Hello guys i just need some assistance about scenery creation. A few months ago i discover tileproxy and after i installed it in fsx i found a new wolrd of simulator. I am flying in real life " ppl " so when i test fsx with tileproxy i was recognizing all the terrain as in real flight. Amazing! For the first time the terrain of fs has become so alive! Now as you all have noticed the tileproxy has some limitations for example the servers you are downloading from the lod etc so i am thinking for something which will be permament inside fsx. I have heard that there is a way to construct a terrain for a certain territory inside fsx using tiles or pictures from google earth but i have never manage to find any step by step tutorial of how someone can do this. Can you please someone can provide a such a guide? Second i have noticed that the autogen trees and buildings inside fsx are oversized in dimensions ( the size of any tree for example is so tall as a five floors building ). Can someone please tell me with textutes? or bgl? files are responsible for this effect so i can edit them and reduce the corresponding dimensions to match the real life? Thats all. Thanks in advance.

For a tutorial on creating custom ground textures, please try:Make photo-real ground textures in Flight Simulator Xavailable in the Avsim library:http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=fsxsd&DLID=140539Autogen trees come in all different sizes, all of them completely realistic. The problem is perhaps that they are not so tall in your part of the world. But, rest assured, all of those trees can and do grow that tall given the right conditions. And you can check this in any on-line vegetation data base.For an illustrated description of the autogen system, please see:Using the Autogen Annotator http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?&DLID=140537Probably the best solution is to change the land class for that area to a type with smaller trees. If you are making your own ground textures from aerial images, then simply annotate the textures with smaller trees to your liking.Best regards.Luis

Hello Lui and first off all many thanks! After i receive your reply yesterday i downloaded the " SBuilderX313 " and after i installed i made my first custom textures with the easy example and it is working perfect. Thanks again! Now i will need one more time your assistance with some techical things. I want to create the terrain for greece for 30cm quality because unfortunately in tile proxy only the google earth has desent photos of greece ( the other servers has not ). I need your help with this. I want for example to create the custom texture of the capital of greece Athens and its sorounding territoty Attiki in hight lod ( 30 cm ). I have tried yesterday as i told above with the easy example using the virtual earth sever in the zoom of 16 ( i think this 100m above ground ) taking some photos and creating the photo scenery with really great results. Now as you have allready understand i want to divide the hole athens territoty in parts so they fit each time in screen and then take the photos. So is there any way i can do this? I tried to use the google server but it was only working in zoom0 and 1. Is there a way to take the photos from google earth and then import them inside SBuilderX313 so to compile them as a complete bgl? Please forgive my english they are fluent.Many thanks.

Google occasionally makes changes to their image server, but fortunately our friend and fellow hobbyist Dick Ludowise (rhumbaflappy) has been providing updated server dll files for them. Get the latest version here:http://www.ptsim.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=1053&start=30and place it in the Tiles folder.I can get higher resolution images from Google for Hellas - here is a nice shot at zoom 18:and the same zoom level at the airport:So, perhaps you simply need to update the server dll file as mentioned above.Please note that no matter how high the resolution of your custom ground textures, FS X will always display lower resolution MIP maps as you increase distance from the ground. So, normally you will only see very high resolution images when you are on the ground. As soon as you get somewhere above 1000 ft. AGL the game will display 2.4 meter per pixel images, and the higher you go the lower the resolution of the ground that is displayed. So, there is really not much point to making very high resolution custom ground for a flight simulator since you will never see the high resolution images when flying over it. Of course, it is up to you to decide and you should do as you please. Generally, though, I would only bother with very high resolution ground textures for the airport and its immediate vicinity, and restrict all else to a maximum of 2.4 meters per pixel. But, everyone does as he wishes.Your idea of making small images and then combining them is good, and there is some indication of how to do this in the tutorial. In essence, you should make all the individual areas first, then delete the bgl files, manually modify the inf file to make it MultiSource and include all the different images, and compile it manually. The Resample tool will combine them all into one very big bgl file containing the entire area.Don't hesitate to ask in case of doubts. There are plenty of people here who are quite happy to help.Best regards.Luis

The Resample tool will combine them all into one very big bgl file containing the entire area.

