Scenery height problem

aeromed202

aeromed202

SOH-CM-2014
Just set up some nice Washington state airstrips by Kenny Fox but a couple of them don't play well with the mesh. One is in a pit and one is in a lake. I thought I could fix them with AFCAD but that didn't work. I think I was doing it right, don't you just edit the altitude, then save and replace the existing bgl file? At least I thought I'd get a runway floating at the right height, even if the ground was still off. I didn't notice any flatten files in the bunch. Do I have to shut off mesh and Ultimate Terrain to diagnose this better?
Thanks for all the help.
 
If one is in a lake, that means it's not compatible with Ultimate Terrain.

Among other things, UT corrects the locations of bodies of water and shorelines. Apparently the airport was made in a stock FS9 installation and placed in a location that was dry, but that location is supposed to be water, so UT makes it water, leaving your airport afloat. You could relocate the runways taxiways and ramps with AFCAD, but any buildings and such things wouldn't move. It seems that the airport just isn't compatible with UT.

I suppose the height issue of the other airport is something similar, though I don't understand the exact mechanics of it. UT's mesh corrects the ground elevations, so apparently the stock FS9 scenery was lower than it should be at that location and UT raised the level of the ground. The part I'm not sure of is exactly why the airport is left in a hole, but I have a suspicion. Taxiways (and maybe ramps, I'm not sure) determine the level of the terrain they sit on; I've used them to contour terrain to make things like dams. Try changing the level of the airport with AFCAD, which should adjust the altitude of the taxiways and ramps along with everything else. That might work.

If it leaves your taxiways in trenches and everything else where it is, try making a big, wide taxiway that fits under the entire airport. Make the surface "unknown" ans see what happens. You might be able to do the same thing with a ramp; that would offer the option to Not "draw surface" (I think that's the wording; anyway, it's a check box in the properties window, and you'll recognize it.) That should make your new ramp invisible, but I don't know if ramps level the terrain like taxiways do. Might be worth trying...
 
I didn't think UT was a mesh. It only adds detail and realism on top of one already installed. I tried changing the runway height, the magenta dot, in AFCAD but nothing changed. This scenery is a freeware addon but I will uncheck it and see what was at that location first.
 
aeromed202 said:
I didn't think UT was a mesh. It only adds detail and realism on top of one already installed. I tried changing the runway height, the magenta dot, in AFCAD but nothing changed. This scenery is a freeware addon but I will uncheck it and see what was at that location first.
Click to expand...

UT is not a mesh. After installing FSGenesis and UT I lost the use of a lot of the addon scenery. Some can be made usable with FSTflatten by changing the surrounding terrain to the same height as the AFCAD in the addon scenery, but the edge of this flatten area will leave cliffs. If water is interfearing your only option is to turn off UT's lakes and shoreline enhancement.
 
There is a neat little freeware utility out there which can be used to adjust the BGL heights, search for "jabbgl.zip" at Avsim or nonodes.

Can't say for sure that it will help in this instance, but I used it successfully to overcome the floating AI problems with Denis Waggoner's Edwards scenery. Usual caveats apply, be very careful when making these sorts of changes, yadda yadda.....
 
AndyG43 said:
There is a neat little freeware utility out there which can be used to adjust the BGL heights, search for "jabbgl.zip" at Avsim or nonodes.

Can't say for sure that it will help in this instance, but I used it successfully to overcome the floating AI problems with Denis Waggoner's Edwards scenery. Usual caveats apply, be very careful when making these sorts of changes, yadda yadda.....
Click to expand...

Iv'e tried that. It does work but it's complex.

1. lower default AFCAD
2. lower addon AFCAD if your using one.
3. FSGenesis will still maintain it's height, so onto step 4
4. create flatten file to bring area between runways etc. to runway height.
5. jabbgl works in meters, AFCAD2 is in feet so if in US you have to convert back and forth.

To do all this for each airport is not worth it. Whats needed is an update for FSGenesis which is causing the problem.
 
FS2004 is causing the problems. FSGenesis is giving you an accurate terrain landscape, which - unfortunately - the default FS airporport data does not fit into. Which would you rather have...?
 
"Whats needed is an update for FSGenesis which is causing the problem"

With due respect to Terry, FSGenesis does not deal with airport elevation data.

FS2004 is causing the problems. FSGenesis (as any other mesh product eg. FSGlobal 2008 ) is giving you an accurate terrain landscape, which - unfortunately - the default FS airporport data does not fit into. Which would you rather have...?

Sorry - didn't mean to post twice - didn't get the quote bit in first time round.
 
Flight 1 has a program called Airport Facilitator X, works with fs9 (and X). Looks like it will allow for moving the airport and buildings while in fs9. Looks like it will do what you are looking for easily. $30 unfortunately. But there is a demo.[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
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aardvark62 said:
"Whats needed is an update for FSGenesis which is causing the problem"

With due respect to Terry, FSGenesis does not deal with airport elevation data.

FS2004 is causing the problems. FSGenesis (as any other mesh product eg. FSGlobal 2008 ) is giving you an accurate terrain landscape, which - unfortunately - the default FS airporport data does not fit into. Which would you rather have...?

Sorry - didn't mean to post twice - didn't get the quote bit in first time round.
Click to expand...

What it comes down to is the terrain matches the airports without genesis and mismatches with it. Everyone has a choice on which they prefer, I still use it. If they had made an accurate terrain landscape half the airports would be a little low and half a little high. That is not the case, what they did in effect was reduce the average diameter of the planet by a few hundred feet leaving the airports sitting on mesas'. They know it's not right, that's why they are working on version 2 at this time.
 
Thanks Andy but your JABBgl utility didn't work either. The airport height is probably correct, the new numbers stick, but there is something overriding at this and many other locations. I am understanding that the FS defaults are probably the culprit and those bgl's are ruling the day bvecause when I switched off the addon scenery the hole was still there. Here is a thought, can the default bgl be zapped and/or a new one planted at that location with the accurate data? I would probably pay for that utility Airport Facilitator X if it is a sure thing to work. There are several airports I know of and likely hundreds more that could use the help. Or how does one create a flatten file?
 
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