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FSXA Feeling cranky about SBuilderX313...

JohnC1

JohnC1

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Up to now I have avoided downloading SBuilder but finally took the plunge and installed it.

I have a number of suggestions to make things easier and clearer during install...

Before starting it,

(1) be aware that the Tools folder needs to contain the following from the FSX SDK

BglComp.exe,bglcomp.xsd,imagetool,resample.exe,Shp2Vec.exe,
Managed_CrashTree.dll, and Managed_Lookup_Keyword.dll, and XtoMDL.exe, all found in the FSX SDK. You may have to change permissions to these files
as well.

(2) be aware that the polys.txt, lines.txt and the lands.txt refer to a numer of
bmp's that are stored in the FSX/Scenery/World/Texture folder and need to be copied manually into the Tools/Bmps folder until the program is changed to transfer the bmps automatically. At present, it is trying to transfer jpgs that do not exist.
 
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SBuilder install

I editted out my rants and should have done so in the first place.

I hope my comments help improve the process for beginners.

Thanks for the hint.
 
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The jpegs do not exist because they are something that's generated by SBX itself on first run of the program from textures in your scenery\world\texture folder. Their purpose is for water and landclass previews within the program and onscreen display at zoom levels above 14. They would only be found in the SBX\Bmps folder after a successful first-run setup, SBX is not looking for non-existent jpegs in your sim installation.

Copying .bmps is not necessary, nor is it a good idea because:

1) they would be 1024x1024px where SBX resizes them to 64x64 which reduces the on screen drawing requirements when you have a screen full of land or water class tiles at zoom levels between 10 and 14. The display is a bit sluggish to update when panning or zooming even at 64x64, at 1024x1024 they would probably just crash the program.

2) they will be in DXT1 format as opposed to 8 bit which is what SBX automatically converts them to, and most likely won't display within the program at all as a result

All of this processing is supposed to take place automatically on first run of the program including copying the needed SDK files. I'm guessing, but I suspect the processing of the .bmps is dependent on Imagetool being successfully copied from your SDK installation prior to executing the image conversion tasks.

Did you by any chance move your SDK folder after installation? In that case SBX probably wouldn't be able to find it because the SetupPath in the registry would be pointing to a folder that doesn't exist at the location specified.

I've installed SBX 3 times and have never had to copy any files manually nor have I ever had any errors due to missing components. Something is wrong on your end that caused the first-run setup to fail.

Jim
 
My experience is like Jim's... never had a problem. But, that isn't to say a problem might not pop up. SBuilderX was created with a very early version of VisualBasic.NET... not even a full .NET 2.0. And it was made with WindowsXP as the operating system.

Vista, Windows7 and Windows8 all add mischief to the operation of the program, due to 'permissions', WOW64, and possible registry issues. It's unlikely Luis Sa will ever update the program... he would have already done so, had he the inclination.

But for many of us, it is an amazing program. More amazing is his solo effort at programming the thing!

An alternative might be to use a GIS program such as Global Mapper or ArcGis, but the costs are a bit high, and be prepared to learn the SDK and use some scripting or batch files to do the work of producing the BGLs.

QGIS is free, but it still does not allow you to use the z ( height ) if verticies of shapefiles.

FSX-KML works for some people. FSEarthTiles works for some wanting photoreal BGLs...


Dick
 
SBuilder Setup

Jim (and Dick) After reading I looked in Tools and I have imagetool there. Tools was loaded up with the FSX SDK executables, and after copying them with looser "permissions" I no longer had the "refused access" very complicated msgs messages.
After imagetool was loaded into Tools, then I ran the program first time.

My FSX SDK is installed at the default location.

My plan is to uninstall, and try again, to confirm that my SDK permissions were the problem here, not the location.

C:\Program Files (x86)\SBuilderX313
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK\SDK

Here's a remote possibility.... I downloaded the zip file on my wife's laptop which has a Vista OS. I then transferred it to my Win7 Home Premium desktop and installed it (here).
This "shouldn't" matter.

I attach the two error msgs I get when I try to run SBuilder.


PS I have a suspicion that perhaps Microsoft frowns on putting parts of their SDK (e.g. imagetool) in a free third party program?
Hence the loading of tools by the user??
 

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SBuilder install

The part of the problem regarding the importing of Tools was fixed by loosening permissions on SBuilder itself. Imagetool et al were imported from the FSX SDK
with no error msgs this time.

The collecting of bmps with previous error msg persists...I have 99 files in Tools\Bmps.

It is stuck on the first file in waters.txt.......301b2su1.
It hasn't gotten to the files in lands.txt.

Scenery/World/Texture permissions are set to Full Control, except the system balks at setting Creator Owner to anything...it looks like it allows it, but promptly resets itself to no permission. Otherwise all the others (e.g.JohnPC) are set to maximum permissions. I might be able to write a batch file to convert them all........
 
I don't know if the sim would even start if it were the case, but is there any chance an addon may have replaced those .bmps with .dds? I guess what I'm saying is do the files SBX is trying to copy actually exist in Scenery\World\Texture?

