Water Mask With Sbuilder X

[Southwest]

Hi All,

Is there a good tutorial around or a step by step guide to creating a water mash with Sbuilder X please ?

Regards

 

[Southwest]

Could somebody please point me in the right direction ?

 

[Luis_Sá]

Hello,

I do not know if there is a specific tutorial targeting your task (water mask = do you mean a lake?) . See below links for some tutorials that are available. If you have a particular problem or if you describe in more detail the project that you are after, share it here and we can comment.

Kind Regards,

Luis


http://www.simpilotnet.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=32

http://www.ptsim.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=55&Itemid=59

http://forums.flightsim.com/fswiki/index.php/Scenery_Design

http://www.scruffyduck.org.uk/scenery/tutorials.html

 

[meshman]

Here's an old thread that outlines the steps I use to make a blendmask; http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10132

Depends upon your image editor as to how much makes sense.

 

[Southwest]

I chaps and thanks for the replies, i have created some photoreal scenery for an island, the photo goes over the coast and onto the water - i wanted to make a mask that would eliminate the photo around the coast, leaving the photo for the land.

If that makes any sense ?

 

[rhumbaflappy]

Hi Southwest.

What you need is a blendmask to allow the vector water to show. If your vector water needs adjusting, then you also need to make a vector water BGL, which will underlie the photoreal.

Dick

 

[Southwest]

Hi Lads,

I looked at the tutorials and developed this, the water mask is were i want it though with two problems, the white line around the edge and also it is under the photoreal also developed in SBuilderX,

i used the tutorial here,

http://www.simpilotnet.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=32

Have i made a mistake, or created the wrong mask ?

Thankyou.

 

[Southwest]

Is it a case of it being round the wrong way ?

Have sorted the shoreline issue - next problem is how to get it above the photoscenery ?

 

[meshman]

I'm not really sure what you're trying to accomplish and your narrative doesn't help. Trying to get what above the photoscenery? The watermask? A watermask would be part of the same file as the photo stuff. When used with the Resample compiler a watermask is used to say "Don't show this portion of the image (pure black) or show this part (pure white) or gradually show this area (somewhere between black and white." The watermask must be an 8 bit grayscale TIFF and is listed in the photo scenery's .INF file for use during the compile process.

What editing software are you using to make the blending file?

 

[Southwest]

Hi Meshman,

Both the photoscenery and the watermask were made in SbuilderX, I'm trying to develop it so that the watermask is above the photoscenery so i can create the photoreal shoreline.

 

[rhumbaflappy]

Hi Southwest.

The white line is the beach ( or shoreline ). It needs to be excluded, and rebuilt.

If you have saved your waterpoly, you may be able to convert it to a line, remove the unwanted line segments, and use that for the new beach.

The water and beach will underly the photoreal.

Using a blendmask, you can reveal the vector water that is hidden. A watermask, which is different, will only change the photoreal water to have waves and act as water... not what you want in most cases.

The blendmask can also be a 8 bit greyscale tiff file ( a mask ), use black as water ( fully transparenty ), white as land, and you can feather the land out to blend the edge into the landclass if wanted, by grey values. There is info about this in the FSX terrain SDK.

Dick

 

[Southwest]

Thanks for the info, have removed the shoreline - i presume meshmans little tutorial here will help my problem, http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10132

Though using that tutorial does that mean that i can no longer use the SBuilder photoreal, is there no way to still have that but elimante the beach area of the photo, can i not edit the tiles that SBuilder X produces to place an alpha were the beach is, then when SBuilder loads the tiles i can then compile ?

Many thanks.

EDIT - I'll give Meshman's tut ago first, though any ideas are appreciated!

 

[rhumbaflappy]

Hi Piran.

Look at this post:

http://www.ptsim.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=1060

In particular, the names of the saved maps are important... the map will have a name similar to:

L15X16620X16647Y24168Y24187.BMP

and an associated text file:

L15X16620X16647Y24168Y24187.TXT

You need to make a blendmask ( 8-bit greyscale ) in a paint program and save it as a tif file.

L15X16620X16647Y24168Y24187_B.tif

...and all these 3 files must be in your "C:\Program Files\SBuilderX\Tools\Work" folder.

I do not know why Luis inists on the blendmask being a TIF format. Resample would allow BMP just as well, I believe... but it must be 8 bit greyscale.

SBuilderX also defines a null value as 255,255,255 ( white ) in the INF file for Resample. So you could make a copy of the saved background map ( L15X16620X16647Y24168Y24187.BMP ), and paint the water as white... nulling out the data, and that would effectively be the blendmask for water. Then there is no need for "_B.TIF" images at all.

