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Asked: someone who can place things in the scenery

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Asked: someone who can place things in the scenery

Postby Gijs » Wed Aug 29, 2007 4:22 pm

Hi,

I would really love to make models for the Netherlands in FG (with SketchUp, saved in one of this formats: .dwg .dxf .kmz .dae .fbx .obj .wrl .xsi .html), but I'm looking for somebody who like's to place models, made by me, in FlightGear. So that everybody sees them! I've tried it many times, but it just wont succeed.

Is there anyboy who can help me?

Greetings,
Gijs (from Holland)
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Postby HeliFlyer » Wed Aug 29, 2007 9:25 pm

Hi Gijs,

but I'm looking for somebody who like's to place models, made by me, in FlightGear.


Of course, I could do that for you with great pleasure. Much better, I could teach you to do it yourself, it is really not very difficult once you understand the procedure.

There are only two things you must know
1. I have to try to convert the models to *.ac as my my homemade tool "FlightGear Tools" only works with *.ac files and I won't do that work "by hand". I am the creator of the Bremen-Weser-Hannover scenery and working with Blender, exporting to *.ac
2. Although I am using a lot of my sparetime for FlightGear, I have to work 50 to 60 h a week, unregularly 24 hours and every second weekend. So you might have some patience with me from time to time.

Beside that, I would be glad to help you to make the Netherlands look more interesting for VFR flights :)

Regards
Georg EDDW
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Postby Gijs » Thu Aug 30, 2007 4:34 pm

Ok, I think you better teach me :)
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Postby HeliFlyer » Thu Aug 30, 2007 10:26 pm

Ok, Gijs, we start tomorrow evening!

Could you please send me one complete sample of your work. I could try to convert it to *.ac in advance.

My mail is
heliflyer [AT] arcor [dot] de

I'm not sure if we post all our noise here. On the other side, some interested lurkers could also learn something if we do our work public :shock:

Regards
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Postby Gijs » Fri Aug 31, 2007 3:23 pm

Ok, that would be nice!

You can see one of my projects here: http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/ ... 79948678fc
You can download it as ".skp" or ".kmz".

Let me know if you need more!

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Postby HeliFlyer » Fri Aug 31, 2007 7:03 pm

Hi Gis,

in the "Fokker" thread you wrote

You can save in SketchUp with these formats:
...
.obj (OBJ)
.wrl (VRML)
...


Please try to save one of your buildings in either of these two formats, as Blender's import can't handle *.kmz or *.skp right. I "googled" about this and it seems that even a Linux magazin could not get it working right.

If you can mail it to me as fast as possible as I have some spartime this weekend :)

Regards
Georg
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Postby HeliFlyer » Sun Sep 02, 2007 8:55 pm

Hi Gijs and all lurkers,

I converted one of Gijs' nice models once created with Sketchup from *.obj to *.ac and placed it into the scenery at Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Image


Tutorial Part 1, Converting your Sketchup model to *.ac for use in FlightGear

How to proceed:

1. If you have not already, install the latest Blender version, available at

http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/

2. Export your Sketchup file to *.OBJ
3. Create a special folder and put all the export-files into it, that is *.obj, *.mtl and the *.jpg textures
4. Open Blender
5. Menu "file" -> "import" -> "wavefront (obj)"
6. Select "*.obj" file and then menu "Import a wavefront obj"
7. Switch dialog buttons (greyed = switched on, light blue = switched off)
Import OBJ ...
All *.obj's in OFF
Create Scene OFF
Group instance OFF
Materials ...
Import (*.mtl) ON
Re-Use Existing OFF
Geometry ...
Size constraint 0.00 // set to 0.00 with left arrow
Rotate X90 ON
Edges ON
Smooths all fac OFF
Create FGons ON
Smooth Groups OFF
Split by Materi ON
8. Press OK button

9. In the 3D window switch to "Object Mode" in the selection field. Mark the whole displayed model by pressing the "a" key (toogles between unmarked and marked). To be sure to have all objects marked, unselect first and select then all by pressing "a".

