Com-Central.net

- JG300-Stoopy

- JG300-Ascout

Ya' know, I'm giving serious thought to deleting the camp on the WNW side of the airfield. It isn't integral to the airbase, per se, and is in the line of view where framerates are the most vulnerable. I'd rather have a highly detailed airfield with better frames than more peripheral stuff that hurt the experience.

Comments?

I'd agree with ya.

I will try this tonight on my home system and see what it does to frames. It'd be really simple to "reconstruct" if it doesn't help that much. It' just trees, barracks, and a few vehicles and other buildings.

I concur. LOL

Unfortunately I have been trying to come up with a coherent paragraph for the last hour.

This is why we test, Guys. I really appreciate your candor. If your squaddies won't level with you, who will?

I'll leave a few trees so it ain't nekkid over there, but it's gonna' get whittled WAY down. I want the airfield to be as rich as possible, and will sacrifice the camp to get it.

Besides, I can always build it back up on my own system...that's why it's good to own the construction company!

- JG300-fr8ycat

Unfortunately I have been trying to come up with a coherent paragraph for the last hour.

Only the last hour? Fr8ycat, if memory serves, you've been a member here for much longer than that....

Just do what I do....start typing all kinds of random thoughts and drag it all out, get all windy....after a while, their eyes will glaze over and they'll just nod their heads to agree with ya and make it all go away....

erm...................... I was just thinking here by myself .......................... what if you made the WNW camp as a separate file, meaning that people then could opt for it or not or another option, when not needed for the planned mission disable it via the scenery menu ................... just a tought, it would be a shame to miss out on all that wonderful stuff you carried overthere


fled

- Uhu_Fledermaus

erm...................... I was just thinking here by myself .......................... what if you made the WNW camp as a separate file, meaning that people then could opt for it or not or another option, when not needed for the planned mission disable it via the scenery menu ................... just a tought, it would be a shame to miss out on all that wonderful stuff you carried overthere


fled

As in a totally separate scenery, I guess you mean? Well, we could, but would it be worth it? The Radio Research Station I intend to keep, but does the camp really justify it? If I were to do that, I'd maybe construct the ARVN Basic Training Base across the highway as well.

But...I'm concerned about interferance as a separate scenery...it's on the same "grid" as the airfield. I'm not altogether certain that they wouldn't interact in some unpredictable way.

- JG300-Stoopy

- JG300-fr8ycat

Unfortunately I have been trying to come up with a coherent paragraph for the last hour.

Only the last hour? Fr8ycat, if memory serves, you've been a member here for much longer than that....

Just do what I do....start typing all kinds of random thoughts and drag it all out, get all windy....after a while, their eyes will glaze over and they'll just nod their heads to agree with ya and make it all go away....

OOpps.......did I say paragraph, I meant Sentence.......or actually word............ah heck hows bout a letter!

- JG300-Ascout

- Uhu_Fledermaus

erm...................... I was just thinking here by myself .......................... what if you made the WNW camp as a separate file, meaning that people then could opt for it or not or another option, when not needed for the planned mission disable it via the scenery menu ................... just a tought, it would be a shame to miss out on all that wonderful stuff you carried overthere


fled

As in a totally separate scenery, I guess you mean? Well, we could, but would it be worth it? The Radio Research Station I intend to keep, but does the camp really justify it? If I were to do that, I'd maybe construct the ARVN Basic Training Base across the highway as well.

But...I'm concerned about interferance as a separate scenery...it's on the same "grid" as the airfield. I'm not altogether certain that they wouldn't interact in some unpredictable way.

Rgr, that was what I was thinking, and if memory serves me well, isn't there a possibility to have different items on different layers in the scenery ?? or am I mixing appels with strawberries again?

As for the frame rate hit I suffered that most when going fom the 9 end towards the 27 end approaching them "chinooks" when I diverted the view from them the FPS picked up instantly, so it must be something on the left side of the RWY 9

I will need to get Stoops scenery switch contraption setup again, dunno what is happening, I think I broke it just to see what the effect is when tossing the stock textures in there.


And fry8cat ............ say CHEESE ! ....................... that's at least 6 letters


fled

I retested the scenery with the Mesh turned off and still have the same errors noted. I even took some picthures. I also noted the runway is also floating about 6 feet up.













I hope these help. I have Fleds environmental pack so I also see the antennas on the C-130 as white. I think that is a minor thing.

Wingnut,

Well, it's interesting that you have the C130 and guy-on-terminal as floating. What those two objects in fact have in common is that they are not "installed" at "0" altitude, but are installed at "X" feet above (or below) the runway. This is because the guy is actually "hovering" over the rooftop (the roof does not support him) and the C130 had an anomaly of sitting about 2 feet off the runway anyway so I installed it at an altitude 1.5 feet below the indicated altitude of the runway with mesh off.

I actually expected the guy-on-terminal to "float" for EVERYBODY when mesh was turned off, but no one else has reported this, nor do I see it. I'm amazed because the indicated absolute altitude of the field above sea level is not the same stock v. mesh.

