davidk64 Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 I'm running P3D V2.4 with FS Mesh, Global, Vector, and AU SP4 and the Somerset Dam adjacent to Mt Brisbane in Queensland looks like below screenshot for me. My Dad is running the same software and he sees it depicted as water. We think the difference might be a scenery library order issue. What I'm wondering is more generally how are Dams handled by FTX (and default P3D). I'm thinking of default situations not hand crafted dam objects. Does the software have to be explicitly told there is a dam present or does it work it out from a combination of elevation and water bodies data? Does the software have default textures used to display dams? Or is there no concept of a default dam? http://fsfiles.org/flightsimshotsv2/images/2015/01/31/Damdepictedasland.jpg http://fsfiles.org/flightsimshotsv2/images/2015/01/31/Damdepictedaswater.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidk64 Posted February 4, 2015 Author Share Posted February 4, 2015 Not sure if this covered in a FAQ somewhere? If you post a question on the forum and it slips off the first page unanswered should you keep bumping it up to the top or do all questions get addressed eventually? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolter van der Spoel Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 Could you please be so kind and add the correct ordernumber for the FTX products you own, the by you posted number doesn't show up in our data base Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidk64 Posted February 4, 2015 Author Share Posted February 4, 2015 Is this what you mean? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jethro VH-JET Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 Hi David, Your so close, if you click on the Overview (show all orders) as in your screenie, all your product orders will be displayed, if you then click on the (View) button adjacent each order, the actual order number for each product will be displayed at the very top of the page following. You will see the actual order number begins with (eg; FSS#012345678) You only need to quote 1 of your Orbx product order numbers eg; (FSS#012345678 - AUSTRALIA-SP4) then add that to your forum signature. Info on how to add order Nos to Sig can be found here: http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/1157-important-notice-please-add-your-order-to-your-sig-for-support/ And also here on page 5 of the Definitive guide V2 D/L PDF here: http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/74347-the-definitive-guide-to-ftx-products-the-go-to-source-of-ftx-information/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidk64 Posted February 4, 2015 Author Share Posted February 4, 2015 Many thanks Jeff - have updated signature to show correct order number Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jethro VH-JET Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 Hi David, I don't use P3D but would like to ask or at least attempt to test/explain what you are seeing, do both you and your dad use the same Sim types (P3Dv2.4) with exactly the same addons. Reason I ask, is that unless you have exactly the same sim, with exactly the same addons, running exactly the same hardware, config & setup, certain aspects will look different. There are many detectable subtle differences between your 2 pictures, besides the difference between the water and rock depiction of Somerset Dam. For instance, I use FSX with a (Ludowise /Feliz-Tirado, modified terrain.cfg ) there are certain alterations in this modified version which change the way water is displayed over rock and sloped surfaces, such as (small un-modelled Dams) narrow irregular or shallow rivers, riverbanks, mid stream rock elevations,) It can either display these as water on slopes or rock, sometimes with odd unexpected depictions of rock or water. I ran a little test with my own FSX terrain.cfg changing the way water displays on slopes, to see the displayed effect. Both shots below show identical scenes at (Somerset Dam) one with water on the slope & one with rock on the slope where a dam would be depicted if it were modelled. Because Australia was the very first Orbx Regional scenery - using the available tech of that time, many of these features such as (small Dams) were not modelled to the level of detail seen in later sceneries, only the elevation difference with a rock wall texture is seen. (An Orbx team member will need to confirm wether I'm correct with what I have written above,) but what I see as the difference between your sim and your dads could simply be a matter of slightly different terrain.cfg/s in this regard, and whatever addon scenery you have which modifies the terrain.cfg differently between your individual sims. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holger Sandmann Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 Hi David, Jeff is correct that the difference you're seeing is down to the way the water polygon parameter block is set up in the terrain.cfg file. Since the spatial accuracy of the default terrain and lakes/rivers was pretty poor (Microsoft/ACES had to cover the entire globe within a fixed amount of installer space) there were many locations where rivers "crawled up" the lower slopes of mountains. Thus, the developers added that switch to water polygons that automatically changes the water texture to rock texture beyond a certain gradient. For dam locations like in your screenshot it works OK (ignoring the "rough" rock texture) but for most other locations it just looked odd. Perhaps some here remember the infamous "rocks" in the Thames in London that were much-discussed right after the original release of FSX. Our own water polygons are all flattened and the base terrain mesh much more accurate and thus we don't use this switching parameter in our own custom terrain.cfg entries. However, Australia, as mentioned by Jeff, was our first FTX region and only some of the rivers, lakes, and shorelines were custom made while the rest remains default. And that's what you're seeing at the Somerset Dam location in your screenshots. Indeed, FSX itself has no awareness of what constitutes a dam. In our newer FTX regions we place custom models of many of the larger dams and for the remainder concrete or dirt-textured polygons. I seem to recall we did place polygons at some of the Australian dam sites but obviously not in the location of your screenshot. Cheers, Holger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidk64 Posted February 6, 2015 Author Share Posted February 6, 2015 Many thanks Jeff and Holger for interesting and informative answers to my questions! It's great to get an insight into the inner workings of FSX/P3D and the Orbx Scenery add-ons. I suspect we'll desist from any further attempts to synchronise how Somerset dam (waterfall) is depicted! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alank Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 I suspect we'll desist from any further attempts to synchronise how Somerset dam (waterfall) is depicted! Whatever you say son ...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jethro VH-JET Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 Very cool Alan, great to see a father and son enjoying FSimulation together. I'll remember the "K's" Alan & David from now on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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