Random questions about anything NEAR and IN the realm of YSFlight

Questions, comments, concerns, & fixes
User avatar
kiwiflieger
Contributor
Contributor
Posts: 227
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2014 7:09 am
Favorite Aircraft: Die Fledermaus
Has thanked: 125 times
Been thanked: 92 times

Re: Random questions about anything NEAR and IN the realm of YSFlight

Post by kiwiflieger »

OK, two questions here...

1, how does one place a start position on moving carriers?

And 2, what does the motion path offset feature do?

Thanks in advance.
Currently dormant... playing IL2 Cliffs of Dover
User avatar
Flake
VFA-49
VFA-49
Posts: 4375
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2011 8:47 pm
Favorite Aircraft: Boeing F/A-18A
Location: Australia
OS: Windows 10 (x64)
Has thanked: 861 times
Been thanked: 1279 times
Contact:

Re: Random questions about anything NEAR and IN the realm of YSFlight

Post by Flake »

1) Assign a name tag to the desired carrier ground object, then select the desired start position. Move it into place above the carrier, and select the carrier by name from the drop down dialogue. See a stock map to see how this is done. Aomori would be a good starting point.

2) Not exactly sure...
I am an accountant working full-time (and some). I'm not here as often as I would like to be. Send a message if you need me. There are a few people in the community who can get in contact with me urgently if you need - don't be afraid to ask. I just don't check here as frequently as I used to. Sorry!
User avatar
Neocon
First Class Membership
First Class Membership
Posts: 3955
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2011 5:01 am
Favorite Aircraft: Baron 58
Location: Tennessee
OS: Win 10
Has thanked: 1769 times
Been thanked: 1810 times
Contact:

Re: Random questions about anything NEAR and IN the realm of YSFlight

Post by Neocon »

I think the offset keeps all vehicles in the group in the same positions in relation to each other.

EDIT: So if you have a naval group and want the ships spread around and moving in a group instead of just one after the other in a straight line, you use that setting.
User avatar
kiwiflieger
Contributor
Contributor
Posts: 227
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2014 7:09 am
Favorite Aircraft: Die Fledermaus
Has thanked: 125 times
Been thanked: 92 times

Re: Random questions about anything NEAR and IN the realm of YSFlight

Post by kiwiflieger »

Thanks Pat - just confirmed that a vehicle without offset will go out of its way to follow the path precisely.

Another question - do vehicles always move at their max. speed along a motion path? Or is there a way of limiting it, so a fast destroyer and slow tanker can be capped to move at the slow speed?
Currently dormant... playing IL2 Cliffs of Dover
User avatar
Skipper
Rookie
Rookie
Posts: 83
Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2013 8:28 pm
Favorite Aircraft: Spitfire/F-15E
Location: SAM VOR 240 radial, 27nm
OS: Windows 10
Has thanked: 15 times
Been thanked: 57 times
Contact:

Re: Random questions about anything NEAR and IN the realm of YSFlight

Post by Skipper »

No, the speed is set by .Dat, as far as I remember. But you can create another .dat with your slow speed and recycling the dnm.
So yea, they just go flat out.
Image
Host of YSRP: YSRP.co.uk - YS Role Play Server
User avatar
Barr
Veteran
Veteran
Posts: 1012
Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2012 8:49 pm
Favorite Aircraft: The Boeing 757
Location: Providence, Rhode Island
OS: Windows 10/Gentoo
Has thanked: 272 times
Been thanked: 206 times

Re: Random questions about anything NEAR and IN the realm of YSFlight

Post by Barr »

I probably already asked this somewhere but forgot the answer and dont find any records of it but when making large maps if you were to make it one big polygon/map element will it be any better or worse performance wise than making it in sections? If sections are perferred how big can these sections be made before lag starts to settle in? 1km? 5km? 10km?