If I may interject a thought? Be careful as to HOW big the file gets. Resample will compile a 4gb file, if so directed. FSX will not display the contents of the BGL. So now I try to make sure nothing exceeds 1gb in size, + or -.What the limit is for FSX I can't say. Only that 1gb is OK, 4gb causes problems... :(

Thanks for the comment, Lance. You are a brave man to have attempted the creation of such a large file. My puny computer would probably crash if I even tried. Probably this limit is dependent on a 32-bit program's memory usage. Good to know this.Best regards.Luis

Greets Luis,Brave? Lazy or something else comes to mind... I tried a 1 degree square of 1m source. Resample gave me the file but FSX didn't recognize it, so now I cut them into .25h x 1w sections. I may try getting up around 2gb and see what happens, as I *think* that will be the limit.

Thanks for the comment, Lance. You are a brave man to have attempted the creation of such a large file. My puny computer would probably crash if I even tried. Probably this limit is dependent on a 32-bit program's memory usage. Good to know this.Best regards.Luis

Greets Luis,Brave? Lazy or something else comes to mind... I tried a 1 degree square of 1m source. Resample gave me the file but FSX didn't recognize it, so now I cut them into .25h x 1w sections. I may try getting up around 2gb and see what happens, as I *think* that will be the limit.

Hi Luis and Lance:IIRC, Arno had previously reported in other threads here and/or at FSDeveloper.com that he was able to get FSX Resample and FSX itself to "behave" if he limited the FSX Resample output BGL file size to no more than 2 GB. :( However, for me, this then begs a couple of questions. :( On a practical basis, aside from a development challenge of processing big source files via Resample in limited physical RAM, given sufficient available RAM and the necessity of minimizing file I/O in FSX more so than in FS9, which would be more desirable to request from FSX Resample: :( 1.) Maximum 2 GB file size for custom land class imagery BGL output (with or without compression factor)2.) Maximum 1 GB file size for custom land class imagery BGL output (with or without compression factor)Also, I'm curious if anyone has yet tried setting the LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE_FLAG in FSX SDK Resample.exe for:1.) 32-bit Windows to allow a User Virtual Address Space ("USERVA") of up to 2650 MB in a 3 GB Resample task session (via the "/3 GB switch")http://www.ntcore.com/exsuite.php(Substituting FSX SDK Resample.exe for FSX.exe as the app to be edited in this tutorial):http://forum.simflight.com/topic/55994-set-fs-and-winxp-to-use-the-3gb-switch/or...2.) 64-bit Windows to allow a bigger User Virtual Address Space ("USERVA") in a 4 GB Resample task session (via the "4 GB patch")http://www.ntcore.com/4gb_patch.php(Substituting FSX SDK Resample.exe for FSX.exe as the app to be "patched")I wonder if this might allow "some" Resample task sessions with larger cumulative sizes of source files to complete without crashing ? B) GaryGB

Precisely, Gary. Excellent points, thanks for stating them so clearly.Best regards.Luis

Hello guys its me again. Here i have attached two photos of Attiki ( it is the name of the territory that is Athens and lgav airport ). I have compiled the first photo but i didn't see any difference inside fsx. I have tried the second photo and it is working great inside fsx so i have deside to use the zoom of the second photo to create the textutes. I am writing you again because i am really amateur in scenery creation and in programming and i really need your help. I have tried to create the territory with the way i am posting in photo two ( i have take many photos in the same zoom of Attiki and i have compile them each time as i post in photo two but with this way i have miss to include many places because each time i am seeing in screen only a small part of the teritory i am building and i am getting confused ). Is there any way that i can use the second photo way but to organize and make it in such way that i don't miss a place of the teritory i am building? Can you guys send me a step by step guide of how i can do this? One more time forgive my English they are fluent. Thanks in advance.

The BGL from the first picture will not show because the resolution is too low and FSX will show the default textures instead.If you want to make scenery at Level 17, as in the second picture, then it is a slow, make that very slow and tedious process. SBuilderX will create a BMP and TXT file for every Map created, along with an INF file when the Map is compiled to a BGL. You can use that information to create a MultiSource INF file to create a larger BGL file, as explained in the Terrain portion of the SDKs.But for large areas, say the whole city of Athens, it is going to take some time. A whole lot of time!

