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P3D v4 Terrain help
- Thread starter bobdee
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A very interesting thread - some philosophical thoughts when it comes to these type of design issues.
Airports like this can grow as one tries to get the surrounding area to blend in nicely. I once started to do a Norfolk Int'l (KORF) and a few weeks later found myself modeling the coastline from Whiliby Spit to the Dam Neck area of Virginia beach…I think the Great Dismal Swamp got added at one point.
ADE's ability to reform aircraft boundaries, as was only possible in SBuilderX, is a nice feature that I use when I don't have difficult surrounding terrain issues.
If I am looking at developing much more area than the airfield, or if I think it is going to be a bit difficult blending in the airfield with some undulation terrain, I start with SBuilderX, develop the surrounding landscape. I then get rid of all existing airport boundaries (exclude poly) and set the airfield Flatten and noAutoGen-depending on the airfield and surrounding land class, possibly Class Map in SbuilderX. I try to make the flatten as close the runways, taxi ways, aprons and hangars as possible.
At that point I compile and take a look to see how well the flattened airfield blends in with the surrounding terrain, specifically the runway ends - too low creating a "canyon effect" or too high creating a plateau and check to see how realistic that actually is. (I did a couple of airfields in Iceland that are practically carved out of the bedrock so the steep slope on one side of the airfield was actually accurate.)
It is here that you go back to SBuilderX and using Flatten poly with sloping function (mentioned above, or just "eyeball the slope" and assign point evaluations manually) blend the airfield elevation into the rest of the surrounding terrain. Also this is where you can add terrain undulations within the overall airfield - for example if the tower is set on a hill you can add the hill if it is not already there.
What this does is ensure that everything inside the airport boundaries are at "ground level" (with the exception of extended runway centerline lights…but that's OK) Everything outside the airport is blended into the terrain.
Then I use ADE to do the airport detail.
There is some "overlap" with this design philosophy. For example I find it easier add some vegetation inside the airfield boundaries using SBuilderX …the same sometimes with generic buildings. Likewise, with the ADE perspective of the airfield, I sometimes set library objects (hazards and such) outside the airport binderies with ADE.
Airports like this can grow as one tries to get the surrounding area to blend in nicely. I once started to do a Norfolk Int'l (KORF) and a few weeks later found myself modeling the coastline from Whiliby Spit to the Dam Neck area of Virginia beach…I think the Great Dismal Swamp got added at one point.
ADE's ability to reform aircraft boundaries, as was only possible in SBuilderX, is a nice feature that I use when I don't have difficult surrounding terrain issues.
If I am looking at developing much more area than the airfield, or if I think it is going to be a bit difficult blending in the airfield with some undulation terrain, I start with SBuilderX, develop the surrounding landscape. I then get rid of all existing airport boundaries (exclude poly) and set the airfield Flatten and noAutoGen-depending on the airfield and surrounding land class, possibly Class Map in SbuilderX. I try to make the flatten as close the runways, taxi ways, aprons and hangars as possible.
At that point I compile and take a look to see how well the flattened airfield blends in with the surrounding terrain, specifically the runway ends - too low creating a "canyon effect" or too high creating a plateau and check to see how realistic that actually is. (I did a couple of airfields in Iceland that are practically carved out of the bedrock so the steep slope on one side of the airfield was actually accurate.)
It is here that you go back to SBuilderX and using Flatten poly with sloping function (mentioned above, or just "eyeball the slope" and assign point evaluations manually) blend the airfield elevation into the rest of the surrounding terrain. Also this is where you can add terrain undulations within the overall airfield - for example if the tower is set on a hill you can add the hill if it is not already there.
What this does is ensure that everything inside the airport boundaries are at "ground level" (with the exception of extended runway centerline lights…but that's OK) Everything outside the airport is blended into the terrain.
Then I use ADE to do the airport detail.
There is some "overlap" with this design philosophy. For example I find it easier add some vegetation inside the airfield boundaries using SBuilderX …the same sometimes with generic buildings. Likewise, with the ADE perspective of the airfield, I sometimes set library objects (hazards and such) outside the airport binderies with ADE.
Again, no problem, Bob.
Perhaps when one of the (apparently very few !
) P3Dv4 users here at FS Developer have the time and interest to assist in adding to the knowledge base on how P3Dv4 renders the type of source date set used for terrain scenery content in Scott Peterson's KIFP_v2 cited above, we might then get more of the required information I asked above ...on how best to implement a fix for the anomaly you reported in the OP.FS forum participation tends to improve here by the 2nd or 3rd week of November, so check back later to see if a community consensus has been achieved that would help make this add-on package more compatible with P3Dv4.
Happy Flying in your VR cockpit !
GaryGB