• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
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    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
    • Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
    • Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.

    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

FSX Making a landable mountain using ADE for FSX

IMHO, since this exercise is only a test of concept and workflow, you certainly could use PNG (preferred) or JPG; just remember to have MCX G,-Polygon Wizard convert the texture back to DXT1 when it exports the compiled G-Poly to BGL

However, this reads like a procedural error in use of the sampling of the non-distorted and properly mapped (projected) texture Face.

Be sure to press and hold down the <Alt> key, then click the Left Mouse button with the Paint Bucket Tool cursor over that Face to correctly sample that properly projected texture into memory.

Then Left Mouse button click with the Paint Bucket Tool cursor over the directly adjacent Face showing a distorted texture map.

GaryGB
 
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Assuming the texture file format change worked to facilitate the texture mapping distortion correction in Sketchup, then congratulations are in order.

But if you are using a texture format other than BMP when the textured polygon is exported by G-Poly Wizard, it is not a SCASM / ASM FS8 version.

If a FSX MDL file format is used for G-Poly export by MCX instead of FS9 (or the original "FS8" format), although DDS textures may display, so will certain graphical rendering anomalies associated with inability of FSX MDLs to utilize VTP layering.

GaryGB
 
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Yeah I pretty much figured that one out. Anyway, I don't like the way textures display in FSX. There is absolutely NO DETAIL, you can't see the rocks or the texture of the ground, it's really nothing but colored ground. Not exactly what I was expecting. So, I've made a decision to Re-MAke the entire project in the alternate location of Skinwalker Ranch. I've come to the conclusion that the way the original airport was laid out, is causing a lot of issues, misalignments, flattens, polys, etc... and the best course of action would be to re make this thing. There are some changes I want to make anyway, mainly I want to remove all the "unused" land, redo the water, remove a lot of the "segmented" lands like the island and make those one complete section of land. Mainly I want to do away with that "flatten" poly that covers the entire airport and place flattens only where they are needed. This should also solve my problem of making the sloped Mountain that I want to make. There are just too many problems with the current project to even attempt to fix, so a re-make is the best course of action at this point. I'm going to learn to make photoreal imagery so things will look more life-like and realistic, I just can't do that with the current "problematic" project. I make need your help and advice from time to time though as I am still learning to use these tools, the tutorials are great, but there are cases where they don't help a whole lot. I learned a lot about what to do by reading that tutorial on Sbuilder you gave me earlier and I think I am ready to move on and do this thing up right, and since the RPG game is on hold until late summer, I have time to work on things without having to "rush" to get something done. I played around a bit with the sloping thing on another "blank slate" airport, and I think I can get it to work. It worked on that airport, but it won't work on the KWR1 airport and I think it has to do with that stupid flatten I have covering the entire airport, I have to eliminate that before I can do anything. I'm going to use google earth and take a snapshot of the area I want the project to be and use that as a background in ADE to start designing the airport, that way I will no what the lay of the land is where I put things instead of just "blind" placing things. I'm going to do this like it should have been done years ago, just didn't have the tools back then only thing we had was ADE which is still a great program in itself. Sbuilder and Sketchup are great too, but sketchup is a bit more complicated and requires more study, I will stick with using ADE and Sbuilder for this project since I know how to use them. I'll learn sketchup some other time. I do want to thank you for the support and help so far, I just need to move on to something without all the problems that plague the original project.
 
Tomt478 said:
I don't like the way textures display in FSX. There is absolutely NO DETAIL, you can't see the rocks or the texture of the ground, it's really nothing but colored ground. Not exactly what I was expecting.

I just need to move on to something without all the problems that plague the original project.
Click to expand...

I suggest that you will be much more satisfied with your experiences navigating- and building- scenery in MSFS 2024.

You could shop for a used- but more powerful- video card from a reputable retailer (perhaps your tech friend has connections ?).

Then buy MSFS 2024.

Keep backups of all your FSX work in ADE, SBuilderX and Sketchup, then they can be used to port your project to MSFS.

