Making landclass with SBuilder

kungfuman · Post by **kungfuman** » 27 Feb 2010, 14:27

Hi folks,

I have created some landclass polygons (set at level 20). When in FS9, they appear over/instead _of the default landclass, as expected. However, if you approach the modified area from a distance, as the new polygons load up they leave narrow lines of the default landclass in a large grid formation. Luckily, as you get closer and the buildings start loading, these default-landclass lines dissappear.

It makes me think I have missed an important step in the process. Should I have also created some sort of exclude, matching the extent of my area of modified landclass?

Hope that is clear enough to understand,

Dan

MIKE JG · Post by **MIKE JG** » 27 Feb 2010, 18:44

You didn't actually create land class files. You created textured polygons that only sit on top of the existing land class, which in this case will still let the underlying land class textures bleed through a little bit.

If you modify the true land class in the area, you won't have to layer anything on top of it to get the look you want.

kungfuman · Post by **kungfuman** » 27 Feb 2010, 20:59

That sounds like good sense, but how do I do that?

I realise you were thinking of doing a tutorial on this subject, and I am not asking you to start here necessarily. But could you point me in the right direction?

Instead of creating a scenery layer of land-class polygons, what could I have done to get better results - and can I use SBuilder for this?

When you say I should modify the "true" landclass (in my naivety I thought that was what I was doing

), do you mean editing stock files?

Many thanks,

Dan

kungfuman · Post by **kungfuman** » 27 Feb 2010, 23:22

MIKE JG wrote:You didn't actually create land class files. You created textured polygons that only sit on top of the existing land class...

I've just done a little reading and realised that I'm creating VTP polygons that use land class textures, but I am not actually setting the land class itself. I haven't found out how to use SBuilder to set the land class, as that bit of the help-file went over my head a little

Having said that, maybe it is VTP polygons that I need anyway (rather than land class), as I am creating these files to make the surroundings of an airport more realistic.

MIKE JG · Post by **MIKE JG** » 27 Feb 2010, 23:38

The only reason I know all this is because I did the exact same thing myself. I was all proud of myself and then come to find out, didn't really know what I was doing after all.

To make land class mods with SBuilder is very easy.

All you need to do is to have your current project loaded up. Then from the button menu, select "Land". That will bring up the box you see at the bottom of this first pic. This is where you select which land class texture you want to use. There are options also to insert a land class grid on click or delete one on click, not sure what the "Raster" function does.

So select your texture from the list, then simply click on your project where you want to add your land class grids. Notice that they appear as simply squares in SBuilder, not to worry, FS will fragment them up so that they blend naturally and have ragged edges. It's a bit of trial and error to get it looking the way you want or positioned just right but after a couple times, you'll have it looking correct.

Then when you're done, make sure to be in point mode, select either "all" or "land class" and you'll see your work highlighted in green. Note the compile box that pops up, make sure classes are checked and run the compiler. Don't forget in your project's properties menu, there are two folders you have to define a path for to save your work. The land class files will end up in the second of those two selections.

Very Important! You have to install add on land class files into an addon folder that DOES NOT contain a texture folder. So make a new folder, call it whatever and only place the "scenery" subfolder on the inside, leaving out the normal "texture" folder like you would add for a regular addon scenery. This is to prevent a memory leakage that occurs if you don't do this.

MIKE JG · Post by **MIKE JG** » 27 Feb 2010, 23:50

Also know that the texture you see in the little SBuilder preview window, will only match what you see in game IF you are still using the ldefault and class and local airport textures. If you've altered them with payware or one of the freeware versions, you'll just have to boot up the sim and see how they look.

The other thing to know is that a certain texture will look different depending on where in the world you are designing for. IOW if you choose an airport grass background texture for a polygon that you've created, and you choose it based on the fact that you used it in another project and it looked good in that project, it may or may not be the same texture for the particular airport/base you are currently working on. All part of the trial and error process.

kungfuman · Post by **kungfuman** » 27 Feb 2010, 23:57

Mhmm, I will do as you say.

Thanks for explaining all that!

Just one thing: does your "Very Important" point mean that I should delete the empty "texture" folder in the "MAIW Land Class" folder?

Cheers,

Dan

MIKE JG · Post by **MIKE JG** » 28 Feb 2010, 00:07

Yes, it should not be in there. Did you put it in there on your own or was that from one of our packages?

It may or may not cause a problem, better to be safe than sorry.

kungfuman · Post by **kungfuman** » 28 Feb 2010, 00:26

I will delete it.

I can't be sure whether it was put there by your installer or not. I may have created the folder manually when there was a post here about creating the "MAIW Land Class" folder in anticipation of the upcoming MAIW packages at that time.

I'll have to look at the instruction in that post.

Thanks again - I'm making land class as I write here

MIKE JG · Post by **MIKE JG** » 28 Feb 2010, 02:10

One more thing about land class files and their names. There seems to be some thought that the actual name of each file as it is generated helps establish a priority for each file so that you do not have files trying to cover the same areas. So I try not to change the file names and simply add a suffix to each file if I absolutely must.

kungfuman · Post by **kungfuman** » 28 Feb 2010, 14:11

Should I seperate my Airport background VTP polygons and my landclass into two seperate bgls?

