current choices for renderpriority additions. I don't think there's a need for "standardization" because excludes can be used to remove any kind of default or custom vector/area class, regardless of renderpriority settings.

The reason there's some duplication with your modified terrain.cfg is that I don't make the assumption that people have your version installed (though I'll always encourage that in the docs)

Cheers, Holger

=================

FSX terrain.cfg RenderPriority levels

20000 airport backgrounds I (#164-167)
30000 land class polys
40000 utility corridors
50000 stream lines non-perennial
51000 stream lines perennial
80000 hydro polygons non-perennial, plus additional flat water (Legacy_LandWaterMask_Water_Flatten)
81000 hydro polygons perennial
90000 shorelines, legacy
91000 shorelines, FSX generic
100100- roads, dirt (sequence in steps of 50 to 100650)
101100- roads, gravel (sequence in steps of 50 to 101650)
102000 railroad
102100- roads, asphalt and concrete (alternating sequence to 102655)
200000 airport backgrounds II (#264-267)
200000 additional land mask (flatten/no flatten) (#379/382)


Holger's additions

41000 Utility Corridor Vectors
50500 Custom Stream Vectors
50500 Whitewater Stream Vectors
70000 Effect-only Shoreline Vectors
92000 Ocean Shoreline Vectors
92000 Lake Shoreline Vectors
92000 River Shoreline Vectors
92000 Beach Shoreline Vectors
92000 Pier Edge Vectors
100500 Railroad Vectors
100000 Foot Trail Vectors
101000 Gravel Road Vectors
103000 Road Bridge Vectors
35000 Gravelbar Polygons
35000 Industrial Area 0-degree Polygons
35000 Industrial Area 45-degree Polygons
35000 Concrete Polygons
35000 Ski Areas Base Polygons
36000 Ski Areas Forest Polygons
35000 Airstrip Skirting Polygons
36000 Airstrip Runway Polygons
37000 Airstrip Runway Detail Polygons
83000 Island Forest Polygons
83000 Island Wetlands Polygons
83000 Island Mutflats Polygons
83000 Island Gravelbars Polygons
36000 Glacier Ice Polygons
85000 Lake and River Ice Polygons
82000 LandWaterMask_Water_Flatten
82000 LandWaterMask_Water_NoFlatten
 
Hang on a sec...

I just noticed that all of your Airport Backgrounds (FSX) classes have RenderPriority reduced to 20,000 instead of the default 200,000. So this was deliberate!?!

The reason this works with default classes is that the autogen gets excluded from the underlying land class while any land class polys placed on top don't have any autogen anyway (e.g., Airstrip Skirting 1 and 2).

However, this isn't an option with custom classes because the ExcludeAutogen parameter doesn't work for them.

I'm curious why you decided to lower the RenderPriority value?

Cheers, Holger
 
Hi Holger.

I believe what happened was Luis and I were working off the Betas, and as I look at the terrain.cfg of the Betas, they did use 20000 for Terrain.264

It may have been intentional, but not on our part. Neither of us had an issue with excluding autogen.

What I would suggest for you and Thomas, if you are distributing your scenery, is to alter the value to 200000. It certainly won't hurt what Luis and I have done, and it would be doing the enduser a favor.

After SP1 is released, I'll contact Luis about changes to a new version. We'll need to see what changes occur to the file, and how the sim handles water, flattens, and excludes.

Many thanks for finding this, Holger.

Dick
 
Hello Dick,

I see, my apologies for assuming this might have been intentional on your part.

Indeed, even the RTM terrain.cfg does use either 20,000 or 200,000 in the four Airport Backgrounds (FSX). It seems that the two classes with MaskClassMap settings (LandClassRemapType=airport) use the 20,000 value, probably to make the blending work with the LandClassPoly classes having RenderPriority=30000.

Anyway, like you said, we should re-visit the terrain.cfg settings after the release of SP1.

Cheers, Holger
 
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