FSX_New_Project_Location-1.jpg


MSFS_2024_New_Project_Location-1.jpg



ADE memory limitations will require swapping between many JPG background images for reasonable resolution that one can work with for a project of the size you envision.

SBuilderX can pan / scroll / zoom local imagery without a need to swap out imagery.

But indeed, each of the above applications has its own unique contribution to a project, as does Sketchup.

I also believe you will find quite useful, the workflow SBuilderX utilizes internally for creating custom PR imagery.

Notably, SBuilderX offers automatic generation of Geo-referencing *.TXT files and a *.INF file for downloaded imagery tiles, and is relatively easy to adapt as you test concepts for your project.

It is only a matter of time until I link you to some example FSX terrain mesh and imagery BGL file sets for the proposed project location.

Concurrent with compilation of those file sets I will gather and edit some of my own tutorials on the SBuilderX workflow to create custom PR land class aerial imagery, which when posted / linked, you may review and follow, if you wish, to begin producing your own custom PR imagery for projects.

GaryGB
 
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I do want to start doing PR imagery, I'm not happy with the detail of GP textures, they are too blurry and show no detail whatsoever. GP just isn't going to work out as expected, I guess it's just a limitation on the part of FSX and/or ADE to be able to render such detail without using PR imagery. I've been looking at some of the online tutorials on PR creation, most of them are too "technical" for me to understand. I do wish when people put these tutorials up online, that they would at least consider those who are "dummies" and have no idea what they are doing, but I've looked and can't find any tutorials that don't assume you know what you are doing. It's going to take some serious time for me to become at least a "novice" designer that at least knows something about what these tutorials are talking about. Oh, well, onward and upward , as they say.
 
FYI:Guess what? I actually managed to move the original project to the new location! I removed that troublesome "flatten" from under the project, allowing the actual topography of the land to show through. It's not that mountainous so this wasn't a problem. I had to make sure however to have a "flatten" under all of my roads or they simply disappeared into the hills, ok, fixed that. This now gave me "natural" hills to work with which are already drivable, so all I have to do is put roads on them. Works great so far. Now for the Textured Land I wanted, although the "detail" doesn't show too well, it does give the land that "alien" color by using MCX I went in and made the textures "semi-transparent" which blends the ground in with the textures, making them appear more "realistic. So far as a test, it looks fairly decent aside from the missing details of the texture which due to displaying limitations of FSX, can't be fixed, but, I can live with that as long as my textures now change the land and makes it look fairly good for me. I'm still toying with making PR imagery, but I have a ways to go, but for now, this method works ok for me. I'm going in a touching up the problems in the project, I thought I would give it one last try before I abandoned it. It's just too much work to re-create something this large. Moving the project to the new location made a world of difference, just have to get used to the new alt of 5000ft ABSL. I have to consider that as my ground level and adjust everything to that level. A bit of work, but at least I know it can be done with ease. I do have a question, I tried to go in and edit my terrain polys in ADE using "multi-edit", but for some reason it wouldn't work, I had to do each one separately, I've noticed my multi-edit hasn't worked as of lately, could there be a problem with my ADE program or is there some setting in ADE that may have gotten screwed up somehow? It's funny how multi-edit used to work but don't now. Any ideas what happened? Should I just re-install ADE and see if that fixes it?
 
Oh I had one other question. Is there any way to take the entire project and overlay it over the Real-World location and match it up with the actual ground so I can see exactly where Real-World objects are such as hills and roads? I'm sure there is a way, I just can't figure it out yet. I tried taking a image of the area, but without knowing exactly where the project is and how much land it actually covers, the best I can get is small snapshots of the immediate area. I want to place the entire project over the location matching its distance and amount of land it covers. I need to see exactly where things are in the real-world and put those in relation to where things are in the project.
 
Well, it was working....now I'm back to the original "gremlin" polys aren't showing up in FSX again. Not doing anything different, they just refuse to show again. I'm starting to think it's a problem either with FSX or something in SbuilderX, because everything was working fine, then all of a sudden, BAM! Not working. I'm abandoning the Poly thing and just moving on to PR. There's either a "bug" in FSX or in SbuilderX. I'm not going to fool with it anymore unless if it's a SBX problem, someone releases a fix for it, if it's a FSX problem, then I'll just live with it cause I doubt anyone will be fixing any problems with FSX in the near future.
 
Tomt478 said:
I do want to start doing PR imagery, I'm not happy with the detail of GP textures, they are too blurry and show no detail whatsoever. GP just isn't going to work out as expected, I guess it's just a limitation on the part of FSX and/or ADE to be able to render such detail without using PR imagery. I've been looking at some of the online tutorials on PR creation, most of them are too "technical" for me to understand. I do wish when people put these tutorials up online, that they would at least consider those who are "dummies" and have no idea what they are doing, but I've looked and can't find any tutorials that don't assume you know what you are doing. It's going to take some serious time for me to become at least a "novice" designer that at least knows something about what these tutorials are talking about. Oh, well, onward and upward , as they say.
Click to expand...

Hi Tom:

I sent you a "Direct Message" (aka "DM" ...not to be confused with a "Demerit" :rotfl:).

I'll be on the road again this afternoon, so I must reply to your other messages later today upon my return.

GaryGB
 
OK. Is there any other program besides ModelConverterX that I can use to adjust the transparencies of textures? MCX does it ok, but it does not import the correct altitude asigned by SBX. If you use the wizard to try to adjust the alt. you loose visibility completely. Adjusting the alt. never has any affect. I also want to remove the "autogen exclusion" from the poly. MCX has this option in the wizard, but the wizard just don't work correctly. Is the alt in MCX measured from GL, ARP level, or SL? That would make all the difference as to which one MCX is adjusting the alt by. I know it's in Meters, that's not a problem, I just have to know what reference MCX uses for alt.
 
Tomt478 said:
I do have a question, I tried to go in and edit my terrain polys in ADE using "multi-edit", but for some reason it wouldn't work, I had to do each one separately, I've noticed my multi-edit hasn't worked as of lately, could there be a problem with my ADE program or is there some setting in ADE that may have gotten screwed up somehow? It's funny how multi-edit used to work but don't now. Any ideas what happened? Should I just re-install ADE and see if that fixes it?
Click to expand...

I would run a search, and if, after due diligence, I could not find an answer, I would post such a query in the ADE subforum:

https://www.google.com/search?q=sit...AxX5tokEHT9_EQQQ8tMDegQIBBAE&biw=1440&bih=710

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/multi-select.445625/

GaryGB
 
Tomt478 said:
Oh I had one other question. Is there any way to take the entire project and overlay it over the Real-World location and match it up with the actual ground so I can see exactly where Real-World objects are such as hills and roads? I'm sure there is a way, I just can't figure it out yet. I tried taking a image of the area, but without knowing exactly where the project is and how much land it actually covers, the best I can get is small snapshots of the immediate area. I want to place the entire project over the location matching its distance and amount of land it covers. I need to see exactly where things are in the real-world and put those in relation to where things are in the project.
Click to expand...
As I have stated previously, open all the *.SHP files generated by CvxExtractor from the ADE CVX Vector BGL ...in Google Earth.

GaryGB
 
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Tomt478 said:
OK. Is there any other program besides ModelConverterX that I can use to adjust the transparencies of textures?

MCX does it ok, but it does not import the correct altitude assigned by SBX. If you use the wizard to try to adjust the alt. you loose visibility completely. Adjusting the alt. never has any affect. I also want to remove the "autogen exclusion" from the poly. MCX has this option in the wizard, but the wizard just doesn't work correctly.

Is the alt in MCX measured from GL, ARP level, or SL?

That would make all the difference as to which one MCX is adjusting the alt by. I know it's in Meters, that's not a problem, I just have to know what reference MCX uses for alt.
Click to expand...

Before you get a reply regarding how best to implement transparency with a G-Poly, more info will be required from you. :pushpin:


It is best for you to use standard terminology, not 'GL' if dealing with aviation and scenery building for an aviation simulator.