Or can I compile everything in the SBuilder project into one file?

Cheers,

Dan

MIKE JG · Post by **MIKE JG** » 28 Feb 2010, 17:18

SBuilder will output separate files for VTP file and land class files, so you will have multiple files no matter how you go about it. Besides if you were able to combine the land class stuff with the VTP stuff (which I don't even think is possible) you might still have the problem of the memory leak because associated with the land class files in a scenery folder with a sub texture folder.

kungfuman · Post by **kungfuman** » 28 Feb 2010, 23:51

Thanks!

By the way, the texture folder in the "MAIW Land Class" folder was put there by SBuilder, as that is where I am compiling my project files. So fear not, it wasn't an MAIW error.

I have deleted that texture folder, because although SBuilder is creating it when I compile my VTPs and my land class files, it remains empty. Given that fact, I've no idea why it is being created in the first place.

kungfuman · Post by **kungfuman** » 03 Mar 2010, 18:15

One final thing:

Is it possible to exclude the default airfield background polygon?

The airfield I'm working on has a default background polygon that extends too far from the airfield, leaving large swathes of green where there shouldn't be any. One solution is to cover them with "landclass-textured" polygons, but these don't blend as nicely as actual land class.

kungfuman · Post by **kungfuman** » 03 Mar 2010, 18:30

Another related final thing:

Excluding default roads and railways.

Although one solution is to cover them with polygons, these don't blend so well. I'd prefer to exclude, if possible.

Thanks

MIKE JG · Post by **MIKE JG** » 03 Mar 2010, 22:05

Yes, just make a normal VTP polygon to cover the area you want to exclude, backgrounds, roads, rivers, etc. Right click on the edge of it, when the properties box comes up, click on the "Exclude" tab at the top. Remember SB will always show the "General" tab by default, so for any other type of polygon, you have to select a different tab.

When you select "Exclude" a new box will show up, the one on the right in this picture. In this box is where you define for SB which scenery layers you want to exclude. Airport backgrounds (the default ones) are in scenery layer 007, that's the one that's already there by default. Click on "Add Layers" and another box will show up. This is just so you can see how to add different scenery layers to the same exclusion polygon.

Compile it with your other polygons and it will be output as a type _VTPX.bgl file. "X" for exclude I am guessing.

kungfuman · Post by **kungfuman** » 03 Mar 2010, 22:17

I really appreciate the time and effort you've put into giving a helping hand!

Cheers,

Dan

kungfuman · Post by **kungfuman** » 03 Mar 2010, 23:16

I suppose there's never really "just one more thing"

Are the default navaid physical models in a specific layer that I can exclude too? The usual "exclude_all" from "excbuilderv2" or "ADE9" doesn't get rid of them.

I haven't tried your above instructions yet, so if I ask a question that will become obvious when I do, don't worry about answering for now...

MIKE JG · Post by **MIKE JG** » 04 Mar 2010, 02:49

Well I suppose that they are in one of the global addon scenery folders that you don't really want to mess with in the first place. Since they are 3D models, you have to use a regular exclusion rectangle to get rid of them, which unfortunately is what ExcludeBuilder and ADE make. So if you have tried those two programs to get rid of them and it hasn't worked, it may not work with SBuilder's exclude function either.

What I'm trying to say is that, no you can't exclude objects with an exclusion polygon. You have to try the exclude function built into SBuilder. Try drawing a small exclusion rectangle around the objects with SBuilder and check every single button, even including the "exclude all" option. Then you'll have to see if it works.

There seem to be certain "master" objects that will not exclude no matter what you try. No one has ever figured out why. We see this a lot with taxiway signs that just won't go away.

LEBTowerGuy · Post by **LEBTowerGuy** » 05 Mar 2010, 02:20

I had the same problem with one of the sceneries that I am working on, were a VOR was staying put. There are 2 ways to fix this. The first, is that there is another airport that has that object as part of its scenery. If you are using ADE as well, you should be able to find it with that. The second, and easiest, is to use an exlude tile in sBuilder, make the size of the exclude as large as you need and then select what you need to remove it, I used "gen building objects" and "Library Objects" check boxes. I hope this helps.

Making landclass with SBuilder

Making landclass with SBuilder

Re: Making landclass with SBuilder

Re: Making landclass with SBuilder

Re: Making landclass with SBuilder

Re: Making landclass with SBuilder

Re: Making landclass with SBuilder

Re: Making landclass with SBuilder

Re: Making landclass with SBuilder

Re: Making landclass with SBuilder

Re: Making landclass with SBuilder

Re: Making landclass with SBuilder

Re: Making landclass with SBuilder

Re: Making landclass with SBuilder

Re: Making landclass with SBuilder

Re: Making landclass with SBuilder

Re: Making landclass with SBuilder

Re: Making landclass with SBuilder

Re: Making landclass with SBuilder

Re: Making landclass with SBuilder

Re: Making landclass with SBuilder