3RD-PARTY SCENERY
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-Some backward-compatible/add-on sceneries may not appear as expected in FS2000. The factors most commonly responsible for such problems are:
a) Flight Simulator 2000 uses a digital elevation mesh terrain system instead of the flat "seed" system from prior versions, and
b) Flight Simulator 2000 incorporates nearly every airport and published navigational aid in the entire world.
FS2000 has two "switches" - Flatten and Exclude - that can be used in the Scenery.cfg file (located in the main FS2000 folder) to solve a great number of visual problems with backward-compatible/add-on scenery. The Flatten switch flattens a given four-sided area to a single specified elevation. The Exclude switch excludes the default Microsoft scenery (objects and/or navigational aids) in a given four-sided area from being displayed (or transmitted in the case of radio navigational aids).
Both switches affect only scenery areas with a lower layer number than the scenery area they are added in. For example, if the switch is placed in layer 70, then only layers 69 and below will be affected. Switches are added to the end of a scenery area entry in the Scenery.cfg file using a text editor. Exclude and Flatten switches can both be added to the same Scenery area.
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How to Use the Flatten Switch
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The Flatten switch syntax is as follows:
Flatten.X=Elevation,Latitude1,Longitude1,Latitude2,Longitude2,Latitude3,Longitude3,Latitude4,Longitude4
X is equal to a number between 0 and 9, but you must start with Flatten.0, then Flatten.1, and so on, up to Flatten.9. You are allowed a maximum of 10 Flatten switches per Scenery Area (thus the numbers 0-9).
The Elevation is in feet above or below mean sea level (msl) and can be any number between -2000 and 99999.
The Latitude and Longitude of points 1, 2, 3, and 4 must be entered in a clockwise or counter clockwise fashion about the four sided area such as:
1 +-------------+ 2
| |
| |
| |
4 +-------------+ 3
or
1 +-------------+ 4
| |
| |
| |
2 +-------------+ 3
and must be in the form of degrees and minutes. You do not need to add the * or ' symbols to indicate degrees and minutes, and the shape does not have to be a rectangle. Any four-sided shape will work.
The maximum size of a flattened area is 90 degrees of longitude and 45 degrees of latitude.
EXAMPLE: This example flattens two separate but adjacent regions inside the scenery area to an elevation of 1000' MSL.
[Area.100]
Group=Your Area
ID=Your Area
Title=Your Area
Active=TRUE
Layer=100
Local=C:\Your Area
Flatten.0=1000,N45 30,W120,N45 30,W119 30,N45,W119 30,N45,W120
Flatten.1=1000,N45,W120,N45,W119 30, N44 30,W119 30,N44 30,W120
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How to Use the Exclude switch
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The Exclude switch syntax is as follows:
Exclude=North Latitude,West Longitude,South Latitude,East Longitude,category
Exclusion happens only in a rectangular area such as:
North Latitude
+-------------+
| |
West Longitude | |East Longitude
| |
+-------------+
South Latitude
and must follow the form North Latitude, West Longitude, South Latitude, East Longitude. The Latitude and Longitude entries must be in the form of degrees and minutes. You do not need to add the * or ' symbols to indicate degrees and minutes.
The category determines which default scenery type you choose to exclude in the defined area. There are 4 categories:
objects - Excludes all default 3-dimensional buildings and objects as well as airports.
vors - Excludes all default VOR and ILS navigational aids
ndbs - Excludes all default NDB navigational aids.
all - Excludes all default objects and navigational aids
You can use 1 or more categories in an Exclude switch.
The maximum size of an Exclude area is 90 degrees of longitude and 45 degrees of latitude.
EXAMPLE: This example excludes all scenery types EXCEPT NDB navigational aids from a rectangular area.
[Area.100]
Group=Your Area
ID=Your Area
Title=Your Area
Active=TRUE
Layer=100
Local=C:\Your Area
Exclude=N45 30,W120,N45,W119 30,objects,vors
