An issue with visibility range

[Gianni]

Hi,

thought that I've got everything. But this seems to be an illusion.

Like you might remember, my ground poly structure is made with the fs2002 gamepack, consists of 6 layers which have been tweaked to achieve shadows and to be accuratly orientated (thanks again to Jeffrey and Arno).

For the "big" polygons (apron, taxiways, photo and dirt) I inserted a number of 40000 m to visible. For the "smaller" ones I took a range of 15000 m. But when I use the files in fs9 the "big ones" become visible at a distance from about 27000 m.

The question is: is there a way to tweak the asm-files (I have learned that regarding the heading I would have to use hexadecimal figures, so it could be the case in this issue too)? Or does fs9 handle objects regardless a manually inserted distance range with a certain restriction?

Greetings from Vienna/Austria
Gianni

 

[arno]

Hi Gianni,

There is a maximum distance, I can't remember the exact value, but it was somewhere around 30 km I think. So maybe the 40 km is just too big.

I would have to check which area type GMax uses, that might also have an influence on it.

 

[Gianni]

Thx Arno for your help. did you already find something.

I just want to figure out the prob more accuratly: I re- exportet the whole structure again and have set the following parameters in makemdl:

layer 1 (tweaked "8"): apron... distance 30000m
layer 2 (tweaked "12"): taxiways ... distance 30000m
layer 3 (tweaked "16"): photo ... distance 30000m (consisting of 6 huge tiles)
layer 4 (tweaked "20"): taxiwaylines ... distance 30000m (three bgl files)
layer 5 (tweaked "24"): groundmarkings ... distance 30000m
layer 6 (tweaked "28"): stoplines ... distance 30000m
layer 7 (tweaked "32"): dirt ... distance 30000m

for information:
both photo and dirt have alpha channel (DTX3 with mipmaps).
the o/o point of all bgls is identical with the airport reference point (source of the airport ref point is the corresponding AFCAD2-file).

According to fs navigator the structure appears at a distance of 10.9 nm (about 17,54 km).

I am a little frustrated about this. Any help appreciated.



Gianni

 

[Gianni]

Guys! Does anybody has an idea to solve my prob?

I found out that perhaps the Options parameters in MakeBGL could have something to do with it. I am not sure whether this assumption is valid, but it seems to me that the "flaten" and the "animation" keys influence the visibility range.

Anyway, it would be fine to know about the different paramenters. Is there a tutorial anywhere?

Regards
Gianni

 

[arno]

Hi Gianni,

I doubt these options have an influence.

A good thing would be to check which range MakeMDL actually wrote in the ASM files. Maybe MakeMDL does limit it? Because I think it should be more then 10 nm.

 

[Gianni]

Hi Arno,

this is the asm-file:

*****************************
;compile with BGLC /BGL C:\gmax\project LOWS\Szenerie\ground_C_photo.asm
header label word
dw 0001 ; 00 World set number
dd 00051145DH ; 02 North bound
dd 00051024DH ; 06 South bound
dd 0093F4B38H ; 10 East bound
dd 0093F4B36H ; 14 West bound
dw 20 dup(0)
dd (offset OBJECT_DATA) - (offset header)
dw 33 dup(0)

OBJECT_DATA label word
db 21 ;;LATBAND_REL
dw 02881h ;;lat min (inclusive) 512M units
dw 0288Bh ;;lat max (exclusive)
dd (offset OBJECT_0) - (offset OBJECT_DATA)
db 0 ;;EOL
OBJECT_0 label BGLCODE
db 12 ; NEAR_FAR_HUGE_OBJECT_HEADER
dd 000510B55h,0093F4B37h ; latitude,longitude
db 100 ; image power
dd (offset OBJECT_0_END) - (offset OBJECT_0)
OBJECT_0_START label word
IFIN1 OBJECT_0_FAIL, image_complex, 2, 32767
ADDCAT OBJECT_0_SCALE, 16
OBJECT_0_FAIL label BGLCODE
BGL_JUMP_32 OBJECT_0_END
OBJECT_0_SCALE label BGLCODE
SCALE_AGL OBJECT_0_RETURN, 30000, 2312, 131072, 000510B55h, 047E6h, 0093F4B37h, 0BD2Dh, 0, 0
INSTANCE_CALL OBJECT_0_BEGIN, 0, 0, 0AF9Dh
OBJECT_0_RETURN label word
BGL_RETURN
OBJECT_0_BEGIN label word
model_outside label BGLCODE
BGL_CALL model_crash
model_shadow label BGLCODE

LOD_0 label BGLCODE
BGL_JUMP_32 LOD_0L

model_inside label BGLCODE
BGL_RETURN
model_crash label BGLCODE
BGL_CRASH_START model_crash_end, 4624
BGL_CRASH_OCTTREE crash_end_1
dw CRASH_FLAG_OBJECT ; crash type
dw 1 ; nodes used
real4 -3812.916992,0.000000,-878.178955 ; Box x,y,z
real4 8067.174316,2689.058105,2689.058105 ; Box w,h,d
dw 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 ; base offset into node table, one for each top-level branch
; So if you take branch 2 (count from 0), you add 1 to indices you encounter on that branch
; Nodes (254=empty 255=full, else an index into branch)
OCTTREE_NODE 254, 254, 254, 254, 254, 254, 254, 254 ; node 0
crash_end_1 label word
model_crash_end label word
BGL_RETURN

LOD_0L label BGLCODE
include C:\gmax\project LOWS\Szenerie\ground_C_photo_0.asm



OBJECT_0_END label word
EOF
*******************************

Where might the visibility be coded?

I do not know nothing about asm files and their structure. Could you please have a look at it and tell me where I can find the proper values?

Greetings from Vienna/Austria
Gianni

 

[arno]

Hi Gianni,

It is the 30000 in the AGL_SCALE command. So that seems OK. I would then expect that it would be 30 km (which is about 16 nm). The area type also seems to be set to type C with a power setting of 100, so that all seems OK as well.

 

[Gianni]

thx Arno anyway.

I have no idea what the reason might be then. Perhaps FS9 has a certain limit for that kind of ground poly styling (I mean, made with FS2K gamepack).

Greetings from Vienna
a little sad Gianni