World Wide Guide to FS Scenery Design | Knowledge Bank

How I built Timbuktu

On this page, scenery designers reveal the methods they used to create specific scenery files. If you have something to contribute, please send e-mail to kraybill@vianet.net.au.

How I built Hong Kong

An Experience in Scenery Design Using Airport 2.01, Scbuild 2.0 and SCASM

by Wayland Lee (May 1997)
<way@chevalier.net>

Not long ago I saw someone advertising Hong Kong Scenery over the Web. From the ad it looked so nice and realistic that I succumbed to the temptation of sending off a request to buy it. However, for some unknown reason my request was never answered.

Before this I had been using the beta version of the FSWG -Hong Kong scenery. (It has, however, a display bug on my machine though it looks reasonably well in general.) I didn't have much choice but to do myself a home-brew scenery - and so I started to look into the resources on the Web.

Kai Tak
Radar Dome on Beacon Hill, overlooking the soon-to-be closed Kai Tak airport in Hong Kong. By Wayland Lee

I bumped into Abacus's "Monet" site of the beta version of Airport and Scenery Designer, only to find out that they were closing their evaluation. Anyway I was introduced to Scbuild 2.0 and I was on my own. (Not exactly true - author Peter Jacobson had stuffed so much read-me information into his package that I was able to download the coastline of South China as soon as I finished reading, and started my work almost immediately.)
It worked quite well during the very first few steps and I soon flew over a group of un-populated islands, overgrown with rain-forest type plants, but with a protrusion that looked very much like the Kai Tak Airport, right where it should be! (Perhaps this is what Hong Kong will look like after one billion years!)

Hong Kong's new Chek Lap Kok airport, built on an island reclaimed from the sea. By Wayland Lee

Step by step I then worked on the area, putting in high-rise buildings, roads, and of course, some nice hills to fly over. But I saw a problem: What were available to me were just the coastlines. To place some land features with shapes exactly resembling the real world was not easy. The program perhaps works better in the USA, where more detail land features are available on the downloaded maps. I also had trouble getting the taxiways on my airport to show up.

There the French program, Airport 2.02, by Pascal Meziat, came into play. Using a fax machine, I scanned an aerial map and sent it over to my computer, and produced a bitmap file that could be super-imposed into the work area of the Airport program. Using it as a guide line, I was able to build very accurate land features. So the runways, aprons, club buildings, control towers, etc. could be placed exactly where they should be. Besides, I found the SCASM compilation feature very convenient - all I need was a click on the icon and - voila! The new feature was in my FS program as a .bgl ready for flight testing. No more awful DOS windows! So I worked on with Airport, occasionally coming back to Scbuild to add a pinch of this and that.

But then I tried to edit some of the add-on macros for scenery objects with SCASM. It took me some evenings to study the documents from author Manfred Moldenhauer and others, before getting the idea on how this great assembler worked. I was finally able to write some simple things, and change some macros into something the fitted my needs more. That was how I created the Checkerboards on the small hill, and the Radar dome that appears atop of a mountain.

I will for certain keep on adding new things -- until my frame rate starts to decline. As I said in my Readme file, writing macros and creating scenery is just as much fun as flying!

You can download Wayland's Hong Kong scenery (153K, zipped) from the IUP site, at http://www.iup.edu/flight-sim/files/uploads/hkgclk.zip

How I built vintage Houston

by Bob Parrick of Houston, Texas USA [rparrick@neosoft.com],
veteran of 30 years of flying, mostly in corporate jets

(Bob's excellent Vintage World War I Aerodromes can be found at
Andy Hall's Flight Shop Aerodrome site)

I work on scenery for areas I am familiar with - i.e. flown around or visited. My design objectives are:

Tools

I use SCASM and Airport.

There are similar tools around that may be better in some applications. I stay with these as I am comfortable with them. Airport is a great program but despite the claims of the authors, you must dig into the SCASM documents to really make the whole thing work. Airport has quirks that you have to learn to work around. I'm still using the DOS (1.23) version, though I've played with the new Windows version (2.0) a bit.

I do my texture work with Corel Photopaint on converted bitmap files. It has a clone feature that I find very useful for combining texture elements from various sources. It also has a color replacer tool that is very handy. The texture files can be converted to bitmap files (.BMP) with any of several utilities that are out there.

For handling the synth tiles I use FSSE, an incompleted Windows program by Ted Chen. It's great for flattening some of the egregious mountains found on the default scenery. Works well if you have enough RAM.

Since I do a lot of my own macros I find BGLTST by Manfred Moldenhauer a very useful tool for checking and debugging.

