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FSX Flat Islands

lordofwings

lordofwings

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639
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panama
The part I am trying to modify is an archipelago with 365 little islands. Obviously I am not attempting to do all of them.

These islands are nearly sand banks that are barely 1-3 feet above sea level. In FSX despite of the mesh these islands (I had to make them as they are not present in FSX) appear as flat terrain AT sea level. That seems very unreal.

I am using SBuilderX and was wondering if there is a relatively simple way to raise these islands or at least the one I am most interested in, to about 0.5 meters?
 
lordofwings said:
The part I am trying to modify is an archipelago with 365 little islands. Obviously I am not attempting to do all of them.

These islands are nearly sand banks that are barely 1-3 feet above sea level. In FSX despite of the mesh these islands (I had to make them as they are not present in FSX) appear as flat terrain AT sea level. That seems very unreal.

I am using SBuilderX and was wondering if there is a relatively simple way to raise these islands or at least the one I am most interested in, to about 0.5 meters?
Click to expand...

Try this:

Make a poly on the island

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Select it and right click and go to properties.

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Go to the
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tab and set the elevation value.

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Picture links are broken but I tried that on the island polygon (inside the hole and the AB_Flatten_MaskClass_ExcludeAutogen) but it still shows at sea level.
 
tylerpilot said:
Maybe you should try removing the Flatten poly? :confused:
Click to expand...

Flatten is FSX does not mean setting to a zero elevation. It means to set to a defined elevation or in the case of sloping polygons to a set of elevations.

Back to the OP, if you are referring to an area around Panama understand that the mesh resolution for that area in default is 600m+. It's highly likely that the source material for the area was the 1km mesh that's out there, somewhere. So having all the little islands register any elevation is doubtful. You can check the default mesh file and drill down to a very specific spot to see what registers, but I doubt it would be anything other than zero.

It's possible the Aster dem *might* show something, but you've seen the quality of that source. If you have a lat/lon area I can check some other files I have, along with the Aster stuff to see if any register something.

It is possible to make your own mesh, but not for the faint of heart...
 
Yes. Flattens are directly related to the mesh resolution, and the display settings you use in FSX.

Course mesh, or course settings in the FSX display properties will not show the raised areas in the sim.

If you have the polys of the islands, you might be able to use gdal_rasterize to create 1 meter islands in mesh rather easily.

Dick
 
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Sometimes it works to export an SBX text file and use an editor to convert poly types, set elevations on points, etc and then import it back in (or create a second project). A text editor which can do search/replace using regular expressions is helpful.

scott s.
.
 
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