SBuilderX question

[falcon409]

I've asked this over on the SBuilder Forums, but I probably stand a better chance of getting an immediate answer here.
I want to cover the rectangular area that surrounds the rwy at Two Falls, Maine. In FS9 I could just draw a poly around that area (referred to as an lwm I think) and it would mask it then I could adda new one of my liking. . .leave it to FSX to be different, lol. I've tried almost every type of poly I can think of to cover/mask this area to no avail. Has anyone done this and if so what's the secret?

[Matt Wynn]

you need to create a boundary exclude, that reverts to the surface below the airport 'base' layout, from there you draw in your new poly, and it removes the default surrounds..... let me open Sbuilder and i'll see if i can talk you through it....

[Matt Wynn]

or do you mean like a paved edge kinda thing?

[falcon409]

Hey smoothie, this is what I want to cover:

[Matt Wynn]

ok easy peasy.....



even though i've used a photo the same applies...

[falcon409]

BAM!! You da man Smoothie, lol Ok, so now all I have to do is go back with another poly to lay in a new boundary that will exclude the autogen correct? That way I can do a custom area for what I want to add, such as buildings, hangars, and the rwy?

[Matt Wynn]

yup create your new poly (If Needed, if theres grass use grass etc...), then add the autogen excludes etc... then add the buildings on top, and final details "et voila" piece of cake, erm scenery.

[falcon409]

Saaaaaweet, lol. Thanks for the assist. This'll be the next scenery I post. I tried the photoreal here and while it worked as far as placement, the default scenery in this area has cliffs and things that don't really match the photoreal very well so for this one, just doing what I'm working now should render a nicer airport anyway.

[Matt Wynn]

yup, no problem on the assist!

[falcon409]

Ok, I've done a new poly for the grass area, but it doesn't show. Is there an altitude setting necessary here or will it default to "0"? I've done an exclude for the autogen and that worked, but this grass poly seems a bit persnickety.

[Matt Wynn]

if you e-mail me what you have i'll take a look, i think you have my e-mail....

[navychief8]

Would anybody be willing or able to create a photo scenery land class for the peninsula that NAS Patuxent River sits on?

Thanks

[falcon409]

This is just preliminary Chief, but look at how exact, without touching a thing, the satellite image fits with the FSX world. Unreal!!
Still has to be color corrected and a blend mask and water mask applied, but not bad for out of the box, lol.

[falcon409]

Now with the blend mask in place. . . .I still need to add the water mask and then get the contrast up to darken it:

[CG_1976]

Falcon, you have my respect in learning SbuilderX. Ive been trying for a year to get time to learn so i can build my dream project MUGM NAS base with both leeward and McCalla field and Fishermans Pier amphib landing area. Sorta a Collage of history for Gitmo as our oldest overseas station. Keep up the great work.

[falcon409]

Thanks CG, it's been a learning experience to be sure. Here's a shot on approach. You can see that the water mask worked as even the inland water areas are correct. I'm going to tweak the water mask a bit to correct some bad spots, but otherwise, not too bad for a first try.

[falcon409]

Final shot. The AFCAD actually isn't off by much, but it'll still take a complete redo to get it aligned exactly, not to mention replacing a lot of "trees", lol.

[IanP]

Putting that huge exclusion down to remove the default flatten/exclusion file is massive overkill. All you have to do is place a small one somewhere that intersects the shape of the default flatten and it is gone - you don't have to cover the entire thing.

For my replacement Culdrose scenery (available from my site, if anyone wants to prove it works), I put a small "exclude airport backgrounds" poly off the north end of 07/25 and 18/36 and it worked perfectly. I've read in numerous threads and been told by a number of commercial scenery developers that it's better to make exclusion polys as small as possible, even if you need more of them to exclude what you want, than it is to have large ones, which can cause major problems. I did them in ADE rather than SBuilderX for EGDR, but they work identically in SBuilderX.

Try both, but you'll find the small intersecting one works as well, if not better, than covering the entire thing.

[falcon409]

Hey Navychief, where'd ya go?, lol.

[navychief8]

Falcon409


That is awesome, I was just stationed up there for 3 years and have been wanting to do a scenery of the base. That is a work of art. So how do I go about getting a copy from you? and also can I use AFX to do the AFCAD?

Jeff

[falcon409]

Falcon409
That is awesome, I was just stationed up there for 3 years and have been wanting to do a scenery of the base. That is a work of art. So how do I go about getting a copy from you? and also can I use AFX to do the AFCAD?
Jeff

Hey Chief,
I'll send it as a zipfile and yes, you can use AFX. Load this landclass file into FSX, then open AFX and load the current AFCAD, next load FSX and get an overhead view going of Patuxent and use the "preview in FSX" option in AFX so you can see what changes you're making as you do them, should work out great.