Also how could you make a runway/airport on a slope? The protected polygon freature only makes a flat zero slope surface within the grid and as far as I have tested landing on a slope or grid will either make you jump 10000ft into the air or youll explode on touchdown.
Image
Beginner ATC for hire!
Current Projects:
-Pilatus PC12
-Mooney M20
-New England Scenery
Fine Print:
**Word of Caution**
My knowledge is limited. Anything I write in my posts may or may not be accurate. To be honest I think its all crap.
User avatar
Neocon
First Class Membership
First Class Membership
Posts: 3955
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2011 5:01 am
Favorite Aircraft: Baron 58
Location: Tennessee
OS: Win 10
Has thanked: 1769 times
Been thanked: 1810 times
Contact:

Re: Random questions about anything NEAR and IN the realm of YSFlight

Post by Neocon »

BARRACUZ wrote:Also how could you make a runway/airport on a slope?
That would be a job for textures.
User avatar
Barr
Veteran
Veteran
Posts: 1012
Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2012 8:49 pm
Favorite Aircraft: The Boeing 757
Location: Providence, Rhode Island
OS: Windows 10/Gentoo
Has thanked: 272 times
Been thanked: 206 times

Re: Random questions about anything NEAR and IN the realm of YSFlight

Post by Barr »

Patrick31337 wrote:
BARRACUZ wrote:Also how could you make a runway/airport on a slope?
That would be a job for textures.
But how would you stop the instant kaboom when you attempt to land?
Image
Beginner ATC for hire!
Current Projects:
-Pilatus PC12
-Mooney M20
-New England Scenery
Fine Print:
**Word of Caution**
My knowledge is limited. Anything I write in my posts may or may not be accurate. To be honest I think its all crap.
User avatar
Neocon
First Class Membership
First Class Membership
Posts: 3955
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2011 5:01 am
Favorite Aircraft: Baron 58
Location: Tennessee
OS: Win 10
Has thanked: 1769 times
Been thanked: 1810 times
Contact:

Re: Random questions about anything NEAR and IN the realm of YSFlight

Post by Neocon »

You can land on an elevation grid if it has a paved area around it.
User avatar
Gunny
Business Class Membership
Business Class Membership
Posts: 3250
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2011 6:17 pm
Favorite Aircraft: Any thing with a prop.
Location: New Iberia.LA.
OS: Windows 10 & XP SP3
Has thanked: 586 times
Been thanked: 786 times

Re: Random questions about anything NEAR and IN the realm of YSFlight

Post by Gunny »

[AKA]Rectangular area runway;}
Image[/align=centre]
User avatar
Barr
Veteran
Veteran
Posts: 1012
Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2012 8:49 pm
Favorite Aircraft: The Boeing 757
Location: Providence, Rhode Island
OS: Windows 10/Gentoo
Has thanked: 272 times
Been thanked: 206 times

Re: Random questions about anything NEAR and IN the realm of YSFlight

Post by Barr »

Patrick31337 wrote:You can land on an elevation grid if it has a paved area around it.
Gunny wrote:[AKA]Rectangular area runway;}
Thank you fellas!


Another: How do you make high res coastlines. Do you just use the polygon tool and trace for days?
Image
Beginner ATC for hire!
Current Projects:
-Pilatus PC12
-Mooney M20
-New England Scenery
Fine Print:
**Word of Caution**
My knowledge is limited. Anything I write in my posts may or may not be accurate. To be honest I think its all crap.
User avatar
decaff_42
Staff
Staff
Posts: 3838
Joined: Sat Oct 29, 2011 7:23 pm
Favorite Aircraft: SR-71 Blackbird
Location: Eastern United States
OS: Mac OSX
Has thanked: 844 times
Been thanked: 1726 times
Contact:

Re: Random questions about anything NEAR and IN the realm of YSFlight

Post by decaff_42 »

BARRACUZ wrote:Another: How do you make high res coastlines. Do you just use the polygon tool and trace for days?
As someone who tried to do high res coastlines for the Philippines map, I sunk waaaay too much detail into areas that were inconsequential at best. I'd recommending putting the bulk of your efforts for coastlines into areas you expect to see them a lot. I.e. if you have an airport near the coast, do a 5 mile radius around the airport and that should be fine. For other areas, go dirt simple. cut out bays and harbors if they are small and inconsequential. If you are not adding anything else near the detail ( like a random city that ppl might descend to look at) don't put in extra details.

use your efforts to complement the existing/planned details of your map. You might also find it useful to create the detailed coastlines in a separate item in scenery editor to enable easier editing of them later, or perhaps even reuse, depending on the feature.
Check out my website YSDecaff for all my tutorials and addon releases.
Visit my GitHub page for Python codes: https://github.com/decaff42?tab=repositories

