VTP polygons over Photoscenery

[Alan McGaughey]

Hi All,

Can anyone tell me the basic procedures for getting a VTP polygon to display on top of an existing photoscenery ?

I'd like to place an airport background VTP poly on top of the UK VFR photoscenery, I've seen this done but the method still eludes me , I'm currently using SBuilder.

Cheers All

 

[bpahe]

Hi!

Well, without getting into detail, placing a polygon on top of a photoscenery such as UK VFR, is no different than placing a polygon anywhere else. The help in SBuilder explains how to make and export a polygon, and the only thing you need to think about is to place your own scenery higher in the Scenery Library hierarchy than you have placed the UK VFR addon. It might be that you do not really have to think about that either, depending on how that scenery is installed.

/hans

 

[Alan McGaughey]

Hi Hans,

Many thanks for that, I've now seen the light I think

As I see it now, VTP2 polys can only be placed on the default scenery and to overlay a photoscenery I must use a Textured Polygon in SBuilder. At least this is what I've had success with.

I've got a textured poly to sit on top of the photoscenery as the airport background, but it also sits over my AFCAD2 scenery, so it looks like I'll have to remake all the runways, taxiways and aprons with textured polys, unless there is a way to overcome this.

I've just got in from work so now I shall try to get another textured poly to sit on top of the first. I tried this last night but to no avail, there doesn't seem to be a way to state the layer number for these polys, I assume the control is via the draw sequence, which I tried, but I'm not sure what format the texture needs to be in, I tried DXT3 but still it doesn't show.

The other strange thing that happens is that when I set the altitudes of all the polys points to 54.3m (same as AFCAD2), they seem to change themselves to an altitude just a few millimetres lower, any ideas ?

Thanks again Hans, your help is much appreciated.

Alan

 

[stevenroyals]

Hi

I've just completed designing a scenery with both textured polygons and photo scenery.

You can adjust the drawing order of the polygons by assigning one to the bottom or swapping the others around. I think it was a matter of ckicking on a polygon and then right clicking then selecting the general tab. I can't remember the exact procedure without actually doing it. It is possible and fairly easy to do though.

A textured polygon will always sit ontop of AFCAD scenery at least I couldn't find a way to change it.

Sometimes the altitude of a textured polygon is slighlty different to what you type in but it usually seems to show ok.

Thanks
Steve

 

[stevenroyals]

Ok this is how you change the drawing order of the polygons

Select a polygon, right click, selcet general tab, work in the drawing order box to change the drawing order. This only works if you have more than one polygon in your project. It is good for working on polygons which are hidden underneath other polygons. This will not enable you to put the textured polygon underneath AFCAD scenery though.

Thanks
Steve

 

[Alan McGaughey]

Hi Steve,

Many thanks for the guidance, I think I'm starting to get a grip of it now. I've got the polys to display and can change the drawing order no probs , it's a shame about the AFCAD2 bit though, it looks like I'm going to have to rebuild a lot of stuff that I'd done with AFCAD2 in textured polys

Have you made your runways/taxiways with textured polys Steve ? If so did you have to make your own textures for them or can we use default ones ? I'm thinking that maybe using default runway and taxiway textures will result in me having no lines/lights etc.

Cheers

Alan

 

[arno]

Many thanks for the guidance, I think I'm starting to get a grip of it now. I've got the polys to display and can change the drawing order no probs , it's a shame about the AFCAD2 bit though, it looks like I'm going to have to rebuild a lot of stuff that I'd done with AFCAD2 in textured polys

Yes, that is what we get when we use non-Fs2004 techniques . Only mesh scenery will show below XML scenery and all code for 3D objects (and older code as used by FSSC, Airport for Windows, etc) will always show on top of the XML scenery.

You could of course use the pre-Fs2004 runway commands, they will show on these polygons as well. But if possible I prefer to use the Fs2004 techniques.

 

[Alan McGaughey]

Thanks Arno, I'll stick with the Fs2004 ways too and see what I can come up with.

I've seen some scenery for use with photoscenery that uses textures that appear to be square alpha masked tiles with sections of the airport ground scenery painted on, are these placed as textured polygons or by some other method ?

Thanks for your help

Alan

 

[stevenroyals]

Hi Alan

I used the AFCAD textures to make my runways etc.

I've included a picture to help understand what I have done. I'm not sure how to post this picture though.

1st I made the mesh scenery at the standard resolution, I think it is 4.2 m/p or something like that. This is all the ground you can see in and around the runways in the background. The taxiways and aprons are made with AFCAD and sit ontop of the mesh scenery. The centre part of the scenery where all the cars and buildings are, is made using a high resolution photo placed on a polygon. As you can see the shape of the airport makes it easy to blend in the different layers. I didn't have the problem of covering over the apron becasues it buts up against it. This was the only way I could get around the problem. I did try and cover the whole airport like this but as you found out you then cannot see the AFCAD scenery. I also tried cutting transparent holes in the texture so that the AFCAD could be seen but his looked terrible. Don't waste your time. Another option that I tried but could not get to work was to remove the polygon and just use high resolution mesh scenery for the whole airport. This is probably the best option but I could not get it to work.



Thanks
Steve