Runway over water

[jgowing]

I've made a small ADE file for the heliport at Ceuta (CEGT). It's on the shoreline and "floats" 10 feet above the waves, which nevertheless still lap across the apron. So I want to eliminate the "float" and remove those waves.

It seems that Sbuilder might help, but the guidance I've seen doesn't quite describe what I want to do, or at least, I haven't been able to make it work for me yet. I thought I could create a solid gmax platform and put the ADE on top of that, then use LWM and landclass to get rid of the waves.

So far, it hasn't worked, but I'm new to this, and I'm conscious that I might have issues with layers or the order in which they are added.

Any shortcuts or relevant experience would be very welcome.

Jon

[JohnTenn]

Jon

You have to use a bit of trickery here.

Create an ADE for your heliport at 0ft (sea level) to go into Addon scenery or your preferred scenery folder. This will flatten the surface to sea level.

Create another ADE at 10ft which must go into fs9\Scenery\World\Scenery. AI use this to determine the altitude of the AI ground movement.

If you want to land UI on the heliport, you have to create a new ADE with only a runway at 10 ft. You then need to use a different ICAO code.

This works for Oil platforms also.

The last part is creating the scenery platform with Gmax or other 3d editor.

There is another way to create a hard landing surface for buildings which I am not familiar with.

John

[jgowing]

John,

Thankyou, I wouldn't have thought of that. I'll give it a try..

Cheers,

Jon

[jgowing]

Jon

You have to use a bit of trickery here.

Create an ADE for your heliport at 0ft (sea level) to go into Addon scenery or your preferred scenery folder. This will flatten the surface to sea level.

Create another ADE at 10ft which must go into fs9\Scenery\World\Scenery. AI use this to determine the altitude of the AI ground movement.

If you want to land UI on the heliport, you have to create a new ADE with only a runway at 10 ft. You then need to use a different ICAO code.

This works for Oil platforms also.

The last part is creating the scenery platform with Gmax or other 3d editor.

There is another way to create a hard landing surface for buildings which I am not familiar with.

John

A bit more trickery may be needed..

I did as described, but, although the waves are now below the platform, the AI is at sea level, too.

I was careful to create the 0ft ADE first, because when the 10ft ADE is then made for the AI, an ALT file is created alongside it in the Scenery/World/Scenery folder. Despite that, it's as if there's only one ADE file, at 0ft.

I tried renaming the 0ft ADE, and even swapped the files between their respective folders, but everything stayed the same.

I suspect a layer priority issue, but, if the 10ft ADE must be in Scenery/World/Scenery, what would that be?

I am clearly missing something, but at the moment I can't find it.

Jon

[jgowing]

Further to my last message, my current set up has AI correct at 10ft, but waves over the platform and no visible ADE airport markings:

Folder GECT (0ft):

GEC0_FLATTEN_ADE9_JBG.bgl
Ceuta_heliport_harbour.bgl

Folder Scenery/World/scenery (10ft):

GECT_ADE9_JBG.bgl
GECT_ADE9_JBG_ALT.bgl
GEC0_FLATTEN_ADE9_JBG_ALT.bak

I suppose I can always texture the platform, but how to get rid of the waves?

Jon

[JohnTenn]

Jon

In my experience it is not possible to get a vertical edge using Sbuilder or Terrain Sculptor that will display properly in FS9.
Important to remember that all aprons, taxiways and apron links will raise or lower the terrain surface to the airport elevation in the ADE with the highest priority.
This will also affect the edge of your intended flattened area.

In short, you have to have this airport\heliport at 0ft. Now a 3d model is used as the dockside with no terrain protruding from the edges.
The 3d model will also have to have an altitude specified to 0 ft so that it lies on the water surface and does not float.

The flatten must be at 0 ft to flatten the water in the Harbour area. Made with ADE.

The flatten and ADE at 0 ft must be in your scenery folder, be it Addon Scenery or airport specific.

GECT_ADE9_JBG.bgl
GECT_ADE9_JBG_TER.bgl (flatten)

The ADE at 10 ft must go into Scenery\World\Scenery.
In actual fact it can be only the ALT file which contains only the airport header with the altitude set to 10 ft.

GECT_10_ADE9_JBG_ALT.bgl

No other ADE related bits of this heliport must be present

The result is the heliport at 0 ft and the AI floating above it at 10 ft. The ADE created lines will be at 0 ft. I would make them not visible.

There are no lines at 10 ft.
Yes, you would have to texture the lines onto your model of the dockside.


Sbuilder can create exclude files which are exported as VTPX and have the prefix 0_ so that the exclude operates before the new modifications.

Shorelines are at layer 8.

My method of modifying the base FS9 files is to use the image I imported into ADE and scaled to fit a runway or 2 discernable visible points.
I then use the top left and bottom right co-ordinates of the image to place it in Sbuilder. Co-ordinates are found by placing position markers at the top left and bottom right of the image in ADE.

The position marker must be positioned over the inside edge of the black frame around the image. I zoom in all the way. (The middle of the red arms must be over the inner black edge.)


You can create a land mask in Sbuilder by using the polygon mode. You assign the LWM under General tab. Under LWM tab assign Land Mask. Leave the altitude at 0m in this case.

I hope this can get you started.

John

[jgowing]

Thanks John for the detailed reply, I shall pursue this.

I want to try for a decent result, as there are some other coastal locations where I want to make additions and improvements if I can.

Thanks again,

Jon