FSX | FSX-SE Scenery Design Forum - How To

Hey all, Im new to creating scenery, but i've come along a few programs and such ... but i want to learn from the ground up... that is, ground texture, ground layout, taxiways and such, then buildings and trees and what not ... but im not sure how to get an aerial image working with FS where I want it ...I can create runways and taxiways, roads, buildings, textures, all that good stuff myself, and there are more than enough tutorials to importing those into FS...but im at a loss when it comes to aerial photos.. Im not sure how to import them, let alone at the scale and location i want ... any programs out there thatll make this part easy?thanks :)

I am using effects to provide ramp lighting in my scenery. I have figured out how to adjust the diameter of the effect but how do I turn down the light intensity? It seems too bright.

I am doing scenery add on for our VA fly in,i used AFCAD to make LZ's as well EZ scenery for objects,my problem is thus,although the APfiles as well scengX for exclude worked i could not find the bgl files from the EZ scenery to send also,where would i find them or are they caught up in the AP files for the imports etc.:-hmmm Thanks Pat.

Hello,I have just begun work on designing the scenery objects for the Port Orchard Airport portion of the "Project Washington Overhaul" scenery package I am working on.I am in need of some scenery design guru help here. Is there a way to craft a simple tetrahedron object and have it react to wind input from the simulator so it is 1. not "static" per se, and 2. it moves in correlation to wind conditions within the simulator.The reason I ask is that Port Orchard uses a tetrahedron instead of a windsock or segmented circle.Thanks in advance._Steve

Hi everyone, i would like to point out a few issues that have always left me with a big question mark. Now that a new version has been announced i hope that these issues will be ironed out in FSX.1. I mainly use gmax as my scenery design program and I do wish that its tools are given more support. As most scenery and aircraft designers know, Gmax is a very powerful program and I'm pretty sure that 80% of the scenery can be created with it.First of all why isn't it possible to create ground polygons directly with Gmax? Why do we have to manually tweak the source code in order to make it work. I'm pretty sure that there is a solution to it. There are several other things th…

Hi guys, I'm building the base of my LFRK2006 scenery. Basically I've built a patch grid and placed the right photo over each face. Well in GMax I can't see nothing wrong but when I load my scenery appears these lines.http://www.errewf.it/fs/problema.gifI've marked with white arrows. This artifact fade out when I come close to the terrain and it became more visible if I move far from ground. Anyone can help me to remove this? I've already tried to convert the textures in DXT1, DXT3 with and without mip-map. The txts are correctly mapped...I've seen some SimWings scenery which use orthophoto with my same technique, but without those stupids lines..Any help?Thanks!Alberto

Hi,Since a week I am struggling with the fact that my textures are not displayed as they should. In GMAX everything looks OK, but not in FS2002.Have meanwhile observed that I cannot tile in both directions (if I tile only in one direction, then the texture is set as it should) and I wonder if there is some setting in GMAX that perhaps could be changed by accident ?Greetz. Jos

I had read at one time, a doc about the differences between gate and ramp parking. As I recall, it stated you wanted your parking to be gates...however, I can NOT find this again, and can't remember why it said this. However, if someone here can point me to it or at least tell me if and or why I should do this to my parking spaces. None of them of course, are anywhere near gates. They are all ramp. But I seem to remember he stated they should be all changed to gates...All help greatly appreciated...I want to finalize my afcads and want to make sure I have this done right as I remember there was a great reason for whatever he stated to do..TIA- GregThere are 10 types …

I have today released the first beta version of LOM. It is available for download from the Other Stuff Section of my website - www.scruffyduck.plus.com. I hope that it may be of interest.This is a utility designed to manage FS9 library Objects. It does not work with the older API format (my API Manager will work with these). IT has the following capabilitiesManages your collection of library objects in a self contained database. The information can be filtered by category, author and library. De compiles information from single or multiple library bgls filesImports information from other programs such as EZ-Scenery, RWY12 and SBulderExports categorised information i…

I am having a problem. I need to put fuel depots on my airport that I have designed. I used FSSC to put in 3 depots on the airport. I told afcad to use both jet and avgas.However, and here is where I run into a problem.....I MUST decompile the afcad file and make some edits. I have to put my taxi signs in manually otherwise the airport thinks there are 2 afcad files.... So I put that code into my main afcad.AFCAD creates all sorts of messed up code. I use NEW BGL Analyze to do the decompile. I find that it apparently strips the fuel info out of the afcad file. I put it back. I change the papi2 (not sure which app screws this all up) to papi4 (which is what it should have …

Trying to help out a friend here. He and a couple of his friends did something to fs9 while cleaning out what they thought were unneeded scenery files and now all their taxiway and runway signs are completely black on both sides. I am a novice with scenery files but I am thinking that somehow they deleted some sort of texture file or something that contains the characters and background colors use on these signs. Can someone help me get him back into the game? Are there specific texture or other files that are used to label these signs and if so what are the file names so that I can find them on my fs9 discs and direct them on reinstalling them?Any help greatly appreciate…

Is there a plugin available for 3ds max-5 for FS2004 scenery making, similar to the Gmax 'makemdl'?Thankskthy2003

Could please explain how one flips photo textures created in SBuilder in order to use Autogen Object Creater created by Art Martin?Here are the steps as I understand it. Please correct my process where needed.1. Create photo map files (.bmps) in SBuilder as normal.2. Using some 3rd party program take copies of those files and 'flip' them.3. Save these flipped files also as .bmp files4. Use these new flipped files inside Autogen Object Creator (or I guess even AGenT for that matter), to create .agn files.5. Copy the newly created .agn files into proper location of FS.Questions:1. - I read on some forum that perhaps the latest version of Imagetool would perform the flip. Is…

hello,I have a strange problem when trying to attach a rotating beacon with Gmax at the top of my tower. Everything works fine except that 2 transparent boxes appear close to the beacon (offset 50m lateral and 50m higher)Any ideas?thanx in advance for the answers

I am trying to use SBuilder to build high-res scenery. I have no problem with normal res scenery.I select the tiles and click the BGL button to compile. The compile box appears. I uncheck the two options for normal resolution and check the boxes for high resolution.When I click compile, I get the standard MS prompt that says that the application has encountered an error and will close.I am using version 2.05 revision 05.Does anyone know of issues like this when creating hi-res scenery?Thanks.

