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Can I locally increase the resolution of terrain and deform it by hand?

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ca-ontario
There's a specific city I'm interested in that has a very narrow gorge running through it. The city is in an area that has very low resolution terrain and I'd like to know if there's a way to locally increase the resolution of the terrain in the area of the gorge, so that I can edit the terrain mesh by hand, using the terraform SDK tool, and make the gorge suitably deep/narrow. With the current mesh my changes are not granular enough. Is there any way to achieve that with terrain editing?
 

=rk=

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If you want to terraform, just put an airport within a test radius you can define to be extremely large. If that is not detailed enough, you'll probably have to use polygon model as terrain. This location is also in a place called The Gorge, and the channel the waterfall animation is over was also modeled. You can kind of see the vertical streaks of projected photo scenery in the trees. Once you have a model, if default terrain intrudes, you can push it aside with the terraform tool.

multnomah.png
 
Messages
139
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ca-ontario
If you want to terraform, just put an airport within a test radius you can define to be extremely large. If that is not detailed enough, you'll probably have to use polygon model as terrain. This location is also in a place called The Gorge, and the channel the waterfall animation is over was also modeled. You can kind of see the vertical streaks of projected photo scenery in the trees. Once you have a model, if default terrain intrudes, you can push it aside with the terraform tool.

Does adding the airport help with the terraforming resolution? A normal scenery package without an airport can also use terraform polygons.

Also, side question: can you add an existing nearby airport ICAO as the airport used for this, and just have it completely empty, but then also use an add-on airport with the same ICAO without any issues (so you'll have duplicate airports, but one completely empty - just the airport object). I'm pretty sure I've done this before and didn't notice any problems in the add-on airport, but perhaps I just got lucky.
 
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australia
You can create a project with a pseudo airport with just a few files. rhumbaflappy helped me do that by creating a pseudo project for me to add my bridge at a location quite some distance from the nearest 'real' airport.
That way you don't create a ICAO.
Contact him for instructions and/or ask him for permission for me to send you the files.
 

=rk=

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I am trying to imagine Dick only wanting certain people to increase their flight sim developer skills. Everyone here already has their top level "Q" security clearance, correct?
Does adding the airport help with the terraforming resolution? A normal scenery package without an airport can also use terraform polygons.

Also, side question: can you add an existing nearby airport ICAO as the airport used for this, and just have it completely empty, but then also use an add-on airport with the same ICAO without any issues (so you'll have duplicate airports, but one completely empty - just the airport object). I'm pretty sure I've done this before and didn't notice any problems in the add-on airport, but perhaps I just got lucky.
Terraforming haas only the one level of fidelity, so if it's available outside airport bounds, then the airport is unnecessary.

As to ICAO, the sim is pretty particular about nomenclature. I did an addon for 4s2, I'd wanted to recreate some of the iconic sights of the Gorge, but the other developer had done a really good job with my home airport and I didn't want to disrespect by stepping on it. The sim outright rejected my first attempt 4s2a, perfectly valid, available, but freezes the sim, I tried one or two others and settled on KHRM and it starts without a hiccup.
 
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139
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ca-ontario
Ok so I do not need to add an airport in order to increase the level of terrain resolution?

Side note, I also want to enhance the scenery around at least one 3rd party add-on airport. Can I add the ICAO of the existing airport have both the 3rd party add on airport and my "airport" (without duplicate runways or aprons) in the scenery at the same time?
 

rhumbaflappy

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What John is referring is an airport stub. Here's an example for HLMD:
XML:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<FSData version="9.0">
    <Airport groupID="1" groupGenerated="FALSE" state="NO STATE" city="Maradah" name="Maradah Airport" ident="HLMD" lat="27.55446463823320" lon="18.49852055311200" alt="289.00000000000000" magvar="0.000000" trafficScalar="1.000000" airportTestRadius="10000.00000000000000" applyFlatten="FALSE" isOnTIN="FALSE">
    </Airport>
</FSData>

This is the simple reference for the airport. I got it from ADE, and trimmed off the unneeded data. Attached is the simple project for the HLMD stub. You can add anything to the airport or it's surroundings from this stub. It doesn't do anything except reference the airport (and may increase the airportTestRadius).
 

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139
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ca-ontario
What John is referring is an airport stub. Here's an example for HLMD:
XML:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<FSData version="9.0">
    <Airport groupID="1" groupGenerated="FALSE" state="NO STATE" city="Maradah" name="Maradah Airport" ident="HLMD" lat="27.55446463823320" lon="18.49852055311200" alt="289.00000000000000" magvar="0.000000" trafficScalar="1.000000" airportTestRadius="10000.00000000000000" applyFlatten="FALSE" isOnTIN="FALSE">
    </Airport>
</FSData>

This is the simple reference for the airport. I got it from ADE, and trimmed off the unneeded data. Attached is the simple project for the HLMD stub. You can add anything to the airport or it's surroundings from this stub. It doesn't do anything except reference the airport (and may increase the airportTestRadius).
Is this the same as just adding an airport object in the SDK (without any runways or anything)? I was under the impression that these days the best practice is not to edit the XML by hand and doing everything in the SDK so we should use SDK tools if possible.
 

rhumbaflappy

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Is this the same as just adding an airport object in the SDK (without any runways or anything)?
Yes. The only possible change is to increase the airportTestRadius so aprons and such that need to be within the radius are properly displayed. I'm not sure who is stating a 'best practice', but some elements of the XML files are only done by text editing. The editing is kind of the point of using XML. If Asobo didn't want editing by 3rd party apps they would have used a proprietary code to prevent editing instead of XML.
 
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australia
I am trying to imagine Dick only wanting certain people to increase their flight sim developer skills. Everyone here already has their top level "Q" security clearance, correct?
I tend to agree however I thought (too long ago to remember) that Dick sent me the files personally rather than via a forum - I stand corrected on that thought. Anyway I wanted to ensure I was being polite.
 
Messages
139
Country
ca-ontario
I'm not sure who is stating a 'best practice', but some elements of the XML files are only done by text editing. The editing is kind of the point of using XML. If Asobo didn't want editing by 3rd party apps they would have used a proprietary code to prevent editing instead of XML.
I'm just vaguely remembering asking about editing an XML and building a project directory by hand, and someone with experience told me that this was what you did two years ago, but now Asobo encourages people to create the project inside the SDK as opposed to copy/pasting samples and directories. Maybe they weren't referring to editing the XML specifically, I don't recall anymore.

I'm still not entirely sure how you're "supposed" to structure your project files, for example I'm told that the keeping the default modelLib and materialLib names creates conflicts with other projects. I should really read the SDK intro. :)
 
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