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Airspace information

E

eric_marciano

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france
Hello experts :)

Does someone know how to get the airspace information in order to draw them myself?
I know how to get the information that the aircraft is about to enter an airspace (using "NearestAirspace..." variables) but I don't know if I can get the shape information to draw the airspaces.

To be honest, I don't even think it is possible, but I still hope someone tells my I am wrong :)

Thanks for any help,
Eric
 
I've just had a quick look at the Nav-Info gauge and I think Bob is right. It is interesting but does not help me in solving my problem.

Thank you anyway :)

Eric
 
eric_marciano said:
Hello experts :)

Does someone know how to get the airspace information in order to draw them myself?
I know how to get the information that the aircraft is about to enter an airspace (using "NearestAirspace..." variables) but I don't know if I can get the shape information to draw the airspaces.

To be honest, I don't even think it is possible, but I still hope someone tells my I am wrong :)

Thanks for any help,
Eric
Click to expand...

It IS possible.
FSX GPS does it.

FSCommander does it.

It requires reading the required information from the appropriate Scenery BGL files.
 
You're right. In fs9, FS Navigator also does it.
I know it can be done by digging into the BGL files, but I wanted to avoid this solution because it requires a scan of all the BGLs and the creation of a proper database.
This is why I wanted to know if it could be done using the GPS variables, but it seems it cannot...

Eric
 
Eric, you would only need to scan the .bgl files once, then build your own .mdb file (Microsoft Database).

On the other hand, I seem to recall that someone posted an XML file several years ago with all of the airspaces listed...

...but I have no idea whatever where I saw this posted now. :o

Probably it was at AVSIM, but it was most likely lost in the "Great Hack of AVSIM" some few years ago, darnit! :mad:
 
I don't really like this principle of scanning, even if it runs only once, but I think it is the only solution. I know how to read the information from the BGL, I will just have to write additional code. It would be better if MS had written this code for me... :)

Eric
 
I too would like to read BGLs....can anyone share here how to do this to create a database that i can use to do my own maps in FSX?
 
Close but not quite....Im looking for the C++ parsing required...
 
The C++ for parsing BGL files is VERY complex. I wrote a reader some years ago and this is not the kind of information I can easily share on a forum...

Eric
 
In that case....a few questions

Do you first convert to XML or do you read directly from bgl?
If you convert to XML how does XML parsing work in C++?
Can you read terrain elevations from it?
Can you get other object data like crash boxes surrounding buildings etc?
 
Extracting the information from the BGL file is a copyright violation... well, sorta. A great deal of the data used to make the BGL contents is copyrighted by Jeppesen and others... and that's why Microsoft never provided access to all of this data inside the sim. It would have allowed someone to extract everything and use it elsewhere.

So.. don't blame Microsoft for protecting data they licensed. :D
 
Still...I need to be able to read terrain and airspace boundries. I can get away with not being able to read airports....since i can read those with FS9GPS anyway. But terrain and airspace are crucial to my purposes....
 
Naruto-kun said:
Still...I need to be able to read terrain and airspace boundries. I can get away with not being able to read airports....since i can read those with FS9GPS anyway. But terrain and airspace are crucial to my purposes....
Click to expand...

There is no legal method to do that with FS, doesn't matter how crucial it is to you. It's something that I know one person already got a 'cease-and-desist' letter from Microsoft for doing it. (extracting data from .BGL files)
 
Last edited:
Except the legal aspect, reading the BGL files does not need to go trough XML, I parse the BGL file (in a complex way) and fill my C++ tables. Unfortunately I can't read the terrain elevation nor crash boxes.

If WarpD is right regarding the copyright violation, I wonder why FS Navigator could sell for years (on fs9) without any problem, just like several other flight plan utilities such as FS Commander...
I don't want to open a new discussion about the legal validity of this process, but I'm not sure WarpD is right.

Eric
 
eric_marciano said:
Except the legal aspect, reading the BGL files does not need to go trough XML, I parse the BGL file (in a complex way) and fill my C++ tables. Unfortunately I can't read the terrain elevation nor crash boxes.

If WarpD is right regarding the copyright violation, I wonder why FS Navigator could sell for years (on fs9) without any problem, just like several other flight plan utilities such as FS Commander...
I don't want to open a new discussion about the legal validity of this process, but I'm not sure WarpD is right.

Eric
Click to expand...

FS Navigator extracts terrain data?
 
WarpD said:
FS Navigator extracts terrain data?
Click to expand...

No, but it extracts all the other BGL information (airports, runways, ILS, VOR, NDB, intersections, airspaces). I guess this is also copyrighted...
BTW, RealityXP released a TAWS gauge that displays the terrain elevation. RealityXP did a great job decyphering the BGL data to extract this information in real time, and they never had any problem with Microsoft or Jeppesen.

Eric
 
Naruto-kun said:
Still...I need to be able to read terrain and airspace boundries. I can get away with not being able to read airports....since i can read those with FS9GPS anyway. But terrain and airspace are crucial to my purposes....
Click to expand...

I am writing a moving map gauge that uses the GPS information, it is almost finished. I still wonder if it has any interest, but I wanted to know what was doable with the GPS information.
Anyway... My idea is to use the GPS terrain display and draw my moving map on top of it. I didn't do it yet but it shouldbe done in the coming days. The only problem I have is that my map is updated in real time while the GPS terrain is updated only once per second (approximately). The result is a desynchronized updated, but it is not that bad...
I will provide a screenshot as soon as my moving map is finalized, hopefully very soon.

Eric
 
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