Help with Ultimate Terrain

[Kodiak]

Hi Guys,

I really like flying along coastlines and visiting coastal airports so I decided to try Ultimate Terrain for its enhanced coastlines (among the many things it does). I went with UT Alaska and Canada but once I enabled the coastline enhancements (which look great) in almost every coastal town and near rivers and lakes I've got buildings floating on water due to the adjusted shorelines.

I checked the UT website and it said the floating buildings were not autogen buildings, but rather static buildings and that they were working on a fix. But that info was posted years ago and I can't find anything about it since, or a fix.

What's the latest on floating static buildings and the UT coastlines, rivers and lakes. It isn't like I can go in and maintain each occurrence, as they are everywhere, and flying low and slow they are really obvious. Was there ever a universal fix for this, as right now I wouldn't use UT coastlines in its current state and the coastlines were the primary reason I decided to try UT.

Thanks!

[EMatheson]

Hi Guys,

I really like flying along coastlines and visiting coastal airports so I decided to try Ultimate Terrain for its enhanced coastlines (among the many things it does). I went with UT Alaska and Canada but once I enabled the coastline enhancements (which look great) in almost every coastal town and near rivers and lakes I've got buildings floating on water due to the adjusted shorelines.

I checked the UT website and it said the floating buildings were not autogen buildings, but rather static buildings and that they were working on a fix. But that info was posted years ago and I can't find anything about it since, or a fix.

What's the latest on floating static buildings and the UT coastlines, rivers and lakes. It isn't like I can go in and maintain each occurrence, as they are everywhere, and flying low and slow they are really obvious. Was there ever a universal fix for this, as right now I wouldn't use UT coastlines in its current state and the coastlines were the primary reason I decided to try UT.

Thanks!

http://www.qlrp4ut.com/

[Kodiak]

Thanks for this info, EMatheson.

This project does fix the approx. 700 famous landmarks like the Statue of Liberty to make sure it isn't floating out in the water. But it doesn't cover standard static objects (of which there are thousands), so I have pretty much given up on Ultimate Terrain.

I didn't realize UT would have this effect, as just about anywhere there are buildings near water some invariably end up floating in the water, which renders just about any scenery add-on near water unusable (docks and boats on dry land...all sorts of problems).

But UT does have one feature I like that I can use. Road and railroad flattening where it chisels the sides of hills and mountains to flatten the roads and rail tracks...a very cool effect and this feature works globally and not just in Alaska and Canada, so money not really wasted, although I won't be buying UT for other areas.

Cheers!

[EMatheson]

There's no reason for Ultimate Terrain to cause autogen buildings in the water - and QLRP4UT should take care of the rest. Would you mind posting a screenshot or sharing coordinates of one of the affected locations? There's a possibility that there's something else interfering. While it is certainly possible I've simply not flown in the same areas as you have, I have never had any issue with misplaced buildings after installing the QLRP4UT.

[Kodiak]

Sure, I appreciate any help I can get. I would really like to use UT for the corrected coast lines, lakes and rivers in particular.

Here is the first airport that comes to mind: CLP in Alaska. I've got about 5 buildings that end up in the water when I turn on the water effects in UT.

Now it may be because I guess I have what would be considered massive scenery add-ons. I have Golden Wings 3 installed, plus just about every vintage airport add-on I can find. On the Ultimate Terrain website they called these "static" buildings. They are not autogen buildings. So I guess if I build a custom airport using EZ Scenery and place buildings, docks, boats, etc on or near the water in stock FS9, then install Ultimate Terrain, the water moves but not the buildings and other stuff I've placed.

So I don't think there is anything I can do about it except to uninstall Golden Wings 3 and all my vintage add-on scenery that is near water, which I wouldn't do for the benefits of UT. I've been thinking about buying Misty Fjords (which is a massive add-on project), but I now realize unless it was built on FS9 with UT installed, everything placed near water could end up in the water (or vice versa). So I think my mind is already made up. If I can't install add-on scenery that is near water when UT is installed, then I'll have to give up on UT.

But please take a look at it as I would love to be wrong about this.

Thanks!

[Kodiak]

Hi EMatheson,

I found a good thread on this today and its what I suspected, and makes total sense once I thought about it. There is no way for UT to know about buildings and such placed in add-ons. So unfortunately it is one or the other, but not both. I guess there are some vintage add-ons that were made once UT became popular and they were created with UT enabled, in which case you have to use UT with them. So any add-on with buildings near water is either compatible with UT or not. Unfortunately, much of the vintage add-on scenery was created before UT became popular (including Golden Wings 3) so most are not compatible with UT.

But I may still purchase the other UT's (USA and Europe) as the coast lines and water in general are just great with UT enabled and since its so easy to flip on and off I'll be able to use it when I'm not flying from or to an add-on airport near water.

Thanks for your help!

Bill

[Mick]

I live in New England, and I have FREEflow New England installed. The developers made a great effort to move stock airports and other scenery items that are near shorelines, and I had to make a few adjustments myself for some add-on scenery. Thank goodness it only affects scenery that's near a shoreline, so it wasn't an overwhelming task to correct my local region. Doing the whole country to wrk with UT would be a daunting task!

It's a task I won't have to face, because it dawned on me that there's no reason to have accurate shorelines (or roads or anything else) in places that I'm not familiar with and wouldn't know the difference. So Southern and Western New England, where I'm familiar enough that inaccuracies really stick out and poke me in the eye (like my home town being completely submerged under a huge lake that's just a tiny pond in reality) are corrected, but the rest of the country is stock FS9 ad I can use add-on sceneries straight from the box.

When David and I made Coast Guard Air Station Salem, we made two versions. One was compatible with FREEflow New England and one was compatible with the stock coastline. The FFNE version fits pretty well (not quite perfectly) into UT. Not many scenery designers make alternate versions like that. I guess freeware designers mostly make what works with their own FS installations, while payware designers probably have to go for the most common situation, which must be the stock coastlines.

If you live in New England or eastern New York, FFNE will correct your local water and coastlines without affecting the rest of the country. If you live in Florida or anywhere along the Gulf Coast, FREEflow Florida will do the same for you. And if you happen to live in the Bahamas, FREEflow Bahamas is your ticket. The less corrected water scenery you use, the less trouble you'll have with add-on scenery, so if you're fortunate enough to have the option of only correcting your local region, you could save yourself a lot of trouble by going that route.

[Kodiak]

Thanks for the advice, Mick.

I was coming to the same conclusion. Although the corrected and more detailed waterlines look nice, there seems to be too many headaches involved with add-ons and UT to suit me.

Bill

[EMatheson]

OK. Now that you've clarified that you mean airport buildings, it makes sense. Yes, airport buildings are misplaced, as are entire airports. There is nothing that can be done about this save installing new addon versions of the affected airport...

You can delete all airport files from the correct scenery folder, though. Files beginning in AP contain the afcad components, AB contains ground plolys, FL contains flattens, and to get rid of the objects, delete the files beginning in OB.

Not that I'm suggesting you do that. What I do to keep myself happy is keep a copy of Sbuilder and ADE handy so I can fix problems as I notice them... I also tend only to fly to airports I have an add-on version of.