Adding Older Scenery to CFS2 e.g. Mike Rennies Duxford for CFS1
***************************************************************
Scenery designed for use in Flight Simulator versions prior to FS2000
(CFS1, FS98, etc.) were designed to be resting on a perfectly flat 2-dimensional
"seed" system. These sceneries will not render as they did in these previous
versions of Flight Simulator due to the new 3-dimensional digital elevation mesh
terrain system used in Combat Flight Simulator 2 (CFS2) and FS2000.
CFS2 has two "switches"-Flatten and Exclude-that can be used in the Scenery.cfg
file (located in the main CFS2 directory) to fix most of the visual problems with
backward-compatible/add-on scenery. The Flatten switch flattens a given four-sided
area to a single specified elevation.
How to Use the Flatten Switch
-----------------------------
e.g. for Mike Rennies Duxford Scenery for CFS1 to work in CFS2 extract the zip to a
folder on your desktop place the folder marked 'Duxford' inside the cfs2 scenery
folder so that the default directory structure is
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Combat Flight Simulator 2\SCENERY\Duxford
Start CFS2 Select settings scenery library add the area. Then go to the scenery cfg
file found loose in the main cfs2 folder and after making a back up copy place it in
a text editor e.g. notepad and flatten the scenery around Duxford by adding the
following text
Flatten.0=15,N53,W01,N53,E01,N51,E01,N51,W01
to the bottom of the Duxford scenery entry so it looks e.g. like :-
[Area.015]
Title=Duxford
Local=SCENERY\Duxford
Remote=
Active=TRUE
Required=FALSE
Layer=13
Flatten.0=15,N53,W01,N53,E01,N51,E01,N51,W01
the area no will vary according to what other scenery you may have then check it
out in Free Flight and larger latitudes and longitudes will flatten a larger area.
Data from Micrsoft readme
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Scenery designed for use in Flight Simulator versions prior to FS2000
(CFS1, FS98, etc.) were designed to be resting on a perfectly flat 2-dimensional
"seed" system. These sceneries will not render as they did in these previous
versions of Flight Simulator due to the new 3-dimensional digital elevation mesh
terrain system used in Combat Flight Simulator 2 (CFS2) and FS2000.
CFS2 has two "switches"-Flatten and Exclude-that can be used in the Scenery.cfg file
(located in the main CFS2 directory) to fix most of the visual problems with
backward-compatible/add-on scenery. The Flatten switch flattens a given four-sided
area to a single specified elevation.
The Exclude switch excludes certain scenery (objects and/or navigational aids) in a
given four-sided area from being displayed (or transmitted in the case of radio
navigational aids).
NOTE: The Exclude switch can only turn off the default runways in CFS2. All the
default buildings and other objects included in CFS2 can only be turned off using
the Global Scenery Layer switch (see above).
Both switches affect only scenery areas with a lower layer number than the scenery
area they are added in. For example, if the switch is placed in layer 70, then only
layers 69 and below will be affected. Switches are added to the end of a scenery area
entry in the Scenery.cfg file using a text editor. Exclude and Flatten switches can
both be added to the same Scenery area.
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How to Use the Flatten Switch
-----------------------------
The Flatten switch syntax is as follows:
Flatten.X=Elevation,Latitude1,Longitude1,Latitude2,Longitude2,Latitude3,Longitude3,
Latitude4,Longitude4
X is equal to a number between 0 and 9, but you must start with Flatten.0, then
Flatten.1, and so on, up to Flatten.9. You are allowed a maximum of 10 Flatten
switches per Scenery Area (thus the numbers 0-9).
The Elevation is in feet above or below mean sea level (msl) and can be any number
between -2000 and 99999. The Latitude and Longitude of points 1, 2, 3, and 4 must
be entered in a clockwise or counter clockwise fashion about the four sided area such
as:
1 +-------------+ 2
| |
| |
| |
4 +-------------+ 3
-Or-
1 +-------------+ 4
| |
| |
| |
2 +-------------+ 3
and must be in the form of degrees and minutes. You do not need to add the * or '
symbols to indicate degrees and minutes, and the shape does not have to be a rectangle.
Any four-sided shape will work.
The maximum size of a flattened area is 90 degrees of longitude and 45 degrees of
latitude.
EXAMPLE: This example flattens two separate but adjacent regions inside the scenery
area to an elevation of 1000' MSL.
[Area.100]
Group=Your Area
ID=Your Area
Title=Your Area
Active=TRUE
Layer=100
Local=C:\Your Area
Flatten.0=1000,N45 30,W120,N45 30,W119 30,N45,W119 30,N45,W120
Flatten.1=1000,N45,W120,N45,W119 30, N44 30,W119 30,N44 30,W120
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How to Use the Exclude switch
-----------------------------
The Exclude switch syntax is as follows:
Exclude=North Latitude, West Longitude, South Latitude, East Longitude, category
Exclusion happens only in a rectangular area such as:
North Latitude
+-------------+
| |
West Longitude | |East Longitude
| |
+-------------+
South Latitude
and must follow the form North Latitude, West Longitude, South Latitude, East
Longitude. The Latitude and Longitude entries must be in the form of degrees and
minutes. You do not need to add the * or ' symbols to indicate degrees and minutes.
The category determines which default scenery type you choose to exclude in the
defined area. There are four categories:
· objects-Excludes all default 3-dimensional buildings and objects as well as
airports.
· vors-Excludes all default VOR and ILS navigational aids.
· ndbs-Excludes all default NDB navigational aids.
· all-Excludes all default objects and navigational aids.
You can use one or more categories in an Exclude switch.
The maximum size of an Exclude area is 90 degrees of longitude and 45 degrees of
latitude.
EXAMPLE: This example excludes all scenery types EXCEPT NDB navigational aids from a
rectangular area.
[Area.100]
Group=Your Area
ID=Your Area
Title=Your Area
Active=TRUE
Layer=100
Local=C:\Your Area
Exclude=N45 30,W120,N45,W119 30,objects,vors