I was wondering, just to have a little fun, I don't even know if this is possible, but, is it possible to make a 'floating' airport in the sky? I thought it would be neat to take my current project which is 5000ft ASL, and move it to a location that was say, 300ft, ASL and have the whole thing suspended in the air. Using ADE, would this even be possible? I know I would have to change a few things, but it would be neat if it could be done. Talk about a serious development project... now that would really be a serious project to figure out.
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ADE Just Thought experiment
- Thread starter Tomt478
- Start date
IIRC, FS2Kx has a 1 or 2 layer "Platform" attribute that can be 'attached' to a flat 3D Polygon and/or 3D TIN surface (textured or invisible) which has a BoundingBox and an optional CrashBox.
When vertices are assigned Altitudes above Ground in FS, the Platform attribute can prevent objects from "falling through" to the 'real' FS ground below.
This is the descendant, IIUC of a FS legacy format SCASM / ASM Terrain-type "Synth Tile" which can be placed AMSL and 3D object or SimObjects while physically located above them in FS' 3D world, will be able read Ground Altitude as locally adapted AGL values (IIRC I previously tested this in Dick's TCalc and a proprietary app I have that uses FSUIPC to read the local 'Ground Altitude' FS sub-system variable attribute value.
So, AFAIK, it 'can be done by importing CVX Vector terrain tile output via CvxExtractor, as we do to derive terrain data from CVX BGLs for use in SBuilderX.
Or we can import other 3D model data into Sketchup or Google Earth as ESRI Shapefiles or Google Earth format KML / KMZ files.
IIRC, the ADE AFD and CVX Vector objects would all be assigned Altitude AMSL, but the 3D objects would only require placement in AGL relative to the "virtual" terrain surface of the local elevated Platform.
If the above method for airport AFD objects cannot work in FSX, an aircraft carrier SimObject could be made that is placed / flyable AMSL above Ground.
GaryGB
When vertices are assigned Altitudes above Ground in FS, the Platform attribute can prevent objects from "falling through" to the 'real' FS ground below.
This is the descendant, IIUC of a FS legacy format SCASM / ASM Terrain-type "Synth Tile" which can be placed AMSL and 3D object or SimObjects while physically located above them in FS' 3D world, will be able read Ground Altitude as locally adapted AGL values (IIRC I previously tested this in Dick's TCalc and a proprietary app I have that uses FSUIPC to read the local 'Ground Altitude' FS sub-system variable attribute value.
So, AFAIK, it 'can be done by importing CVX Vector terrain tile output via CvxExtractor, as we do to derive terrain data from CVX BGLs for use in SBuilderX.
Or we can import other 3D model data into Sketchup or Google Earth as ESRI Shapefiles or Google Earth format KML / KMZ files.
IIRC, the ADE AFD and CVX Vector objects would all be assigned Altitude AMSL, but the 3D objects would only require placement in AGL relative to the "virtual" terrain surface of the local elevated Platform.
If the above method for airport AFD objects cannot work in FSX, an aircraft carrier SimObject could be made that is placed / flyable AMSL above Ground.
GaryGB
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I was just wondering if it could be done in FSX. I successfuly moved my project to another location in Georgia, but the area is only 300ft ASL, My project is 5000ft ASL. So basically, it's on top of a really high mountain. I could change the ARP Alt. but that requires many many hours of going in and changing the Alt. of all terrain polys and objects to match the new altitude. This is used as my main airport, so it doesn't bother me that much ,you just see this rather large mountain in front of you unless you fly above 5000ft, which most airliners do anyway. I'm going to try things out for a while in this location, if problems arrise that are too complicated to fix, I saved the original project file and can simply go back to it if I have to. I only moved it because the weather Metar in Utah, sucks. It never updates very much, the weather never matches what is reported, and half the time it don't even update saying the Metar is too old. I wanted to move to a more accurate and reliable weather Metar.
It would be nice tohave my project just floating up there, but if it's that much complicated work, never mind. If I were to start trying to do something like that, I'm sure something would get screwed up big time.
It would be nice tohave my project just floating up there, but if it's that much complicated work, never mind. If I were to start trying to do something like that, I'm sure something would get screwed up big time.
CvxExtractor can also output *.BLN files (a text format).