I should ask what mesh you are running. Is it Baptiste's freeware SEA mesh? I ask because there is a payware one that I know to be different.

My initial impression is that you are experiencing an anomaly from either a corrupt file, different mesh, or interferance with another addon. This is why I'd like a few more testers, preferably a couple with basic systems (not a lot of addon enhancements and such, unlike most C-C regulars).

There is another C130 macro availble, though not as pretty. And the guy-on-terminal is completely expendable, if your observations are replicable by others.

Oh...the Chinook over there is supposed to be flight, as I think you all guessed.

The guy on the terminal just looks like he's standing on a rung of the fence to get a better view...I mean, that's Bob Hope out there!

From my testing so far I don't see any floating so I would question any add-ons besides those listed. I'm sure I'll be corrected if wrong but all that should be applied for best results on Ascouts scenery are "trees" and "SEA Mesh".

If you have any other update sound off. If so try disabling it and see what happens.

Update:

Removed all but two of the "hills" (there are about 12 in the scenery). Made no perceptable difference in framerates. Will put' em back. For my money, it's the density of stuff on the north pad, but I'll try the camp next and see what happens....

Ascout,

I'm bashing me head here, I got Stoopy's wonderfull tool working again and switched to the default texture set ..........

SURPRISE !! NO TREES !! all white squares on the places where they should be

I've tossed in the trees I had uploaded to the JG300 ftp ................. but to no avail, So wondering wich ones you have used as they do show up with the envi_pack active I went through the whole thing and could not find what makes that tick, could you give an indication of the used texture name so I can track 'm, because they are there otherwise them trees wouldn't show up in that setting either.

As for the "floating" objects ....................... not one sighted here
(with the exception of that oversized EGG beater that's either just taking off or landing ), I have the SEA mesh part 1 to 5 active and the ComC_Mil_SEA active as well


fled

- Uhu_Fledermaus

Ascout,

I'm bashing me head here, I got Stoopy's wonderfull tool working again and switched to the default texture set ..........

SURPRISE !! NO TREES !! all white squares on the places where they should be

I've tossed in the trees I had uploaded to the JG300 ftp ................. but to no avail, So wondering wich ones you have used as they do show up with the envi_pack active I went through the whole thing and could not find what makes that tick, could you give an indication of the used texture name so I can track 'm, because they are there otherwise them trees wouldn't show up in that setting either.

As for the "floating" objects ....................... not one sighted here
(with the exception of that oversized EGG beater that's either just taking off or landing ), I have the SEA mesh part 1 to 5 active and the ComC_Mil_SEA active as well


fled

Ever'ting you could ever want to know about the 'trees' I'm using:

*********************************
FS2000/2 TREES OBJECT LIBRARY
Release 3 - Updated Version
---------------------------------
by
Gerrish Gray
September 2002
*********************************

This is my complete FS2000 Trees Library, updated and re-issued as a single
package. It contains two main parts in four zip files:-

* THE LIBRARY (SCENERY.ZIP, FS2000.ZIP and FS2002.ZIP) - This part is
needed by users of any scenery that states that it needs "Gerrish's
Trees Library".

* THE SCENERY DEVELOPERS' KIT (SDK.ZIP) - An updated SDK for scenery
designers with the required documentation and improved API macros.

The update is fully compatible with FS2000, CFS2 and FS2002. All existing
sceneries that use the Trees Library are supported, and the revised SDK enables
the creation of new sceneries for FS2002 that should have better frame rates than
those created with the earlier FS2000 SDK. It replaces ALL previous archives for
both the Library and the SDK.

NOTE: Please don't get this confused with my series of Autogen tree replacements
designed to improve the default trees in the FS2002 landscape, available in the
separate downloads GTL_AGEN.ZIP, MSTREES.ZIP, and MSTREES2.ZIP.


INSTALLING (OR RE-INSTALLING) THE LIBRARY
=========================================

1. TURN OUT THE OLD!
----------------

If you have previously installed any copies of the library, please delete
them all.

Look for, and remove, scenery BGL's called trees_0.bgl and/or trees_02.bgl
from ANY ..\scenery folder. It is safe and correct to delete these without
making any backup - the new trees_0.bgl file will replace them and work
correctly with all sceneries. Duplicate copies in local folders for
individual sceneries are NOT required and should not be present.

