Altering Land Altitude

[TonyP]

I am working on a (very) small airport, NZWS (Westport).

One of the defining features of this airport is a long rock wall extending into the ocean across the end of the runway.

Does anyone know of a way to alter the land height with 0.5m - 1m accuracy?

I noticed that Terrabuilder has a feature allowing loading of a bitmap as a heightmap but I couldnt get it to work.

Would prefer to use FS2004SDK features, but any method would be good at present.

Currently, I have a GMAX model stretching across to represent this wall.


Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[lowellyerex]

Hi,

You could try the KML to BGL tool (search for FSX_KML.exe) that works with Google Earth KML files. Place a polygon in Google Earth (GE) and give it an absolute altitude. Save it as a kml file from GE, then import it into the FSX_KML tool. If you want a fractional height, open it in Wordpad first, then look for the altitude values - the third figure after the lat & long values near the end of the file. Change them all to the altitude (in metres) that you desire. Save and import to FSX_KML. Assign a landclass and save as a FSX BGL file. I usually use this tool for creating airport backgrounds, and custom lansclass polys. Sometimes if you raise the ground, FSX puts little hills around the edges.

I like the look of your custom models. I have been laying out airports for FSX - primarily missing NZ airports - but don't have the 3D modelling skills to make custom buildings. Perhaps we could collaborate?

Regards

Dave.

[TonyP]

Im actually designing for FS9 - for some reason, my BGL's work fine in FSX, but I get no change whatsoever when they are loaded in FS9 (using the correct resample of course).

FSX does seem to offer some nice improvements to the resample tool, and I was hoping I might be able to use it to make elevation BGL's for FS9, but since I cant get the FS9 resample to work, I still don't know if the FSX resample is not working also, or if I have the same fault with both my inf/dem files.

[Christian]

Hi Tony

FS9 has a max terrain resolution of 20m. Maybe that's the problem?

To allow 20m and 40m, you need to change the FS9.cfg and under [terrain] set the 'vertex_something' value from 19 to 21.

Cheers,
Christian

[TonyP]

Oh - thanks for that Christian. Makes sense now.

Would you suggest that using a gmax model would suffice as a solution to the problem, or is that another way I can try?

(To Recap: Im trying to create a rockwall about 3m wide x a few hundred meters long).

[Christian]

This is how Microsoft modelled the terrain around Hoover Dam, so that's certainly a good option. The trick will be to make it blend reasonably well with the ground.

Christian