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FSXA Flattening Large Areas

S

SteveF9126

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6
Country
us-florida
I am trying to flatten a large area in FSX. FS9 would allow for this in the Scenery Config file. Using the tools I have found can do this in a limited to a small range around the airport. I am trying to flatten basically a entire state. Anybody got some suggestions???? I can post the area needed and altitude. I am trying to place shopping centers, business and other buildings for medevac ops. I am finding one end of the building in the ground and the other is floating. Basically I am placing just trees and light poles. I tried to make some nice baseball fields but I keep finding the same as the buildings with the fencing. This wouldn't be an issue if I was doing fixed wing ops. You won't be able to see it.

I know I have to edit each airport afterwards but I have to delete the runways and taxiways because I use Mega Scenery. I am also only flying in the day time because the Mega Cities 4X don't have night lighting.
 
FsxKml is a tool that can help with that task not sure what you are trying to do but to flatten large áreas FskKml is the tool. look here in the wiki and some thread about the tool
 
I am trying to flatten the state of Florida to 0ft. I have another area I need to do if it actually works. I downloaded the tool but don't seen where to flatten at.

Tejal Bernardo said:
FsxKml is a tool that can help with that task not sure what you are trying to do but to flatten large áreas FskKml is the tool. look here in the wiki and some thread about the tool
Click to expand...
 
SteveF9126 said:
I am trying to flatten a large area in FSX. FS9 would allow for this in the Scenery Config file. Using the tools I have found can do this in a limited to a small range around the airport. I am trying to flatten basically a entire state. Anybody got some suggestions???? I can post the area needed and altitude. I am trying to place shopping centers, business and other buildings for medevac ops. I am finding one end of the building in the ground and the other is floating. Basically I am placing just trees and light poles. I tried to make some nice baseball fields but I keep finding the same as the buildings with the fencing. This wouldn't be an issue if I was doing fixed wing ops. You won't be able to see it.

I know I have to edit each airport afterwards but I have to delete the runways and taxiways because I use Mega Scenery. I am also only flying in the day time because the Mega Cities 4X don't have night lighting.
Click to expand...

Although technically the 'flatten switch' is still supported for the Geographic coverage extent of an Area layer entry in the active copy of the FSX Scenery.Cfg just as it was in FS2002 and FS2004 (aka "FS9"), what you describe doing and why ...merits an explanation as to how the FSX 3D world rendering engine is different from prior versions of MSFS.

The FSX 3D world model is spheroidal compared to the sequence of (relatively) 'flat' terrain grid quad tiles we flew over in prior versions of MSFS; thus larger 3D scenery objects with a flat base will appear to be raised above the ground at the edges even though the central part may be placed directly upon the ground.

Although the BGLComp XML source code syntax has changed slightly for 3D scenery library object placement in FSX compared to what it was in FS9, when such a 3D object is 'placed', we use AGL=True and Altitude=0 parameter values in the XML placement code to indicate that an object's central 3D datum or Reference Point (aka "RefPoint") should be 'terrain mesh-clinging' ...and be placed directly on the terrain surface no matter what the elevation of the ground is, when the underlying terrain mesh is rendered at run time by FS.

Even when that is done properly for FSX, what you are seeing is likely due to use of large flat 3D objects (ex: from FS9 ?) which have not yet been curved to match the spheroidal surface of the FSX 3D world terrain surface.


If you import the 3D models in question into Arno's ModelConverterX (aka "MCX"), it should be possible to semi-automatically curve the alignment of the flat base for those objects, then export the scenery object as FSX scenery BGLs with placement instructions intact, so that they lie 'flush' in alignment on the ground after having matched the 'shape' of the FSX "curved Earth" spheroidal 3D world terrain model.


NOTE: These are the same type of issues faced by FS developers who make large, flat, custom textured Ground Polygons (aka "G-Polys" or "GPs") using FS2004 SDK SCASM / ASM methods.

