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SBuilder Convoluted Power

CrashTestDummy

CrashTestDummy

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I don't find SBuilder intuitive at all... but this is coming from a newbie to scenery engines, and its probably reflecting the scasm evolution, and FS evolution as well... I got the island tut done, interesting, but what a mission...

It talks about (but I haven't found any examples) applying photo scenery... which I imagine is about scaling and then applying the right class...
and it does suggest that (on FS9) high def scenery means one cant have normal airports... it sounds more like an invisible runway on an image type thing... so some issues I think...

OK... heres the question...

Do you think, we could take a (street) map... scale it to the area... apply an alpha channel... and display it as a thin cloud like layer at 600 feet?

Is this land class terrain smart enough to do that, do you think?

So you not using a map... you "in" the map...

If that works then the next thing gets interesting... like show me the route a car would take to get from here to here... give me directions... and if that works... I think graphic designers will have tons of work...

... question is how smart that scasm designer really was... I think smart enough to do this... but maybe not... then again it could just be a matter of guessing that layered maps are layer 2001 ;)

... would be nice... intelligent clouds... cloud 99 for FS... yes I can see it already... designers will be happy, pilots will be happy and the war in Iraq will end... we need interesting maps in FS people :)
 
Correct me, if im wrong... but are you saying... you want the terrain... to look like a street map? Or... idk... and then you started talking about clouds?
 
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You know how you can look down thru the clouds and see the misty ground... yes...

So imagine looking down through a "transparent" cloud and you can see the street names... or whatever...

Now the stuff I was reading, waffled on about day nite and Alpha channels so it seems like its possible... not too strange actually because google earth can do it already... go wrap the indian ocean in a Coca Cola banner if you want to ;)

And why I want to do it at say 500 feet, is so that when you come down through the cloud... the airport is clear...

Its a layer that can be turned off... so its not fixed terrain... just like google layers... etc

Becomes a bit more than just a FS...

Or press this button on FS Navigator Cloud Navigator 2010... and then look out the window... you will see your flight plan in the sky... etc etc

If the scenery guy wasn't thinking outside the box... it might be impossible... and then its too late... WWIII ;)
 
CrashTestDummy said:
So imagine looking down through a "transparent" cloud and you can see the street names... or whatever...

Now the stuff I was reading, waffled on about day nite and Alpha channels so it seems like its possible... not too strange actually because google earth can do it already... go wrap the indian ocean in a Coca Cola banner if you want to ;)

And why I want to do it at say 500 feet, is so that when you come down through the cloud... the airport is clear...

Its a layer that can be turned off... so its not fixed terrain... just like google layers... etc


Or press this button on FS Navigator Cloud Navigator 2010... and then look out the window... you will see your flight plan in the sky... etc etc
Click to expand...

The point of FS (IMHO anyways...) is to simulate flight, not to become a search engine. It is for you to have a realistic flight environment that simulates a real aircraft. So why would you want to wrap the indian ocean in a Coke banner? I'm almost certain the Indian Ocean is blue, not red with white letters C-O-L-A (that would be pretty cool :rotfl: ) . I personally am curious what the advantage of having a google map in the sky...thats all.;)
 
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^ x 10

When I fly, it's usually out of Richmond County Airport... about 6 miles exactly from the NC-SC state line. As nice as it would be for there to be a clearly marked line between the states, there isn't one*. So I can't see much reason for there to be one in flight simulator.

*there is one spot in Richmond Co where a long fence and a dirt road runs along the state line that you can see from certain angles :p
 
Well if FS had that kind of intelligence, I would have asked the system, show me a flight plan from Rockingham to Raleigh and give me the place marks of all schools, if any, and places of worship along the way... after that flight, I know how you guys met :)

In gaming alone, it would open tons of doors...

FS is in trouble, the competition is certainly unhealthy, and if its going to survive, it needs a bigger and more interesting market, figure it out ;)
 
FS terrain engine: Alpha channel elevated map overlays?

The question...

Is the FS terrain engine smart enough to do Alpha channel elevated map overlays? Elevated transparent bitmaps?​

Thanks...
 
Closest so far that I've found to the idea is what these guys are doing...

http://www.flightsimdownloads.com/catalog/s486.htm EZ_Landmark...

That whole Abacus EZ series looks good...

To me it looks like they just using a clever gauge interface, no biggy to code and already quite effective I think... don't those tags look like "brakes on" to you ;)

Haven't found any incredible scenery layer examples yet... so maybe a design issue there... but even if scenery is underdeveloped, there is a lot that can be done... Alpha sky maps would be the cherry I think... we'd have them surrounded men... take no prisoners... :)
 
As far as I can tell, unless you did a mass photo scenery using maps instead of sattelite imagery, there is no way to get an accurate "map" into FS like you are talking about. If you did a semi transparent map floating in the sky, it would run into some tall hills at some point, and being up in the sky, it wouldn't match the ground exactly. So it would be pointless.