YSFlight Addon Database - Find links to nearly every addon made for YSFlight!
Submit Addon To Database
User avatar
Skipper
Rookie
Rookie
Posts: 83
Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2013 8:28 pm
Favorite Aircraft: Spitfire/F-15E
Location: SAM VOR 240 radial, 27nm
OS: Windows 10
Has thanked: 15 times
Been thanked: 57 times
Contact:

Re: Random questions about anything NEAR and IN the realm of YSFlight

Post by Skipper »

I wonder if there is a way to bring a GIS Shapefile into Scenery Editor....
/goes off to play with data
Image
Host of YSRP: YSRP.co.uk - YS Role Play Server
User avatar
u2fly
Senior Veteran
Senior Veteran
Posts: 1485
Joined: Fri Oct 02, 2015 9:27 am
Favorite Aircraft: Antonov An-225 Mriya
Location: Ukraine
OS: Linux
Has thanked: 1051 times
Been thanked: 339 times

Re: Random questions about anything NEAR and IN the realm of YSFlight

Post by u2fly »

Skipper wrote:I wonder if there is a way to bring a GIS Shapefile into Scenery Editor....
/goes off to play with data
SceneryEditor is closed source program, so add this import functionality directly in SceneryEditor impossible, but you can prepare special FLD file using external converter apps (scripts).

Operation where one file in textual format converted in another file in textual format using some rules has name "parsing" and you could do it easy using special Python script.

Start point here: Also recommend look next addons for Blender written with Python (I hope soon make an addon for export scene from Blender to FLD, TER and STP file)

U.S. Senator John McCain wrote:“Spending #NewYearsEve w/ brave #Ukrainian Marines at a forward combat outpost
- we stand w/ them in their fight against #Putin's aggression”

pic.twitter.com/vkz0gdozVV [archived]
(31 DEC 2016)
User avatar
Barr
Veteran
Veteran
Posts: 1012
Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2012 8:49 pm
Favorite Aircraft: The Boeing 757
Location: Providence, Rhode Island
OS: Windows 10/Gentoo
Has thanked: 272 times
Been thanked: 206 times

Re: Random questions about anything NEAR and IN the realm of YSFlight

Post by Barr »

u2fly wrote:
Skipper wrote:I wonder if there is a way to bring a GIS Shapefile into Scenery Editor....
/goes off to play with data
SceneryEditor is closed source program, so add this import functionality directly in SceneryEditor impossible, but you can prepare special FLD file using external converter apps (scripts).

Operation where one file in textual format converted in another file in textual format using some rules has name "parsing" and you could do it easy using special Python script.

Start point here: Also recommend look next addons for Blender written with Python (I hope soon make an addon for export scene from Blender to FLD, TER and STP file)
I opened up a thread here:
viewtopic.php?f=223&t=5979&p=72580&hili ... per#p72580

Im sure thats how grigor decided to make the real nice elvation grid tool for us.

Of course we wouldve had the tool sooner if skipper wouldve shared the info sooner :x
Image
Beginner ATC for hire!
Current Projects:
-Pilatus PC12
-Mooney M20
-New England Scenery
Fine Print:
**Word of Caution**
My knowledge is limited. Anything I write in my posts may or may not be accurate. To be honest I think its all crap.
User avatar
Skipper
Rookie
Rookie
Posts: 83
Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2013 8:28 pm
Favorite Aircraft: Spitfire/F-15E
Location: SAM VOR 240 radial, 27nm
OS: Windows 10
Has thanked: 15 times
Been thanked: 57 times
Contact:

Re: Random questions about anything NEAR and IN the realm of YSFlight

Post by Skipper »

I did! It's mostly detailed on that blog post!
(I think...I can't really remember, was a while ago)

I've not looked at the format for .fld files, I guess it's like a flat .srf....
..It has been a while since I've done any modding

But the elevation grid generator thing is basically the same thing as what I was detailing. DEMs are generally B&W bitmaps, but they're obviously in meters, so they fit better into Scenery Editor without too much scaling issues


:edit: ...Mkay, so it seems to be quite a simple format for polygons (in the fld file).
I'm not going to try and figure out all the junk before and after, but the polygon itself is just:

Code: Select all

PLG //I guess it specifies it as a polygon...duh
COL 0 0 0 //RGB of the colour
VER X Y I guess
VER X Y
VER X Y
VER X Y etc
SPEC FALSE //Not sure, specular?
ENDO //End of?
So, rough and ready version would be convert the polygon shapefile to points, export as a CSV, stick VER in front, and wham it in the PLG column....



