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Prepar3d V5 Default KRND Update

Let's hear all about the eye candy at those military bases.
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TimC340
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Re: Prepar3d V5 Default KRND Update

Post by TimC340 »

Jorgen wrote: 03 Apr 2022, 07:02 Yep, my LEAO came out of the Tiger package.

Jorgen

That still confused me - till I checked aeronautical info. The position you gave was 200km out; you gave 36.95N instead of the correct 38.95N. Mind you, if I'd just checked the ICAO code online (as I just have), I'd have worked it out a bit more quickly!
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Re: Prepar3d V5 Default KRND Update

Post by Jorgen »

Gentlemen... and all others!

I have now chewed my way through converting all the MAIW Asian packages to P3D, using the AIG tool mentioned earlier in this thread. All the packages install fine under P3D v. 5.3 HF2, and P3D loads with all of them without crashing.

The only one I could/would not fly out of was VCCC, where I seemed to be sitting in the middle of a city.... all the others were fine, except for some where (as discussed earlier) I need to learn how to create .cvx files, but those I could fly out of despite they not look so good.

Now on to other areas of the world!

Jorgen - having fun!
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Re: Prepar3d V5 Default KRND Update

Post by jetpilot1980 »

Jorgen wrote: 08 Apr 2022, 09:10 I need to learn how to create .cvx files
That is super easy to do using ADE...

https://scruffyduck.screenstepslive.com ... an-airport

After you do what's in the link; when you compile the airport it will generate one ADE.bgl and one cxv.bgl file...
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Re: Prepar3d V5 Default KRND Update

Post by TimC340 »

I'd add to the above that it's well worth creating an image from Google Earth/Maps/Bing/Apple/whoever to use as reference in ADE for any additions to your airfields. ADE will complain if the image is greater than 7.5mb, but it will actually accept them up to about 11mb. If you're not too concerned about positional accuracy, simply match the ADE runway to the runway in the image, then lock the image and use it as a reference for whatever adjustments you want to make.

Much more accurate images can be created via SBuilder X or Earth Tiles, but that's a lot more complex a process.

Here's an example (I've used more than one image in this one so that they are acceptably clear) using Eielson:

Image

Image
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Re: Prepar3d V5 Default KRND Update

Post by Jorgen »

Thanks for all the help, guys.

I selected GMFM as my "project" for this. I went through the steps in jetpilot1980's link, and at the end compiled and saved the airport (otherwise this would not make sense to me). The end result is in the attached screenshot, so I must not have done everything right...

Jorgen - still ADE newbie

And now it seems I cannot attach my .png screenshot?
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Re: Prepar3d V5 Default KRND Update

Post by Jorgen »

Anyway, there are still trees all over the runway....
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Re: Prepar3d V5 Default KRND Update

Post by jetpilot1980 »

Which drop down menu option in the second box did you select? Make sure you choose one that has "exclude autogen" otherwise the trees will come right through...

Here is another helpful link:

https://scruffyduck.screenstepslive.com ... -my-runway

You can also try using an exclusion rectangle which is the yellow box in the red circle:
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Last edited by jetpilot1980 on 09 Apr 2022, 15:06, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Prepar3d V5 Default KRND Update

Post by jetpilot1980 »

To add a little further explanation...Looking at your screenshot it looks like you may have used flatten only... What these options do:

1. Flatten - just flattens the land itself so it is even no hills ect... This way a flat ADE runway will be able to overlay it without going in and out of the terrain

2. Exclude auto gen- gets rid of auto gen buildings and vegetation

3. Mask class map - gets rid of the generic terrain class textures (image on the ground) and replaces it with what looks like uniform dirt / grass that would be the result of man made landscaping...

and of course it gives you combination options there of...
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Re: Prepar3d V5 Default KRND Update

Post by Jorgen »

The attached should show it...
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Re: Prepar3d V5 Default KRND Update

Post by jetpilot1980 »

Yes that should be the correct exclude selection;

1. Check the elevation of the airport / exclude and make sure it matches the correct elevation for the terrain

2. Click on the red box on the bottom right corner (right above the zoom) see what errors it gives you and see if it will auto fix..

3. Check the Tools -> Fault finder and see if anything comes up there...
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Re: Prepar3d V5 Default KRND Update

Post by TimC340 »

jetpilot1980 wrote: 09 Apr 2022, 15:06 and of course it gives you combination options there of...

For P3Dv5, there are several more options in the 'Airport Backgrnd P3D' Type of terrain polygon, which add 'Min' and 'Smooth' to the 'Flatten', 'MaskClassMap', 'ExcludeAutogen' of the older sims.

