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FSX Brize Norton Scenery

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Kelleymoe
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FSX Brize Norton Scenery

Post by Kelleymoe »

Does anyone have Tony Meredith's FSX Brize Norton Scenery from his former "ARM Computers" website? If so, would you be willing to share it with me? The file name is: EGVN_Brize_Norton.exe. The website is no longer in existence and the file is not available via Wayback.

I know it's probably a long shot, but I appreciate your help.

Thank you,

Mike
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Re: FSX Brize Norton Scenery

Post by f4nutter »

if your a P3D user from your version status, what's wrong with RAF Brize Norton for P3Dv4 by Matt Kingscott & Paul Baines found right here at MAIW ?

https://militaryaiworks.com/download-ha ... -for-p3dv4
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Re: FSX Brize Norton Scenery

Post by pslinger »

I am trying to find a Brize Norton scenery for FSX. I have done some looking around with no success. I tried searching for the file mentioned in the initial post. if anyone has some suggestions or can point me in the right direction, I would appreciate it. Thanks.

Paul
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Re: FSX Brize Norton Scenery

Post by TimC340 »

I'll have a look - I used to have all the ARM collection, but I haven't used any of them for many years and may well have lost them.

If you are prepared to pay, the UK2000 VFR series covers probably around 100 UK airfields, including Brize (which is one of the better ones). Matt and Paul's EGVN may be convertible to FSX using MCX, or at least enough of it to do a decent job. I'd have a look at trying to convert the buildings and adding them in ADE to an updated airfield layout; that would avoid having to convert files that may be too large to play nicely in FSX.

If you want to try that, I'm pretty sure I made an AFD to work with the UK2K scenery in FSX, and it should be adaptable to Matt and Paul's buildings (for yourself only of course).
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Re: FSX Brize Norton Scenery

Post by pslinger »

Thanks Tim appreciate the help. Is there a good place to learn the basics of MCX? I have looked through the manual and get lost at times in the terminology. I would be starting from scratch, I know absolutely nothing about scenery design. The things I have done with AFCAD and ADE have been by trial and error, reading posts on this website and watching YouTube videos.

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Re: FSX Brize Norton Scenery

Post by TimC340 »

Converting scenery is generally trivially easy. Find the scenery library bgl(s) in the source files - they’ll be in the scenery folder, and will be among the larger files. Import into MCX, which will then give you a picture of each item. Go to the ‘export scenery’ tab, select the format to export in (in your case, FSX bgl) and select where you want to export to. I’d suggest you title the files to make it clear they are for FSX.

To use the scenery in ADE, it’s worth making a thumbs collection of the scenery library. You’ll find a button in MCX that’ll do that for you - all you have to do is say where it’s going to go (I use the master ‘thumbs folder in ADE). I also select the option that saves each thumbnail with its GUID and plain language name.

In ADE, you need to import the scenery library into Library Object Manager (in the Tools menu). Open the LOM, and click on ‘add file’ (a button near the bottom of the window). Navigate to your converted library and select the bgl file. Then, before you save it, tell the LOM where to find the thumbnails of the scenery objects. To do that, click on the blank space where the thumbnail would show. (Hint: if you always use the same thumbs folder, ADE will normally pick it up automatically after you’ve done this a couple of times). Then Save the LOM. This is very important, or the objects won’t be available.

If you have an AFD (airfield layout) you want to use, open ADE (make sure it’s writing to the right SDK; if you have more than one sim it will give you the choice on opening) and select ‘open airport from bgl’. That’ll get the basic AFD into the program. If you have other files associated with that AFD, such as scenery objects from the author, you can ‘add bgl’ to import them. Now you can add the converted building s by right-clicking on the AFD and clicking on the context menu item ‘add library object’. Select the building you want from the LOM window that will open. You can then drag the item to where you want it, and rotate it as desired.

If you want to start from the default airport, use ‘Load Stock Airport’. After a couple of fairly obvious menu selections, you’ll get the stock AFD plus any associated buildings, which you can use or delete as you wish. Edit the layout to suit your needs, then save it and compile it. For FSX, you’ll then need to take the compiled bgls and put them in a folder for your airport with scenery and texture sub-folders. Add your converted scenery bgl(s) to the scenery folder, and make sure your texture folder includes the textures from your conversion source. You can then place the completed airport in Addon Scenery as normal, and activate it from within the sim.
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Re: FSX Brize Norton Scenery

Post by pslinger »

Is there a book Model Converter X for Dummies? It looks like I could use it. This is where my problems begin. As an example, i tried importing a .bgl file using the Import tab in MCX and I receive the following messages:

ModelConverterX Error while loading modeldef .xml file
BGL9Reader This BGL file is compressed and cannot be read

In addition the screen above these message has a blue background that is blank. I wold like to figure out how to get past this point and continue to follow your instructions. I appreciate your help, I just need to figure out what i am doing wrong.

Paul
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Re: FSX Brize Norton Scenery

Post by TimC340 »

Which file are you trying to import?
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Re: FSX Brize Norton Scenery

Post by Firebird »

Before you get to what Tim is asking you, you will need to set up in the MCX preferences the target FS and the various pointers to the SDK of that FS. If you don't set it properly then you won't be able to export anything correctly.

