Orientation

[FloridaFly]

I have become interested in flying RC after many years (about 30) away from the hobby. I have been having a blast flying with FMS. This software should save me some money in less loss of airplanes. The main problem I am having is the orientation of the aircraft with the ground. The landing strips on the landscapes that I have do not really show unless the aircraft is very close to the person flying it. It would be nice to have some type of long strips of color going off into the distance that line up with the runways or maybe some indication in the sky to line up when landing an aircraft. This is not a problem when actually flying RC as you pretty much know where your aircraft is in relation to the world around you.

I have looked at the picture files that are included in the landscapes. Can I just edit them using a drawing program? Maybe I could exend the runways into the horizon. Also how are the sky images handled in FMS? Maybe compass points could be placed in the sky?

I have been using GOUSAday for a landscape and it is really well done! It is great fun to fly using this landscape and a chase plane to investigate the different areas. I have wrecked many aircraft going under the covered bridge, but have had better luck after a little practice.

Any suggestions?
Ray

[Perry]

You can easily edit the .bmp files with a graphics editor.
Experiment with them a bit. You might want to make a backup copy
in a folder somewhere before you start.

As for the sky it may or may not yield the results you want because the sky is tiled, so your modification of 1 point may show up in 6 places in the sky. Don't let that discourage you, there may be uses for that also in some cases, but you won't know unless you try.

You might want to place some object in the sky instead, or an object on the ground aligned with the runway. Just a different idea that might do the same thing.

Oh and if you think flying under the bridge is a challenge, you should try flying through the windows.

Perry

[Lindsay]

Try the scenery called "Pattern" from here http://rcp.web.infoseek.co.jp/fms_scenery_e.html

I use this exclusively, now.

[FloridaFly]

Perry....Thanks for the hints. I have been playing around editing some of the maps and heights. Great fun as long as I keep the original zip files so I can go back to "normal".
There seems to be one larger BMP file that looks like an ariel view and several smaller views. Can I ask you how are they related to each other?

Lindsay....I downloaded the training fields and they were a great help. I even extended the runways out more. I want to play around with them some more to get a better idea how the landscapes are created.

Thanks,
Ray

[Perry]

You are correct, there is 1 view twice the size of the others.
You will notice in the Scene file when it calls the files for the landscape, the larger file is called with an r while the rest are called with an s behind the file name.

Example:
QUADRANT 0 1 1 1 GOUSA1s
QUADRANT 1 1 1 1 GOUSA2r
QUADRANT 2 1 1 1 GOUSA3s
QUADRANT 3 1 1 1 GOUSA4s

This has to do with the resolution. FMS renders the Larger texture to the same width and height as the rest, but with a finer resolution. You will notice when you fly that this 1 texture is more finely detailed than the rest. The others appear a bit blocky.
This file will typically be where the landing strip is located.
I believe you may render more than 1 texture at a higher resolution, ( I haven't tried it yet), but it will begin to eat up memory if you indulge too much. At any rate the larger textures must be called from the scene with an r extension.

Perry