Landclass Editing in FS9

[connieguy]

Tom

As the new OEDR sticks out like a sore thumb in the surrounding landclass I have used your excellent tutorial on LWMViewer2 to alter the surrounding class to bare desert. Although I think we may need to darken the textures used as the airport background or abandon them altogether, putting bare desert round the airport has improved things, especially when seen at low level just after take-off. However the H shape which is connected with the much larger default airport is still there. Is there any reasonably straightforward way of getting rid of it please?

Ken

[Tom/CalClassic]

You would need to use SBuilder or Ground2K4 to exclude the default polygons in that/those rectangle(s). At the same time you could use the same program to create a new airport polygon using land class textures, which will match much better with your new terrain. AFCAD/ADE polygons simply cannot compare.

[connieguy]

Many thanks, Tom. I will look into SBuilder.

[connieguy]

I simply cannot get S-Builder to compile on my Windows 10 system, though Al Von Pingel has it working on his. I have downloaded the FS9 version of Ground2K4 from Avsim. Are there tutorials anywhere please?

[Tom/CalClassic]

There is a tutorial for Ground2K2 which is completely useful for Ground2K4 except that there are no longer any VTP1 polygons. Very useful. After reading that for general concepts, here are my instructions:


1. Go into FS2004 and press the Y key to go into slew mode. Press Ctrl-S to get into top down view. Zoom out and slew around until you have the entire area you want to work on on the screen.

2. Press the Space bar to orient your plane due north (important!!)

3. Press Alt-PrintScreen to take the image. Paste into your favorite paint program and save as a BMP image. I save it in the Ground2K4/Resource folder; for the name I use the ICAO code for the airport.

4. Go back to FS2004 and find two clear objects on the screen, one in the upper left corner and one in the lower right corner. I use the corners of buildings, shorelines, road junctions, etc. Anything that will be easy to put your mouse cursor on reliably.

5. Slew the red cross of your plane onto each of these points, and write down the Lat and Long values (press Shift Z a few times until it's visible on the screen if necessary). For a better method see step 5a/6a.

6. You need to convert these values to decimal degrees. We'll use a location of N37 25.87 W120 44.67 as an example of what to do next. Take the 25.87 and divide by 60 (gives 0.431167). Then add it to the degrees, giving 37.431167. North is positive, South is negative. The other value becomes -120.7445. East is positive, West is negative.

5a/6a. As a better alternative to steps 5 and 6, you can instead use AFCAD or ADE to get the lat long values, and to higher number of decimals, which will help the accuracy. Open either one, put them into decimal degrees mode, and then move your mouse on top of the red cross of your plane. Read the lat/lon values on the screen.

7. Start Ground2K4 and Press the New button. Double click the top box, enter a name for your project in the resulting File Name box, click Open, and press the Next button. I use the ICAO code for the airport.

8. Double click the Map box, and browse to your new BMP image. Click the middle button below that.

9. Press the NW button, and click the mouse in the picture onto the same location you got the Lat and Long for in FS (upper left corner). A small red cross will appear.

10. Enter the decimal degrees values you calculated for lat and long in step 6 or 6a for this point. Click the other box to see the value converted back to DDD MM SS.SSS format below it. It should agree with your original values (after converting the seconds to minutes by dividing by 60 and adding them to the minutes, then doing the same thing with the minutes to degrees).

11. Press the SW button. Repeat steps 9 and 10 for the lower right location. Click OK.

12. Press the Next button. Double click the bgl name box, browse to where you want to save the file (I use the main Ground2K4 folder), and give it a name. I use the airport plus _background (i.e. klax_background).

13. Do the same for the Exclusion file name. You must fill this in, even if you do not use it. I use the bgl name plus an x (xklax_background).