The nulled-out or blended area will show the vector lines and land-water beneath it, so exclude the old data, make new water ( as land is the default in FSX ), and make new shorelines, if desired.

Dick

 

[Southwest]

Thanks Dick, thats cleared a few things up though one question.

I have got my .bmp and also my blend mask made in PS which has the _b.bmp with it, if i go File\Add Map\From Disk open the file and calibrate that in the SBuilderX workspace to the correct lat and long, can i then use that to make a photoscenery .bgl, i should be able to right ?

 

[rhumbaflappy]

Hi Piran.

I think it's got to be "_b.tif". The bitmap ( bmp ) needs a blendmask of the tif type, in order to compile as a photoreal with blendmask.

Dick

 

[Southwest]

Right yes sorry _b.tif, is there anyway that i can compile this without using SBuilderX ?

 

[rhumbaflappy]

Hi Piran.

The "C:\Program Files\SBuilderX\Tools\Work" folder probably contains your INF file, as well as previous BGL files, and the original image.

For the blendmask, the file should look like this:

[Source]
   Type = MultiSource
   NumberOfSources = 2
[Source1]
   Type = BMP
   Layer = Imagery
   SourceDir = "."
   SourceFile = "L15X16620X16647Y24168Y24187.BMP"
   Variation = All
   Channel_BlendMask = 2.0
   NullValue = 255,255,255
   SamplingMethod = Gaussian
   ulyMap =  42.6501218
   ulxMap = -88.7036133
   xDim =  2.14576729910721E-05
   yDim =  1.57924609374999E-05

[Source2]
   Type = TIFF
   Layer = None
   SourceDir = "."
   SourceFile = "L15X16620X16647Y24168Y24187_B.TIF"
   SamplingMethod = Gaussian
   ulyMap =  42.6501218
   ulxMap = -88.7036133
   xDim =  2.14576729910721E-05
   yDim =  1.57924609374999E-05

[Destination]
   DestDir = "."
   DestBaseFileName = "Photo01"
   DestFileType = BGL
   LOD = Auto
   UseSourceDimensions = 1
   CompressionQuality = 80

If the INF, the texutes, and the FSX resample are all in the same folder, you should be able to open a command window ( DOS ) and 'resample myfile.inf'

Drag'n'drop might also work here... just drag the INF file onto the resample icon.

The SBuilderX use for photoreal is fine, but you'll have much better control doing it manually, once you understand the process. That requires studying the SDK, and some experimentation.

Dick

 

[Southwest]

I have the files in one folder on their own, FSX Resample, The textures and the .inf i drag n' drop the .inf and there is no .BGL created, is this .inf file correct, otherwise I'm not sure how to do the other method you explained ?

Thanks for the help Dick.

[Source]
   Type = MultiSource
   NumberOfSources = 2
[Source1]
   Type = BMP
   Layer = Imagery
   SourceDir = "."
   SourceFile = "Penzance_Photo.bmp"
   Variation = All
   Channel_BlendMask = 2.0
   NullValue = 255,255,255
   SamplingMethod = Gaussian
   ulyMap =  50.1346630833333
   ulxMap = -5.52887136111111
   xDim =  1.68179798867409E-05
   yDim =  1.06517615176129E-05

[Source2]
   Type = TIFF
   Layer = None
   SourceDir = "."
   SourceFile = "Penzance_Photo_B.TIF"
   SamplingMethod = Gaussian
   ulyMap =  50.1346630833333
   ulxMap = -5.52887136111111
   xDim =  1.68179798867409E-05
   yDim =  1.06517615176129E-05

[Destination]
   DestDir = "."
   DestBaseFileName = "Photo02"
   DestFileType = BGL
   LOD = Auto
   UseSourceDimensions = 1
   CompressionQuality = 100

 

[rhumbaflappy]

The inf file is fine.

Here's what I did:

I made a copy of your INF text and saved it as PhotoTest.inf and placed it in a folder named PhotoTest right on the desktop.

I then made a 24-bit color 8096x8096 pixel red BMP named Penzance_Photo.bmp, and saved it to the PhotoTest folder.

I then made a 8096x8096 8-bit greyscale blendmask tif named Penzance_Photo_B.tif, and saved it to the Phototest folder.

I then copied the FSX resample.exe to the PhotoTest folder.

I dragged the INF file onto the resample icon and the BGL compiled.

Everything worked fine.

I could have copied the cmd.exe from the windows/system32 folder to the PhotoTest folder, and clicking on that would have opened a DOS ( command ) window, and then typed resample PhotoTest.inf, and the same thing would have occured.

Are you using WindowsXP?

Dick

 

[Southwest]

I will try that thanks Dick - i'm on Vista,

Thanks again.