:EDIT:
I think there must be a size limit...

:edit2:
Well, something worked
ukmainland.png
It is actual size btw... The grid squares are 10km each
But... It doesnt seem to be an actual polygon... Very odd.
It is configured to be a polygon (PLG....). Does Scenery Editor have invalid polygons? (Where they cross over?) could be an issue, but I doubt it...
Maybe it can't actually render something with 2000 points well...

:edit3:
Yup.
Invalid polygon is definately the cause... But can't find the cross... Will try to convexnize the lot, and see if that shows a dodgy looking polygon I can fix.

...It's taking months to convexnize......
Last edited by Skipper on Mon Aug 22, 2016 6:12 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Image
Host of YSRP: YSRP.co.uk - YS Role Play Server
User avatar
u2fly
Senior Veteran
Senior Veteran
Posts: 1485
Joined: Fri Oct 02, 2015 9:27 am
Favorite Aircraft: Antonov An-225 Mriya
Location: Ukraine
OS: Linux
Has thanked: 1051 times
Been thanked: 339 times

Re: Random questions about anything NEAR and IN the realm of YSFlight

Post by u2fly »

Skipper wrote:I've not looked at the format for .fld files, I guess it's like a flat .srf....
..It has been a while since I've done any modding
Look in my book - http://forum.ysfhq.com/viewtopic.php?f=147&t=8172
Here is special chapter about scenery file formats!
If you can improve it - send PM to me!

U.S. Senator John McCain wrote:“Spending #NewYearsEve w/ brave #Ukrainian Marines at a forward combat outpost
- we stand w/ them in their fight against #Putin's aggression”

pic.twitter.com/vkz0gdozVV [archived]
(31 DEC 2016)
User avatar
Skipper
Rookie
Rookie
Posts: 83
Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2013 8:28 pm
Favorite Aircraft: Spitfire/F-15E
Location: SAM VOR 240 radial, 27nm
OS: Windows 10
Has thanked: 15 times
Been thanked: 57 times
Contact:

Re: Random questions about anything NEAR and IN the realm of YSFlight

Post by Skipper »

It seems that the scenery files are saved as a .pc2 file.
The bit you've written about is the bit that calls the .pc2 file, and says where it should go.

Code: Select all

PC2
FIL "0000000......whatever01.pc2"  //So this is the bit that calls on the pc2 file. Techincally you could have a separate file somewhere else in the folder, though most seem to be located within the .fld. 
POS Well, that's obvious...
ID 0 //Probably a unique ID if you reuse scenery files, so it can figure which one you mean where
END //well, that's obvious
So, the ID bit does make some sense, because you could have a PC2 file that is a runway approach light pattern or something. It's a standard design right? So why not reuse it? But each one will need a different position.

So. The actual PC2 file looks a bit more like this:

Code: Select all

PCK "00000000.pc2" 9 //This is the name of the PC2 package. The name is what it's calling on in your PC2/FIL section. The number after is the number of lines the file is, including the title. So in this case, 9. (This was my first stumbling block above)
Pict2 //Well, it's a PICT2 file.. Maybe there are other kinds
PLG //Polygon! I'm just going to look at this for now.. maybe in the future you can look at the other kinds
COL 46 112 10 //RGB colour
VER 146879.42 164321.21 //First vertex
VER 148259.09 119482.10 //2nd vertex etc etc.
SPEC FALSE //Specular (so is it shiny)
ENDO //End of this polygon. Now you'd do another one if you had one, so you'd then start again with PLG etc etc.
ENDPICT   // that's the end of the PICT2 file.
so that could be saved as a separate pc2 file, or within the fld. I guess if it is serparate, it maybe doesnt need the PCK title?


...My map is still convexing


:EDIT:
Okay, so it finished convexizing or whatever its called. Now! We have a map of GB! It's reasonably detailed... reasonably.... The coastline is made up of 2000 points. The other limit is that it is just the mainland. Since I'm going polygon>points, there is no differentiation between separate polygons really, so all the islands are lumped together, and that makes some weird geometry.
I was thinking, I could use the SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) data of the UK, and convert it to a terrain file (not sure if that little app on here would cope... It's 300mb..), but I dont think YSF could cope either...
So, I'm going to give it a try :D
(Well, I'm going to scale it up. Its normal resolution is 90m... I'm going to use 360m because... well, it'll take all day otherwise)



:EDIT2:
Hehe, I killed excel...