Then look for texture files called tree_*.bmp and conifer_*.bmp in all
..\texture folders. If, and only if, the names are in the following list of
65 textures, delete them, but be careful NOT to delete any textures with
similar names, but not actually in this list :-
- conifer_broad.bmp conifer_broad_hw.bmp
- conifer_canopy.bmp conifer_canopy_hw.bmp
- conifer_column.bmp conifer_column_hw.bmp
- conifer_conic.bmp conifer_conic_hw.bmp
- conifer_irreg.bmp conifer_irreg_hw.bmp
- conifer_oval.bmp conifer_oval_hw.bmp
- conifer_round.bmp conifer_round_hw.bmp
- conifer_vase.bmp conifer_vase_hw.bmp
- conifer_weep.bmp conifer_weep_hw.bmp
- tree_broad.bmp tree_broad_fa.bmp tree_broad_hw.bmp
tree_broad_sp.bmp tree_broad_wi.bmp
- tree_canopy.bmp tree_canopy_fa.bmp tree_canopy_hw.bmp
tree_canopy_sp.bmp tree_canopy_wi.bmp
- tree_column.bmp tree_column_fa.bmp tree_column_hw.bmp
tree_column_sp.bmp tree_column_wi.bmp
- tree_conic.bmp tree_conic_fa.bmp tree_conic_hw.bmp
tree_conic_sp.bmp tree_conic_wi.bmp
- tree_irreg.bmp tree_irreg_fa.bmp tree_irreg_hw.bmp
tree_irreg_sp.bmp tree_irreg_wi.bmp
- tree_oval.bmp tree_oval_fa.bmp tree_oval_hw.bmp
tree_oval_sp.bmp tree_oval_wi.bmp
- tree_palmate.bmp tree_pinnate.bmp
- tree_round.bmp tree_round_fa.bmp tree_round_hw.bmp
tree_round_sp.bmp tree_round_wi.bmp
- tree_vase.bmp tree_vase_fa.bmp tree_vase_hw.bmp
tree_vase_sp.bmp tree_vase_wi.bmp
- tree_weep.bmp tree_weep_fa.bmp tree_weep_hw.bmp
tree_weep_sp.bmp tree_weep_wi.bmp

Note that it is best to delete all duplicate copies that third-party scenery
authors have incorrectly asked you to install in 'local' ..\texture folders
for two reasons
(a) They waste memory when FS is running and cause slower frame rates - FS
does not recognise them as being the same texture as the copy in the
main ..\texture folder, and will therefore load the various 'local'
copies into memory as you move from one scenery area to another,
wasting time and memory. (This is true of all shared 'stock' textures
- it is always best to have just one shared copy in the main ..\texture
folder).
(b) Having unnecessary duplicate copies in 'local' ..\texture folders also
makes it difficult when updates are required.

2. BRING IN THE NEW!
----------------

Unzip the contents of the file SCENERY.ZIP into your main <fs####>\scenery
folder. This installs a single file called trees_0.bgl that contains all
the tree objects. The same file works correctly with either FS2000 or
FS2002.

Now, if you are using FS2000, unzip the contents of FS2000.ZIP into your
main <fs2000>\texture folder, or if you are using FS2002 unzip FS2002.ZIP
instead and put its contents in the main <fs2002>\texture folder. Either
will install the 65 tree_*.bmp and conifer_*.bmp files. The FS2000 versions
can actually be used with either Flight Simulator version, whereas the
improved FS2002 versions use the DirectX compressed DXT1 format and are not
compatible with the older FS2000. Incidentally, the newer textures not
only look better, they should also give a small improvement in frame rates.

Note that no entry is required in the Scenery Library database
(scenery.cfg).

Because the library uses 'section 10' objects, the trees will automatically
be found by any scenery that uses them. If you are using FS2000 and
previously installed an older version of the library, you may have put it
in a special folder within the <fs2000>\scenedb structure, with its own
entry in scenery.cfg. This is fine for FS2000, and you could put the
replacements there too if you wish, but this method of installation does
NOT work satisfactorily with FS2002, which seems to have a different method
for finding textures associated with library files, and may display the
trees as untextured white "boards" if the texture bitmaps are not found the
main fs2002\texture folder.


THE SDK (SCENERY DEVELOPERS KIT) We need to focus here:
================================

You only need this part if you are a scenery developer and want to design your
own sceneries using the Trees Library. You don't need it if all you plan to do
is fly in sceneries made by others, and enjoy the glories of these good-looking
trees which they have included for your enjoyment.

If you are a scenery designer, unzip the contents of SDK.ZIP. Put the document
files and the JPEG anywhere convenient, and do a further unzip operation on the
included file API.ZIP to put the API macros into your usual API folder
(overwriting any previous copies you may have). Please note that I no longer
supply macros in the .SCM format for ASD, as that product is now obsolescent and
gives rise to too many problems when using modern macros (although you are
welcome to convert the .API macros to .SCM format for yourself if you wish).


COPYRIGHT
=========

The Trees Library and its SDK and are both released as FREEWARE.
Copyright (C) 2000-2002 G Gray. All Rights Reserved

You are permitted to use the library and textures with any scenery that requires
them.

You may also redistribute the package free of any charge or gain as a single
unaltered archive accompanied by an acknowledgement of the author's copyright
(a copy of this file will suffice), for use with Freeware or Public Domain
scenery or for the creation thereof.

You may NOT use, distribute, or otherwise reproduce this package, or any part
thereof for commercial gain or profit unless expressly licensed by the author to
do so.

Commercial or shareware scenery authors are hereby EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN from
using or distributing this library or any part thereof without first obtaining a
LICENCE for such use or distribution from the author. Any enquiries should be
sent by e-mail in the first instance to the author as below. A reasonable offer
of payment, proportional to the financial gain to be made from such use or
distribution, will normally be expected.