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sdk:scenerydev6

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Adding Animated Traffic to Aerofly FS2

Have you ever wanted to add animated traffic (or objects) to your scenery project? Well now you can! Introducing the first working tutorial to allow for you to do this yourself.

So let's get started.

Prerequisites:

To get started you will need the following applications in order to add animated traffic

  • FSET (or any applicable program that you can capture a scenery image, center coordinates, and distance of scenery area)
  • 3DS Max
  • Aerofly SDK - Content Converter
  • IPACS plug-in for 3DS Max export

Obtaining Reference Image from FSET

Let's begin by choosing the location that you wish to have animated traffic at. Open up FSET to locate and obtain your reference image that you will use as your guide in 3DS Max. In this tutorial we will choose 'Dredgers Key' in Key West, Florida.

  • In FSET change the Area Def. Mode to '1Point'. You will need to record the center coordinates and area to be used in 3DS Max. These items are the most important to align your reference image to the real world.
  • Drag the box over the area that you wish to add your traffic, and start the job.
  • Once you captured the image and recorded the center coordinates and area distances we have all that we need to begin in 3DS Max.

  • Next, let's prepare your work folders (this will make things more organized when you start your project)
  • Create a 3DS Max work folder and copy the image that was captured with FSET (note- the only file that you need is the BMP image shown in the below image)

Working in 3DS Max

In order to build your traffic project correctly you will need to set up 3DS Max properly. There are only a couple of items required for this to insure you obtain the best results with your project.

View

For best results you should set your viewport to one screen with perspective and shaded selected

Resolution

The resolution is important to see roadways better. Let's set this setting by clicking on the little '+' in your viewport and select 'viewport configuration/display performance'. You want to change the 'texture maps' number to 4096. This will give you a good reference image to work off of.

Coordinates

And the most important setting is to set your coordinate system within 3DS Max to match what's needed for the conversion into Aerofly. From within 'customize/unit setup' the display unit scale should be set to metric/meters and set the system unit setup to 1 unit-I meter

Now lets begin our project!

  • Begin by selecting 'plane' and define the exact same size as your FSET area. Do this by converting nautical miles to meters (used in 3DS Max). Once you convert the calculations make your plane the same size. Now add your image to the plane and rename 'plane1' to 'reference image'. Your project should now look like this.

  • Next you can choose your path that you want the traffic moving along. Select the 'line' object under splines and make your path along the road. Note- Make sure that whatever path you make be sure to close it to form a completed circuit. In this tutorial I will extend my path around the entire island (you can make a path anywhere you would like (roads, water, even air. For air you need to raise the completed path to the height you want to see your moving object). Note- you can zoom right into the road to better align your path, you can end a path then re-attach a new segment by selecting the line, selecting vertex mode and click on 'insert'

  • Once you complete your path, make sure that you see the 'close spline' message when you click on your last vertex. Click on yes to close the spline.
sdk/scenerydev6.1579399582.txt.gz ยท Last modified: 2020/01/19 03:06 by jf