10. Export to *.ac
Menu: file -> export -> AC3D (.ac)..

11. ALTHOUGH FG OSG works as well with *.jpg textures and texture sizes unequal to a multiple of 2 (ie 16, 32, 64, 256 ...), one should make it FG PLIB compatible:

12. Open the *.jpg pictures with a graphic program (ie GIMP), skale them so that BOTH sides are a multiple of 2 and save them under the same leading name as *.rgb pictures (maximal compression is ok).

13. Open the xxxx.ac file with a simple texteditor, search for all *.jpg entries, change .jpg to .rgb and save the file without any formatting!

14. To have the overview, put the results of your work (*.ac, all *.jpg) into a special folder which should be copied to YOURFlightGear/data/Models

Part 2, how to place this model into the scenery with known latitude and longitude coordinates, will come within the next week

Have fun!
Regards
Georg EDDW
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Postby Kugelfang » Mon Sep 03, 2007 11:52 am

I've also written a command line obj->ac converter in Ruby. It has the ability to change the texture file name extensions when converting the model. If you have the Ruby language installed on your computer you could use it and then you won't need Blender.

The program can be downloaded here: http://www.static-lift.net/aero-club/pr ... nvert.html

Instructions are in the readme.txt file.

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Postby Gijs » Mon Sep 03, 2007 4:31 pm

I'll try to place a building next weekend i think.
Thansk!
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Postby HeliFlyer » Sun Sep 16, 2007 2:01 am

Hi Gijs,

how are you succeeding? Could you manage to convert some of your buildings?
If not, there are two possibilities. First, ask me if you have problems using Blender. Or mail the stuff to me and I do the work for you over the next week.

I forgot to give you a link to the converted Breitner Center model for testing purposes:

http://home.arcor.de/vollnhals-bremen/Gijs/

Just copy the "data" folder into your basic "FlightGear" folder and overwrite already existing files (should do no harm if you have only the default Amsterdam scenery without any personal models placed).

For the second step (model placement) I put some extra stuff into that package.[/b]
1. M. Franz calc-tile.pl Perl script and a textfile with a link for a free perl package download for windows).
2. Some documentation, a ReadMe.Scenery.txt, just copied from my FlightGear CVS Doc folder - so you get the newest one and don't have to search for it. Read the passage about using the calc-tile.pl script. And there is a lot of other useful information for an upcoming FG scenery designer contained in this file.

But some extra hints from me now for placing your converted model into FlightGear:

1. Using the Perl script
You get all info from the script output. Now you have to decide whether to place your model as a SHARED or STATIC one. In my example I used the SHARED version because this was more comfortable for me as I made all the work with a personal tool I have.
As your buildings are not generic it would be better to make STATIC entries:
a) Put all the model stuff (*.ac, (optional *.xml), *.rgb files) into the data/Scenery/Objects/XXXX/YYYY folder you get from the output of the calc-tile.pl file.
b) If it is not already there, create a ZZZZZ.stg file with a simple texteditor (no formatting!!!), you get the ZZZZZ name also from the calc-tile.pl output. If there is already a *.stg file with that name, use that. Then open your ZZZZZ.stg file and add one line with the following syntax:

(partly copied from "README.scenery"):
OBJECT_STATIC <object-path> <longitude> <latitude> <elevation-m> <heading-deg>
IMPORTANT, different to the SHARED version:
... the path is relative to the tile directory where the *.stg file with this entry is located.

Example for the Breitner Center (if placed as a STATIC! model):
OBJECT_STATIC BreitnerCenter03.ac 4.91821658 52.34387959 8.36 68.0
(This are not the REAL coordinates - I avoided placing the model into the water)

c) Save the *.stg file.
d) For fine-tuning (heading, elevation, visual correction//not in water) you could fly to the now existing model with the UFO, place an optimized second "twin-model" over it, export the data as described under 2) and edit the *.stg file with the new (optimized) data.

