Simviation Forums

How can one go about about adding some living things to scenery? I have some Louisiana scenery with cows in it; how are they created and then made usable by FS2002?  Can an object be created in basically any 3D program and somehow imported? Are there only certain 3D formats that are usable?

Could something like this be animated as well? I'd love to add some sea going creatures to the oceans. It would awesome to have, for example, a whale that occasionally surfaces just off a coast line.

I see lots of programs for scenery related tasks but nothing seems clear about their actual functions.

I know next to nothing about making scenery of any kind so maybe this is really absurd. Please pardon my ignorance if this truly a laughable idea.

fm3. Check out the SimV Scenery design section. It's possible to add static scenery objects to new areas or existing airports with a scenery design program like Airport 2.6 or FS Scenery Creator. You would obviously need some experience with either but it's not difficult. The objects themselves are imported in the form of API macros before being exported as BGLs. I'm sure this is how those cows were added to your Louisiana scenery.

Both scenery design programs come with a good selection of API macros & there are many others posted here & on other sites. These can be created with a program like EOD or VOD. The commercial FS Design Studio can export in API or BGL format. Although more commonly associated with aircraft modelling I believe it was originally developed for scenery design.  

There are a few dynamic objects available in API format. I believe these can also be created in the object design programs I mentioned but would be limited in what they do. Dynamic macros are often used for opening/closing hangar doors & lights which switch on/off at specific times. More complex moving objects (active macros) were developed by Martin Wright & Ralf-J Trieble for CFS1. I'm not sure if these would work in FS2002.

Hi Doug, fm3

Doug, remember we had a similar post many moons ago about having a moving whale? Then it moved on to having an animated Loch Ness monster!

Don't think it can be done at present. I read something somewhere a while ago about someone trying to use GMax animation to make a ferry keep crossing a river estuary but I don't know how successful it was. Would probably have heard more about it if it had worked.

Static objects are no problem as Doug rightly says. Whether it would be possible to 'animate' a cow using the old DOD technology I don't know. In theory I guess you could make a cow 'taxy' across a field if you could make the prog think it was an aircraft. Then it would disappear at the end of the sequence and reappear at the beginning again back over the other side of the field!

Roger

Hi Doug, fm3

Doug, remember we had a similar post many moons ago about having a moving whale? Then it moved on to having an animated Loch Ness monster!

Don't think it can be done at present. I read something somewhere a while ago about someone trying to use GMax animation to make a ferry keep crossing a river estuary but I don't know how successful it was. Would probably have heard more about it if it had worked.

Roger

Hi Roger. Yes, I do remember that now you come to mention it. Don't recall the outcome though. I'm sure a cow, whale or Nessie could be made into a dynamic object but don't have the experience to try it myself. Most of this stuff seems to involve manually editing (SCASM editing) the macros. Ralf-J posted a tute on the subject if you're interested.
http://www.combatflight.de/html/scasm-tut/scasm1_eng.html
He also created the "MAT's Scasm Editor" utility to make it easier.

Doug

Thanks for your replies!

I see several programs such as DOD, FSDyn ( I can't even find where I downloaded it....but must be here at SimV someplace), Dynamic & Static Scenery Creator......

Will these programs animate a scenery object...and could the scenery object be created in another program first? It seems like that's what these programs are for.

If I have it correctly, I must create an object, then find a program which will animate it and create a .bgl file.

I've seen animated scenery.....a  23 MB file of KRND, Universal City near San Antonio TX, recently uploaded, contains some animated Cessnas flying around the air base. It seems as if I ought to be able to make an object follow a path through the water in FS2002.