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How I implented Atlas 0.5.0

Atlas is an addon that lets FlightGear users display a real-time "moving-map" of their flight.

How I implented Atlas 0.5.0

Postby macnab » Thu Sep 27, 2012 2:26 pm

This may be of use to people who want to try it. The main benefit is that the text on the maps is not overprinted, so the map is legible. For Windows.atlas-11-exe

Do not delete any of your version 0.3.0 maps.

The batch files will use full paths, which you will make a note of and name as you go along.

Go to http://geoffmclane.com/fg/atlas-07.htm. Download atlas-11.exe.zip (3Mb). Extract the files somewhere. You only need Map.exe and Atlas.exe. I renamed them MapNew.exe and AtlasNew.exe so as to distinguish between them and the 0.3.0 versions. Place them somewhere suitable. Write down the full path (including drive-letter) where they are and call that path ExeFolder.

Write down the full path of the data folder where FlightGear is installed. In my case it is C:\PROGS\Games\FlightGear\Data. Call that path RootFolder.

Write down the full path of the folder where your scenery files are. Call it SceneryFolder. If you have more than one folder with scenery call your various full paths SceneryFolder1, SceneryFolder2, etc.
Choose a folder where you will store the new maps (the version 0.3.0 maps are not compatible.) Write down the full path and call it AtlasMapsFolder. Create a sub-folder under it called Palettes. Create another sub-folder under it called Fonts.

Go to the data folder under the Atlas folder, where Atlas was installed. Make a copy of the AtlasPallete file and rename the copy to default.ap. Write down the full path to this data folder and call it PaletteFolder

Create a batch file called MakeMapsNew. You can store it anywhere, as it uses full-paths throughout. The contents should be, with everything on one line, separated by spaces, not as they are written here, which is only done for readability. Replace AtlasMapsFolder, RootFolder, etc. with the full paths you have been writing down all along. Put the quotes in even if you don't have spaces in your paths - better safe than sorry.

ExeFolder\MapNew --atlas=AtlasMapsFolder
--fg-root="RootFolder"
--palette="PaletteFolder\default.ap"
--fg-scenery="SceneryFolder"
--png

(If you have more than one scenery folder, replace the l--fg-scenery=SceneryFolder with --fg-scenery="SceneryFolder1";"SceneryFolder2".)

Run this batch file. It will create sub-folders under AtlasMapsFolder called 4, 6, 8, 9 and 10. (Different resolutions.) Under the newly created 10 folder, create 2 sub-folders called Pallettes and Fonts. Copy the default.ap file from PaletteFolder into this newly created Palettes Folder.

Go to the folder where Atlas is installed. In the sub-folder data is a sub-folder called Fonts. In it is a file called helvetica_medium.txf. Copy it to the Fonts folder you created under the 10 folder which MakeMapsNew created. In that new Fonts folder make a copy of the txf file. Rename one of them to helvetica.100.txf and the other to helvetica-bold.100.txf. Seeing as the two font files are identical, there won't be any bold fonts on the maps. Tough luck.

Create a batch file called RunAtlasNew and enter the following lines, all in one line as above.)
ExeFolder\AtlasNew --Atlas=AtlasMapsFolder
--fgroot=RootFolder
--fg-scenery=SceneryFolder

(If you have more than one scenery folder, replace the l--fg-scenery=SceneryFolder with --fg-scenery="SceneryFolder1";"SceneryFolder2".)

Run this batch file when you want to use Atlas with FlightGear. It will open up the map of the San Francisco area. If you did not create maps for the scenery that came with FlightGear, the background will be red, with only the airports and nav info shown.

Run FlightGear, switching on Atlas, with Hostname localhost 5500. When FlighGear reaches the cockpit view, if in Atlas display the bottom section of the larger blue box has nothing in the text box beneath the Load and Attach buttons, click on Attach., then OK. Click on the Center button almost at the bottom of the blue box. This will update the Atlas map to your location.

To hide/display the big blue control box, tap the space-bar when in the Atlas window.

The aircraft will be shown as a cross-hair, because we do not have the correct png file for the aircraft representation.

If anybody knows how to get hold of the correct fonts and the airplane_image.png file without downloading 100s of Mb of unneeded files, please say so.
macnab
 
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