For these types of scenery objects, MCX must be used to break the larger flat planar surfaces of the 3D objects into pieces no larger than 100 Meters maximum length and/or width, and optionally group them into 500 Meter maximum length and/or width 'groups' per single central RefPoint, so that they can be 'curved' to align onto the FSX 3D world spheroid ground surface properly.

Assuming you are not making G-Polys, and are instead placing default FSX or FSX-compatible 3rd party and/or custom 3D scenery objects, what sizes are you working with for these objects, where are you getting them from, and/or how are you making them, and how are you 'placing' them ? :scratchch


Although Florida is not characterized by having many hills, I do not see a desirable result coming from flattening an entire state. :confused:


PS: If you tell us more about your methods and goals, we could offer more help achieving a more visually satisfactory result. :)


GaryGB
 
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FsxKml work with googlearth polygons. you draw a polygon over the área in question export as Kml file and load in fsxKml add a "tag" in this case flatten and in this way the flatten is created. Is a long time I have no worked with FsxKml and can't rembember the details, but it seemed to me It was a easy tool. you have to look for a tool that correct a bug with the polygons points coordinates. PreFsxKml Phttp://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/resources/prefsxkml.82/
this tools fix the polygons, must be fixed before be imported in FsxKml. Take into account that all these tools has been created time ago so in OS as Windows 10 could be problems. not sure.
 
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I would use SBuilderX to make a flatten.
 
I use mega-scenery Florida. I am trying to place shopping centers and a mall right now. Example. I have a 30 ft building like mall. One end is floating and the other end is buried about 20 ft in the ground. For some reason the data they used is placing on a hill which really isn't there. over the expanse of the real mall the elevation change is about 4 ft. I could deal with all this if I was flying fixed wing. Because you would never see the details. But when you are flying helicopters you see it when landing in the parking lot. I have landed helicopters there before. I can tell it pretty flat. Using AFX I could flatten the mall and get rid of the problem. But then it creates another problem elsewhere with a huge slope at the edge. I don't use the whole state to fly but local to Central Florida for now. But this would allow for further expansion as the project grows. The scenery is all photo real so it give me alot of help. I just need to add buildings and stuff. I don't have to build roads. For some reason AFX only flattens a small area.
 

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As Arno says use SbuilderX and make a flatten large enough to allow the placement of the building models. Then use slopped flattens (as many as necessary) to smooth the transition from your flatten into the surrounding terrain. A slopped flatten for instance could make the change in elevation shown in Image1.jpg much more gradual.
 
Where do I get the latest version SbuilderX? And do I need any other programs to go with it to make it work?
 
you could try to change the mesh for the área. more resolution or less according to the need. though I know it's dificult to find such files. I recomend FsxKml because it seemed to me more easy to use, but Sbuilderx is a great tool indeed you can do many things with Sbuidler and is very much popular so can find tutorials enough.
 
I downloaded SbuilderX. I am not finding a way the flatten in it. I found a way to exclude scenery which I don't want to do. I don't want to create a new land class or water class. I want to keep the current textures. I just want to flatten it out (remove all hills, valleys). I just want a flat surface to work on.

This use to work in FS9 and prior. Someone said it still works but I haven't got it to work yet.

Flatten.0=621,N41 55.00,W88 00.00,N41 55.00,W87 49.35,N41 50.83,W87 49.35,N41 50.83,W88 00.00
 
You could use ADE if there is an airport in the vicinity of the area you want to flatten. Open the stock airport that's closest and in FSX go to that airport. Move the user aircraft to the location that you want to flatten. In ADE click on connect and then click on the polygon icon and create your flatten polygon. The type is airport background. The tag is flatten. Set the altitude in the altitude box to the height above sea level that you want the area to be. Compile the airport and be sure that the bgls are placed in an active scenery area. Save your project file in ADE to preserve your flatten data for any future changes.
 
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