• 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.
    • Questions about aircraft design can be posted in the Aircraft design forum
    • 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.

Terrain Sculptor

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gadgets

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I have just completed development of Terrain Sculptor, a new utility to create realistic terrain profiles around and on your airports and elsewhere. While this function can already be performed by sBuilder, sBuilderX and ADE, they require that all sloped polys/triangles be specified individually and that you manually determine the elevation where your work is to blend with the existing mesh and specify the blending triangles. Terrain Sculptor, on the other hand, uses individual points to specify terrain elevation and will automatically generate the triangles needed to blend your terrain with the existing mesh.

While Terrain Sculptor is not yet ready for general use, all its intended functions save for ADE import/export (which Jon and I are working on) and compile to FS9 (which I'm now working on)are complete. Import from/export to sBuilder and sBuilderX (.sbx format) are fully operational as is output directly to FSX/P3D. Output to FS9 can be accomplished by exporting to sBuilder and using it to compile. Once the ADE interface is implemented, Terrain Sculptor will inherently provide for a "one-stop" import/export between ADE and sBuilder/sBuilderX.

It's time for some user feedback. To that end, I would appreciate a few of the more experienced among you downloading the latest Development Release from my website http://stuff4fs.com, giving it a "test drive" and reporting your concerns, suggestions and comments on the user interface back to me at don at stuff4fs dot com (so we don't clutter Jon's forum). The user manual is on-line at the website if you want to learn more about Terrain Sculptor first.

While I have done a considerable amount of testing, your use is likely to present situations I have not envisaged. So, please don't be surprised (or disappointed) if you experience the odd "exception". Should that happen, please report it to me ASAP - including the details of the exception report - and I'll do my best to fix it on a priority bases. Automatic update is functional, so you'll be apprised of any new development releases I make each time you run Terrain Sculptor.

Please, while the inexperienced among you are welcome to use Terrain Sculptor and I'm happy to receive your "it would be better if ..." comments, please do not ask me for support prior to general release.

Don
 
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gadgets

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As can be seen, the response to my earlier post was positively underwhelming. Nonetheless, I have continued development.

Earlier today I released Version 0.1.00 beta. Anyone who downloaded the initial version will be updated automatically. Other interested users should download the Development Release from my website http://stuff4fs.com. A substantially expanded user manual is included.

This new beta version includes all intended features except for the interface with ADE. Jon's been hung up on other matters lately, but I hope we'll have it shortly. However, those of you who developed their flattens with sBuilder/sBuilderX can import those flattens into Terrain Sculptor - which now includes both FS9 LWM and FSX CVX compilers with automatic QMV "clipping". Even if you have used ADE to create your FSX flatten, unless it's very complex, re-specifying it in Terrain Sculptor shouldn't take more than a few minutes.

Terrain Sculptor should be a boon to some of you who have reported terrain problems over the past week or so or who have concerns with the level of effort required to integrate your flattens with surrounding mesh.

For the time being, at least, I'm going to use the AFLT (Airfield Lights Toolbox) forum for Terrain Sculptor support so as not to clutter up this forum.

Please give Terrain Sculptor at try.

Don
 
n4gix

n4gix

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Don it sounds like you've developed a very powerful tool, and I'm sure that there are scenery developers who'll take to it as soon as they learn of it. Have you 'promoted it' at all elsewhere?
 
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gadgets

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Don it sounds like you've developed a very powerful tool
Click to expand...
It's got the potential to save a lot of time if somebody wants to do more than add a simple flatten. I sure wish I'd had it when I was doing airports!

It is intended to be a small-area tool, so exposing it in the ADE forum seemed like "a natural". But other than memory, there's nothing in the design that would prevent it from handling larger areas. Given that the beta is but a few hours old, I don't want too much exposure until I get some feedback. Where else would you suggest I promote it, Bill - now or later.

Don
 
Andrew

Andrew

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Don,

For me, this is great news. Since we started using 10m freeware mesh for Norway more than a year ago, I have been fuming over a mesh that I sometimes state doesn't fit to the simulator airports anymore, because of those ugly slopes you get. Not wanting to put in a zillion slopes manually, in the start, I just said "we have to live with this for a while" - regarding the "new look" of my 33 airports, where all of them have a complicated mesh. Lately I have been swearing and tearing my hair off, doing manual labour for the "worst" looking airports.

So rest assured I'll give this a try.
 
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gadgets

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Andrew, just so it doesn't "fall through the cracks", since Flightsim airports must be flat and real airports aren't, the chosen elevation for an airport has more to do with the elevation of the surrounding mesh than with the actual elevation at any point on the RL airport. If the current mesh differs significantly from the old mesh for which the airport was designed, you may have to also change the ARP elevation to get satisfactory results. Terrain Sculptor will take care of the blending. But, if the new mesh is generally higher or lower, your airport will still be in a valley or on a hill, respectively, unless you also change its elevation.

Don
 
n4gix

n4gix

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gadgets said:
Where else would you suggest I promote it, Bill - now or later.
Click to expand...
Avsim.com, Flightsim.com, and SOH all have dedicated forums for scenery developers, so those would be good candidates for at least a "heads up" post.
 
tgibson

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Sounds like a great tool, Don. If I run into this problem I will try it out. But I use default mesh and default airport heights, so that is a rare problem for me.
 
