Exclude Airport Background

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diger44
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Jul 29, 2010 6:29 am

Exclude Airport Background

Post by diger44 » Sat Nov 06, 2010 6:28 pm

Hello All,
I am making ground photoscenery for a nearby airport and I have run into a problem. The masked photoscenery is smaller than the default airport background. In other words the green default background shows outside the airport scenery! See attached image:
getRidOfBackground06N.jpg
I am using SbuilderX 3.1.3 and ADE9X v1.47.07. I have tried endless polygons in both SBuilder and ADE, I have tried countless tags and polygons, I just can't get rid of that background.
Can anyone please help me?
Thanks,
diger44

meshman
Posts: 219
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2006 11:54 pm

Re: Exclude Airport Background

Post by meshman » Sat Nov 06, 2010 6:59 pm

diger44 wrote:...I have tried countless tags and polygons, I just can't get rid of that background.
Exclude_All_Airport_Boundaries is the tag in SBuilderX to rid the default airport area. This will get rid of the green area used in default airports, plus it will also eliminate the flattened area. A new airport boundary would need to be drawn, with the proper elevation set for the polygon.
Lance

diger44
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Jul 29, 2010 6:29 am

Re: Exclude Airport Background

Post by diger44 » Sat Nov 06, 2010 9:55 pm

I can't seem to get SBuilderX to compile a bgl from the terrain vector. I go to "Select" then "Select All" and for some reason my map does not come up with "photo scenery" as an option, nonetheless, Terrain Vector is selected and I press compile. No bgl is made in "Tools/Work". Before I had to manually create a .inf file and compile that. I went back into ADE. I made a poly around the airport and tried setting it as "exclude everything", compiled, yet no change at all in fsx. I stumbled on this post in another form: http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15173 and I followed "jvile"'s first post, but to no avail. Excluding anything doesn't work, hell, polygons don't work. I tried setting land classes, Mask Class Map, Excludes, and NOTHING WORKS! Help!

meshman
Posts: 219
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2006 11:54 pm

Re: Exclude Airport Background

Post by meshman » Sun Nov 07, 2010 4:50 am

Let's slow down, cause my head is spinning from your description... :lol:

Within FSX and within the work with the SDKs there are two types of "scenery design". First is the terrain, second is what sits upon the terrain. Your airport work is sitting on the terrain and that is handled by one of the compilers used in the SDKs. Terrain work is handled by another of the compilers from the SDKs.

Work done on terrain, such as adding or removing an airport background / flatten is compiled with the Shp2Vec compiler. Any BGL file made by SBX using this compiler will be located in the \Tools\Shapes folder and start with "cvx_". Any work you do above ground is done with the BGLComp compiler and the files will normally be found in the \Tools\Work folder, if not specified to be placed elsewhere.

I'm a bit lost because you've thrown in photo work, which is a whole different compiler from those above. But we don't need to worry about that in this discussion. Start a new project in SBX nameing it ICAO_ABexclude (where the ICAO is your airport's designator), move to your airport's location and turn on the background so that Google or Bing or Yahoo gives you a visual of your airport area, level 14 or 15 should suffice. Make a BIG OLE polygon wayyyy larger than your airport's area and tag it Exclude_All_Airport_Boundaries. Save the project, hit Select All and press the Compile button. Don't blink, because the compile happens really fast. Go to the \Tools\Shapes folder and you should have a file there named cvx_ICAO_ABexclude.bgl. Copy it to an active scenery folder in FSX and see if the default area is gone. It should be! If so, you'll need to go back in and make a replacement polygon to flatten the airport area to your liking. It can be (and should be) in the same project as the exclusionary polygon. You should be back in the scenery design business in no time.
Lance

diger44
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Jul 29, 2010 6:29 am

Re: Exclude Airport Background

Post by diger44 » Sun Nov 07, 2010 6:17 am

Thanks, that got rid of the background alright, however I ran into another problem, but then smacked myself for how long I spent trying to figure it out. I needed to use a flatten polygon to flatten the land, ADE was giving me 522ft, whereas when I entered the height in, it gave me this:
hugecliff.jpg
When I tried setting it to 0 it gave me:
giantindet.jpg
I tried endlessly to flatten the terrain, but alas I realized it. ADE was giving me feet whereas SBX was accepting meters. Blech. I feel stupid spending an hour on this. But yes, I used a converter and now the scenery is looking as it should be, flat.

One question, after all of this I wind up with about 5 or 6 .bgl's, is it possible to combine them into one for distribution?

meshman
Posts: 219
Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2006 11:54 pm

Re: Exclude Airport Background

Post by meshman » Sun Nov 07, 2010 4:21 pm

diger44 wrote:One question, after all of this I wind up with about 5 or 6 .bgl's, is it possible to combine them into one for distribution?

Ah yes, the old "feet x .3048" solution!

Doing scenery work can involve using up to three different compilers. One for the photo, one for the terrain and another for the airport/objects that sit on top. Each creates it's own type of BGL file and they are not able to be combined.

If there are multiple files made by BGLComp, which is the compiler used to make airports, place or exclude objects that sit on the terrain, then it could be possible to combine those files. But it involves manually decompiling the files and cutting and pasting code into a master file, then compiling that file.

Personally, multiple files are my preference when using the BGLComp compiler. FSX knows what to use, when to use it and (generally?) how to use it. Having six files versus three isn't going to bother the game much.

And congrats on taking small steps. Many people think they can jump in with both feet and just whip something out. When they realize there are many small steps along the way and a learning curve, they cuss and scream and give up... :lol:
Lance

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