That's what a Garmin is for...
 
You right Jon... seeing that Alpha channel stuff in the terrain docs threw me way off course... I now think mask in SBuilder is the same as alpha channel in other docs, to do things like cut out a shape for a water fill, only... not float maps in the sky... as you say.

Also annotation is confusing because annotation in scenery auto gen is something else yet again... its unbelievably interesting stuff... this FS is absolutely amazing, you play a game and end up doing a quick doctorate ;)

Whatever you want to put in the sky, be it a big red arrow or some kind of map, its really just a scenery object... make the thing, a little XML and there you go... if you want you could float a filling station at 20,000 feet... a lot easier than I thought...

I figured out I can put "annotations" on both google and FS, using the KMZ to MDL COLLADA standard... http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/kml_21tutorial.html
I had a big 300 lb gorilla floating in Google and FS in the clouds ;)

And you know what I then looked up... Bill Gate's retirement date... Jun 2008...

... this FS is interesting at so many levels... :)
I bet FSX, and FS9 scenery, including airports... will port straight into Google... a miracle!

... and well, lets just say Gates looks really good on my dart board... just below USA FOR SALE... :(
 
Hello "CTD":

Many of the things you describe are possible, and have already been done. ;)

FYI: Some of the "objects" you described already exist in the FSX default objects:

http://lc0277.nerim.net/sceneobjects/gameobjects/index.html


Also, one can use SDK methods to create what ever one wants (within certain limitations).



With ACES being now disbanded and Google having offered a Flight Simulator inside Google Earth for years, I believe ACES was internally prompted at times by "external" management to look in the direction of porting / developing for MS Virtual Earth or to plan for a "World Simulator"; their reply reportedly was "we're not in the browser business".

Now, unfortunately, ACES' reply might be: "we're not in the business... at all"


Well, guess what... the core structure of both Google Earth and MS Virtual Earth (aka "MSVE" and "Bing Maps 3-D mode") are a WGS84 quad-tree world model with the ability to place content "above", in addition to being draped "onto"... the terrain mesh, at end-user assigned elevations... and highly user-accessible via XML (KML).

MS Streets and Trips had been around for a long time as a 2-D product, likely with goals of eventually developing into a 3-D version, with placement of objects, as well as hyper-links to POIs, and which also (via commercial listings), could yet become another revenue stream for them via "Bing Is Not Google - Business Options Not Google", or as I like to think of it: "BING-BONG" ! < OK, Ballmer... sue me into a settlement so you can get yet another goofy name to use > :D


FYI: When ACES was agonizing over whether they could even convince AutoDesk / Discreet to re-license GMAX so we'd have a tool and game-pack to make and export models into the FS world, MS VE was purchasing TrueSpace and hiring people to build their online 3D world. :eek:


IMHO, we could easily port FS into an online "World Sim", and it may be "Windows Games Live" etc. is just the glint in Microsoft's eye... so far. ;)


Anyway, aerial mapping and charting is indeed being developed for FSX, and "transparent" approach practice diagram objects have been around in FS since FS2002 too.



BTW: Since POIs are of interest to you, the new version of Abacus' FS-VFR and FS-Landmark (for FS8 and FS9)

http://www.abacuspub.com/fsd/catalog/s543.htm

http://www.flightsimdownloads.com/catalog/s486.htm

... is also available for use in FSX (by the same author, Konstantin Kukushkin) from Flight1, is called "FSDiscover!", still uses the same user-accessible database file standards for POIs, and has many nice enhancements.

Oh, and it works in both FS9 and FSX.

http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=fsdisc


A different twist on this is offered by FS "XPOI" by FSDreamTeam / Cloud 9:

http://www.fsdreamteam.com/products_xpoi.html

GaryGB
 
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Hi Bill:

Thanks for the heads up on my typo (posted link above is edited and fixed now) ! :)

GaryGB
 
Just a little correction on the statement that google earth is offering a "flight simulator".
I define a flight simulator as a model of simulating the aerodynamic properties of a body heavier than air, that moves through an environment of simulated metreological and other physical parameters, and has simulated technical systems.
I recon GE has nothing of that in their so called "flight simulator". To me the GE FS is just moving about at a certain horizontal/vertical speed with a minimum cinetic model. Not more.

Just my 2ct.

Mark
 
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