Simviation Forum - How to 'flatten'

	Search the archive:

Simviation Main Site | Site Search | Upload Images

Simviation Forum › Current Flight Simulator Series › FS 2004 - A Century of Flight › How to 'flatten'

(Moderators: Mitch., Fly2e, ozzy72, beaky, Clipper, JBaymore, Bob70, BigTruck)

‹ Previous Topic | Next Topic ›

Pages: 1 2

Send Topic

Print

How to 'flatten' (Read 1511 times)

Jan 10^th, 2010 at 3:14am

patchz Offline
Colonel
What, me worry?
IN THE FUNNY PAPERS

Gender:
Posts: 10589

How do I 'flatten' an area? Ever since I added global mesh, Air Mountain Ranch has had a hill in the middle of the runway and some of the buildings are floating. Thanks.

Also, is there a way to 'repaint' buildings within a scenery package? I was able to remove T-Rex and the hulking white sign floating in midair from my Meigs scenery, but I would like to repaint the two hangars a more natural looking color instead of the glaring red and blue. They do not show up in the textures folder and I know nothing about .bgl files.

« Last Edit: Jan 10^th, 2010 at 4:21am by patchz »

If God intended aircraft engines to have horizontally opposed engines, Pratt and Whitney would have made them that way.

IP Logged

Reply #1 - Jan 10^th, 2010 at 7:10am

Crash Ex Member

There is a small program called FlattEx on this page. Maybe that can solve your problem?

Carlo Wink

Wink

IP Logged

Reply #2 - Jan 10^th, 2010 at 7:19am

patchz Offline
Colonel
What, me worry?
IN THE FUNNY PAPERS

Gender:
Posts: 10589

Quote:

There is a small program called FlattEx on this page. Maybe that can solve your problem?

Carlo Wink

Wink

Thanks Carlo, I'll try that.

If God intended aircraft engines to have horizontally opposed engines, Pratt and Whitney would have made them that way.

IP Logged

Reply #3 - Jan 10^th, 2010 at 11:06am

dave3cu Offline
Colonel
Procrastinate now, don't
put it off.
3CU, Northern Wisconsin, USA

Gender:
Posts: 3077

Quote:

Ever since I added global mesh, Air Mountain Ranch has had a hill......

Common when adding terrain mesh as fixed elevations (lakes, rivers, airports) do not automatically adjust to the new terrain.

Another option for 'flatten', is Steve Greenwoods FSTFlatten-http://home.earthlink.net/~smgreenwood/flatten.shtml-This method has the advantage of allowing irregular polygon shapes (FlattEx is limited to rectangles), and creation of a <flatten>.bgl, so no editing of the scenery.cfg file is necessary.

For the hanger textures...the author may have used hanger objects from an 'object library', (Rwy12, EZ-Scenery, etc.). In this case the textures would be in the object library's texture folder. Any changes to those textures would be global.

On the same page as Carlo's link for FlattEx you'll find BGLXML 1.8. This utility will decompile a scenery .bgl into it's .xml source. You can then view the .xml in notepad to identify the objects placed.

Dave

At that time [1909] the chief engineer was almost always the chief test pilot as well. That had the fortunate result of eliminating poor engineering early in aviation. Igor Sikorsky

I intend to live forever....so far, so good. Steven Wright

You know....you can just rip up a to-do list.

IP Logged

Reply #4 - Jan 10^th, 2010 at 12:11pm

patchz Offline
Colonel
What, me worry?
IN THE FUNNY PAPERS

Gender:
Posts: 10589

dave3cu wrote on Jan 10^th, 2010 at 11:06am:

Quote:

Ever since I added global mesh, Air Mountain Ranch has had a hill......

Common when adding terrain mesh as fixed elevations (lakes, rivers, airports) do not automatically adjust to the new terrain.

Another option for 'flatten', is Steve Greenwoods FSTFlatten-http://home.earthlink.net/~smgreenwood/flatten.shtml-This method has the advantage of allowing irregular polygon shapes (FlattEx is limited to rectangles), and creation of a <flatten>.bgl, so no editing of the scenery.cfg file is necessary.

