previous print this page next


Additional tricks and tips

 

 

How to build a perfect altitude map for SynthWizard sceneries

If you are building a SynthWizard scenery and:

  • you're building an imaginary landscape

  • the accuracy is not a concern

  • you have no altitude data available for the region

  • you're simply experimenting

here is a quick and easy way to produce a grayscale BMP altitude map that will fit perfectly to your landscape.
Note: You must be fairly familiar with PaintShop Pro or any other graphics editing application of your choice

Step 1: Build a SynthWizard scenery of your choice using 4 steps outlined in the tutorial. You may use any and all landscape classes. In step 4, do not choose to load altitude map at this time (because that's what you're creating!)

Step 2: Edit the scenery using editing tools as outlined in the Editing the scenery section of this document. Insert lakes, cities forests and farm fields anywhere you like.

Step 3: Go to TerraBuilder properties, Preferences dialog and find the SynthWizard Texture class colors list. At this point double-click on any color entries in the list. This will bring up a color picker dialog. Now, choose grayscale colors for your landscape classes in the following manner:

  • For low lying areas, choose darker shades of gray, or black

  • For higher elevation areas, choose lighter shades of gray

  • For the highest elevations, choose brightest shades of gray, or white

The assignment of the altitudes is entirely up to you. If you want mountain tops covered with water, then by all means, go ahead, have fun! For instance, if your scenery was built using FARM, WOODS and FOREST classes, choose:

  • BLACK for FARM class

  • 50% GREY for WOODS class

  • WHITE for FOREST class

Click apply on the dialog. Now, using the magnifier glass button, zoom out the display until you see black and white squares instead of textures. You should zoom out until you see all of the scenery on the display area. Also, if your scenery is very small, you should zoom out even further so that the grayscale-coded squares are not too large. You can set the zoom level at which this transition happens in the TerraBuilder properties, Preferences, Color Coding Display. What you see now is your scenery, but it is now displayed not as the textures, but as color coded squares. This option was implemented to keep the display refreshing fast when large sceneries are zoomed out. Also, since you defined landscape class colors according to the altitude, this display is also a pseudo-altitude map. Now, we can use this to our advantage and build an altitude BMP map

Step 4: Start PaintShop Pro. Use PSP's "capture area" capabilities to capture an area of screen where the color coded scenery is. Try to get as close as you can to the edges of the color coded scenery. After you captured it, trim and crop all the remaining gray surrounding areas around the image.

Step 5: When you have the image all "cleaned up", convert it to "millions of colors" or" RGB" or "TRUE" Colors mode. Then, use "Gaussian Blur" filter to blur out the edges of the gray-coded squares in the image. play with the settings and find the one that will soften the edges but still keep the original placement of white/black areas. The general guideline is, try to blur the image so that all blocks lose their "squareness". This will create a softer, blurred image that will be the basis of your altitude map. At this point, you may also manually draw in terrain features you want and where you want. If you want a small hill here and there, use a "fuzzy" brush to paint small white clouds. Make sure none of the features have sharp edges, because your scenery will end up with sharp cliffs (unless you want them like that)

Step 6: Resize your image to match the following criteria:

  • Sx - Horizontal image size

  • Sy - Vertical image size

  • Cx - Number of Horizontal grid chunks (defined in SynthWizard step 1)

  • Cy - Number of Vertical grid chunks (defined in SynthWizard step 1)

  • GD - Grid density per chunk (assumed uniform throughout the scenery, default 4)

Sx = Cx*GD+1
and
Sy = Cy*GD+1

After you resized your altitude map to Sx and Sy sizes using Bicubic resample option, change the color mode to "grayscale" and save the altitude map in "Windows BMP" format.

Step 7: Switch back to TerraBuilder and load the altitude map. Use "copy from terrain texture" and any altitude limits you wish, within reason. Build the scenery. Install it, start the Flight Simulator, and enjoy!

top

How to get the most from the TerraBuilder SynthWizard scenery

So you built your super-dense, precise elevated terrain mesh using SynthWizard. Now, how do you get decent frame rates in FS2000 out of this monster?

It just happens that the scenery-detail controls in FS2000 have effect only on FS2000 default terrain. All of the sliders in the left side of the control panel, except visibility and texture detail, have NO EFFECT on TerraBuilder scenery. So, If you're flying only in the TerraBuilder-created scenery, go ahead and decrease ( or even zero-out ) all the scenery detail sliders. The frame rates will dramatically improve!

top

Avoiding "NO MATCH" condition in initial scenery creation

Synthetic CFS textures that SynthWizard uses as  landscape classes are not "created equal". Some of the classes are represented with more textures and their transitions than the other. Consequently, some landscape classes will lack transition versions into the other classes, thus producing "NO MATCH" condition. For instance, FARM class has no transition into WATER class at all. It would be pointless to create FARM and WATER terrain only, because "NO MATCH" conditions would arise everywhere. The solution is to use one of the largest classes as its base scenery, and then built up on it as needed. The most numerous classes, with the transitions to nearly all of the other classes, are RURAL and WOODS classes. Also, there are extended textures available for download from TerraBuilder site that enable FOREST class to interact extensively with WATER class, making it perfect for wilderness areas.

top