Military AI Works

Thank you, Pete!

Wow. This is fantastic work. Many thanks for creating and sharing it. The F15 AI brings it alive and enhances it even more.

by Firebird » Tue Feb 14, 2017 7:01 pm

I would like to ask one question, if I may, the effect that you show is it something that can be applied to all FSX scenery or does something have to be built for each scenery?

...I forgot to answer your question, I am sorry for the late reply -

In a Standard version of FSX, when it rains, there is a default ' Wet Surface ' effect applied to the ground hard surface's of the Airfield / Airport at which the user aircraft is present.

If an Airfield / Airport is modified, but still use's FSX default Texture's for Taxiways etc, the ' Wet Surface ' effect will still be applied when it rains. It is possible to have a Ground Photo Image, like the one used for Lakenheath, with default FSX Taxiway's and Runway and still have the ' Wet Surface ' effect visible.

The problem comes when the designer wants to incorporate a higher level of ground detail and to do this, use's Custom Ground Polygons. You may remember, that these were used to great effect in FS9 in our ACG RAF Gutersloh Scenery.
One of the main reasons for using Custom GP's ( besides being able to use Custom made Textures ) was being able to control the orientation of the concrete paving, such that you didn't have diagonal concrete slabs on the hard stand areas or Taxiways / Runways.

Where FSX is concerned, generally* speaking it is not possible to have ' Wet surface ' effects, when Ground Polygons have been used to create the Runways and Taxiways. This is because FSX Special Material settings for the Texturing, are not able to be compiled by the legacy ( FS8 ) model compilers, that are used to create the GP's. ( * However, it can be done and I have demonstrated this on FSdeveloper, the designer must factor in the requirement for the ' Wet Surface ' effect, in the initial stages of design of the Scenery. )

Many FSX designers therefore do not bother about including ' Wet Surface ' effects within their Scenery Designs. That includes commercial designers of course. This is because of the extra workload to achieve the effects.


Getting back to your Question LOL - Here's the answer !

Once a Scenery has already been designed, such as Ian's RAF Lakenheath Scenery had been, the only way to add an effect such as the 'Wet Surface ' effect, is to design a new layer. The ' layer ' is made up of a direct copy of the Ground Polygon ( Hard Surfaces only ) and is a native FSX model, that has FSX's advanced materials applied to it. SODE ( Scenery Object Display Engine ) handles how and when the model is ' injected ' into the Scenery. Sounds complicated, but it is not really.

Hope this helps get a better understanding,

Regards,

Pete.

Yes it does, and no problem about the response time.

So does your wet surface effect replace the default FSX effect, or maybe can it be a better answer?
Will it also automatically work with custom ground polygons that designers have gone the extra mile with the extra layer?

I guess it boils down to, can it only be used with scenery that you have designed to use it?

...Steve, I'll answer a bit more quickly this time .

The ' Wet Surface ' effects package, developed for Ian's RAF Lakenheath Scenery does not modify or change the default FSX ' Wet Surfaces'. You have to remember that the ' mechanics ' of the effect are handled by SODE. The SODE application and folder structure, containing the effect Textures and coding, reside outside of the FSX main folder.

Using the SODE ' Wet Surface ' technique that I have described, requires the use of a custom made model that replicates the Ground Polygon surface located directly beneath it. It is not possible to have a ' Generic ' Wet surface effect that would fit all Custom made Airfields / Airports using the SODE method.

Kind Regards,

Pete.

Ahhh, OK that answers my questions and I am sure other peoples. Thank you kindly.

Pete, I downloaded the wet surface file and have placed everything as directed within SODE. However I noticed that the XML file does not have anything in it.I have the XML file for RAF Wattisham and this has all the different lines for the various objets for SODE.
Is this correct or do we need another XML file from you for the wet surface effects package?

Having a problem getting those wet surface files to work in P3D. I have SODE up and running but I don't see the Add Ons tab on the top header.

 by Redtail » Tue Feb 21, 2017 11:11 pm

Pete, I downloaded the wet surface file and have placed everything as directed within SODE. However I noticed that the XML file does not have anything in it.I have the XML file for RAF Wattisham and this has all the different lines for the various objets for SODE.
Is this correct or do we need another XML file from you for the wet surface effects package?

Hi,

I tested everything contained in the Download Package once again last night and all is working as it should.

Are you using the latest version of SODE ( 1.4.2 ) ??

