NZMF Flatten for FSX

[HardCorePawn]

Ok... I am getting very close to being committed to an asylum...

I managed to get FSX hooked up to the inspire server via FSHostClient... pretty simple really... just a little weirdness here and there due to terrain differences... Anyway, I was flying around NZMF and discovered it is at 850ft... yikes!

So I double checked and realised I had not put the 20m Mesh or Topo back into FSX after re-installing... so I added those in and got this:



I did some hunting, and found an old post by Christian that had a link to a "fix" by Philip Middlemiss that flattens everything out... unfortunately, it does some rather drastic editing to the terrain!! :



So I thought I would try flattening it out myself... but for the life of me I cannot get that stupid column of rock to go away!... I have created a flatten using "FSX KML" (and GoogleEarth)... and it half works... you can see in this screenshot the flatten polygon I created (the light green area around the base of the column) ... and also that the little outcrop in the bottom right corner has been cut away...



Now what I want to know is... How the freaking hell do I get that column to come down to the same level as my flatten? Do I need to create a replacement AFCAD or something to drop the airport altitude down to 3metres like the flatten?

Someone help me please... Its driving me freaking nuts!!

[toprob]

If you are sure that your KML excludeflatten is working (I'm not too sure from your screenshots) and you have created a new flatten, then yes that's only half the battle. You will need to adjust the airport elevation as well (I think that FSX Planner is the easiest way to re-elevate a FSX airport). You will also need to copy the resulting AFCAD file into Scenery\World\scenery.
I did a quick experiment just now, and these steps seem to work. If you are still having trouble I could tidy up the files I have here.

[HardCorePawn]

Thanks for the tip about the Scenery\World\Scenery... I had created an airport file, but had just put it in a 'normal' scenery directory... further investigation on the web seems to indicate that 'adjusted' ARP's need to go in there so they are loaded First (or is it last... i'm still not sure.... FS does some things one way, and some things the opposite! )...

Also, as it turns out, my polygon was only creating the flatten (tagged as "Airport_Backgrounds_Flatten_MaskClassMap_ExcludeAutoGen")... so it was not excluding the default... so I just copied the polygon and tagged the copy as "Exclude__AirportBackgrounds"... and the rock disappeared... YAY!

Now I am just trying to make the adjustments look a little nice... ie. I've been playing around with the shape of the polygon, so there are not big lumps in the road that run parallel to the runway... and the river does not look too messed up... there is a wee "waterfall" there now, but oh well...

This is the view from the same angle as before... yay... no rock!


and this is the view from the opposite end... note the lovely new "waterfall"


and the topdown view showing the rather interesting shape...

[G-HEVN]

You could add a sloping flatten at that end of the airfield, to ease it in to the terrain. SBuilderX will do sloping flattens (you specify the height for each vertex instead of the flatten as a whole), FSXPlanner might too, but I don't use it.

[HardCorePawn]

Thats for that tip G-HEVN... I noticed that FSX KML allows you to specify the height, but did not realise you could set them for each vertex individually, I just clicked the "set height" button and it said "set the height for all vertices"... so I might have to do some more experimenting...

In the meantime, with the assistance of Google Earths sat photos and the AIP plate, I have been adding in the Apron/Parking Area, the taxiway to the end of 29, some helipads ... I also had to move the default refueling stand and fuel trigger as it ended up in the middle of the taxiway...

As an aside... I have also developed a sense of appreciation for what the 'professional' scenery developers have to battle with... like the way FSX does not quite line up with 'The Real World'™

[HardCorePawn]

Just a quick update... I have been annoying (read as: ignoring) the missus the last few nights while experimenting with FSX KML and, to a lesser extent, FSX Planner... and this is the (latest) result:

Approaching Runway 29:


Closeup from 29:


Approaching Runway 11:


Closeup from 11:


Apron:



Notes:

• It is based on the AIP Plate and Google Earth satellite pics... how accurate? no idea, never been there but its better than default
• Added a couple of windsocks as per AIP
• Put in 6 helipads as per AIP
• Added in FSS as per AIP. I hunted through the FSX library looking for a decent model for the FSS... and the closest I could get was "gen_African_FBO"... so the building looks a little shabby when you get up close...
• Added in some boundary fences based on AIP
• I took a guess at where I thought the fueling station was based on Google Earth.
• I spent a fair amount of time messing about with various sloping flattens to try to smooth out some of the uglier "lumps" and I think the end result is not too bad...
• The runway heading is off by about 6 degrees (Mag 282 instead of Mag288)... if I make it perfectly correct it does not line up with the rest of the scenery correctly...

TODO:

• Add some start locations for the helipads so the chopper boys can start on a pad, instead of the end of the runway
• Add some start locations on the Apron so you can start at parking
• Package it all up
• Release to the unwashed masses

In closing... I'd just like to say thanks to Robin and G-HEVN for their handy tips and Dick Ludowise for TCalcX (a very handy little tool)...

ps. anyone interested in giving this a quick test before I do release it? It has been designed on top of RedBaron 20m Mesh and RedBaron Topo... PM me if you're keen/brave/bored...

[Alex]

Looks like awesome work Jared, nice to see how you've continually worked things out and refined the area from the first pictures down to the last.

I would be happy to test it for you... but don't have access to FSX at the mo...

Alex