Sbuilder wont make Photo BGL

[Shagster22]

hey me again,
Im trying to make a photo bgl, and ive placed and calibrated my image (i think its a bit big, 3436x3436 pixels), ive selected the boxes with the photo tool and have the green-meshlike shading over the area of the bmp i want to export, but when i select export BGL with the boxes selected, all of the checkable boxes are greyed out ! Anybody know what im doing wrong? im using 1.2 px/metre resolution and VTP level on 5 (BTW: WTF is VTP?? lol). ive also tried a 1024x1024 bmp, but to no avail. Any help would be much appreciated!

--edit--
Does the texture used have to be square? because im using a long texture, so square isn't very efficient. Or would it would be better to place multiple small textures? How to do that? Thanx in advance !

 

[arno]

Hi,

Yes, terrain textures are always square. For the mesh textures there position on the earth is fixed as well, so their size in degrees is fixed. Based on your position on the earth this gives a certain resolution (in general around 4.8 meter per pixel). This is because the 256x256 mipmap is the highest one used for terrain textures.

When SBuilder creates 1.2 meter textures (these are placed above the mesh terrain with polygon following that terrain, so SBuilder needs DEM data for that as well) it does use a 1024x1024 version of the same texture.

Now back to your export problem. You need to fill at least one LOD square before you can export a photo tile. So if you image is very narrow, that could be a problem. Also you need to make sure that you have added the actual VTP polygons for your tiles, only loading the image is not enough.

 

[Shagster22]

hey thanx arno!
Ive managed to export it and have a whole bunch of smaller bmps, so far so good, but where do i put the bmp's, in the main FS texture folder? also, where can i put the BGL's? do i need to delete original FS ones? or can i put then in my addon scenery (higher than original in library)? i put them there, and FS just closed when it started to load them. Then i opened the bgls i made, and looked at them in LWMviewer (shows the bgl LWM's), and i got these odd polygons all over, see the image below. Anybody know why this is? perhaps too big of a export all at once (i just selected the entire "default LWM's", because i changed some of them, and the only way to get around effectively is to just "re-export" the entire (edited) bgl. I hope somebody knows why it didnt work. And during the export process, i got an error "error reading in mesh altitudes". Anybody know what this means? thanx in advance !

 

[Shagster22]

ok, i stupidly exported the photo as VTP photo and high-resolution photo ! now i only had high-resolution and all was better, and now FS loads. however, i need to delete the old filed for it to work properly, because now i have a mix of the two LWM sets. Also, the photo bmps dont appear. I dont know if i need to put it in a special place or so, but i wont get it if i put the bgl in the 'eurw' scenery folder and the bmps in the 'eurw' texture folder. Do they need to be DXT3'ed? thnax again lol!

 

[arno]

Hi,

If you mean the textures for the VTP polygons created with GMax, then you need to put them in the world\texture folder. The BGL can be put in the normal folder of your addon scenery.

 

[Shagster22]

hey arno,
well, im not working in gmax here, but i was just wondering what to do with each BGL i make from Sbuilder, and what to do with the bmp's with long number names. I mean, do i need to delete/disable default bgls? anyways, just need to know how to install the created bgls (VTP, LWM, Photo, etc) and the bmps. thanx already!

 

[arno]

Hi,

My fault, I meant SBuilder where I wrote GMax .

The BGL files just go into the scenery folder of your project. No need to alter default files (changing default files for an addon scenery is a very bad habbit). The texture with the long names go into the scenery\world\texture folder (any other location will crash FS).

 

[Shagster22]

thanx arno,

unfortunately that isnt working for me. I tried VTP photo map with VTP layer = 5. Also, i dont know where the alpha is, is it supposed to be alpha of the summer bmp or so? or is it in the bgl? anyways, ill mess around with it for a while, dunno why it wont work...

 

[arno]

I tried VTP photo map with VTP layer = 5.

Have you tried other layer numbers? For example higher ones.

Also, i dont know where the alpha is, is it supposed to be alpha of the summer bmp or so? or is it in the bgl?

The alpha channel is in the texture. I am not really sure what you mean here btw. You normally don't have to worry about the alpha channel. It is certainly not something in the BGL, it is completely defined in the texture.

 

[Shagster22]

thats what i thought, but when i have those 10 bmps created by Sbuilder and i run them throught DXTbmp to DXT3 them, they dont have an alpha channel. So i dont know where it is. But i guess o should first focus on getting the images to show. So with VTP Photo i should put the bgl in addon scenery/project/scenery and the textures in scenery/world/texture?

 

[arno]

So with VTP Photo i should put the bgl in addon scenery/project/scenery and the textures in scenery/world/texture?

Yes, check the readme as well, it also says so .

 

[Shagster22]

ok, Ive followed the help file step by step and all makes sense. I have a VTP photo BGL, and i have 10 bmps because i selected 10 LOD13 squares. I have summer and alpha checked and specified. I put the bgl in addon scenery/project/scenery and the textures DXT3'ed in scenery/world/texture, just like i was told. I then started up FS and all loads well until the terrain loads, FS just closes without message/prompt while loading. Ive tried without alpha, and with various VTP layers, all to no avail. I tried a massive bmp in Sbuilder, and that didnt work, and i tried 1024x1024, didnt work as well. The summer and alpha textures are the same, except for alpha is 8 bit black and white. I dont understand why it isnt working!!

It should work, i did all of the steps. Am i not to DXT3 them? Doesnt work either. I also tried only summer and no alpha. doesnt work. Also, i dont know where the h*ll the alpha is, cause i cant find a trace of it anywhere in the first place. Im so f**king frustrated. Of all of the Scenery Design things ive been through, this is the biggest pain in the **s. Has anybody had this problem before? Argh!!!
help is MUCH appreciated!

 

[arno]

Hi,

I would not worry about the alpha channel at the moment. That is not your first problem, if could only result in your textures showing without transparancy. But usually that is problem.

When FS crash while loading your BGL is means the BGL file is probably correct. The crash can be the result of two problems:

1. The texture files are not in the correct folder
2. The textures do not have the correct format. For best results they must be DXT texture WITH mipmaps

 

[Shagster22]

ok, ill try it with mipmaps just now. I think that might be it. Must it be a specific DXT? is DXT3 fine? ill check other folders again for textures, but these are in the right place. Thanx arno, will try mipmaps now!

 

[Shagster22]

hmm, i tried mipmaps and it still doesnt work ! I honestly think it has something to do with the bgl, not the bmps, because the bmps are DXT3, mipmapped, and in the scenery/world/texture folder. I looked around and i think these setting might have something to do with it. Could you perhaps check your settings in this tab (and other which have something to do with VTP photo and see whether its different? I havent a clue whats wrong, but perhaps the settings are something. If you dont know how to help me, i could possibly give you the file im working on, i guess, but i need to know if thats neccesary. I appreciate your help a lot, and this FS crashing is really bugging me...

 

[arno]

Can you maybe send me your BGL file and textures? Then I will give it a try here (and include the SCA file made by SBuilder as well please).

 

[Shagster22]

Id prefer to tranfer over MSN, rather than have the files on the forum. Also, then i can talk to you directly if it works or not ! Will you be on later tonight (friday) or when will you/will you be on on saturday? thanx in advance!

 

[arno]

Hi,

That is fine. It is already saturday morning now, but I will probably be only this afternoon.