Hi Ed:
The FS SDK Annotator is primarily for use with photoreal scenery areas, which are treated as a form of custom land class having a special local numeric sub-sequence of land class ID filename prefixes for Texture files (usually BMPs in FS9, and such photoreal imagery is now packaged "inside" 1 or more BGLs in FSX) which the Annotator matches when it writes out the *AGN file(s). :iidea:
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/sho...=Identify+Tile
But in theory, if one could identify what the default filenames are for the area of one's project, one could
make a copy of the default "land class" files and textures that map into that area, give them the proper local numeric sub-sequence of land class ID file names for that specific set of LOD quads, and then create custom Annotator *.AGN files for the area of interest.
But that is less well explored and tested, and frought with risk of chaos if not done properly, which IIRC is one of the reasons Art Martin opted not to add that ability to his proprietary user interface for his FS Autogen Editor for use with FS SDK Annotator.
I believe some developers are now creating a totally transparent photoreal overlay BGL that is placed over the area of interest that allows the underlying (mostly default) scenery to show through, and that file is used as a base for placing Annotations.
But I guess that doesn't directly answer where the image comes from that one must use as a background when actually working in the Annotator.
For that I believe, 1 or more additional bitmaps are created for the area of one's project, which must then be given the proper local numeric sub-sequence of land class ID filename prefixes before loaded up as background images in Annotator.
I'm not sure if SBuilder for FS9, SBuilderX or ADE presently does this capturing of a bitmap for one's workspace view, but I do recall that many folks used Jim Keir's LWMViewer 1.3 or 1.4 beta, and his LWMViewer2 to capture bitmaps of aliased or partially rendered scenery from a live linked FS session that could be geo-referenced for use as background images in other apps such as SBuilder for FS9... and I suspect also for FS SDK Annotator (given the proper naming conventions that must be used for the area of interest).
To identify the proper local numeric sub-sequence of land class ID filenames for a given quad or tile area, either of these apps can be used:
Dick Ludowise's (aka Rhumbaflappy) TCalc002 for FS9 and TCalcX for FSX:
http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php...4sd&DLID=55467
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4273
---or George Davison's (aka "George", GHD, Golf-HotelDelta, Ananda) IDTileX (not sure if his FS9 "IdentifyTile" version is still available)
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/sho...highlight=Tile
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/sho...=Identify+Tile
FYI: FS9 Annotator and some
very handy FS9 Annotator-compatible utilities such as AgenT (included with UKVFR Scenery Library Objects Package), and AutoTrees can be used with a background bitmap to do the major Annotation grunt work, then a
copy of the FS9 AGN file(s) can be imported by FSX SDK Annotator for (irreversible) output in the FSX AGN file format.
http://www.flightsim.com/kdl.php?fid=120923
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/sea...earchid=895513
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/sea...earchid=895515
NOTE: One may also need to flip FS9 imagery vertically during annotation in order for resulting AGN output files to work properly:
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/sho...ighlight=AgenT
BTW: There are some initial annotation density limits imposed by the FS9 Annotator engine which one may wish to tweak once an AGN file is imported to FSX Annotator:
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/sho...highlight=Tile
Hope this "info-buffet" might prove helpful to your scenery projects ! :mixedsmi:
GaryGB
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