Technically, Arno used a 'proper' aviation term of "Absolute Altitude" as a requirement in MCX G-Poly Wizard.

PROJECT_TEXP_BGL_MCX_G-Poly_Wizard_Absolute_Altitude.jpg


If you do not know what ANY term means, the onus is on you to do a search, instead of 'querying' FSDEV forum again.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Abs...gBAZgCAKACAJgDAJIHAKAHAA&sclient=gws-wiz-serp

Notice the search terms in the Search field of Google; this is how you can find answers without delay and needless forum traffic.


To be fair, most FS Developers appear to have little- if any- formal flying training IRL, and seem to rarely- if ever- fly in FS.

And to be fair, Arno skipped over the specification of Altitude type to be entered in the G-Poly Wizard section of MCX manual.

Arno was well intended using 'Absolute Altitude'; IMHO he should have used "AGL", as that is how it is specified in FS coding.

It is not impossible Arno sees that term used more in European aviation on (or 'above' ?) his home turf in the Netherlands.

But, Arno knows perhaps better than most of us here, FS is a North American product that uses North American code & terms.

All that said, we owe a debt of gratitude to Arno for making G-Poly Wizard available to us in MCX.


Please answer a question I shall now ask you regarding a recent post above on your issues with G-Poly Wizard and use of BMPs.

"I did manage to get the texture problem solved, it was because I was using BMPs."

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/t...mountain-using-ade-for-fsx.459364/post-931734


Are you- or are you not- using FSX G-Polys ?

Or instead, are you using "FS2004-type" SCASM / ASM G-Polys ?


If you use FSX G-Polys, Arno tried very hard to "emulate" VTP layer spacing equivalence, but it is not identical to true VTP layers.

FSX MDLs do not support VTP layers, so FSX run time Altitudes may be imprecise when rendered compared to true VTP layers.

So which textured polygon version are you actually using for MCX G-Poly Wizard output: FS2004-type, ...or FSX-type ?

GaryGB
 
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GaryGB said:
Hi Tom:

I sent you a "Direct Message" (aka "DM" ...not to be confused with a "Demerit" :rotfl:).

I'll be on the road again this afternoon, so I must reply to your other messages later today upon my return.

GaryGB
Click to expand...

Tom, did you check the "DM" I sent you yet ? :scratchch

GaryGB
 
Well as for now, I have to place everything on hold. I have figured out that most of my problems are being caused by an update from MS that had to do with the File Explorer. Ever since this update, Windows 11 will no longer "update" files. Even if you copy paste-replace, the old file is NOT overwritten or replaced. This is causing issues with SBX,MCX,FSX,and ADE as files are not getting updated. The only wat to update a file is to actually delete the file and create a new one, windows will not update files anymore. So until MS releases another update, I',m at a standstill because I can't trust when files get created and or replaced. The problem isn't just with my project files, I'm talking about ANY file does not update in Explorer due to an update. I will have to wait for a fix.
 
Yeah, it looks pretty much like I thought it would, but as stated above, I'm at a standstill until MS releases a fix for their screwup with File Explorer. I tried to go back to another date, but without knowing when this update was implemented, I would be doing more harm than good just trying different dates. I'll just wait.
 
Right now I'm going to leave everything as-is until Windows is fixed. I can't work with something that gives unpredictable results. I wish MS would quit using its users to "test" stuff, they have plenty of people that get paid plenty of money to do that, why force us to do it?
 
Tomt478 said:
Yeah, it looks pretty much like I thought it would, but as stated above, I'm at a standstill until MS releases a fix for their screwup with File Explorer. I tried to go back to another date, but without knowing when this update was implemented, I would be doing more harm than good just trying different dates. I'll just wait.
Click to expand...

FYI: I updated this post above, with comparative screenshots of FSX and MSFS 2024 ...at the proposed new project location: ;)

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/t...mountain-using-ade-for-fsx.459364/post-931742

GaryGB
 
Here's another screenshot after adding enhancements using Airport Facilitator X (AFX) live, in-sim preview mode: ;)

FSX_New_Project_Location-2.jpg


GaryGB
 
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