:EDIT3:
This thing is going to be a monster..... I seriously doubt YSFLIGHT will be able to cope with it

Excel still can't cope... Having to do it piece by piece... 64Bit version of excel would be nice too... This one can only use 2gb ram


:Edit4:
Turns out Notepad++ can't handle text files that are over 200mb.

So, where this stands:
I can't convert the entire SRTM terrain grid for the UK into YSFLIGHT at 360m grid squares (Which are pretty big, so that's probably the lowest level of detail I'm happy with) because I can't edit it from an excel spreadsheet into a nicely formated .ter file... (I guess I could write a python script to convert it, but I cannot be bothered.)
I'll try again with a lower (urgh) resolution SRTM map.



:EDIT5:
So, new SRTM map, lower res (1km squares). Still no joy, YSFLIGHT just can't seem to deal with elevation grids that are 30mb....Ah well, was worth a shot. If I have time (With lessons to plan for the coming weeks... we shall see) I may try bringing out some areas of terrain from the SRTM, so, maybe National Parks around the UK, and getting them as terrain grids. Might be the answer...
Image
Host of YSRP: YSRP.co.uk - YS Role Play Server
User avatar
Barr
Veteran
Veteran
Posts: 1012
Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2012 8:49 pm
Favorite Aircraft: The Boeing 757
Location: Providence, Rhode Island
OS: Windows 10/Gentoo
Has thanked: 272 times
Been thanked: 206 times

Re: Random questions about anything NEAR and IN the realm of YSFlight

Post by Barr »

How do you make a "halfed" mesh a full one?

Tryin to paint this but it seems like it was mirrored? so theres only a mesh on one side of the tail?
Attachments
Screenshot (140).png
Image
Beginner ATC for hire!
Current Projects:
-Pilatus PC12
-Mooney M20
-New England Scenery
Fine Print:
**Word of Caution**
My knowledge is limited. Anything I write in my posts may or may not be accurate. To be honest I think its all crap.
User avatar
Nodoka Hanamura
Veteran
Veteran
Posts: 947
Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2011 8:01 pm
Favorite Aircraft: Su-24, Mig-29, Su-27, F-18, F-15, ADF-01, Icon A5
OS: Windows 10 / Linux
Has thanked: 539 times
Been thanked: 276 times

Re: Random questions about anything NEAR and IN the realm of YSFlight

Post by Nodoka Hanamura »

Skipper wrote:I did! It's mostly detailed on that blog post!
(I think...I can't really remember, was a while ago)

I've not looked at the format for .fld files, I guess it's like a flat .srf....
..It has been a while since I've done any modding

But the elevation grid generator thing is basically the same thing as what I was detailing. DEMs are generally B&W bitmaps, but they're obviously in meters, so they fit better into Scenery Editor without too much scaling issues


:edit: ...Mkay, so it seems to be quite a simple format for polygons (in the fld file).
I'm not going to try and figure out all the junk before and after, but the polygon itself is just:

Code: Select all

PLG //I guess it specifies it as a polygon...duh
COL 0 0 0 //RGB of the colour
VER X Y I guess
VER X Y
VER X Y
VER X Y etc
SPEC FALSE //Not sure, specular?
ENDO //End of?
So, rough and ready version would be convert the polygon shapefile to points, export as a CSV, stick VER in front, and wham it in the PLG column....



:EDIT:
I think there must be a size limit...

:edit2:
Well, something worked
ukmainland.png
It is actual size btw... The grid squares are 10km each
But... It doesnt seem to be an actual polygon... Very odd.
It is configured to be a polygon (PLG....). Does Scenery Editor have invalid polygons? (Where they cross over?) could be an issue, but I doubt it...
Maybe it can't actually render something with 2000 points well...

:edit3:
Yup.
Invalid polygon is definately the cause... But can't find the cross... Will try to convexnize the lot, and see if that shows a dodgy looking polygon I can fix.

...It's taking months to convexnize......
I remember AAAAAGES Ago, when I tried my hand at making a Japan Map (Think 2012, 2011), I had this same problem. I never found a solution.
█████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
Member of YSCE Development Committee - I don't code, I compile.
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests