World-Maker is functional in the full version of X-Plane only, not the demo version.
X-Plane comes with scenery files for the entire United States.
This data was obtained by an adaptive-gridding program that pulled in data from numerous different sources... the advantage is that it allows scenery for the entire United States, the disadvantage is that it does not 'custom-craft' each file, so some errors concerning lakes and rivers (and buildings that the F.A.A. does not consider to be obstacles) can occurr.
As a result, World-maker was introduced to allow custom hand-crafting of the X-Plane world, and to allow the addition of new scenery files if you would like to fly outside of the United States.
World-Maker will create new scenery files for X-Plane, or modify existing ones.
Look on your X-Plane CD, in the DATA folder.. the "nav_dat" and "apt_dat" contain all the NAVAIDS and airports in X-Plane.
Notice the folder called "United States"... this contains all the terrain elevation maps and obstacles (buildings, towers, etc.) in X-Plane. A file with the name "+024-081.env" contains elevation and obstacle data (scenery) for ONE SQUARE DEGREE OF LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE, WHOSE SOUTH-WEST CORNER IS AT A LATITUDE OF 24 DEGREES AND LONGITUDE OF -81 DEGREES. Notice there are 923 files in this folder. That means there are 923 square degrees of real estate in the United States. Go figure.
So you wanna edit a scenery file to put in your own obstacles, change the terrain, put in an airport, or whatever? Simply copy the file you want to modify into the "additional nav data" folder on your hard drive. (It is in the X-Plane folder on your drive).
Now, launch World-Maker and switch to the latitude and longitude of the file you wish to edit. (upper right-hand corner) The map that you see on the screen is the map read in FROM THE FILE IN THE "additional nav data" FOLDER! We never mess with the files on the CD. Any changes that you make will affect the file in the "additional nav data" folder. Wherever you DON'T see any scenery other than water, there are simply no scenery files for that latitude and longitude in the "additional nav data" folder. When you launch X-Plane, X-Plane will check for files in the "additional nav data" folder before it checks for them on the CD, so any changes you make (and save) will take precedence over the 923 scenery files that stay on the CD.... in other words, copy any files you like from the CD to the "additional nav data" folder and X-Plane will read them from that folder instead of the CD... and you can modify them with World-Maker.
Realize that only data in the "additional nav data" folder is modified when you use World-Maker, and if you mess stuff up, all you have to do is copy the original files from the CD into the "additional nav data" folder and you will be right back to where you started when you installed X-Plane.
Changes using the "Map" or "Obstacles" sections of World-Maker will effect the scenery files in the "additional nav data" folder (with names like "+024-081.env"). Whenever you add a building, you enter only the height and location... if the buildig is fairly small, then X-Plane will plot the building as a basic little 'block' with some flashing lights on it. If the building is large, then X-Plane will put window lights all over it, and put a helipad on the top for rapid access to corporate meetings.
Changes to the "Airports" or "Navaids" sections of World-Maker will effect the airport and Navaid files in the "additional nav data" folder (with names "apt_dat" and "nav_dat").
Remember, whenever you add an airport, you must also have the '.env' file that the airport occupies in the 'additonal nav data' folder on your hard drive... this is needed for World-Maker to automatically edit the '.env' file so that all the polygons around the airport are flush with the airport... be sure that the file is NOT 'read-only' in windows. If you add an airport then go back to the environment-editor, the polygons around the new airport should be red, indicating that they have been set to the same elevvation as the airport.
When you load that env file again in World-Maker, the polygons should still be red, and the ground around the airport should be exactly at the runway elevation.
If you want to import digital elevation maps to make scenery for other parts of the world (or other planets... digital elevation maps are available for Mars....) then you must have a file with a name like this: "+033-119.raw" in text form, with the following format:
A
35
240 max latitude index (go 0 to this)
240 max longitude index (go 0 to this)
0 0 0 0 0......
Where the 'A' at the beginning is used if the file was created with an Apple, an 'I' if it was created with an IBM.
The number 35 indicates that it is for X-Plane versio 3.5 file-format, and the 240's indicate the NUMBER of DATA POINTS in the file.... each data point being equally spaced across the degree of latitude and longitude, and each containing an elevation in METERS. THE DIMENSIONS OF YOUR FILE MUST BE EXACTLY 240 x 240. THERE IS CURRENTLY NO FLEXIBILITY WITH FILE RESOLUTION. The numbers following are those elevations, and there should be a carriage return after each row of data (241 rows, each with 241 data points).
The order of the points should be starting at the South-West corner of the file, working up to the North-West corner, and then starting the next row of data scooted over to the East 1/241 of the way to the east end of the file, etc.
If you have a digital elevation map in the format just described, and it is ASCI text, and it has the file name descibed above, and it is in the same folder as "World-Maker", and you go to that file's latitude and longitude with the little buttons in World-Maker, and select "Import" from the "Special" menu, then the file should be imported correctly, you can modify, and then save it, and then fly in it. (The file will be saved in the "additional nav data" folder with all the others... the next time you edit the file it will already be drawn in World-Maker when you go to that latitude and longitude because the data has been saved in X-Plane format in the "additional nav data" folder).
I am sure this manual is too brief, but the World-Maker is simple to use so it should suffice. Email me if you can't use the World-Maker program.
Austin Meyer
austin@x-plane.com
Supplementary note:
If you wish to generate your own ".env" files rather than use World-Maker, the format is simply text.
Start off with:
A
3 version
1001 ftype
60 i_out_dim (read in 0->this-1)
80 j_out_dim (read in 0->this-1)
This stuff indicates a starting character (any character will do), the file type, and the file dimensions. THESE THINGS CAN NOT BE CHANGED.
Then, each line is an elevation point in the square degree of lat and lon that the file defines. Each point consists of:
lat lon elevation tri_div tri_1_wet tri_2_wet tri_2_apt tri_2_apt
where:
tri_div indicates the direction the quadrilateral with this data point as it's lower-left-hand corner is broken into triangles (lower-left to upper-right or lower-right to upper-left, 1 or 0, respectively)
tri_1_wet tri_2_wet indicate whether each triangle in the quad is water
tri_1_apt tri_2_apt indicate whether each triangle in the quad is part of an airport
The points start at the lower-left hand corner of the square degree of lat/lon, and work from left to right and then go up a row towards the top, etc.
After scanning in all the lat and lon data-points, we list all the obstacles in the region, in the following format:
type lat lon height i j
where:
type is the type of obstacle,
building = 2,
radio tower = 3,
power-line tower = 4,
cooling tower = 5,
smoke stacks = 6
i and j are the horizontal and vertical data point indices of the lower-left-hand corner of the quadrilateral that the obstacle falls on.