I can't find an explanation for these entries in the SDK documentation, but I believe they act as follows:

'Min', for a sloped airfield, allows underlying terrain to influence the airfield surface so that it 'rolls' somewhat more realistically than the flat planes joining vertices that were the first iteration of sloped airfield surfaces.

'Smooth' makes an attempt to smooth the interface between the terrain polygon (the 'airfield background') and the default terrain outside the airfield.

It's these two functions of the latest shp2vec tool that I think are the root cause of the issues I and others have had with replacing default flattens in P3Dv5.3. Unfortunately there's no comprehensive documentation of how the tool works or how it should be used in the SDK or on the P3D Wiki, so I'm afraid that it's a bit of trial and error to see what works.
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Re: Prepar3d V5 Default KRND Update

Post by Jorgen »

I will be working more on this today and report back.

Jorgen - having great fun...
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Re: Prepar3d V5 Default KRND Update

Post by Jorgen »

I took a look, and found that red box. I could fix the errors in that, ans then Tools/Fault Finder produces the attached screenshot.

When I load the airport in P3D, it still looks the same with trees all over the runway.

Jorgen
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Re: Prepar3d V5 Default KRND Update

Post by jetpilot1980 »

Did you try the yellow box exclude rectangle yet? Often times it is necessary to have both an exclusion rectangle and an airport background poly to get the job done...
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Re: Prepar3d V5 Default KRND Update

Post by Jorgen »

Now I think we are cooking with gas! I added such an exclude rectangle around the whole airport, and now it look like this when sitting on the threshold.

A single bush, tree or two I can live with :D

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Re: Prepar3d V5 Default KRND Update

Post by jetpilot1980 »

Progress... Another thing to try...

1. Look for any older or conflicting afcads see if those trees / bushes are part of that afcad and or remove that afcad... A lot of addon AFCAD Developers would often put their own vegetation in...

2. If you are fortunate enough to have separate object and afcad .bgl files...

1. Load just the afcad runways and taxiways

2. tools -> load stock data select scenery objects ok

3. Lists -> scenery objects highlight and delete all

4. File -> import bgl and import your scenery object file from the addon secenry

... and compile...

Or if you can track them...

Just load the stock data and run through the list and delete them... This is the procedure I have been using the fix a lot of the V4 airports as of late in order to not have default buildings showing through in V5...
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Re: Prepar3d V5 Default KRND Update

Post by Jorgen »

I have been a little quiet lately, but have been chewing my way through part of the MAIW download library plus the P3D sceneries from flightsim.com, and installing the converted sceneries into P3D v. 5.3.

What my biased mind seems to see so far:

Sceneries made for P3D v. 5 and v. 4 install without any issues without conversion. Those made for earlier versions of P3D and for FSX I have run through the converter and then they install without issues. And the large majority of the FS9 sceneries also install without issues after having passed through the converter, I would guesstimate about 80%. Of the rest about 60% require excludes, the rest elevation fixes.

I am very pleasantly surprised by this, as it of course means that a lot of my AI traffic (MAIW, AIG and others) come alive with resources that are readily and plentifully available. Best of all, I have had no crashes at all on the converted airfields. I had one crash, and it turned out that I had forgotten to convert that particular AFCAD.

Thanks for all the input, guys -

Jorgen - happily converting!
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Re: Prepar3d V5 Default KRND Update

Post by Victory103 »

Thanks Jorgen, working my way around the US for the recent JYAI C-130s from Jim. Primarily non-mil air bases that require parking and just using ADE 1.79 to mod the stock P3Dv5 airports. Will start converting soon.
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Re: Prepar3d V5 Default KRND Update

Post by Jorgen »

I am working my way through the US packages also, and last night, after my last post installed the KECG Elizabeth City CGAS package. All I did was to unzip the package, run the executable into a temporary folder, removed the VTxx files and converted the AFCAD. When I loaded the scenery, the resulting attached screenshot came up! Absolutely fantastic.

Note: the AI flight plans and aircraft were already in place, a carry-over from FSX and P3D v. 4.5. I gave those 2 up, since it was simply too much work keeping 3 simulators updated.

Jorgen
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Re: Prepar3d V5 Default KRND Update

Post by jetpilot1980 »

So I am now working on Edwards AFB... One thing I noticed is the default static F-16s and hangars on the west end look really rough... I am going to see if a flatten will fix this but no promises will share once I am done... Another problem is in a lot of cases the static aircraft and buildings are build as one scenery object so I cannot delete the static aircraft without deleting the buildings and other objects as well...
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