Taxi2Gate Mexico City conversion

[SwissCyul]

Hi there! 

I just tried to convert the Taxi2Gate Mexico City scenery with FS2XPlane. Everything is going fine until a warning pops up saying that FS2XPlane can't write a certain object to the folder in my custom scenery and the conversion stops. Now I have a folder in my custom scenery that has some objects and the apt.dat for MMMX inside but no .dsf file that loads the scenery into X Plane. I already tried finding the object in the original FSX scenery but it doesn't exist since it's probably in some object file with other objects combined. I attached the conversion log, but I couldn't find anything that would give a clue why the program is not writing that object file. 

I hope you guys know how to fix this because otherwise I would've wasted some money on a scenery that I can't use...

Regards,

SwissCyul

summary.txt

[jettojig]

I'll send you a PM this evening, I think I can help but I'm not home at the moment!

[judeb]

Did you get any further with this?

Regards

Jude

[SwissCyul]

I deleted the object file that was causing the error, so the conversion worked. But the ground textures are disappearing when you zoom out and I am not good at coding for X-Plane, so no solution for that at the time. 

Edited April 9, 2016 by SwissCyul

[jettojig]

That's just LOD editing, just paste the line 

ATTR_LOD_draped	40000

onto the end of any disappearing ground texture and it should stop

[judeb]

On 9/4/2016 at 10:52 PM, SwissCyul said:

I deleted the object file that was causing the error, so the conversion worked. But the ground textures are disappearing when you zoom out and I am not good at coding for X-Plane, so no solution for that at the time. 

Hello SwissCyul 

Did you delete the file from the source folder or after the conversion was executed?

I deleted the file from the unconverted source (after copying the folders of course) and it still gave the same error about postes.aicm.xxx (or something similar to this).

 

[SwissCyul]

On April 11, 2016 at 0:22 PM, judeb said:

Hello SwissCyul 

Did you delete the file from the source folder or after the conversion was executed?

I deleted the file from the unconverted source (after copying the folders of course) and it still gave the same error about postes.aicm.xxx (or something similar to this).

 

I did delete it from the original scenery folder for FSX, that did the job for me. Maybe you didn't erase the right file? The filename seems to be correct, just search for it in the "scenery" folder and it should pop up

[SwissCyul]

On April 10, 2016 at 1:45 PM, jiggyb2 said:

That's just LOD editing, just paste the line 

ATTR_LOD_draped	40000

onto the end of any disappearing ground texture and it should stop

Alright, I'm really a noob with LOD editing, could you maybe write a short step-by-step guidance on where to paste that line?  

[jettojig]

Ok, you have 2 options: Individual line editing (Easy, slow) or Batch Editing (Slightly more complex, fast). You need to know how to do it individually to understand batch editing though.

Individual Line Editing

Requirements: OverlayEditor, Text Editor (Notepad++ recommended).

1. Locate a vanishing object (Overlay Editor is easiest for this!). In this case I know "AICM-GROUND-mex_grd01" is one of these in a raw MMMX conversion.
   
    
2. Locate the object in explorer, and open it as a text file (I use notepad++). Scroll to the bottom of the file.
   
    
3. There will be a line named "ATTR_LOD_draped" present. Change the value there to the distance (in feet) you want the item to be visible for. Lower values may give marginally better performance, ideally for fine details. Since this is an airport base image, I want to see it from further away, so I'll change the value to 50000, roughly 10nmi.  
   
   
    
4. Load up the sim, and move the camera away. You should see that your object stays visible! Repeat for EVERY VANISHING OBJECT.

Batch Editing

Requirements: Batch Text Editor (I use Textmage for Windows, though principles should be similar for other products).

1. Select all objects in your scenery's objects folder.
    
2. Drag the objects into a new, open Textmage window to import them.
   
    
3. locate and select the "Edit lines>Replace" option.
   
    
4. Choose to replace "...lines by use of filters".
   
    
5. Enter "ATTR_LOD_draped" into the "Line Contains <text>" box. (see image in point 6)
    
6. Enter "ATTR_LOD_draped<tab>XXXXX" into the "Replace with" box (XXXXX is, as mentioned above, the distance the object will be visible for, in feet).
   
    
7. Click "save..." in the top-right corner of the textmage window. Uncheck "Backup as a ZIP archive" (It slows the process a lot if you have many files). Press Start and wait for the process to complete.
   
    
8. Open X-Plane and visit your scenery. Now every draped object (ground texture) will be visible using the LOD you set!
    
9. (Optional) If you aren't happy with the value you set, you can just change the value in the "Replace with" box if you kept textmage open, or repeat this process again and change the same value. Easy! 
   Once you're done, close textmage. You can ignore any further save prompts it displays.

The great thing about this process is you only have to do it once for an entire scenery - and it is much, much faster!

I hope this guide has been incredibly comprehensive. You can use it for any future conversions too!

[SwissCyul]

Woow!! Thank you so much!! That is an incredible guide, could easily be a manual for all conversions!! Thanks again, I will work on all my converted sceneries now with this new information!  

[jettojig]

56 minutes ago, SwissCyul said:

Woow!! Thank you so much!! That is an incredible guide, could easily be a manual for all conversions!! Thanks again, I will work on all my converted sceneries now with this new information!  

It has got me thinking... glad it helps!

[judeb]

3 hours ago, SwissCyul said:

I did delete it from the original scenery folder for FSX, that did the job for me. Maybe you didn't erase the right file? The filename seems to be correct, just search for it in the "scenery" folder and it should pop up

What I actually did was copy the whole MMMX folder to another drive and delete the offending file there. Still the same result, I'll try your suggestion and post sceenshots next time.

Thanks again,

Jude