2. If you don't want to use the Perl script, however, you might do it in a more simple way with the UFO (thanks to Thorsten):

a) place the UFO ground-near with --lat=xxxx --lon=yyyy --elevation=zzzz
b) don't move the UFO
c) look straight down to the ground
d) place your model with the UFO functionality directly under the UFO (so you should have nearly the right lat/lon coordinates)
e) save the position to the "ufo-model-export.xml" file with the "e" key or print it to the console with the "d" key
f) proceed as I explained with the calc-tile.pl script, only using the data from the "ufo-model-export.xml" file.
(Please search with a file-search program for it as I don't know where it is written to under Win32).

Hope this helps a little :)

Regards
Georg EDDW

BTW:
I could not make this post earlier as it really is a lot of work and I had to spend much time on my job!
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Postby Gijs » Sun Sep 16, 2007 9:44 am

Hey,

I think this is to much for me :(
It's not gonna work for me :(

However, thanks for your tips and time.

Gijs

PS: If you like, I can send you more models?
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Postby HeliFlyer » Sun Sep 16, 2007 10:56 am

PS: If you like, I can send you more models?


Yes, you're wellcome. I'll convert and place them step for step over the next weeks. I am also interested in populating a nearby neighbour country - KLM service includes EDDW with a Fokker 50, so EDDW - EHAM fits very nice for sim-flights. And even more, if Amsterdam has got some more of your nice buildings.


I think this is to much for me Sad
It's not gonna work for me Sad


Ok, this is not so easy, especially as I only can give my cooking rezipe in Englisch language and may be - as you are a young guy - you are just learning this language.
So, let's first convert and place your models and afterwards, if you are interested, we could try to analyze where your problems are.

For now, feel free to mail all that stuff as you did with the Breitner center.

Regards
Georg
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Re:

Postby EA-7203 » Wed Dec 09, 2009 7:00 pm

HeliFlyer wrote:Hi Gijs and all lurkers,

I converted one of Gijs' nice models once created with Sketchup from *.obj to *.ac and placed it into the scenery at Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Image


Tutorial Part 1, Converting your Sketchup model to *.ac for use in FlightGear

How to proceed:

1. If you have not already, install the latest Blender version, available at

http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/

2. Export your Sketchup file to *.OBJ
3. Create a special folder and put all the export-files into it, that is *.obj, *.mtl and the *.jpg textures
4. Open Blender
5. Menu "file" -> "import" -> "wavefront (obj)"
6. Select "*.obj" file and then menu "Import a wavefront obj"
7. Switch dialog buttons (greyed = switched on, light blue = switched off)
Import OBJ ...
All *.obj's in OFF
Create Scene OFF
Group instance OFF
Materials ...
Import (*.mtl) ON
Re-Use Existing OFF
Geometry ...
Size constraint 0.00 // set to 0.00 with left arrow
Rotate X90 ON
Edges ON
Smooths all fac OFF
Create FGons ON
Smooth Groups OFF
Split by Materi ON
8. Press OK button

9. In the 3D window switch to "Object Mode" in the selection field. Mark the whole displayed model by pressing the "a" key (toogles between unmarked and marked). To be sure to have all objects marked, unselect first and select then all by pressing "a".

10. Export to *.ac
Menu: file -> export -> AC3D (.ac)..

11. ALTHOUGH FG OSG works as well with *.jpg textures and texture sizes unequal to a multiple of 2 (ie 16, 32, 64, 256 ...), one should make it FG PLIB compatible:

12. Open the *.jpg pictures with a graphic program (ie GIMP), skale them so that BOTH sides are a multiple of 2 and save them under the same leading name as *.rgb pictures (maximal compression is ok).

13. Open the xxxx.ac file with a simple texteditor, search for all *.jpg entries, change .jpg to .rgb and save the file without any formatting!

14. To have the overview, put the results of your work (*.ac, all *.jpg) into a special folder which should be copied to YOURFlightGear/data/Models

Part 2, how to place this model into the scenery with known latitude and longitude coordinates, will come within the next week

Have fun!
Regards
Georg EDDW


Which Blender version is that? The new blender doesn't have that!
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Re: Re:

Postby Gijs » Wed Dec 09, 2009 7:13 pm

EA-7203 wrote:Which Blender version is that? The new blender doesn't have that!

What would you expect two years later?!
The process is still prety similar though, just a couple of removed and/or added features...
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