MR type scenery Help

[Blood_Hawk23]

Hey All,

I having and issue. I'm trying to do a maskrider type scenery for my WWI Airfield. I'm running into some trouble.

First I'm not able to get my background to line up with my runway. Then if I do the scale is way off. I've followed the two tutorials that i've found on the subject but i'm still not getting it.

When you take a screen shot in CFS2, how far out do you have to zoom?
I take it in top view correct?

next when I use it as a background in FSSC, what scale should i use?
it starts are the 3.28 and i have to increase it to 9.28. It still doesn't line up. The runway in the back ground is too long and thin.

What am I missing?

It has to be something I'm doing wrong.

I've used FSSC to make part of my Airfields, namely the refueling areas But thats all. I don't like how it does the runways. I use groundmaker for the surrounding area and dirt roads. I want to make the details so they look smooth and blended. Thats why i'm trying to do it like MR's scenery.

Any help would be great.

Till Later,
John

 

[UncleTgt]

Hi John,

This is my method to do a quick & dirty location of any background. It's bitty, but it works

I'll assume you have the airfield location & altitude info already.

Fire up FSSC
Create your airport file (coords, altitude etc)
Create a runway with a clearly visible texture - this doesn't need to be your final runway
I usually choose 3000ft by 300ft, with a concrete texture, stands out like a sore thumb!
Create an A16N flatten (this makes sure you can see the whole runway)
Create the bgls
Add them to CFS2 scenery

Start up CFS2
Quick Combat, & choose the airbase you just created
pause the game immediately, switch to overhead view
CTRL+Z to bring up the coords for the crosshairs
Now at this point if you have CFO installed, you can save the location. This allows you to quickly adjust altitude to 5000feet & heading to 0 degrees true. This step is not essential, but it can help with background bitmaps.
Take a screen grab, note the coords & heading (rotation)
Exit CFS2

Start up FSSC
Load your airfield
load the background bitmap
scale the bitmap so the visible runway fills the runway outline in FSSC
You now know your background is scaled correctly
Save
Delete or change the initial runway to suit your plans for the final airbase

Hope this helps

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

My method:

Bloodhawk: Yes, place the flat area, runway, fueling area and NDB signal first and nothing else. You can put in taxiways, if you like, ahead of time, especially the concrete taxiways, but I usually reset the width from the default 99.8 feet to 50 feet so they don't look so wide. Having the taxiways will help you align the background image later.

I always use Free Flight for my background image screen shots. Starting Free Flight with the plane sitting on the runway, I take a top-down view. To make it all fit in the center of the screen I first use 1 click of negative magnification (hit [). Then I turn on Slew to move the center of the runway into the center of the view and rotate as necessary. Turn on Pause, turn of Slew (to remove all the data on the top of the view, take the screenshot and close out.

Next in FSSC I set the preferences to "background image visible", select the screenshot I just took and change the magnification to resize the image. From the preset 3.28 I usually change it 13.0 or 13.1 - that usually works for me to make the background image the same size as the FSSC layout. Drag the image over the layout until it overlaps. Sometimes I have to fine tune it by changing the orientation a few degrees too. Plus 2-3* or plus 358-359* usually does the trick if I rotated the view in Free Flight fairly accurately.

Welcome to the world of scenery building and have fun. The more you do, the easier it gets.

 

[achim27619]

Hi.
my method:

In FSSC lay down a runway and add two clearly visibel radio towers. Make an Area16.
Then move the curser to the centre of your future scenery and note the exact position (longitude and latitude). In my set-up it shows in the left hand lower corner

Start cfs2 Free Flight and choose exact position. Make the elevation 8000 feet plus the elevation of the scenery. Usually the plane doesn't head North, so escape and restart FF again and hit P just before the screen appears. Hit F3 two times to have a clear view and then choose view down (in settings - controller assignments I have created a short cut CTRL+U for view down).
Now you are exact over the position you took from FSSC.
Make your screen shot and save it.

Back in FSSC right click at the psoition you want and follow what Shadow Wolf 07 recommendations (since FSSC and your screeny are both North aligned there is no need for a fine tuning of the direction).
A tip: I have a wide screen monitor but I am flying and working in the "window mode". So once I have the size right I only have to shift the background image until it fits (no size adjusting anymore).

Cheers


Achim

 

[Blood_Hawk23]

Thank You Very Much...

Thank you guys. I'll give it another go. I'll see which one works for me. It kind of how i'm doing it but you guys have given me some great pointers and little variations that I haven't tried yet. So I'll keep you posted on my progress or lack there of...

Till Later,
John

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Glad to be of some help. Please feel free to ask questions if you get hung up again.

 

[Blood_Hawk23]

I have followed the instructions but i'm still strugling.

Coords for runway are as follows: (the location is in Western Belgium)
De Moeren

N51 2.60' E2 36.02'

Height: 3ft
Heading: 89deg
length: 2500ft
width: 900ft

now FSSC will not make a 2500' x 900' runway, its only 2499.36' long x 898.68' wide.

here is my bmp

View attachment newDM-1.bmp

The bmp is 1024x768.
its in Achim's format of 8000' in FF. Actually thats 8003'.

at a scale of 8.28 it will fit in FSSC as far as length. width it falls short.

any ideas... I'm at a stand still... Did I forget a step?

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

As for the length and width, the best I can offer is: Though you set X and Y in feet. FSSC averages them in metric equivalents, then displays them as feet again.

