Does anyone know how to make the ground smooth in XML format? I've got all of the coordinates for the ground polys (aprons & taxiways), I just need to figure out how to get it into XML code to generate the smooth surfaces. I couldn't seem to find any other threads dealing with this problem.
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Smooth surface?
- Thread starter B757
- Start date
Hi Lance,
Thanks for the tips.
It's not the ground being flat what the problem is, the aircraft doesn't roll smooth on it, and the dust comes up behind it. Basically, I just need to change the surface type for a specific area. Can you use .shp files for that also?
Allan
Thanks for the tips.
It's not the ground being flat what the problem is, the aircraft doesn't roll smooth on it, and the dust comes up behind it. Basically, I just need to change the surface type for a specific area. Can you use .shp files for that also?Allan
Any terrain mesh is rarely going to be perfectly smooth. You could make a custom mesh for the area that is flat, but even then I think you'd get bounces with aircraft taxiing across.
But you could use what I call a "transparent flatten". There is one type of shp2vec style flatten that does not display a poly, and does not mask the autogen. All it does is flatten to the elevation you specify.
I don't know the GUID, but in FSX_KML it is tagged as:
Airport_Backgrounds_Flatten
or
Airport_Backgrounds_Flatten_ExcludeAutogen
...if you want the autogen excluded out.
I use FSX_KML for such things.
And to not get dust...I think even the green grass flatten polys kick up the dirt. There are other polys, like Cement, that may not kick up the dust but I have not experimented with that particular property at all.
But you could use what I call a "transparent flatten". There is one type of shp2vec style flatten that does not display a poly, and does not mask the autogen. All it does is flatten to the elevation you specify.
I don't know the GUID, but in FSX_KML it is tagged as:
Airport_Backgrounds_Flatten
or
Airport_Backgrounds_Flatten_ExcludeAutogen
...if you want the autogen excluded out.
I use FSX_KML for such things.
And to not get dust...I think even the green grass flatten polys kick up the dirt. There are other polys, like Cement, that may not kick up the dust but I have not experimented with that particular property at all.
I think you're misunderstanding what I need to accomplish here. Currently, the ground is 'flat', I don't need to flatten it anymore. The problem which remains is, it's not 'smooth' like the default aprons and taxiways; dust comes up behind the aircraft, and is extremely bumpy like taxiing in the grass on the default airports. Basically, I need to change the property of the specified areas for my ground polys to match that of the default aprons/taxiways. I need to change the 'surface' from grass to concrete, not the landclass.
Allan
Allan
Last edited:
As I stated:
"And to not get dust...I think even the green grass flatten polys kick up the dirt. There are other polys, like Cement, that may not kick up the dust but I have not experimented with that particular property at all."
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What I was getting at was to experiment with the various GUID'ed shp2vec polys to see if any of them won't kick up the dust and will be perfectly smooth.
The best way I know to do that, is to use FSX_KML to test each GUID'ed polys in succession.
You can use the tag, LandclassPoly_Cement for a polygon for example, and then taxi your a/c across it, and see if it is bumpy and kicks up the dirt/dust.
Another side of this issue is with custom ground textures in FSX. In FS2004, you could put down a photo polygon, which would cover up the default runways, taxiways etc, but still define the surface underneath in AFCAD2 or similar. In FSX, the 'official' method (you can see what a FSX-compliant airport would look like if you have Acceleration -- take a look at Edwards AFB) entails putting default runways, taxiways and tarmacs on top of a 'resampled' high resolution image. It would be nice if we could define the surface underneath the image as the actual surface without putting a big ugly default poly on top.
I think I'll end up with a combination of old and new -- using a high resolution background image ala Resample, then FSX-style facilities on top, then old FS2002-style ground polys to cover the default bits. Not elegant, but should work until FS11. We have until then to convince MS to give us a way to easily place custom runway etc textures.
I think I'll end up with a combination of old and new -- using a high resolution background image ala Resample, then FSX-style facilities on top, then old FS2002-style ground polys to cover the default bits. Not elegant, but should work until FS11. We have until then to convince MS to give us a way to easily place custom runway etc textures.
Yeah, but now I'm faced with another challenge... LOL! My ground polys aren't rotated to the correct heading. I put another post up in the Gmax forum concerning it, but haven't got an answer about that yet.
That's exactly I'm trying to do is, harden the surface beneath my ground polys.
Allan
That's what I thought, but I wasn't too certain. It seems what I may have to do is, define the surface in AFCAD, then place my ground polys on top of those. It's not difficult to do. I'm able to calculate the exact lat/lon per vertex so it will be a carbon copy of my ground polys. Just may take a while.
Allan
I thought that's what you were saying in the first post.
You need to do what I said in Post #4 in this thread.
You need to use FSX_KML or SBuilderX to do harden underneath your custom ground polys.
Essentially you are making ADDITIONAL Shp2Vec polys, that have the hardness, that will lie underneath your custom polys.
In FSX_KML the proper tag to use is Airport_Backgrounds_Flatten_Exclude_AutoGen
..
That's all there is to it.