For the hanger textures...the author may have used hanger objects from an 'object library', (Rwy12, EZ-Scenery, etc.). In this case the textures would be in the object library's texture folder. Any changes to those textures would be global.

On the same page as Carlo's link for FlattEx you'll find BGLXML 1.8. This utility will decompile a scenery .bgl into it's .xml source. You can then view the .xml in notepad to identify the objects placed.

Dave

Thanks Dave. After downloading FlattEx and looking at the readme, I did not install it, for several reasons. I think I would prefer the manual route, if I knew how.
As to the hangars, I don't think they are generic as I have not seen any that gaudy anywhere else. The scenery is Meigs and had a TRex as well, which I was able to get rid of, as well as the huge white rectangle floating in midair. The scenery looks good now except for those hangars. I have EZ Housez and Buildingz but it was installed a long time after Meigs, so the buildings must be within the scenery. Eventually I'll figure it out.

If God intended aircraft engines to have horizontally opposed engines, Pratt and Whitney would have made them that way.

IP Logged

Reply #5 - Jan 11^th, 2010 at 3:20am

patchz Offline
Colonel
What, me worry?
IN THE FUNNY PAPERS

Gender:
Posts: 10589

Can't get FSTFlatten to work. I can create the dots and connect them but when I click on 'Link Vertices' I get a No Data message. Guess my feeble brain is not capable of comprehending how to use the program. But it seems to me the instructions leave something to be desired. Undecided

Undecided

If God intended aircraft engines to have horizontally opposed engines, Pratt and Whitney would have made them that way.

IP Logged

Reply #6 - Jan 11^th, 2010 at 4:45am

Hagar Offline
Colonel
My Spitfire Girl
Costa Geriatrica

Posts: 33159

patchz wrote on Jan 11^th, 2010 at 3:20am:

Can't get FSTFlatten to work.

it seems to me the instructions leave something to be desired. Undecided

Undecided

Did you follow the instructions in readme-FSTflatten.doc? It's in the fstutilities\programs\FSTflatten folder. I just created a simple 4-point flatten area BGL using the Quick Start (Area16N method) & it works perfectly.

Founder & Sole Member - Grumpy's Over the Hill Club for Veteran Virtual Aviators
Member of the Fox Four Group

Need help? Try Grumpy's Lair

My photo gallery

IP Logged

Reply #7 - Jan 11^th, 2010 at 6:29am

Opa Offline
Colonel
Fly FS
Plano, Texas

Gender:
Posts: 634

Been using it for several years - couldn't be much easier to use if you follow the instructions.

But, as with most utilities, the first effort may seem daunting, but once you have made a few flattens, it is really a piece of cake.

David "Opa" Marshall

IP Logged

Reply #8 - Jan 11^th, 2010 at 10:12am

patchz Offline
Colonel
What, me worry?
IN THE FUNNY PAPERS

Gender:
Posts: 10589

Yes, I read the instructions. I don't what happened the first time, but I tried it again and got it to work. But I'm having trouble with the elevation. The map says 0, the aircraft on the runway says 3.6', and 11' on the ramp. I've redone it twice now and it still is not right. The runway is below ground level and when it loads, the only thing visible above ground is the top of the tail. I'm going to keep trying, but how do you handle a small GA field that is not completely level, i.e. runway one elevation, ramp another? Originally, the terrain sloped from the rear of the buildings on the ramp down to the water's edge, where there are cabins and a dock.

If God intended aircraft engines to have horizontally opposed engines, Pratt and Whitney would have made them that way.

IP Logged

Reply #9 - Jan 11^th, 2010 at 10:56am

JoBee Offline
Colonel
Better to give than receive.