Double check that you have set it up correctly. Remember it doesn't matter if the lib is an FS9 one. If you are trying to export to FSX you must have the system settings set up for FSX.
You absolutely need the SDK installed as MCX doesn't compile anything internally it uses the SDK to do that.
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Re: FSX Brize Norton Scenery

Post by TimC340 »

Ah, yes, good point Steve!

If you're using FSX:SE you will need the Prepar3D v1.4 SSDK (get it here) as the Steam SDK is incomplete.

Once it's installed, MCX should find all the routes itself, but you may have to give it a hint in the Options | Exporter Settings menu.
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Re: FSX Brize Norton Scenery

Post by TimC340 »

pslinger wrote: 22 Mar 2022, 15:21 Is there a book Model Converter X for Dummies? It looks like I could use it. This is where my problems begin. As an example, i tried importing a .bgl file using the Import tab in MCX and I receive the following messages:
If you are using MCX v1.5 (the latest stable version) there is a manual in the program's folder. If you're using the 'latest development vesersion' (nominally 1.6), there is no manual.
ModelConverterX Error while loading modeldef .xml file
BGL9Reader This BGL file is compressed and cannot be read

In addition the screen above these message has a blue background that is blank. I wold like to figure out how to get past this point and continue to follow your instructions. I appreciate your help, I just need to figure out what i am doing wrong.

Paul
The blue bit is where the models will appear once you successfully import the file.

I've had a look and the two relevant bgls import just fine (EGVN_ADEP4_mk_GP.bgl and EGVN_ADEP4_mk_OBJ.bgl). ADE also happily imports the AFD from bgl as well, so there should be no problem converting the whole thing to FSX. The other two airfield bgls in the Scenery folder shouldn't need converting (the CVX and Trees files); just import them into ADE before you export the converted project.

The PhotoTile2020.bgl file should just be transferred to your Brize Norton FSX Scenery folder. The textures are a mix of DDS and BMP files and should work just fine in FSX with no other work.
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Re: FSX Brize Norton Scenery

Post by TimC340 »

Just to show it running in FSX:SE:

Image
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Re: FSX Brize Norton Scenery

Post by pslinger »

Thanks for all the help and guidance. As an FYI, I have FSX Deluxe SP2 installed. First, I need to confirm that I have everything set-up the way you indicated. I did "play around" with the Brize P3D scenery mentioned above and did get the structures to display, but no textures, just a black and white checkerboard pattern on the structures. I also tried John Stinstrom's Keflavik FS9 scenery and was able to get both models and textures, so some progress. Once I confirm that I have everything set-up correctly, I will experiment with different sceneries and see what happens. Still have a lot more to learn. Thanks again for the help.

Paul
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Re: FSX Brize Norton Scenery

Post by TimC340 »

You need to make sure the textures are available to the sim. That means, in this case, they must be in a 'texture' folder in the same directory as the 'scenery' folder that you have created to hold your converted files, as detailed in the last paragraph of my long post above.

In fact, converting this airfield was simpler than I indicated, as all the building placing information is in the OBJ bgl (very often it's in a separate file), so as long as you import that into your ADE project, the buildings will appear in the right place.

FS9 airfields will often work in FSX without any conversion work.
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Re: FSX Brize Norton Scenery

Post by pslinger »

I got it to work!!!! I now have Brize Norton in FSX and it looks like the picture that Tim posted. Following the advice in the earlier posts I re-installed FSX SDK and made sure everything was pointing to the correct location. I also installed ModelConverter 1.5, I had a much earlier version installed. Finally, I re-read the ModelConverterX manual to make sure I had everything set-up correctly. Thank you for your help, and above all your patience, I appreciate it. Next step is to learn more about ModelConverterX capabilities and attempt to convert other sceneries. Thanks again.

Paul
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Re: FSX Brize Norton Scenery

Post by Firebird »

Glad you got there. Paul.
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Re: FSX Brize Norton Scenery

Post by TimC340 »

Well done, Paul! As you'll discover, it's actually really easy to do once you get used to the process. The only caveat I'd add is try to be methodical and organised in your conversion work; once you have a few hundred airfields done it gets very hard to work out what's what and where it should be! DAHIKT.
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Re: FSX Brize Norton Scenery

Post by John Young »

Isn't it good to see someone have a go, never mind succeed.

Well done Paul.

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Re: FSX Brize Norton Scenery

Post by kungfuman »

Next... Is it possible to take this (or the new one here on MAIW) back to FS9? Grateful of your thoughts and expertise!
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Re: FSX Brize Norton Scenery

Post by Firebird »

It is possible to convert libraries back to FS9. I did this with an FSX scenery for Mount Pleasant. What is not possible to convert the afcads 100%.
Tools like AFX, and presumably ADE, will load the newer afcads fine and will save them to FS9 standard but will therefore drop any features not covered by the FS9 standard, such as fences and roads. These you would have to add back manually.
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