Please remember to uninstall or remove older versions of SODE where the SODE folders resided inside of the Main FSX folder.
( You must keep the SODE files containing the data for other Scenery Packages before removal ).

If the answer is Yes to both of the above - Then Launch Your Flightsim.

Do you see anything related to SODE when you pull down the Add-ons Menu at the top of the screen ??

If you can see the SODE Menu -
' Test ' the SODE connection and also by pressing ' Reload ', you can instruct SODE to re-initialise.
( At this point, also make sure that it is raining at Lakenheath ).
If you still do not see the ' Wet Surface ' effect, then something from the installation package is in the wrong folder.

If you don't see the SODE menu -
Then for some reason SODE has not installed as it should. You can confirm this by checking your FSX.cfg file.

Under the [ MAIN ] section of the config, you should see these 3 lines added to the SimObjectsPaths -

SimObjectPaths.6=C:\Program Files\12bPilot\SODE\Projects\data\SimObjects
SimObjectPaths.7=C:\Program Files\12bPilot\SODE\data\SimObjects
SimObjectPaths.8=C:\ProgramData\12bPilot\SODE\SimObjects

If these lines are missing then SODE hasn't installed properly.

Hope this helps,

Get back to me if you still have issue's or if you have success !


Regards,

Pete.

 by relfel66 » Wed Feb 22, 2017 12:06 am

Having a problem getting those wet surface files to work in P3D. I have SODE up and running but I don't see the Add Ons tab on the top header.

Hi,

Please see the guidelines in the post above.

Regards,

Pete.

I dont even have the Add Ons menu on the top bar lol

...if you don't have any other ' Add-on ' applications in your P3D installation, then what you are describing is a sure sign that the SODE module has not installed.

Try running the SODE installer.exe with Administrator rights.

Then check to see if you have the 3 SimObjectPath lines added to your P3D.cfg file.

Regards,

Pete.

Pete, Can you check your private messages.

Hi,

...for those of you who have downloaded the EGUL ' Wet Surface ' Package, there is an updated version of the EGUL_Reflection_Map Texture available now for downloading.

Here is the Download link -

http://www.mediafire.com/file/wl54c92f5 ... on_Map.dds

Instructions for Installing -

Simply navigate to your SODE/ EGUL Effects / Texture folder and replace original Texture ( EGUL_Reflection_Map.dds ) , with the new Texture from the Download.

Regards,

Pete.

PB68 wrote: ↑23 Feb 2017, 16:57 ...if you don't have any other ' Add-on ' applications in your P3D installation, then what you are describing is a sure sign that the SODE module has not installed.

Try running the SODE installer.exe with Administrator rights.

Then check to see if you have the 3 SimObjectPath lines added to your P3D.cfg file.

Regards,

Pete.

Cannot select run as administrator, box is greyed out

Is that by right clicking the SODE exe file to bring up the run as Administrator option?

John

I cant even find a file named sode.exe

In the SODE download surely? - the file needed to install it.

John

relfel66 » Wed Feb 22, 2017 12:06 am

Having a problem getting those wet surface files to work in P3D. I have SODE up and running but I don't see the Add Ons tab on the top header.

....You are clearly having issue's with SODE, so I think the best thing to do is to try to re-install it once again.

Here is the download link -

http://sode.12bpilot.ch/?page_id=9


Once downloaded, you will see the SODE installer, it will have the words - Installer_SODE_v1.4.2.msi


///// It is strongly recommended that you install to the default path set by SODE. //////


....all you need to do, is double click on the installer and that's pretty much it. You may find that the installer appears to stop at some point, if you drag the installer window to the side, you will see the SODE module window, Click to install and register the
SODE modules when prompted.

Once you think you have done all of this, Launch P3D to see if you see the Add-ons Tab at the top of the screen. If you do, click on it to see if you have a SODE menu. If you do, then continue with the install of the ' EGUL Wet Surface " effects package. Please follow all hints and tips in previous posts and follow the ' Pictoral ' guides in the " Wet Surface " package.

If you are unsuccessful once again with the SODE installation, then I am really at a loss as to why you are having such issue's with it, I am afraid.

Regards,

Pete.

....and so onto my final contribution to Ian's wonderful RAF Lakenheath.

This will feature a ' Grass ' detail effect, which allows better detail of the Grass area's at ground level.
To enhance the effects further, In Winter ( HW ) naturally that grass becomes covered with Snow ( 3d Snow layer ), all of which is controlled automatically by SODE.

Latest WIP -









Regards,

Pete.