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I'm stuck... I almost have all of my roads completed, 3D object modeling is coming to a wrap here in the next couple weeks and now I'm ready to tackle the biggest hurdle of them all - reestablishing the pre-1980 elevation data. To that end, I've downloaded five 15-minute USGS quadrangle topographic maps of my scenery package's coverage area and these topographic maps have an 80-foot contour interval. That roughly equates to a 30-meter mesh resolution. These topographic maps, while done in the 1950s, remain to date the most accurate and highest quality representation of the pre-eruption elevation data in existence of the area.
However, attempts to find a reasonable source for help on creating the DEM from this contour data are falling flat. In light of that, I've loaded the topographic maps into SBuilder, calibrated their XY coordinates for the NW and SE corners, and began experimenting. In the documentation I have read, FSX has support for sloping ground polygons, and it seems as though SBuilder has support for creating them.
Two nights ago, I set out on a test to create a sloping ground polygon matching that of the contours in the Spirit Lake topographic map, in a small area near a cabin I've placed in the sim close to the Spirit Lake Lodge a mile west of Spirit Lake itself (this lodge was not the one owned by Harry Truman).
The purpose of this test is twofold:
1.) To see if I can override the terrain mesh in use in the area (ORBX Sceneries), and,
2.) to see if I can override a AB flatten I've placed under the cabin so as to have the terrain near the cabin show as it did based on reference photos of the actual cabin sent to me by a family member of the former cabin's owner.
To create the sloping polygon, I created a polygon with roughly twenty control points. All of the control points on the north and east side of the polygon were set at 3,200 feet (975.36 meters). Those control points on the south side of the polygon, and the two directly opposite the east side control points were set at an altitude of 3,120 feet, or 950.976 meters. A BGL was then attempted, at which point an error message was shown saying it cannot compile the *.SHP file. However, the BGL did get compiled with the file name CVX_MSH_PRE_1980_Test_Slope.BGL.
To see if it worked, I then checked off the check box in the compile BGL dialog in SBX to automatically load FSX upon completion of BGL compiling. After loading the new scenery database, a test flight was initiated from a test heliport I have worked out in the sim in the parking area of Harry Truman's lodge. After flying a mile and a half west, I noticed the slope did not appear.
Was this polygon outside the limitations of SBX and FSX, or what can I do to make this, and thus subsequent polygons, work in FSX?
Attached in this post, is a screenshot showing the exact polygon in question.
However, attempts to find a reasonable source for help on creating the DEM from this contour data are falling flat. In light of that, I've loaded the topographic maps into SBuilder, calibrated their XY coordinates for the NW and SE corners, and began experimenting. In the documentation I have read, FSX has support for sloping ground polygons, and it seems as though SBuilder has support for creating them.
Two nights ago, I set out on a test to create a sloping ground polygon matching that of the contours in the Spirit Lake topographic map, in a small area near a cabin I've placed in the sim close to the Spirit Lake Lodge a mile west of Spirit Lake itself (this lodge was not the one owned by Harry Truman).
The purpose of this test is twofold:
1.) To see if I can override the terrain mesh in use in the area (ORBX Sceneries), and,
2.) to see if I can override a AB flatten I've placed under the cabin so as to have the terrain near the cabin show as it did based on reference photos of the actual cabin sent to me by a family member of the former cabin's owner.
To create the sloping polygon, I created a polygon with roughly twenty control points. All of the control points on the north and east side of the polygon were set at 3,200 feet (975.36 meters). Those control points on the south side of the polygon, and the two directly opposite the east side control points were set at an altitude of 3,120 feet, or 950.976 meters. A BGL was then attempted, at which point an error message was shown saying it cannot compile the *.SHP file. However, the BGL did get compiled with the file name CVX_MSH_PRE_1980_Test_Slope.BGL.
To see if it worked, I then checked off the check box in the compile BGL dialog in SBX to automatically load FSX upon completion of BGL compiling. After loading the new scenery database, a test flight was initiated from a test heliport I have worked out in the sim in the parking area of Harry Truman's lodge. After flying a mile and a half west, I noticed the slope did not appear.
Was this polygon outside the limitations of SBX and FSX, or what can I do to make this, and thus subsequent polygons, work in FSX?
Attached in this post, is a screenshot showing the exact polygon in question.