All the textures in FS, including ground textures, have MIP maps. You can find a technical explanation elsewhere on the Internet, but these are lower resolution versions of the same image that are included in the image file. For example, here are all of the MIP maps for a default ground texture:The highest resolution image is only displayed when you are close to the ground. As you climb above the ground in your aircraft, lower resolution images are displayed. This technique is more efficient in its use of computer resources.If you make custom ground textures, the Resample tool will examine your source image and determine the highest resolution image that can be compiled into a bgl. Resample will also include lower resolution MIP maps in the bgl.When you used the first, low resolution image as a source, Resample could only include that as the highest resolution image in the ground texture. Since that level of resolution is only displayed when you are very high above the ground, it is not surprising that you did not see your ground textures. Try climbing higher until you start to see it.Generally, you would make custom ground textures that are at least at LOD 13 level. As you can read in the S.D.K.:Default land class textures will be used if the terrain system cannot find photo-imagery at LOD13 (5 meters per pixel) or greater detail. This can lead to default textures appearing when photo-imagery is desired. To ensure that the LOD13 requirement is met, consider using LOD=Auto,13 in the [Destination] section of the .inf file. So, in order to see your custom ground from low altitudes, always use images around zoom 17.To make small parts of your area and then join them together, make sure to get images of the entire Attiki area at zoom 17 (or 18 if that is the highest you want.) But, also get complete coverage at lower levels, for example 15 or 13. Why? Because the Map selection window allows you to display the Attiki area in lower resolution, select the small area for which you want to make custom ground textures, and indicate that you wish to use zoom 17 images.For example, here is Attiki at zoom 13.Make very sure that you got the zoom 17 images for the entire area first. Then, in the File menu, go to Add Map from Background:In the Map selection window, select any part of the area that you wish, for example, 3x3 grids of zoom 13 as indicated.Also, select the zoom 17 button so that those images are used to make the custom ground textures. Be careful - if you select too large an area at too high a zoom level, SBuilderX may return an error and tell you that you cannot display the Map. This is because you do not have sufficient memory to create a Map that big. If that happens, select smaller areas.Then, just compile that so as to make the custom ground bgl. Then, go back and start again with another part of the area until you have covered everything and have custom ground textures for it all.You can, if you wish, take all those parts and make them into one big bgl, but perhaps it is best if you just keep them apart for the moment until you have mastered the technique and feel more comfortable.Best regards,Luis

Hello its me again. After some experiment i saw that between lod 15 and 18 when you fly the differrence is not noticable with the eyes so i will create the scenery for the territories i need in lod 15 which is perfect in my opinion both for airliner or a generall aviation flight. I have used the second example as you told me Luis with the " Add Map from Background " so i put the map in zoom 12 and then i get the photo in lod 15. In this way i created the island of samos with two photos in aproximately five mins. That was amazing! After this i am thinking to create the whole territory of Greece including the islands in lod 15. I have only one minor problem. When i select the photos for the samos island also they selected some areas which they including sea so in the resulting scenery i had a perfect land but with some unwanted sea textures next to the shores. Any ideas of how i can fix this? The scenery in fs was always owfull but with this program " SBuilderX " we can go into a new era with vfr enviroment. For one more time. Thanks Luis!

Congratulations! It seems you are making very good progress. Perhaps you should now carefully read:Make photo-real ground textures in Flight Simulator Xavailable in the Avsim library:http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=fsxsd&DLID=140539Here you will learn about Blend and Water Masks, and also about the Flattens that are associated with Hydro Polygons (the default water) and that can flatten the coastlines in your custom islands unless you correct them.Best regards.Luis

Hello guys its me again. I need your for one last time. I tried to read the examples with the blend masks water masks ect. but i didnt undertast them ( as i told you before i am amateur in programing ) so the result is in the picture bellow taken from a 7000 feet height. Perfect land but the water is this. Can someone please send me a step by step guide of how i can fix the water? I suppose if i can fix it for this i will use the tutorial to fix any water to any future project i will make. Thanks in advance.