Greetings,I have been trying to modify one of the default airports of FS9 with AFCAD 2.21.My main purpose was adding ILS to runway .I checked added ILS with 737 and it works perfect but i am unable to see green ILS indicator on map in FS9 as I can see it for other airports.Any ideas?ThanksJOsh

I am trying to move the small airport I fly my Aeronca Champ out of, 0NY7, 20 miles NW of Albany, NY. I used AFCAD2004 to move the runway where I wanted it centered, 4-22, and created the grass 10-28 made last year. I save it, new height is 915 feet, not 940 also, as AF_0NY7.bgl into Addon scenery/scenery folder as I do with other airports, restart FS9 and when I try to go to KSCH about 16 miles from 0NY7, as soon as the initial load taskbar gets to 2% I get crash to desktop unless I remove AF_0NY7.bgl. ANy idea what is going wrong? I can change the stock runway width and texture and save the new bgl, but as soon as I try to move the runway, CTD!! Thanks. Robert

Hi all,i am using EZ-Scenery for object placement but want to say type a name on the roof of a shed ,how would i go about that ,i know i need PhotShop but cannot find the textures for the particular shed to bring it up to edit,i have the BGL file is there a way for me to do this,perhaps xml or something similar?regards Patrick.

Maybe old news to a few of you, I search back a ways and saw nothing about it. And nothing about it in the scenery guide! A free download, Google Earth takes the images from many satelite databases, with terrain information, and tons of options to show borders, streets, AIRPORTS, and much much more. You can Zoom from Space to 76 feet above the ground! You can tilt, rotate, move in any direction. The images vary in detail depending on the date and Sat used. (it shows my house from a year ago, before I redid the concrete of my pool...so its green! Ha Ha. Can see the wife Minvan in the driveway too) So how can it help in Scenery design? Object placement more then anything. I…

I've been trying to make some apron textures that are made up of several layers of polygons overlapping each other and blended with alpha channels. For example, one I have has a base 'noise' texture, a lowres slightly transparent phototexture, a texture for the edges of the blocks that make up the apron surface, a layer for the taxiway lines, and a dirt layer for parts that are used a lot. Each of these (apart from the lines and dirt, which are a different shape) is a separate identical polygon.So far, I've been making these with the FS2002 gamepack and the ADDCAT tweaked asm, and its worked very well.However, where I want to place this is right next to a cliff edge (I'm …

So are any of the scenery designers getting hints and tips from MS about the new SDK that will be coming out or will we have to wait until long after the release to learn how to take advantage of the new features? It would seem to me to be in MS's best interest to give some at least technical hints to the development community before the product becomes available. I would imagine they'd get a boost in sales knowing that new aftermarket addons were ready when or shortly after the product is released. Art Martin

Well, I don't spend my life at the FS Team blogs (just a small part of it) and RSS is the radically-superfluous skinny as far as I am concerned.But, Adrian Woods has given out some small bits of information that could make our scenery world much more satisfyingly complex in the next FS:http://blogs.technet.com/torgo3000/articles/418037.aspxWhat? Higher resolution seasons? Imagine micro-climates, different seasons and ground textures and autogen from valley to mountain-side.And selective land class lookup tables! This is getting really complex, just like the real world.As usual, Adrian, does not reveal much. But, this does open up a world of possibilities, that is the leas…

I just wanted to post my experience when using both decompilers to examine default AP files.As a conclusion, none of them is perfect. My observations follow:1) Both will decompile taxiway signs almost always, but BGLAnalyze will decompile them wrong, turned around 180 degrees. The error is in the parameter "justification" which comes out "left" when it should be "right" and viceversa.2) BGLXML will sometimes decompile ILSs wrongly associated to the runway end (changing "primary" to "secondary" and viceversa).3) Re approaches, BGLXML just forgets to decompile the very important CF, FC and FA legs. However, in the other leg types, it spits out more parameters than BGLAnalyz…

Ok, I'm now over my initial excitement about the anticipated texture resolution increase for photoreal scenery in FSX and have begun to realize what this now means to we designers that don't just concentrate on small areas around airports but instead create huge areas with thousands of texture files.My Phoenix Photo Scenery covers thousands of square miles of photoreal textures. The initial release has over 4500 256 X 256 DXT1 texture files with a size of about 43kb each (At this time there are no seasonal and night textures so that 4500 could blossom up considerably if I include them). As you all know these give you roughly 4.8 m/pixel resolution. This comes out to ab…

I have some groundpolys that I've made using the FS2002 gamepack and adding the ADDCAT command in the asm file. Thing is, I need them to be above ground. The reason why is complicated and is basically that I'm making a very hilly airfield and the origin of the scene in Gmax is below the level of the groundpolys I want. Its either remake the ENTIRE thing with the origin in a different place or find out which line in the asm file sets the height. Does anybody know?