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FSX Floating Generic Buildings

K

kjb

Messages
92
The airport I'm working on is E25, Wickenburg Muni. It's just northwest of Phoenix. I've excluded the default buildings I don't want and put in new generic T-hangars to match up with the photo scenery. The T-hangars are floating above the ground. I haven't done anything with flattens to revise the elevations. I tried deactivating the scenery, and the default airport has the same problem...grrrrr.

I tried setting alt="-1.0M", but the xml wouldn't compile. I also tried setting altitudeIsAgl="FALSE" with a new elevation, but again it wouldn't compile. The xml code I used as a template was from the original airport. I adjusted the location, length and width of the buildings. They compile correctly as long as I don't try to fix the elevation. It's not really noticeable until you taxi by one of the hangars and notice the shadow doesn't look right and you can see background objects under them.

Is there some way to get the hangars planted on the ground where they belong?
 
I have noticed at a lot of airports buildings float a foot or so off the ground. I suppose this is do to the new round world coding that was introduced with FSX.

You can't compile a negative altitude MSL value very well. What you have to do is set the

altitudeIsAgl="FALSE"

like you already did

Now the altitude value MUST BE a MSL value. If Phonix is 1200 ft above sea level then start with a altitute of 1198 ft for the building. That will lower it toward the ground by 2 feet. You may have to tweak or use Tcalx to get a accurate value of the ground level where the building will sit.
 
I wasn't clear. The alt="-1.0M" was used with altitudeIsAgl="TRUE". When I used altitudeIsAgl="FALSE" then alt="727.0M" was used. Both settings gave an error message from bglcomp. Any non-zero value for alt would not compile.

This is a sample building:
<SceneryObject
lat="33.9651553436"
lon="-112.8027617191"
alt="0.0M"
altitudeIsAgl="TRUE"
pitch="0"
bank="0"
heading="60.5"
imageComplexity="DENSE">
<GenericBuilding
scale="1"
bottomTexture="130"
roofTexture="37"
topTexture="0"
windowTexture="109">
<RectangularBuilding
roofType="RIDGE"
sizeX="65"
sizeZ="16"
sizeBottomY="5"
textureIndexBottomX="320"
textureIndexBottomZ="64"
sizeWindowY="0"
textureIndexWindowX="0"
textureIndexWindowY="0"
textureIndexWindowZ="0"
sizeTopY="0"
textureIndexTopX="0"
textureIndexTopZ="0"
textureIndexRoofX="8711"
textureIndexRoofZ="4358"
sizeRoofY="2"
gableTexture="1109"
textureIndexGableY="256"
textureIndexGableZ="64"/>
</GenericBuilding>
</SceneryObject>
 
kjb

Well I just learned something I did not know.

All Generic Buildings must clamp to the ground.

The error is as follows

INTERNAL COMPILER ERROR: #C2165: Generic buildings must be placed on ground!
INTERNAL COMPILER ERROR: #C2338: Failed to finalize BGL for scenery object!
INTERNAL COMPILER ERROR: #C2032: XML Parse Error! Element tree follows:

ERROR: <FSData
ERROR: version = 9.0
ERROR: >
ERROR: <SceneryObject
ERROR: lat = 33.9651553436
ERROR: lon = -112.8027617191
ERROR: alt = 715.0M
ERROR: altitudeIsAgl = FALSE
ERROR: pitch = 0
ERROR: bank = 0
ERROR: heading = 60.5
ERROR: imageComplexity = DENSE
ERROR: >
ERROR:
INTERNAL COMPILER ERROR: #C2024: Failed to process closing element tag <SceneryObject> near line 42!
INTERNAL COMPILER ERROR: #C2607: Compilation errors detected, compilation failed!


I just relaized that all the Scenery I have set to FALSE are <Library Objects/> and not Generic Buildings.

The following is where I took a 5 story parking Garage in Atlanta and buried 3 stories only exposing the top 2 parking level floors.

<SceneryObject lat="33.6417825142981" lon="-84.4216999638373"
altitudeIsAgl="FALSE"
alt="1140.00F"
pitch="0"
bank="0"
heading="270"
imageComplexity="SPARSE">
<LibraryObject name="{c1b936ad-a25e-42c3-ad48-2dbcb1a3b501}"
scale="1.5" />

Not sure what the reason is for FS not allowing the compiler to use FALSE for Generic Buildings like we can for Library Objects.
 
Hi all.

In FS9, we lost the ability to have generic buildings at elevations... they always clamp to ground elevation.

We did have a way in FS2002 to use generics for elevated landing pads... but for FS9, we were told this was a bug, and was fixed for FS9! So there you have it... a bug was fixed and now we cannot control the generics' elevation.

There may be a work-around. You might be able to set a small vector flatten under the refpoint of the generic building, and that may lower the building.

Dick
 
Ah, I found this thread. This problem has been perplexing me for some time.

I too have noticed the floating generic buildings, and I have also tried the above mentioned xml to fix and I got the same no compile error messages as Jim did.

As it is, I have generic buildings floating a foot or so above the ground.

@Dick

Are you saying that it may be worth putting a small flatten poly underneath the building (with exact building dimensions), but at what altitude? Would it be at <yourflattenelevation> minus 1 meter?

Something I will have to experiment with.
 
The flatten does work if I delete the apron. Otherwise, the apron supersedes the flatten elevation. I might able to run the apron around the hangars and still get it to work.

I'll have to play with it some more.
 
It isn't looking promising. Once the apron gets anywhere near the building, it elevates the terrain back to the airport elevation, ignoring the new flatten. The building floats even though there isn't any apron beneath it. It looks like the only way around it is to build a model and avoid using the generic buildings.
 
The default flatten that occurs around the apron in my oponion extends too far out. It would have been much better if the apron flatten stopped at the edge of the apron instead of 3 to 4 ft past the edge.
 
Anyone figure out anything new on this issue? I looked around the world some, and the floating building effect is worse at some places than others. Unfortunately where I am working it seems kind of obvious.

scott s.
.
 
I think that's the way it is. What I would do now if there is a generic that floats and I really must get rid of it, is to build a simple building in google sketchup, export it, and use Arno's ModelConvertorX to make an FSX scenery object as a replacement for the generic.

scott s.
.
 
scott967 said:
I think that's the way it is. What I would do now if there is a generic that floats and I really must get rid of it, is to build a simple building in google sketchup, export it, and use Arno's ModelConvertorX to make an FSX scenery object as a replacement for the generic.

scott s.
.
Click to expand...

Thati s more or less what I would do except using a library object since I am not up to building my own!
 
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