Posts: 582

patchz wrote on Jan 11^th, 2010 at 10:12am:

The map says 0, the aircraft on the runway says 3.6', and 11' on the ramp. ... The runway is below ground level and when it loads, the only thing visible above ground is the top of the tail. ....how do you handle a small GA field that is not completely level, i.e. runway one elevation, ramp another?

The map will give you the ground elevation above seal level.

Shift+Z will give you the ground elevation+aircraft static height, which in the C172 is about 3.6 feet.

In FS9 ramps, runways, tec. all have to be on the same level for an Afcad to work. To have an airport with slope you cannot have an Afcad, which means you have to have custom ground textures for runways, etc.

For tasks such as placing scenery objects in slew mode, and creating flattens and excludes, the best tool is Rob Finnegan's Crosshairs Plus.

Check it out - http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?DLID=73331

To make it better add this panel mod by Jim Robinson- http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?DLID=108863

cheers,
Joe

Don't argue with idiots, they drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

IP Logged

Reply #10 - Jan 11^th, 2010 at 11:47am

Opa Offline
Colonel
Fly FS
Plano, Texas

Gender:
Posts: 634

Couldn't agree more - the combination of the Crosshairs with Jim's gauge gives precise elevation AND true headings (the mag variation is automatically calculated for you).

A "must have" to get correct readings easily.

David "Opa" Marshall

IP Logged

Reply #11 - Jan 11^th, 2010 at 4:23pm

patchz Offline
Colonel
What, me worry?
IN THE FUNNY PAPERS

Gender:
Posts: 10589

Thanks Joe. If you and Opa say it's good...
plus, they say the third times the charm. Roll Eyes

Roll Eyes

If God intended aircraft engines to have horizontally opposed engines, Pratt and Whitney would have made them that way.

IP Logged

Reply #12 - Jan 11^th, 2010 at 4:31pm

JoBee Offline
Colonel
Better to give than receive.

Posts: 582

patchz wrote on Jan 11^th, 2010 at 4:23pm:

Thanks Joe. If you and Opa say it's good...
plus, they say the third times the charm. Roll Eyes

Roll Eyes

Where do you think I learned about it?

......Opa.

cheers,
Joe

Don't argue with idiots, they drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

IP Logged

Reply #13 - Jan 11^th, 2010 at 9:47pm

Opa Offline
Colonel
Fly FS
Plano, Texas

Gender:
Posts: 634

RE: The FSTflatten program-

One of the often overlooked "shortcuts" is this:

The "elevation" box is expecting the numbers in meters - however you can enter them in feet and then double left click the box. The feet number you entered will automatically be converted to meters. Cool! Wink

Wink

David "Opa" Marshall

IP Logged

Reply #14 - Jan 12^th, 2010 at 11:09am

patchz Offline
Colonel
What, me worry?
IN THE FUNNY PAPERS

Gender:
Posts: 10589

Opa wrote on Jan 11^th, 2010 at 9:47pm:

RE: The FSTflatten program-

One of the often overlooked "shortcuts" is this:

The "elevation" box is expecting the numbers in meters - however you can enter them in feet and then double left click the box. The feet number you entered will automatically be converted to meters. Cool! Wink

Wink

Yes, I found that. I got Crosshairs and the gauge addon but have not tried it yet. Thanks guys.

Edited:

Finally got it. I had to go to an elevation of 0' to get it right. But now it looks like it did before the addition of the mesh. Thanks for all the help.

Now I have to learn how to exclude the trees in the middle of the runway. Grin

Grin

Patience for repainting aircraft is one thing. If this is any indication of scenery design, I'm not sure my feeble brain could take the strain. Cheesy

Cheesy

If God intended aircraft engines to have horizontally opposed engines, Pratt and Whitney would have made them that way.

IP Logged

Pages: 1 2

Send Topic

Print

‹ Previous Topic | Next Topic ›

Top of this page

Simviation Forum » Powered by YaBB 2.5 AE!
YaBB Forum Software © 2000-2010. All Rights Reserved.

Valid XHTML

Valid CSS

Powered by Perl

Source Forge