The tools I used to create the objects in my Vintage Aerodromes are not sophisticated at all. Just some graph paper, a pencil, the screen editor and a bit of imagination. How crude can you get? Building a 3D object is not that difficult. Just spend a few hours reading the SCASM documents. Look at the Airport .api files and give it a try. It's worth the effort.

Recipe for airport layout and design

Contrary to the advice of many, I do not draft a detailed layout on paper. I lay out the runways as accurately as possible using real world co-ordinates from the airport data from the AirNav web page and/or detailed Jeppesen airport charts. I use a simple spreadsheet to interpolate the runway center point from the runway end co-ordinates. This results in very accurate runway placement. Most of the rest of the airport layout can be done on screen by eyeball.

Next I add the taxiways. This can be a chore if you try to do it freehand. One little trick I use with Airport is to create an unmarked runway resized to, say, 75 ft wide, and I use it as a pattern for the taxiway. Let's say you have a 5000 ft runway that is 150 ft wide. A parallel taxiway might be the same length but 75-100 ft wide (taxiways are usually narrower than the runway served). Place your blank second runway next to the main runway at the location of the taxiway and use it as a template to draw your textured polygon taxiway. Then move it for use somewhere else and /or finally edit it out.

Add other airport detail as desired. I start with the major structures such as terminals, hangars, parking lots roads and highways etc; anything that is a prominent to the eye of the arriving pilot. Why do I say arriving pilot?  The departing pilot is in a nose high attitude so his view is partially obscured and he's busy trying to get airborne and isn't sightseeing. It's nice to have something to look at while taxiing ,but don't overdo it.

A nice visual trick is to use 3D polygons around the airport perimeter to relieve the stark flatness of the airport scene. A pseudo treeline can be created with this method that will look okay if you don't get too close.

Be careful when using this technique with Airport as the base and top are easily reversed. Also this technique doesn't work if you are using concave polygons. A word of caution here. Airport 1.23 seems to have a problem assembling 3D polygons.

Think of the surrounding area. What is prominent? Highways, cities and towns, rivers and coastlines are all essential elements that are easy to add. Don't forget prominent TV towers. Water towers also stand out in some areas. Shopping malls are prominent if near to the airport and are easy to do.

Building "Vintage Aerodromes"

The old aerodrome project started as a flight of fancy. I was chatting with Andy Hall, creator of the Flight Shop Aerodrome site, and mentioned that I had seen some pictures of one of the local airports taken around 1920 when it was a major training base. Since I had done a rather extensive scenery of the Houston, Texas area I thought it would be fun to rework it to get a 1920s appearance.

I won't even attempt to describe writing the macros I used in any detail.  I'm not a real programmer and some of the steps I used may be redundant, unnecessary or flat wrong. I take what works and run with it.

The Aerodrome surface is just a rough surfaced polygon textured with grass. Has to be rough to be real.

For surrounding trees, I used the Airport "colline2.api" and a variation of the same that I modified with a different crash zone. What good are trees if you can't crash into them?

The hangar tents were drawn from scratch and were based on pictures from World War1. The api macro only required about 20 points to define and took little time to make.

The anti-aircraft explosions are very simple objects using the same basic macro as the trees found in Airport. A flash texture was made using night visible red orange and yellow colors. The command making them visible at about 6 second intervals was used and I added a crash zone around the object. The visibility range is very short to insure an element of surprise <g>.

The barrage balloons were created with a shaded textured poly using the RotatedCall command. A crash zone was put in beneath the balloon using the Monitor3d command.

The cannons are simple tapered cylinders mounted on a base and with muzzle flashes produced with the same technique as the flak explosions.

The only real work was the aircraft. The Fokker type plane required about 200 points to define. The sequence of drawing the surfaces is very tricky and took a lot of time to create the decent but imperfect form that you see in the scene. Once the Fokker was presentable it was easy to modify the macro to create a SPAD.

Another object of interest are the buildings used in the old Ellington Field. The idea was to put a gabled roof on top of an FS building without going to a whole lot of trouble. The macro simply draws a two story FS standard brown building using the 'building' command and then adds a roof defined by eight points to make 5 colored polygons. Very simple.

The hangar with the SPAD inside may also be of interest. I had tried in the past to put the FS5 dynamic planes or static objects such as the helicopter inside of the hangars and of course it never worked. I would always be able to see the plane through the walls or door. My solution was to build the hangar around the plane using a common reference point. Using macros I had written earlier for the plane and the hangar, I simply combined them into one macro for the 'Hangar with a SPAD in it'.

One last item: beacons. Nowadays the airport beacon is a quaint artifact that's hard to separate from all the other lights in the airport area. During the 20's and 30's it was a primary navigational reference. I wasn't able to find any beacons that I liked in prefab form so I built four of my own. The one I used most in 'vintage' was the airway beacon that flashes red and white. I strung them out at 10 to 15 mile intervals to allow visual navigation at night across some desolate Texas areas.

