Create Ponds Lakes and Streams

General discussion about Scenery Design. Questions about SBuilder for Flight Simulator FS2004.
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jimmader
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Joined: Mon Feb 27, 2006 5:11 am

Create Ponds Lakes and Streams

Post by jimmader » Mon Feb 27, 2006 10:34 pm

My goal for downloading SBuilder was to create small ponds and lakes in my local area as well as the streams, as MSFS missed all of them. I've laid out some streams and used the polygon tool to create a pond. But now I have no idea where to go from here.

Would anyone know of a tutorial for creating and placing water objects like these?

JPHespanha
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Joined: Tue May 24, 2005 7:25 am
Location: Portugal
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Post by JPHespanha » Mon Feb 27, 2006 11:19 pm

Weeeelll, is not so difficult, after all![:D]
I have written a tutorial with that and other subjects on LandClass + VTP scenery creation, but it is in Portuguese...

For large lakes, a combination of a VTP line for the shoreline and a LWM water poly (setting an height) and a water class texture covering the lake area gives good results.

For small ponds, just forget the shoreline![:)]

For large rivers with enough lenght, it is a good ideia to define a LWM3 poly (where heights increase upstream). Of course it means an extra effort. Here you can add a shoreline too. Essentially, and apart the LWM3 poly, works like a large lake.

For lagoons or estuaries near the sea, is a good idea to add surf effect to the shoreline. Remember surf shows on the right side of the line (defined by increasing point number).

Editing maritime shorelines, however, is far more difficult. But if your area is inland, I do not expect you will have many problems. Just take care you do not have default lakes in your area! If you want to modify them too, then a more complicated approach should be followed.

Please search the forum for "changing LWM default polygons" or the like, because I received a very good answer on this subject recently. And now is a proved technique (I can assure good results)[:D]


JP Hespanha
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NBL3007; IVAO: 117151

scott967
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Joined: Wed Oct 06, 2004 5:08 am
Location: O'ahu Hawai'i

Post by scott967 » Tue Feb 28, 2006 2:47 am

Since you have the polygon drawn, you are on the way. You need to set the polygon to type LWM and LWM type to WaterMask. If you know the elevation of your pond, use the "set all points" to set elevation in meters (use 3 decimals in converting from ft). If you don't know the elevation, or the lake is small, set the elevation to -9999. This also can help if the mesh isn't too good in your area.

It's generally good to go into "pointer" mode. Then use "select all polygons", or drag a selection box around your polygons. They should be highlighted (green is the default highlight color). Then click BGL, the dialog that pops up should have LWM polygons check box checked for you. If it doesn't it usually means you didn't select anything. Then click compile, and the bgl scenery file will be created. It will be named using your project name, and LWM2 i.e., project_LWM2.bgl. The default location is in the Tools\work\ folder. For test drag it into an active scenery area scenery folder, such as \addon scenery\scenery. If you have a lot of other scenery in the same area, you might want to create a new scenery area, at highest priority, and activate it in the scenery library to make sure your polygons are not being replaced by other scenery.

scott s.
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buzzm
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2006 5:36 am

Post by buzzm » Wed Apr 26, 2006 1:30 am

How do you cover the lake with a water class texture? I've used the fill option but it covers more than just the LWM polygon. Is there a way to remove all the extra water and just have it fill the LWM Poly?

scruffyduck
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Location: United Kingdom

Post by scruffyduck » Wed Apr 26, 2006 6:41 am

Start of by selecting the Water Tool then pick a water class from the dialog. Click around the area you want the pond to get a few squares of water class. Select the poly tool and then draw a poly the shape of the pond or lake you want. Set it's type to LWM and in the LWM tab select Water Mask


Jon

buzzm
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Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2006 5:36 am

Post by buzzm » Thu Apr 27, 2006 1:43 am

Thanks for that, works very well.

José
Posts: 126
Joined: Mon Sep 04, 2006 8:49 pm
Location: Brazil

Post by José » Sat Sep 09, 2006 12:38 am

Hi, JPHespanha,

Could you please tell me where I can find your tutorial about LWM, in Portuguese language?

Thanks


J.F.Lôbo

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