I'd send you a .zip of my Bmps folder but I've modified mine, my .jpgs are all 512x512 which I did in an attempt to speed up screen updating, also they are based on FTXG textures rather than default. I can return to default textures and re-run the SBX setup again though if all else fails (I believe if you remove the sbuilder.ini it will trigger SBX to do the first-run conversions again, so not a huge deal). In the meantime I've attached a file list that may or not be all inclusive (due to my shenanigans in the Bmps folder mentioned above).

If you can get SBX to run and you're not planning to do any landclass or waterclass you won't have any need for those .bmps/.jpgs in the Bmps folder anyway BTW. (You could most likely still do hydro polys, roads, photoreal, etc. without them is what I mean)

Jim
 

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SBuilder startup

My first file hanging up (301b2su1.bmp) is a 1024x1024 DXT1 extended BMP.

All the World/Texture files are either agn or BMPs.

My interest is really more toward object placement and some poorly remembered discussion I skimmed about recently about increasing the radius that photoreal would display at its maximum resolution.

I am completely comfortable with FSX_KML but haven't tackled the more advanced vectors with autogen included (modified terrain cfg).

So as you surmised, I can live without the jpgs for now.

I will download your kind attachment.

I much appreciate your interest.
 
I agree SBX setup can drive one crazy. Me, I always have these issues:

When starting a new project, there is always confusion regarding setting the correct name for the export folder. I have to do a few trail and failures before getting it right (if the folder name should be SBuilderX\Scenery or SBuilder\Scenery)...

And living in Europe...I always need to set "." instead of "," in Win Regional Settings.

Would be nice if tips from this thread showed up in the Wiki (I am not able to do this for the time being, sailing stormy seas with a bad net connection)...

Cheers,
:stirthepo
 
Hello,

I got a new FSX deLuxe CD and installed FSX in my laptop. Then I downloaded and installed the SP1 and SP2. Then I run the SDK setup from the CD. I also run the SDK SP1. The OS of the laptop is Windows 7. Then I got the SBuilderX313.zip from the PTsim site. I run the setup programme and got some errors like the ones described here. I changed some of the permissions for the \Tools folder as it seemed that the "sbuilder first run" was not able to write into that folder. The programme was able to make local copies of the needed SDK executables, but it was not able to build the low resolution bitmaps inside the \Tools\Bmps folder.

I still have the desktop were I developed SBuilderX using Visual Basic 2005. I need to clean all the dust of it in order to remember where I have stoped. I think the SBuilderX was developed under an old Windows graphics library and I also think that an update using the more modern graphics capabilities of Windows, will not be an easy task. But, at least, I will try.

Kind Regards, Luis

ps: At this moment, I am not in control of the phpBB PTSIM forum. One day (some months ago) I asked the forum to make a new administrator password and send it to me by email. I had made this some times before. However, in that particular day, the email never reached me. As far as I could read, there is a solution to regain control but it requires some work (and I am not a database or php expert). This is the reason why new members never receive the approval of their subscription. In fact, because of spammer, I used to approve new members, one by one, manually. Sorry about that!
 
Hello Luis!

So nice to hear from you. An update of SBuilderX would be much appreciated by the community.

Dick
 
Nice to see you around Luis! Looking forward to the potential update. :)
 
Hi Luis,

these are the best news I heard for quite a while! SBuilderX still rocks, after all that time, and I constantly use it. An update would be great - the shortcomings of the last version are mostly due to the time that has passed since the last release, not to the functions the application offers.

That really made my day!

Best,
Mark
 
Fantastic news. SBuilderX is the main stay of my scenery development. Mark and I have worked on several projects together and SBuilderX is our primary development tool. With current upgrades in Windows and now Lockheed Martin's Prepar3D on the scene, having an upgraded SBuilderX makes things very exciting. Thanks Luis for SBuilderX and all your efforts.

Tom
 
Hello,

The problem that I described here (acting as a new SBuilderX user that tries to install SBuilderX in Windows 7 - failure in generation of small bitamps during the "first run") can be resolved by setting the Properties of the SBbuilder.exe file to always "Run as Administrator".

Yesterday I "played" a bit with the source code of SBuilderX in VB 2005 using the old XP computer that created it.

Today I installed both VB 2005 Express and VS 2013 on my Windows 7 computer. I just "played" with the source files using VB 2005 Express on this computer. The big job (if possible) will be to replicate those "playing sessions" in VS2103. I did not try yet.

Two members of this forum already offer to help me in resolving the PTSim forum problem. If I get again its control, I would like to form o group of SBuilderX users that want to help me in developping the tool.

Kind Regards, Luis

ps: Dick or Rhumbaflappy! please see a PM that I left here for you.
 
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Luis_Sá said:
Hello,

The problem that I described here (acting as a new SBuilderX user that tries to install SBuilderX in Windows 7 - failure in generation of small bitamps during the "first run") can be resolved by setting the Properties of the SBbuilder.exe file to always "Run as Administrator".
Click to expand...

Run as Admin is almost a must with default location installs of FS or the SDK's. Its normally the first solution I offer to people having issues with operations.
 
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