- February 1997

How I built Italy

Nicola Marangon of Italy [e-mail: nicotum@mbox.vol.it] started his scenery-making efforts by creating his own country. He described the project as follows: 

The first thing to do was to find the appropriate tools. I started the research of Jeppesen charts, maps of the area, documentation and programs. I also started to examine with care how the other sceneries had been created. During these months I learned that this initial phase of research is very important.

Never get tired of looking for data; the more you have, the easier it is to resolve the problems you find on the way. You should use the same principle using the various instruments, each compiler does some good things and not so good things, so don't fossilize yourself on one compiler, but use the best for that job.

I used Schiratti Commander to draw the mountains, the roads, the coasts and the cities. Unfortunately the major part of the general parameters of Schiratti Commander were not, in my opinion, realistic (for example, the mountains' visibility range). [Ed note: The distributors of SC have recently released a patch aimed in part at fixing visibility problems with small mountains.] So I made a small program to automatically modify the generated source code. The other compiler used was SCASM. With it I generated synthetic sceneries, the elevated surfaces, the airport menus and various other objects. Airport and FSASM have been very useful for their documentation. You should add to the above compilers the small (but indispensable) utilities like FSOFFS, POSPLUS, etc.

Never stop experimenting! Usually the best solutions come from many trying sessions and a long tour de force, but remember: perfection doesn't exist. Furthermore, a lot of work should be done on the aesthetic aspect and principally on the airports: no one likes to fly over flat and unrealistic scenery. I can always count on fellow apacionados that can advise on the status of the scenery.

Keep in mind that there could be other sceneries that cover the same zone, or part of the same zone. Try to make them coexist.

Dulcis in fundus - Do it just for the pleasure of doing it! ;-)
(November 1996)

You can download Nicola's Italy from his own Web site, at http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/7097.

How I built central Alabama

High school band director James A. McKenzie, Jr. [e-mail: mckenzie@dbtech.net] describes how he went about tackling his first major scenery project, central Alabama:

I used BGLGEN for designing runways and taxiways, FSOFFS for determining offsets for taxiway construction, and location of markers, SCBUILD to create the waterways and highways and place my scenery tiles, Visual Object Designer to create all buildings, beacons, towers, etc., and SCASM to compile all creations from SCBUILD and VOD.

The biggest problem I encountered was dealing with taxiways in BGLGEN. Alfred Grech, one of the most prolific of third party scenery designers, doesn't even fool with them, and I don't blame him. BGLGEN is great for runways but bad for taxiways, unless you use FSOFFS to determine the offsets. Once I figured that out, it was clear sailing.

Other than that problem, it was mainly finding the time to work. You must set aside a time to work, if you really want to finish a project.

I made the scenery modular, which should make upgrading easy. The bgl files contain runways/markers/taxiways/navaids, tiles, SCBUILD features and buildings/towers respectively. I can upgrade, say the buildings/towers, and put out an upgrade that is ONLY that part of the scenery. One can then just copy that bgl file over the old one, and it is upgraded, without having to download the ENTIRE new version of the scenery. I plan to do this as I hone my craft.

Also, with modular scenery, one can only put in the features they want. If they have a slower machine, and don't want to take a frame rate hit, they can leave out the SCBUILD features, and the scenery will still be fine.

I offer these suggestions for a successful project:

1. Get your materials together!  I recommend the above mentioned software, as well as Alfred Grech's HOW2BGL. This document is an indispensable reference.

2. Have good reference sources. I used Jeppesen charts, and AOPA's Aviation USA. These materials are an absolute requirement, in my opinion.

3. Set aside time to work. And then do it!

4. Be patient! In the beginning, it will be a slow go. But it gets better, as you get used to the terminology.

5. Find someone to beta test the software. Fred Stein graciously looked over my scenery with a fine-toothed comb. It really helped. It is hard to find time to design AND test.

6. ASK QUESTIONS!!!! I think I must have gotten on Alfred's nerves <g>! Seriously, scenery designers will be glad to help you if they can, just subscribe to the IUP mailing list, and when you are stumped, jump in there and ASK! You will get answers you can use. I guarantee it.

7. Don't get frustrated.

If I were starting again, I'd be a bit more organized in the beginning. But that is something that one learns by doing, unless warned in advance. I think that probably delayed me by about 2 weeks, as I was going off in too many different directions. I know better now. Do the SCBUILD work, and tile work first, then runways. The pretty stuff, i.e. buildings, taxiways, etc, comes LAST! You have to have something to work with first.