I don't know what to say about the background image (BGI) scaling, in FSSC the runway is shown as two points with a line - no width. You have to line the line up with the center of your BGI runway with the points exactly on the middle of the edges with no linear overlap to have a correct orientation. This is why Achim said to place a building or something and I taxiways, to give you additional points of reference for alignment. But you can line it up with just the 2 points if you are careful. I think that's what you are asking for.

Greg

 

[Blood_Hawk23]

does it matter on the bmp. should i take my screen shot and make it into a 1024x1024 and then line that up.

so the runway i made is pointless. I should make the standard 5000'x150' just to get an image to line up with. now the radio towers or buildings or taxi way. should those be parallel to the runway.

i'll re-read everything and set it up like that. I was hoping to take mine and just make a new texture but it looks more like i need to start from square one. I'll keep you all posted.

 

[UncleTgt]

BH, it may not be a case of WYSIWYG...

I followed your info & saw exactly what you describe, that the concrete runway fills the length, but not the width. Puzzling.

Not to worry, it may just be that you don't see any edge texture, it could operate as a smooth area for take-off all the way out to 900ft wide. I'm guessing you don't want the concrete texture anyway. Can you taxi all the way out width-wise? Don't forget you can always change the texture to invisible later & allow the background bitmap to show through.

FSSC v1.5.0.11

The screen grab shows the runway clearly as a box (outlined in red)

I've not checked, but another way might be to draw an A16N flatten & select "smooth"(?) & that would work OK for a grass fields just the same. The important tip was using a visible runway to help scale your background bitmap, you can then discard this runway once you have your background map location & scale sorted.

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

does it matter on the bmp. should i take my screen shot and make it into a 1024x1024 and then line that up.

so the runway i made is pointless. I should make the standard 5000'x150' just to get an image to line up with. now the radio towers or buildings or taxi way. should those be parallel to the runway.

i'll re-read everything and set it up like that. I was hoping to take mine and just make a new texture but it looks more like i need to start from square one. I'll keep you all posted.

1. No leave it like it is. You will create a 1024 X 1024 BMP later. Use the screenshot you have and set the scale to 8.24, 13.1 or whatever it takes to make it the same size and orientation as your FSSC layout.

2. No, the towers, buildings and taxiways don't have to be parallel. Lay them out as you wish or according to pictures or drawings you may have of the base. Just line them up, along with the runway, with the overlaid background image as close to exactly as possible.

Next create your polygon. Once that is done, then you'll use printkey or a similar program to make perfectly square BMPs of the polygon with and without the background image visible. Then edit them both to create two 1024 X 1024 BMPs for the layers as Maskrider describes.

3. You can make the runway any length and width you wish as long as it conforms with the true base layout as I said above, taken from pictures or drawings. .

 

[Blood_Hawk23]

Here is what i have currently. This was made in groundmaker. I like it as far as the layout goes. I don't like the roads or how the field isn't really part of the scenery.

View attachment DeMoeren-L.bmp
View attachment DeMoeren.bmp

Really its the roads that are bothering me the most. Mine not the dark one at the top. thought that is an issue but one thing at a time.

So thats why I want to try the blended runways.

 

[Blood_Hawk23]

Here is a better pic of the road issue.



Thats funny... Its B&W... oh well.
Anyway, if you look at the roads you'll see the overlap. Its the limitation of doing this in Groundmaker. This is what I want to really do away with.

 

[Allen]

1st no .bmp screen shot. They take days to load at full view. 2nd you really need a larger grass sheet to make a texure from.

The road issue can't be fixed unless you draw the roads on the textue it self. To do this your polygon needs to be square.

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

1st no .bmp screen shot. They take days to load at full view. 2nd you really need a larger grass sheet to make a texure from.

The road issue can't be fixed unless you draw the roads on the textue it self. To do this your polygon needs to be square.

Yes roads can be free-handed in later when you create the first mask of your 3 layered PSP (I use Paint Shop Pro as is used in Maskrider's tutorial.) as can dirt taxiways and cleared areas. The initial background image can be jpeg or bmp but the 2 screenshots of the polygon should, according to MR, be bitmaps. They will be resized to 1024 X1024 and used as the first 2 layers of the 3 layered PSP.

All this depends first on your scaling, orienting and positioning of the initial screenshot - the background image -on the FSSC layout. From what you have written, I don't think you've done that yet.

 

[Allen]

I ment the screen shot he posted to the foum are .bmp and take days to load...

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

I'm curious...

Did the problem of alignment ever get solved?

 

[Blood_Hawk23]

Did the problem of alignment ever get solved?

I back to work for atleast the next 3 weeks so i'll have to wait for my days off. I think I have a shot to work from. I just haven't had time to try it.

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

2 pics:

1 = Background image superimposed and aligned (almost) with the FSSC layout. the bacground image needs to be rotated about -1 degree. Minus 1 degree = 359 degrees rotation.

2 = Final textured result.

 

[Blood_Hawk23]

I was working on it a little last night. I'm still not happy with my end results. but i did manage to get everything to line up. My masks need work.

Shadow Wolf, do you have a WWI install?


Pusan looks great. Any chance you could do a Japanese base. Iwakuni...

[runway.xxx]
id=xxxx
name=Honshu-Kuga (Iwakuni)
base_lat=N34 8.50
base_lon=E132 14.07
base_alt=5.94
heading=9
allegiance=0
units_across=1
takeoff_start_pos=-450,0
takeoff_stop_pos=1600,200
landing_start_pos=5000,350
landing_touchdown_pos=600,0
landing_stop_pos=-450,0

It was the first base the RAAF NO 77 Squadron used at the start of the Korean War. Once I finish my WWI, I was planing on an RAAF campaign.