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Autogen Building Textures
(4) Asia & the Pacific
released September 2002
------------------------------
by
Gerrish Gray
Copyright (C) 2002 G Gray
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*** PLEASE READ THIS FILE CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS! ***
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The fourth set in the series of replacement texture sheets intended to
improve the appearance of the default Autogen buildings. This one covers
Asia and much of the Pacific (but not Hawaii). This is a vast area with
many different architectural styles and it is not possible to do proper
justice to all locations within the limits set by the FS2002 Autogen
system, so I have concentrated here on getting a suitable appearance for
older and smaller towns and semi-rural areas, rather than modern cities.

Two alternative sets are included: a high-resolution 1024x1024 set for
optimum appearance, and an alternative 512x512 set for those who
experience frame rate problems with the higher resolution version.


TECHNICAL DETAILS
=================

There are 10 pairs of BMP files, or 'texture sheets', in the main
FS2002\TEXTURE used by Autogen to display the default buildings in the
FS2002 Autogen scenery. Of the ten pairs, it seems that seven are
actually used at present (I recently discovered that two sets are used
in the USA), whilst the remaining three are presumably a resource for
future expansion of the system (in FS2004?). The filenames are

blda2.bmp/blda2lm.bmp - used in Europe
bldb2.bmp/bldb2lm.bmp - used in North America, the northern part of
Central America, and Hawaii
bldc2.bmp/bldc2lm.bmp - used in the dryer areas of SW USA
bldd2.bmp/bldd2lm.bmp - used in Latin America (South America, part of
Central America, and the Caribbean)
blde2.bmp/blde2lm.bmp - used in Africa and the Middle East (west of
the Persian Gulf)
bldf2.bmp/bldf2lm.bmp - used in Asia and much of the Pacific
bldg2.bmp/bldg2lm.bmp - used in Australiasia
bldh2.bmp/bldh2lm.bmp - not presently used ?
bldi2.bmp/bldi2lm.bmp - not presently used ?
bldj2.bmp/bldj2lm.bmp - not presently used ?

The present files replace the bldf2.bmp/bldf2lm.bmp Asian/Pacific set
only.

Other sets are available as follows
AGBldAfr.zip - Africa, released 14/08/02
ACBldEur.zip - Europe, released 18/08/02
ACBldLat.zip - Latin America, released 22/08/02

The remaining sets will follow soon.


INSTALLATION & USE
==================

1. BACKUPS ETC: If you have already installed previous sets in the same
series, and followed these same instructions, you will be able to
skip this step. If not, you should make a backup of all 20 original
files with the above names from the main \TEXTURE folder to
a suitable sub-folder. My personal recommendation is that you make a
sub-folder called
\texture\AUTOGEN_BUILDINGS
and then a further sub-folder within this called
\texture\autogen_buildings\ORIGINAL
Now copy all 20 original files, as listed above, into the new
..\ORIGINAL folder

2. Now make another folder in the same folder tree called
\texture\autogen_buildings\ASIA
and unzip the contents of the current archive into it. This will
automatically create two further sub-folders named
\texture\autogen_buildings\asia\1024
& \texture\autogen_buildings\asia\512
and place two files called bldf2.bmp and bldf2lm into each.

The finished folder tree will look something like this:-
-------------------------------------------------------------------
<-- The main folder where FS2002 itself is installed
|
... <-- various other FS2002 sub-folders
+--texture <-- FS2002's 'main' texture folder
|
+--autogen_buildings
+--asia <-- container for this Asian/Pacific set
| +--1024 <-- contains the high-res version
| +--512 <-- contains the medium-res version
+--... <-- other sets in the series ...
| +--1024
| +--512
+--original <-- contains the backup of the original copies
-------------------------------------------------------------------

3. To use the high-resolution files in FS2002, copy the two files from
the new ..\1024 folder into the main \TEXTURE folder,
overwriting the original copies (perfectly safe if you have made a
backup as instructed above!).

4. Start FS2002, go to the Settings menu, pick Display Settings and
adjust the Texture Size slider on the Aircraft tab to its maximum
setting ('Massive'). Although not essential, I would also recommend
that you have Anti-Aliasing turned ON (see Hardware tab of the
Display Settings) to minimise any flickering from these relatively
sharp, high definition, textures. (Again, you will be able to skip
these adjustments if you have made them already when installing
previous sets).

No other particular settings are necessary and no new entry is
required in the Scenery Library (scenery.cfg).

5. Now go to your favourite Asian airport/town and admire the change
in the buildings! Fly around over a town centre and over some
residential areas and rural villages. With luck, you will find that
the revised Autogen buildings look a lot better-defined and more
realistic than those provided by Microsoft's original offering.

I know that they won't look quite right in some of the more modern
downtown areas of large moden cities, modern holiday resorts, or more
sophisticated residential suburbs. I'll address that later with an
alternative set, and you might like to write to me in the meantime
with suggestions, and even pictures, to help with that future version.

6. The files are fully compatible with all third party landclass files
and most scenery. They will not affect the appearance of the scenery
in areas outside Latin America. You may find some effect on the
occasional third party scenery where the author has used textures
direct from the Autogen building sheets to create buildings of his or
her own. If this is the case, you should copy the original Autogen
texture sheets that you backed up in step 1 into the local ..\texture
folder of the third party scenery in question. This should eliminate
any compatibility problem.

7. If you find that your frame rates are too low using the 1024x1024
high-resolution textures (this should only happen to a few users with
older PCs with limited resources), overwrite the two new files in the
main \TEXTURE folder with the medium-resolution pair from the
..\512 folder. If you don't use any 1024x1024 textures, you can set
the Aircraft Texture Size slider back to a lower setting.

8. If at any time you wish to revert to the original textures supplied
with FS2002, copy the backup files from the ..\ORIGINAL folder back
into the main \TEXTURE folder.

9. When you have a free moment, send me an e-mail at
gerrish@flightsims.co.uk
to register your interest and tell me what you think of the revised
buildings. ALL feedback is very much appreciated and helps me to get
things right, and to your liking, in future release. Also, if you
have any problems or queries, let me know about them and I will reply
as quickly as possible.

I will also add your name to my mailing list and try to keep you
posted about new developments etc. (including replacement building
textures for other parts of the world).

- 0 - 0 - 0 -

I have adapted textures and images from a wide range of sources in
compiling these files, including default textures from FS2002, copyright
Microsoft, resources from FS Nova, copyright Rafael Sanchez, and
textures from many other third party sources, including kind colleagues
such as Roelof Kruijer and Georg Karbowski (to name just two of many).
Please excuse me if I have not specifically acknowledged the sources of
some of these files. If you spot something that originated with you and
would like a proper acknowledgement, please let me know.

Happy Flight-Simming!

Gerrish Gray
September 2002
gerrish@flightsims.co.uk