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gadgets

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Thanks, Bill. If after a few days, I start getting good results from this group - or no results - I'll open it up to a wider audience. But, for the moment, I want to limit exposure to keep the support effort under control.

Tom, if you primarily use FS9, the stock mesh has limited features and blending is not often an issue. However, Terrain Sculptor is primarily aimed at realism. If there are hillocks, small depressions or ponds within the main flatten Terrain Sculptor can also add such features. (But, don't use the current release for such features; I've just discovered a bug that will be fixed in 0.1.03 - hopefully later today.)

I'd also welcome feedback from experienced users about the concepts used in/scope of the project and their suggestions about useability.

Don
 
Lane Street

Lane Street

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gadgets said:
...hillocks, small depressions or ponds within the main flatten Terrain Sculptor can also add such features.
Click to expand...
:yikes::yikes::yikes:
This tool can create depressions in the airport flatten?

To the extent of being able to create tunnels under runways/taxiways without "cutting holes" in the airport flatten?

If so, :wizard::santahat::santahat::santahat::wizard:

cheers,
Lane
 
Andrew

Andrew

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gadgets said:
Andrew, just so it doesn't "fall through the cracks", since Flightsim airports must be flat and real airports aren't, the chosen elevation for an airport has more to do with the elevation of the surrounding mesh than with the actual elevation at any point on the RL airport. If the current mesh differs significantly from the old mesh for which the airport was designed, you may have to also change the ARP elevation to get satisfactory results. Terrain Sculptor will take care of the blending. But, if the new mesh is generally higher or lower, your airport will still be in a valley or on a hill, respectively, unless you also change its elevation.

Don
Click to expand...

Don,

Setting a new airport altitude is exactly what I have been doing more and more - since the 10m mesh came into play. Twelwe of my 33 airports now have a lower altitude. Since one of the thresholds always will have an incorrect altitude anyway, I adjust the altitude to best fit the mesh. And often to avoid stretched slopes at airports near water. Then I set the main flatten the same, and start the tedious job with sloped polygons. The results are often quite rewarding, and indeed adds realism.
 
G

gadgets

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This tool can create depressions in the airport flatten?
Click to expand...
It certainly should be able to in FS9 once I fixed the bug I discovered a short while ago. As for FSX and P3D, it should also be able to - but I haven't yet tried that. My goal is that it will be able to do that for both. The only "wrinkle" I'm aware of is that ponds may have to be covered by a ground poly in order to display water, but other depressions or hills shouldn't present a problem.

Don
 
T

toprob

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I don't know how I missed this, I know there's been a lot of discussion about the need for something like this, and I was certainly looking forward to it. Downloaded, and I'll check it out as soon as I can.
 
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gadgets

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I've just uploaded Version 0.1.02. It will be automatically detected by earlier versions.

Version 0.1.02 fixes the problem with holes in FS9 flattens, which now appear to work. Unfortunately, it seems I've still got so work to do to successfully make holes in FSX flattens. It will be done ASAP.

Don
 
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gadgets

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I'm happy to report that I can now dig holes or make hills in both FS9 and FSX flattens. I've got a little cleanup work to do in the morning, but you should have it sometime tomorrow.

BTW, in Version 0.1.02, I forgot to remove the loading of test data when TS starts. SO, if you are getting strange data when you start up, that's the reason. Just ignore it. Tomorrows version will be "cleaner".

Don
 
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gadgets

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I've just posted Version 0.1.03. On my system, at least, I can dig holes and create mounds on flattens for both FS9 and FSX.

You'll still get a couple of unnecessary queries, like "Do you want to sculpt this hole?" when it's obvious that's what you want to do, but removing them would have further delayed this release. They'll be gone in the next release.

Also, I haven't yet provided for recursive flattens, i.e., flattens in holes in flattens in holes in flattens ... but I see no reason why that wouldn't work.

Don
 
2wheelsup

2wheelsup

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Just found this thread and this sounds just what I have been looking for. Downloading now...

Thanks,
Alan

UPDATE:
I downloaded and started TS. Using the "starting from scratch" section I can start my new flatten. I get the first red node at the cursor. With "hot cursor" checked I left click. The original node turns green, but I get NO other node appearing nor do I get any green line.
I then tried the not-hot-cursor method and it still won't give me any nodes except the first one. I don,t have the "Place flatten node at cursor position" selection on my context menu.
I get these available selections:
1. Add new sculpt node at cursor
2. Start new flatten
3. Start the Blend poly
All other selections are greyed out. I can't select them.

Also I tried importing the sample SBX file and it won't import anything.

I am using Win 7, FSX Acceleration and the latest TS development release.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks,
Alan
 
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gadgets

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Oops! Something broke. (confirmed) If anyone has downloaded Version 0.1.04 in the last few minutes, it will exhibit the same problem.

0.1.05 coming up.

Don
 
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gadgets

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I spoke too soon. The only thing wrong is the user manual. The hot cursor is not enabled immediately after placing the initial flatten node - which is why you got the "add sculpt node" message. To invoke the hot-cursor you must first place a node (other than the starting node) with a right-click.

I'll either fix the user manual or change the operation in the next release.

Don

EDIT: Incidentally, you can always tell when the hot-cursor is active; the cursor changes from an arrow to a bold cross.
 
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