Like I said, the terrain is working great now.
Congratulations !
But I do have a little question about Global Mapper. It is possible to flatten terrain to a specific altitude and I know how to do it. The only thing I don't know is how to export it all to a GeoTIFF file. Everytime I open the terrain in TMFViewer there is no elevation details.. Can this be solved?
Thanks in advance.
Marcel
Regarding a workflow to create flattens in Global Mapper and getting a precise flatten in a FSX SDK resample BGL:
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First, I sent you (2) PMs to clarify something we previously discussed in relation to use of Global Mapper with the FS SDK.
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FYI: To the extent I have tested this thus far, it appears difficult to achieve precise and consistent flattens at an assigned elevation with terrain mesh output by resample, because it's internal "resampling algorithm" may implement interpolation, and thus appears to be biased by neighboring elevations of other nearby data points.
Although one might be able to achieve consistently flat areas within the central portion of a large flat area data set, as the data points approach other data points nearby at the periphery which have higher or lower altitude values, this begins to bias the precision of the data used for the flatten, and the resulting flatten elevation output to a terrain mesh BGL may begin to vary.
Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, when such discrete "terrain mesh flattens" built into a resample mesh BGL file are rendered in FS at run time, the FS terrain surface creation engine itself may also implement a form of "interpolation" when matching edges of terrain mesh tiles, and may begin to bias the elevations of what was originally intended to be a flatten at an assigned elevation, again leading to inconsistent results where terrain may begin to raise
or lower ...in order to meet up with nearby elevations of surrounding ground areas when triangulating a continuous "ground surface" on which to drape terrain textures.
IMHO it is better to implement terrain flattens via the FSX SDK using the
CVX vector type flatten BGL output by SHP2VEC so that within the area defined by a custom polygon, one will have a consistent flatten at an assigned elevation when the terrain is rendered at run time by the FS rendering engine.
NOTE: Even CVX vector type flatten BGLs output by SHP2VEC are subject to some of the same issues of render precision and aliasing issues like terrain mesh, because they too are implemented via the FS Quad Matrix Grid system.
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/flattens.425495/page-2
If I understand correctly from what you have posted thus far:
It appears that you are concerned about being able to create a "trough-shaped" ramp-type scenery object supported on vertical columns, over which either AI / Multi-Player or user piloted "wing in ground effect" aircraft will move at a pre-determined elevation above the surface of the ramp object.
I can see some point in attempting to eliminate extremes of elevation in high-detail terrain areas which might interrupt the course of a relatively flat surface ramp as it travels over the ground; but this is likely to be a problem only when crossing ravines / valleys / mountain peaks etc..
However, IMO, it would be impractical to attempt to make the "trough-shaped" ramp-type scenery object out of very small flattens of extruded FS terrain surface in areas where it is not supported on vertical columns, as this would incur 2 problems:
* Use of very high LOD terrain settings to increase FS Quad Matrix Grid quad 'vertex resolution' incurs a performance hit on the FS rendering engine
* Extruded terrain objects rendered at even very high-LOD terrain mesh settings in FS are always aliased to a grid, and will appear "
jagged" along all edges which are created
Thus to achieve precision shaped objects that do not have "jagged edges", one must create 3-D objects, rather than attempting to extrude (aka "Push-Pull") the terrain in FS.
Again, if I understand correctly what you are trying to achieve, it may be easier to implement such types of "trough-shaped" ramp-type scenery objects over the surface of the terrain in FS by creating and XML-placing either
"extruded" 3-D scenery objects, or MDL-based individual or scenery library packaged 3-D scenery objects via FSX SDK BGLComp.
Generally speaking, the latter type of 3-D scenery objects, when modeled as very large one-piece objects, must be broken into separate "pieces" or sub-objects ...every 100 Meters or so in order to align with the surface of the FSX "curved Earth world model" for terrain surfaces; this can be achieved automatically using
Arno's ModelConverterX.
If one were to 3-D model individual components for "trough-shaped" ramp-type scenery objects supported on vertical columns and place them along vector lines, one might have to individually adjust all the types being placed
and their individual elevations ...so that the edges would meet correctly to create a continuous support surface.
Such individual adjustments might be very time consuming to implement if one were to create such scenery objects over very large expanses of FS scenery, so it might be preferable instead to implement use of extruded scenery objects.
To ensure that such extruded objects follow the general "lay of the land", you might find it helpful to use a rather uniquely-capable FS scenery utility:
FenceBuilder Pro by Don Grovestine (aka "
gadgets" here at FSDeveloper forums).
If you look at the examples using extruded fence objects, you may find that FenceBuilder Pro might assist in reducing the work required when placing custom extruded ramp-type objects which follow the local terrain surface of the FS world.
Of particular note is the fact that when custom extrusion objects are set up correctly in FenceBuilder Pro, edges of such "extruded" 3-D objects can meet each other precisely on the vertical or "Z" axis of the flight Sim world
in addition to being aligned
parallel to the surface of the local terrain; this can dramatically reduce the amount of manual work required to align adjacent 3-D scenery objects precisely with each other.
http://stuff4fs.com/newpage.asp?Folder=FBP
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/resources/fencebuilder.98/
http://secure.simmarket.com/fsaddon-fencebuilder-pro.phtml
http://silvercloud-store.com/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=29783
http://silvercloud-store.com/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=29780
CAVEAT: AFAIK, in order for AI / Multi-Player or user piloted "wing in ground effect" aircraft to treat the surface of any 3-D object as a local "ground" surface and recognize its individual surface elevation
relative to the underlying FS terrain
without 'falling through to the ground', such 3-D objects must have a 'hardened, concrete-type' attribute assigned to them within a FS MDL file.
Alternatively, an invisible surface consisting of a
ex: "invisible" flat plane 3-D object MDL must be overlaid above "extruded" objects placed along the vector lines used to place the extruded objects themselves ...in order for AI / Multi-Player or user piloted "wing in ground effect" aircraft to treat the surface of any 3-D object as a local "ground" surface and recognize its individual surface elevation
relative to the underlying FS terrain
without 'falling through to the ground'
BTW: Such "hardened, concrete-type" surfaces (whether visible or not) are referred to as an attached "
Platform" in FS.
You may wish to research the issues related to enabling highway / ground vehicle / AI traffic and/or Multi-Player or user piloted aircraft to travel over raised taxiway or highway bridges discussed in various threads here at FSDeveloper.
I hope these ideas might prove helpful as you consider your options with your project.
GaryGB
, if you are using a properly structured GeoTIFF containing 