14. Double click the two boxes below that and accept the default choice.

15. Click OK. Your BMP image should display, with a grid overlay. You are ready to start creating polygons, roads, etc.

16. Next, to exclude the old airport polygon (if the grass area you want is smaller than the default):

a. Press the button with a red X on it (Exclude in Areas)
b. Double click each square that contains the airport polygon
c. Make sure that only Polygons are checked, unless you want to also exclude roads, rivers, etc.
d. Repeat for all squares containing the airport polygon

17. Now create the new polygon:

a. Press the button with the right arrow in the middle of the buttons
b. Press the N button that appears (new object)
c. Click on the image where you want to start your polygon - a Properties screen comes up
d. Select Poly without Shore
e. Select VTP2 Polygon
f. Click on the Polygon tab
g. Click the radio button at the BOTTOM of the screen (Airport polygons)
h. Choose Grass from the listing at the BOTTOM of the screen
i. Click OK
j. Click on the image to create new points on your polygon. One click = one vertex.
k. To finish your polygon, make a vertex right next to the first one, then press Esc (Escape)

18. To Edit the new polygon:

a. Press the button with the right arrow (unless already pressed)
b. Press the S button just to the right of that (Select object)
c. Click on a vertex of your polygon (turns red)
d. Now click on one of the three buttons to the right of the N and S buttons:
i. Button 1 is to move a point
ii. Button 2 is to add a point in between two points
iii. Button 3 is to add more points at the ends of a line (road, etc.)
e. Note that you must click a button for EACH vertex you want to move or add between two vertices (buttons one and two)
f. Once more, for EACH new vertex you want to move, press the button AGAIN. Then click the new vertex and move it.
g. Right click on any vertex to get the Properties window back (to change the texture, etc.)

19. When done, click the Save button and then the Compile button. Copy the resulting BGL file(s) from the Ground2K4 folder (or where you saved the Ground2K4 file) to your Scenery folder and restart FS. There could be as many as 4 bgl files created. Order the files by date in the Ground2K4 folder to see the latest at the top (click the Date Modified column heading twice in Windows Explorer/My Computer).

Note that if you create more than one polygon, their lines may NOT cross each other or you will get a compile error. They can be completely inside another polygon (with a higher layer number), but cannot cross lines with it. Polygons inside another polygon SOMETIMES show up, not always.

Sometimes if you create an airport polygon with concave sides, Ground2K4 will "fill in" the concavity. If so, create the first polygon not including the "extra" part that creates the concave side. Then create this "extra" part as a separate polygon, with the common edges VERY close to each other, but NOT crossing. They will blend together.

Hope this helps,

[Tom/CalClassic]

Note that my instructions could replace the AFCAD/ADE airport polygon, which has very hard edges, etc. You could use any of the ground surfaces in the BOTTOM section of the texture selection screen, or even any in the top section that do not include autogen. It's sometimes fun to experiment.

[connieguy]

Many thanks, Tom. I will see how I get on.

[connieguy]

Tom,
I have installed the program on my E Drive and am running it on Windows 10 and in compatibility mode for Windows XP Service Pack 3.  I have got as far as Stage 7. When I press the New button and double click on the top box I am not allowed to enter an airport name, double clicking instead opens Windows Explorer. Have I misunderstood something or is there a possibility it will simply not work in Windows 10?

[Tom/CalClassic]

When Windows Explorer opens, you type in a name in the File Name box and click Open.

[connieguy]

OK. I'm making progress and the program seems to be working. Thanks.

[Tom/CalClassic]

BTW, what version of Ground2K4 are you using? We use version 5.32. I haven't tried 5.4.

[Tom/CalClassic]

I just tried 5.4. The screen is clearer than in 5.32, making it easier to see the lines. If stable, looks like a nice update.

[Tom/CalClassic]

BTW, to connect G2K4 to FS9, you click the airplane button on the right and then click the Show Location box. The program will then hang until you click the right arrow button to select something.

[connieguy]

Tom,
I shall return to the fray tomorrow, but my version has been 5.0. dated 4th October, 2003, available on Avsim. However, version 5.6 dated 2006 is on Flightsim and I have just downloaded that, but also now have 3.0 and 3.2. Different versions are available in different places, though I haven't seen 4.0. I guess 5.6 might have been the last,

Ken

Postscript. Both 4 and 5.6 are available here, though it says 4 is for CFS2

sim-outhouse.com/freeflight/Design.html

[Tom/CalClassic]

5.4 is at AVSIM.