You might want to visit James' web site [http://web.dbtech.net/~mckenzie].
CENALA.ZIP
(Central Alabama scenery)
CENALF.ZIP or CENALF2.ZIP
(Fix for above file)

How I built southeast Wisconsin

Dana Miller (e-mail: bentmg@geocities.com) studied these Web pages closely in mid-1996, and then set out to create Southeastern Wisconsin. Dana writes the following:

I used ScBuild for the roads, lakes, rivers, coasts, and synthetic scenery, Airport 1.22j for some airports, taxiways, and some polygons, Schiratti Commander/Scenery Maker for some airports, and SCASM for the Airports menu and ATIS.
The biggest problems were finding info for taxiways, building a coast around the Duluth-Superior area, and trading off between frame rate and scenery density. I got some info for taxiways from the AirNav web page. I am still trying to figure out how to build a decent coast around Lake Superior (one that won't cover up all islands), and I increased the frame rate immensely from the last version by working with the synthetic scenery in ScBuild.
I used ScBuild to work with the synthetic scenery tiles instead of SC/SM or Airport. It took a while to get used to, but the learning process really paid off. I found there were several layers of (unneeded) tiles that were either the wrong texture or the wrong altitude. This was my biggest problem because those tiles really waste so much frame rate and memory. After I got done deleting those extra tiles, I nearly doubled the frame rate and cut the size of my synthetic scenery tiles file in half!
I really recommend spending $20 and getting Schiratti Commander. I would also recommend Airport and ScBuild. With these programs, it's almost all point and click with the mouse. You'll barely see any of that evil source code (unless you really want to). Even though ScBuild kind of kills some frame rate, the roads, rivers, etc. are a definite plus in any "homemade" scenery. Also, I suggest checking out AirNav. This web site has almost all the info you need on runways, airports, and Navaids. I have a homepage dedicated to this scenery. It is http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/2393/sewi.html.

Southeastern Wisconsin, in two files at FTP.IUP.EDU   [Download SEWI02.ZIP] [Download SEWIFIX.ZIP].

How I built western Pennsylvania

Justin Tyme [e-mail: jTyme@microserve.net] of Indiana, Pennsylvania, took up scenery design for the first time in March 1996, and several months later, released a 1.6 meg scenery file that quickly won accolades from nearly everyone who used it. He tells how he created Western Pennsylvania:

"Step 1: Using ScBuild, I compiled transportation and hydrographic features. Then I located runways and determined synth tile altitudes for runways. I Filled in tiles at runway altitude for at least a 10 nm radius, where possible. (It's important to compile your features before locating your runways, since it's a heck of a lot easier to move a runway than to move a river or highway in the event they may overlap.) I used Airport to build the airports.

"Step 2: Using Schiratti Commander Scenery Maker, I placed mountains around transportation and hydrographic features. The great advantage to using SC/SM is that it very clearly shows the existing scenery elements. By compiling your transportation and hydrographic features first, they will show up in SC/SM allowing you to only cover them when you want to. There are two or three tunnels along the PA turnpike. One of them is very basically portrayed somewhere south of Johnstown/Altoona. Also, just south of downtown Pittsburgh there is the Liberty tunnel across the river. Another east of downtown is the Squirrel Hill tunnel. In a future enhancement I'll include portals, but for now they were created very simply by just creating a mountain over a road.  

"Schiratti Commander makes it very easy to create a mountain. All it is is a 3d textured polygon. You simply define the different points (up to 80) of the polygon by pointing and clicking the mouse and when you close the polygon, the program asks you to define the peak by a last mouse click. Then it asks you for the height. Voila. A mountain. Then you modify the mountain you've just created by choosing a texture. I textured most of the mountains either broad.r8 or needle .r8. There were a few prairie.r8's and you'll notice a couple of little hills in Pittsburgh that I used urburb.r8. You can also overlap mountains and create just about any shape or height or combintion you want.  It's useful to use the applicable NOAA Sectional chart (in W PA's case, the Detroit sectional) since they usually show topographic relief. I also found a great source of satellite images at http://fermi.jhuapl.edu/states/states.html. If you know the height of a particular peak, just take that and subtract the altitude of the tile it's on and you have created an accurate altitude of the peak.

"You don't need many programming skills. If you have them, all the better, since SC/SM allows you to tinker with the source code before compiling. Really, all you need is your reference materials, a proficiency with your software, a little imagination, time, and patience. If I can make scenery, anyone can, since I'm not really very knowledgeable about computers or programming."

Western Pennsylvania scenery   [Download from IUP]  [Download from WINGS]

Since he wrote the above, Justin has released several versions of the entire state of Pennsylvania. Here's the latest:

Pennsylvania scenery, Version 2.2  [Download from IUP]

Last updated 17 February 1997 by Gene Kraybill. All rights reserved.