Creating an Airfield

C

chriseponymous

Charter Member 2012
I've become very interested in the work that Pat and the ACC team has presented in ETO regarding their airfields. As I have stated a few times it is the airfields that create the greatest sense of immersion for me in CFS3. Basically Id love to know how these airfileds are created! Pat gave me guidance on correcting the orientation of some of the airfields in my install for ETO which has enthused to learn more. Using the advice he gave me and the link to the Terrain SDK I managed to move Hawkinge (Along with Kenley and Tangmere my favourite airfiled in ETO). It is a wonderful and very accurate simulation of the real airfield but in ETO it seems to be placed miles from where it should be. From this site http://www.content-delivery.co.uk/aviation/airfields/Hawkinge.html I took the coordinates for the field moved it using the terrain sdk and then altered it slightly to fit the terrain. This simple change alone made me appreciate the time and effort people put in to creating the add ons (Thank you!!!). Unfortunately moving the airfield has messed up some of the missons for ETO but Im pretty sure this is easily fixed. Ive included some screen shots of the relocated Hawking (hope you dont mind me moving it) and again would love to know how to create the airfileds.
 
Thanks Chris! good find, I wondered how long it would take someone to spot that error (in best Capt Mainwaring impresion) :icon_lol:

Gawd knows how that one was messed up, its in the original stock location which was known to be wrong and as you have found there are others too. Can you send me your corrected files please Chris and I'l make sure they get into ETO 1.3.

Basically Id love to know how these airfileds are created!
Click to expand...

You'll be able to glean from what you've done already how to get them into the cfs3 world Chris so next you'll need a paint proggy that uses layers to make the ground texture and the mos editor from the sdk. This may require an extra download from the M$ main website, some sort of Framework thingy. To test if you need this open the mos editor then try and import (not open) one of the mos files from the ACC_Airfields folder.

I use Paint dot net for creating the textures, it's free and available here:
http://www.getpaint.net/index.html
It's very easy to use and there's a ton of plugin effects plus it will work directly with .dds files.

Cheers,

Clive
 
Cheers Clive for the reply and the info. Just in the middle of downloading the files needed to get my copy of the mos editor to work! Thanks also for the link for the painting programme. I shall then have a play and see what I can do! Ive included a screenie for the placement of Hawkinge. Cheers again I shall no doubt be coming back to ask more questions!
 
Pat Pattle said:
...and the mos editor from the sdk. This may require an extra download from the M$ main website, some sort of Framework thingy. To test if you need this open the mos editor then try and import (not open) one of the mos files from the ACC_Airfields folder...
Click to expand...

That's the .NET framework from MS - you don't need to have version 1.x, I use 2.0 and it works just fine. You also need Managed DirectX and it'll only run in XP, so no Vitsa, sorry.

The .mos editor in the Terrain SDK is the better one to have - it actually has some help files attached. Thanks to Mathias for flagging that up!
 
Ive downloaded and installed both Managed DirectX and .NET Framework but Im having trouble running the MOSEditor. Everytime I try and run it it advises that I need to install Managed DirectX?! I am running on an XP machine. Anyone have any ideas what Im doing wrong?
 
Hi Chris

Yes Microsoft were not too careful in the placement of airbases in the stock sim (Manston ended up in the middle of Dorset!!!) but you have identified the problem of correcting their positioning "Unfortunately moving the airfield has messed up some of the missons for ETO but Im pretty sure this is easily fixed."

Unfortunately it is not just the missions written specifically for ETO but all those hundreds written prior to ETO which would be affected as ETO is an enhancement of the sim not a stand alone. For many players messing up their favorite missions would be a real turn off. You have to have a trade off between useability and absolute accuracy.

Clive has an excellent Tutorial on airbase creation. It is a fairly time consuming process which is why only a few of the airbases found in ETO are custom creations with the majority being generics with some modification to the facility file to give differentiation. I am currently working on putting some 90 Bomber Command operational and training airbases into the GL using appropriate generics from the ETO team. Google Earth (something the MS developers did not have) is an excellent way of checking co-ordinates especially using the 'RAF Stations' add on from here http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=823789&site_id=1#import.

As you will have found once you have your airbase in the GL & qclocation files the fun part starts as you may find that a MS road, rail line or river runs across your main runway and you have to avoid a MkIV Panzer or the 9.15 to Paddington on take off. Airbases having fairly large footprints they can be difficult to fix in the busier parts of the MS scenery leading to much tweaking and loss of absolute accuracy. Altitude is the other feature to check as you can find yourself either in a big hole or on a plateau like something out of the 'Lost World'. A bit daunting at first but it gets second nature. Give it a whirl - you will find plenty of help here.
 
Thanks for the pointers. Still having trouble getting it to work. I uninstalled everything and then reinstalled the lot but its still showing the same error message. Im not a 100% sure I have the correct directx installed mind you, does anyone have a link to the proper version?
 
Chris

You need the DirectX software development kit. Make a pot of tea while downloading as the package is over 500M.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...D6-0486-4453-8641-1EEE9E21B282&displaylang=en

chriseponymous said:
Thanks for the pointers. Still having trouble getting it to work. I uninstalled everything and then reinstalled the lot but its still showing the same error message. Im not a 100% sure I have the correct directx installed mind you, does anyone have a link to the proper version?
Click to expand...
 
Stick with it Chris, will be worth it in the end! :isadizzy:

In the meantime I've uploaded the ACC guide to Airfield Construction Part2 for facilty creation to the CFS3 other section here at the Outhouse - should be up later today.

I've started writing part 1 which will cover the process of making the texture tile and mos file and getting it into the GL, no idea when it will be ready though.:icon_lol:
 
First of all Happy Belated Birthday Clive! Hope you had a good day and that many a good ale was supped :guinness:. Thanks very much for posting the information about airfield construction on this site it was a very intersting read. Im still having no joy with the Moseditor :isadizzy:. For some reason it still seems to think I need to install managed directx 9. I installed direct sdk but that seemed to not help... Anyway not to be put off with this minor problem I decided this morning to start on the airfield design. Westhampnett seemed like a simple one to start with and 3 hours later Ive ended up with this.....


It is a bit basic (sorry I stole the grass from Scampton hope you dont mind! :kilroy:) and hopefully Ill work out how to make it a bit realistic later, but I now need some advice... Could some kind person now point me the right direction for the next stage of the process..... Thanks in advance!!
 
Great stuff Chris! Looks just the job.

Next stage - now you have a .dds you really could do with getting that mos editor working. Failing that you have pm. :)

(or rather you would have if you enabled it! hehe)
 
Ive tried again trying to get it to work but no luck. Ive enabled PMs sorry hadnt realised I needed too. Could you possibly send it again. Cheers!
 
I couldnt resist having ago at this one... I was born literally up the road from this one. Shame I still cant get the moseditor to work as this is really fun! :icon_lol:
 
:applause: Superb Chris, and Shoreham was on my to-do list so you've saved me a job :) :)

Very much looking forward to seeing these in the sim soon.
 
The .MOS Editor is a pain, I know; I had to reinstall this week through trying to be clever and failing.

  1. Make sure your .NET install is up to date - mine has gone to 3.5 SP1 now.
  2. You probably already have DirectX 9.0c, but go to Microsoft, download and reinstall the latest DX9 package - August 2009 version at the moment.
  3. Look for and install mdxredist.msi from the SDK you already downloaded - it doesn't automatically install itself. If you can't find it, I got it here:- http://download11.com/download/mdxredist.msi
  4. Fire up the .MOS editor.
Hope this helps! :wavey:
 
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