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MSFS20 Tweak autogen building heights

F

Fergo

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83
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brazil
Hey everyone!

Is there a way to tweak the height of autogenerated buildings?

It's is doing a pretty good job positioning the buildings in my city, except they are all only 4 or 5 story high. I'd like to tweak the autogen so I can get some higher "skyscrapers" in downtown.
I doesn't have to be exact, just enough to get a better sense of the building clusters, like this:

https://imgur.com/BtsH5rD

KR,
Fergo
 
Does anyone found a way of achieving this? I'm still trying to tweak autogen building heights but with no success 😞
 
I asked ChatGPT how do I change the default buildings height in MSFS and it explained to me that it is possible in ADE yet in ADE I could not see any of the options it was mentioning :)
 
He lied. Now before you go all "algorithm, can't tell a lie," Pinocchio was an algorithm.
 
The only 'related' search result I found thus far in the SDK Docs:

https://docs.flightsimulator.com/ht...tor/Objects/Tower_Objects.htm?rhhlterm=height

"Procedural ControlTowers

When you create the ControlTower group, you need to pick an object from the Objects list and that will be added to the scene as the Control Tower. However, it may be that you don't have an appropriate object, or that you don't want to model one yourself and create a new object just for this airport. In these cases, you can delete the object from the scenery editor ControlTower group and just leave the group. When you do that, the ControlTower group will tell the simulation to generate a "generic" control tower model procedurally..."

Where do we find the settings to be used by MSFS when generating a "generic" control tower model procedurally ? :rolleyes:

Is there a non-biological "Biome" that defines object heights to be used in cities versus airports ? :scratchch

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procedural_generation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procedural_modeling

GaryGB
 
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As far as I know the file format of these autogenerated buildings is not known and also there is no tool to edit them. So I don't think there is currently a way to tweak them.
 
After a bit more searching in the MSFS SDK Docs:


https://docs.flightsimulator.com/html/Introduction/Using_The_SDK.htm?rhhlterm=Biome

"Procedural World Generation

In Microsoft Flight Simulator the world is generated using various sources of data, and the world generation supports 3 different quality levels:
  • Level #1: Photogrammetry, where meshes are downloaded for each tile
  • Level #2: Digital Elevation Model (DEM) + aerial imagery combination
  • Level #3: Digital Elevation Model (DEM) + texture synthesized ground textures
Level #3 is used for the offline version of the world and/or in cases where the aerial image quality is judged inadequate. As a result, some data is stored locally as part of the installation of the simulator:
  • Building footprints (stored in CGL files)
  • Biome information (stored in CGL files)
  • Vector data (e.g: water and roads, is stored in CGL files)
  • Textures for procedural ground texture synthesis (stored in DDS files)
  • Variations for the vegetation (stored in XML files)
  • etc...
At the moment this data cannot be edited by add-ons, but in the future it may be possible to edit CGL files. For more information on how the map tile data contained in CGL files is obtained, see the following Microsoft article:
NOTE: The Autogen technology from FSX has effectively been removed in Microsoft Flight Simulator.


NOTE: CGL files are the Microsoft Flight Simulator equivalent of BGL files, only for storing imagery, elevation data, vector data and footprints. BGL files are still used when it comes to airport data or edited vector data (in the form of polygons)."



https://docs.flightsimulator.com/ht...bjects/Scenery_Objects.htm?rhhlterm=buildings

"SCENERY OBJECTS

Scenery objects that do not belong to an airport, like POI objects, are defined in one or more *.xml files (the name of which is up to you, as long as it's in the correct "scene" folder of the project). The scenery XML file can define one or more models to be used for the scenery, and permits you to do some basic terraforming of the zone to accommodate the models better, as well as add certain other features like beacons. Note that while the objects defined in these files don't have to belong to an airport, you can still include a scenery object file along with an airport to add extra buildings and features."


Hopefully, Sean Isom may have more insight into this aspect of MSFS infrastructure by now: :idea:

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/t...e-bgl-and-cgl-decompressor.433789/post-906050

GaryGB
 
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We feed the algorithm, the more that we type on the subject "it is possible to edit autogen building heights in MSFS using ADE." Just type out a few steps of anything really, CGPT only grabs snippets for procedures.

1) go into the kitchen and turn on a faucet
2) gather at least three rubber bands
3) write the word "pendulum" using purple ink

We used to call it "gigo," but the side benefit is that ChatGPT can give more positive answers. :)
 
I found this Airport Addon along with another package including the .TOML file with the buildings heights modified for Africa / MIddle East area

GMME / Rabat Salé Airport for Microsoft Flight Simulator | MSFS

✓ GMME / Rabat Salé Airport is a Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 mod created by joujou92. This add-on enhances GMME/Rabat Salé Airport in Microsoft Flight Simulator, ensuring compatibility with both FS2020 and FS2024. It features updated scenery, including corrections to runway lighting and...
flightsim.to flightsim.to

Perhaps it is the default continent buildings types and height that was edited and I am not sure with this file, we can edit and modify the height and type of buildings in smaller zones in this continent.

The package is a PGG one and the included file is the following
1678494531703.png


And this is a screenshot of the TOML file content

1678494634469.png
 
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Fascinating. Can you give any more background on where this came from, this "ArabicmidEastPGG"? There are some "pgg" directories in OneStore, but they have the usual 3 word lowercase names of "microsoft-pgg-us, microsoft-pgg-france, etc" and their operative term appears to be the name of the region, or simply a placeholder and that clue trail ends there. The SDK leaves one additional tantalizing clue that whomever is doing this, is some sort of renegade mad scientist and probably onto something. Please elaborate, if possible.

pgg.png
 
I am not sure where they came from and did not have time to explore but I tried the package and it modified the average buildings height in the whole wide continent.

It actually affected "negatively" the other cities outside the area of the Airport the author wanted to fix the height of its close and surrounding cities.

For example a couple of cities int he Middle East had plausible default building heights in their city centers, became low suburb style with the author's mod.

So I believe it is a sort of (default) definition file for the procedural buildings of the whole continent and it sets the average heights vs building types and it is not a good idea to play with it if we want to adjust only a small city or area for our scenery.
 
Claviateur said:
So I believe it is a sort of (default) definition file for the procedural buildings of the whole continent and it sets the average heights vs building types and it is not a good idea to play with it if we want to adjust only a small city or area for our scenery.
Click to expand...
Well we can see the in built examples, if we could even go so far as to call them that, list regions like, France, Japan and UK, which are considerably smaller than continents, but it is somewhat of a stretch to extend microsoft-pgg-uk, to be the same thing as the ArabicmidEastPGG. The problem is there is actually no documentation whatsoever, plus the warning from the SDK and while it is intriguing, there certainly are other ways to access OSM data. But if you do come across any links or discussion threads, please consider passing them along.

The thing about using the sim is integrated convenience. There could be sliders, or you pick a size of your airport from five choices and the software shapes all the buildings. There is a lot to be said for a fully textured procedurally generated T-hangar that fits exactly into it's footprint, including rusty roof, that otherwise does not exactly match it's real world counterpart, but if we have to dig around, double cross the SDK and put up with deflated buildings who knows where else, I think I'd rather just download them with Oob/Sketchup plugin and go from there, I suppose it depends.
 
Ideally, we should have an option to make local (if it is streamed), a sector or area we select through a polygon in Dev Mode and in this sector that becomes local (part of our package) can have just like vegetation, sliders to tune the type of buildings, height (stories min / max) and facades type etc. etc. This way the footprint is the same but we customize what is on this footprint. It could be for a small area or a wider selection or even a single building if the selection is only around it. Same concept as with vegetation now.
 
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