How to make orthophotos smooth for taxiing

[andydckent]

Hi I'm having a go in WED and so far the main problem is that the orthophotos are bumpy to drive over.  I have tried laying a taxiway underneath but it doesn't seem to have any effect.  I know there must be something simple I'm missing to fix this!

 

Thanks!

 

Andy

[gheed]

Hey, I'm a starting scenery designer aswell, had the same problem. ^^

 

Found out by investigating other files that you need to add into the .pol file of the orthophoto (or any .pol you want)

 

surface asphalt (or watever surface you want)

 

like this

TEXTURE asphalt.png

surface asphalt

SCALE 10 10

Edited January 6, 2013 by gheed

[tkyler]

One caution to that approach is the entire pol file will take on that attribute, so you'll have hard surfacing on the pol rectangle, grass included if your POL is an orthophoto with grass areas.  , This is not necessarily a bad thing if you never get off the taxiways.  So that method will work if you don't mind the result.  Putting a taxiway underneath the pol should work fine though.  One thing about WED...if you're turning things off and on to see what you're doing in WED,  then WED won't export things turned off.  I've missed this more than a couple of time so that's something to watch out for.  

 

What you DO want to put in your POL file though is a "layer_group" directive to tell your ortho photo / POL where to draw relative to your taxiways that you place in WED.  If you want your orthose to appear over your taxiways,  then you need to set your layer group entry appropriately (can't recall the commands off the top of my head).  Alternatively, if you want your orthose to be below your taxiways, then that option exists also.

 

Tom K

Laminar / IXEG

Edited January 6, 2013 by tkyler

[ryancz]

"Layer_group taxiways 2" should work

The others off the top of my head are, from bottom to top:

Roadways, airports, taxiways, runways, markings.

Edited January 6, 2013 by ryancz

[chris k]

LAYER_GROUP <group name> <offset>

 

This specifies which layer group (z order) to draw the polygon in. The definition is the same as the ATTR_layer_group command in the OBJ8 spec.

 

....

....

 

OBJ8 Spec :

 

When the ATTR_layer_group is included somewhere in an object [chrisk: as per the above, use "LAYER_GROUP <x> <x>" in POLs and LINs] then the object is drawn in a different layer group. The offset is used to prioritize further–for example. the group + 1 is drawn after the group, and the group – 2 is drawn two layers before objects. You can use an offset from -5 to + 5.

The valid layer names [chrisk: in increasing order of priority] are:

 

terrain, beaches, shoulders, taxiways, runways, markings, airports, roads, objects, light_objects, cars

 

Note: the group “airports” covers all airport drawing. Within this group are the sub-groups shoulders, taxiways, runways, and markings. Markings are for taxilines and thus are on top of all other layers.

Edited January 6, 2013 by chris k

[andydckent]

Thanks for the helpful replies.  I had cut a nice taxiway and made holes in it with the hole tool but for some reason that one doesn't work.  If I place another over the whole airport it does work.  Any suggestions as I don't want to have to do it all again.

 

Thanks!

[chris k]

Check polygons for self-intersecting sides perhaps...

 

- Ck.

[andydckent]

I think that was it thanks Chris!