Can the Dubai airport polygon/area be reduced?

TJC · Post by **TJC** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 4:02 pm

Feel free to PM me if you need any help.

I'm not up on the "making/modifying" of any scenery, but a different computer set-up might show up some different issues, or maybe none at all lol.

Give me a shout if you need me.

Mage · Post by **Mage** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 3:43 pm

Well, I made changes to the Palms and finally sussed out the landclassing (at least, on my setup). I also made about another dozen 'scrapers on the Sheikh Zayed Road, including the Rose Tower, The Index and of course the Burj Dubai (at 2,650 feet, which I think is its planned height) and a few of the more monumental hotels to give the road some "bulk".

One of the SZR buildings is posing a problem (texturing) - the Etisalat Tower at the Northern End - this might delay any "release". I textured it fine by itself and added it into Martin's main Gmax scene for SZR, and the texture mapping that looked fine in Gmax suddenly goes all crazy. Regarding putting these files up online, I'll probably just post it here if Martin's amenable, after all it is open source and I figure hosting it here as a "fan upload" might keep it in the family. It'll just be a couple of BGLs and a couple of new texture maps. Oh, and the Gmax source file. I've color-coded the objects in Gmax because I'm exporting the Gmax scene as 6 separate models (each containing a group of buildings) and the color coding tells me which ones I've grouped together. I lasso each group in turn and "export selected" to create sub-models of the road. This has the effect of allowing autogen to get close to the SZ Road because each model's footprint is small.

I might make a separate BGL to infill gaps on the SZR (because I haven't figured how to night-light buildings in Gmax yet - I've only been using it a week!). This BGL would just place several tower blocks using FS default textures (giving me some instant night-lighting too). I'd put some on the SZR, some over at Dubai Marina and also several along the "trunks" of the Palm Jumeirah and Jebel Ali. They're far from the airport so I figured that people would only bypass them at some altitude anyway.

Maybe this won't mean much to you, but if Martin's listening and has any tips ...

Clickable thumbnail ...

The screwy Etisalat Tower is far left a job for tomorrow ...

Post by **martin[flytampa]** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 4:12 pm

Are you exporting & compiling with the 2002 or 2004 SDK? 2002 is the one you enter the Coordinate in the MakeMDL prompt, 2004 is the one you have to write a XML file. I used the 2002 SDK for Dubai, in which case you have to checkmark "Has nightmap" within the MakeMDL options tab. The BGL will then load the "texname_lm.bmp" automatically at night.

If you want me to look at something just email me the files.

Mage · Post by **Mage** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 4:11 am

Hi, Martin -

From what you just said, I'm evidently using the FS2004 SDK (the one that creates an XML template in parallel with the model) because I'm not prompted for co-ords etc. Does that imply that all I need to do is create an _LM bitmap for my two new textures and it'll be automatic?

I seem to remember (from something I read on FSDeveloper) that people prefer using the FS2002 SDK. I'll try running MAKEMDL in isolation so that I can check its settings.

Post by **martin[flytampa]** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 4:41 am

If you're using the 2004 SDK, you can set the nightmap in the Gmax materials, as Ambient Map.

Mage · Post by **Mage** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 11:52 am

I set the ambient values to the lightmaps without too many problems. While I was doing this I noticed that there were a couple of multi-materials that had no textures at all assigned, and which didn't seem to be mapped onto an object. Selecting these causes Gmax to crash. I don't know how those appeared, but compiling goes okay even so, I guess the redundant maps are simply ignored when the export happens.

I had to tone down my night textures to blend with yours - they were a bit "glittery" at first (which I quite liked - kinda Vegas!) but they looked out of place with your night textures so I toned them down. Mine are also fairly rough in comparison - just the day textures with concrete darkened almost to black and many windows less toned-down so that there seem to be lights in the rooms. Since I won't be flying along SZ Road in my 777 I don't really mind. Someone that enjoys flying thru city streets can always make better versions if they feel like it. At least SZR looks lit up at night. I didn't change anything with Deira (your City1 files) although I used sections of the city1 bitmap in SZR.

Its about ready to go. I might make some "Dubai Villas", the sort of thing that appears on the Palms, and also on the area directly north of the airport. Something a bit easier for my second week on Gmax.

Mage · Post by **Mage** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 9:29 am

Hi Tom -

TJC wrote:Feel free to PM me if you need any help.

I'm not up on the "making/modifying" of any scenery, but a different computer set-up might show up some different issues, or maybe none at all lol.

Give me a shout if you need me.

PMs are disabled on this board so it'll be tricky to get the main package to you (the SZ Road and buildings - larger because of the new textures) but the landclassing/VTP is compact enough to put into a thread. Since I'm more concerned about the landclassing aspects anyway, I've included that ZIP here (40KB) so that you or others can assess the offshore projects and feed back any potential problems. This is the version that would go out to non-FT users.

I'm sure enough that the revised SZ Road will work okay, and the landclassing/VTP is common across versions and also what really needs checking.

Simple instructions.
Move all the BGLs you see in the main zip file, into your FlyTampa Dubai "Scenery" folder.
Open the DubaiLCLayers.zip file within the main zip, and move those 5 BGls into your main landclasses folder. If you don't have one, create a "Landclasses" folder in your "Addon Scenery" folder, give it a "Scenery" subfolder and copy the BGLs into there, then declare that folder to FS at a low priority (just above any addon meshes you might have installed, for example). I bundle all my non-airport landclasses into a common, low-priority, separate folder, I don't know if that's common practice.

Martin - do you want sight of the source package, maybe to be hosted here if you think it is okay?

Post by **martin[flytampa]** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 8:31 pm

This is only part of your project right? I can put your files on the downloads page but wouldn't want to update it too often there. Not sure whatever you're looking to release this as final some point, or if this is a open-end type project? Note you're also free to upload it elsewhere if you choose to, I think the license I wrote doesn't require source-code unless you want to share it. In any case, we can make a sticky post pointing out your Dubai addition once you think its "good to go".

Mage · Post by **Mage** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 5:57 am

I'd planned 2 versions of the files, one for people without FT Dubai and the other for owners - although, thinking about it, anybody can get access to the city and compile it for themselves whether they had the airport or not!

I intended to make 3 packages, the two I just mentioned, and a bundle of the source files for the next person to take the project forward (I'm done with it, happy enough to let it go - I have my skyline!). I may just make a single package with everything in it.

The landclassing obviously works fine without the Sheikh Zayed Road, and since that's the critical part that seems to work so differently in other people's setups it is the most important to pass over to TomC and others to try out beforehand.

I might upload it to Avsim (my first!) once I've had some feedback. May even start a thread here for support questions - at least the questions would be asked and answered in public?