In BLN files, Polygon records can be edited via NotePad's 'Replace' feature.
We merely would change the 3rd X,Y,Z field value (Z=Altitude in Meters)
Next, the file is Saved as type: All (*.*) using a BLN file extension, and then Appended to SBuilderX.
In SBuilderX, we verify the GUID desired for each Polygon CVX attribute type intended to be assigned.
Finally, we select all objects with their vertices, and compile to BGL.
GaryGB
In BLN files, Polygon records can be edited via NotePad's 'Replace' feature.
We merely would change the 3rd X,Y,Z field value (Z=Altitude in Meters)
Next, the file is Saved as type: All (*.*) using a BLN file extension, and then Appended to SBuilderX.
In SBuilderX, we verify the GUID desired for each Polygon CVX attribute type intended to be assigned.
Finally, we select all objects with their vertices, and compile to BGL.
GaryGB
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I just noticed something, whenever the sim changes to 'night mode' my terrain completely changes. For example, I have a place where a road vector passes over a small body of water, during the day the "road" is nice and straight and flat going over the water, but at night, that "road" turns into a 'dip' going over the water. Why does the vector completely change from flat and straight, to being a rather steep dip? Shouldn't the terrain stay the same at night as it is during the day?
Terrain mesh itself would not change with time of day, but CVX terrain-type Road Vectors and 3D models of bridges missing mapped "_LM" night textures may not be visible in the dark.
Log the coordinates of the location in question, and attach a link to a project ZIP Backup, if you want a 3rd party analysis of the scenario you are describing.
GaryGB
Log the coordinates of the location in question, and attach a link to a project ZIP Backup, if you want a 3rd party analysis of the scenario you are describing.
GaryGB
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tgibson
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ADE has an altitude change function in the Tools menu (Change Reference Data or something like that).
The problem for you is that ADE assumes a default airport and will place a stub file in the Scenery/World/scenery folder. You do not need that and it could be deleted after your airport compilation. Or you could use Tools/Raw Data View and change the stub file setting to false.
The problem for you is that ADE assumes a default airport and will place a stub file in the Scenery/World/scenery folder. You do not need that and it could be deleted after your airport compilation. Or you could use Tools/Raw Data View and change the stub file setting to false.
Where is this stub file. It's verry possible that it may be the cause. What would be its filename.
My ADE has some problems, Exclusions don't do what they are supposed to do, so it's really difficult trying to figure out which exclusion does what. Most of them don't work at all, but figuring out how to get the ones that do work to do what you want is a task in itself. I tried moving the entire project to another location, but the location where I moved it to is 300ft lower than the original ARP. I tried using the change alt function, but it doesn't change the altitude of the terrain, only objects and stuff, so any terrain that hasn't been modified with a flatten or something, winds up being land that is 300ft above everything else. Also Library objects don't change either , so I have to go in and change all of those. It was just too much trouble so I abandoned moving the project and just reloaded back to my original location.
My ADE has some problems, Exclusions don't do what they are supposed to do, so it's really difficult trying to figure out which exclusion does what. Most of them don't work at all, but figuring out how to get the ones that do work to do what you want is a task in itself. I tried moving the entire project to another location, but the location where I moved it to is 300ft lower than the original ARP. I tried using the change alt function, but it doesn't change the altitude of the terrain, only objects and stuff, so any terrain that hasn't been modified with a flatten or something, winds up being land that is 300ft above everything else. Also Library objects don't change either , so I have to go in and change all of those. It was just too much trouble so I abandoned moving the project and just reloaded back to my original location.
I did find those files and deleted them, kinda fixed things a bit, still having the exclusion problem, don't think that can be fixed though so I just live with it. I do have one other thing I need help with. I want to get rid of all of my Vehicle Links and replace ALL of them with Road Vectors, but I also have a whole lot of 'parking' spots, actually ADE is maxed out with them in the project, been eliminating some of them, but they are needed as I sometimes (most of the time) start my missions on the ground using a vehicle to travel from certain locations to other locations before boarding a plane. I use the parking spots to select where I start out from. I need to be able to connect the Road Vectors to the 'network' so I won't get tons of errors when I try to compile the project. How do you go about linking a road vector to the network and to parking spots? I've been trying to figure it out but not having any luck.