I like it when people show work in progress of stuff they're messing around with, so I thought I'd show where I am with my new tool XP2AFSAirportConverter.
I took a bit of time away from AeroScenery to look at converting open source airport data from "another flight sim" into a 3D model that could be brought into AFS.
I spent a few evenings writing parsers for all the "other sim" data types. Boring code to write, but once done I had a clean object model of an airport.
I then started writing a tool that compiles a 3DS Max Python Script to draw each airport.
Things are pretty rough at the moment, but interesting enough to show some screenshots. My spline renderer isn't right in all cases, leading to occasional weird shapes.
I'm using four airports to test, with increasing levels of complexity:
- Cardiff, UK (my home airport, I know what it should look like)
- Manchester, UK (also well known to me)
- Portland US (interesting crossing runways)
- Chicago US (doesn't come much more complex)
I've done some basic work on automating textures and a UVW Unwrap on the runways to prove it was doable, but nothing else is textured yet.
To be clear, this tool will draw any airport in the world, not just these four.
Hopefully at some point I can get the output of this directly playable in AFS.
I may do a phased release of world airports starting with runways, then taxi ways (if possible), then buildings (if possible)
For now, I'll do a bit more work on AeroScenery as the code behind this has made my brain hurt
Cardiff
Manchester
Portland
Chicago