World Wide Guide to
FS Scenery Design |
Utilities |
Designers and Front-ends |
Airport
World Wide Guide to
FS Scenery Design |
Utilities |
Designers and Front-ends |
Airport
by Randy Whistler [e-mail: iott@juno.com]
With the advent of the new scenery creation programs, and their ease and simplicity of use, many of us have had the itch to create our local airports and scenery for personal reasons. The airport itself isn't too difficult since information on the runways, VORs, NDBs and ILSs is readily available on the Net.
The biggest problem comes from trying to recreate the surrounding urban areas. In this article, I'll show you a way to create accurate representations of cities. Working with a fictional city that I've named "Able", I'll describe how to use a map file as a template for accurate placement of scenery using the Airport program (version 2.0 or later). The map won't actually end up in your scenery, but it will make it much easier to place scenery objects accurately.
The Tiger server
(http://tiger.census.gov) is a service
of the US Census Bureau, and makes it easy to download free digital maps
for all parts of the USA. So, visit the server and use the expanded TMS facility
to download the GIF file associated with the area you are designing.
Make sure you select the appropriate options on the right hand side of the Tiger Map screen. You can include roads, highways, rivers, counties, parks, freeways -- just about anything you desire.
The Tiger Map Server gets its information from the U.S. Census Bureau so
there is a great deal of info there that you probably don't need. Your screen
map should show you the GIF file and what it includes. Also, check out the
size/ratio selection below the map. Select a size/ratio that provides you
the information you need the most. A ratio of .2 X .2
works out to a pixel/meter ratio in Airport of
1.6. A ratio of .1 X .1 is a ratio
of 3.2. I'm sure you could select some other size, but
these are the sizes that have currently worked for me.
You must then convert this GIF file to a bitmap (.BMP) file using a program such as PaintShop Pro, Lview, or another paint programs (including the Windows95 accessory Paint, if you have MS Plus installed). After converting this file from GIF to BMP, remember to copy the BMP file to your Airport directory. In my case, this directory is "C:\APT2."
After selecting "File - New" to begin the airport design for "Able", go back and reopen the "File" menu and select "Import bmp". You should now see a selection of bmp files available for your use. Select the bitmap you want to use for your background template, and change your pixel/meter selection as described above. If all went well, you should now have a BMP file underlaying your main design screen, showing your city streets, main highways, rivers, parks and anything else you wanted to know about your city. This template now will allow you to lay in your scenery designs with a reasonable amount of accuracy.
I have checked the maps associated with some cities I'm reasonably familiar with, and they aren't too terribly inaccurate. They do have the usual size compression on them, that is some small details, streets, parks, etc. that exist in real life don't show up because the graphic limitations of the system.
You may start wherever you wish, but I've had better luck starting with the city polygon. This usually ends up being a pretty big, strangely shaped polygon. You can choose whatever texture you like for your polygon. You should also resize the pixel/meter selection here to your taste and dependent upon your texture choice, similarly to how you sized your map earlier, however there isn't any comparable ratio between the two different pixel/meter selection areas. It also is very dependent upon the texture file you decide to use for your city’s visual effect.
This part will probably take a bit of trial and error to get exactly like you want it to look. Don't forget to select the layer level that is appropriate for the base city polygon. I usually select 2 or 3 for my city polygons.
After I've laid out the city polygon, I usually begin by drawing in the major highways/freeways first, then go on to the state/local highways and city streets last. I also take this time to place any other polygons that will be used here, such as parks, lakes, smaller cities, towns, etc. In general, you should lay out your layers in the order they exist in real life. If your base city polygon starts at 2, then parks within that city would have to be a layer 3 or higher, roads/highways would be 4 or higher, etc. You can have many polygons in the same layer, but remember that if any of them overlap, you may have problems.
Continue by laying out your runways, airport buildings, taxiways, etc.
Remember, the more involved your scenery is, the greater the impact on framerates. If you want to include great detail, but still let almost everyone have acceptable framerates, then you put down your basic airport and associated scenery using the "very sparse" settings, with your detailed parts at a higher level such as "normal", "dense", "very dense", etc. The only limit is your time and will. [February 1997]