Can't Start Surface Base Wizard

[ar81]

damn... i did not want to take the effort of making tiles. well, then the hard way.

Be aware that bases must have latitude and longitude so the conversion from XYZ coordinates from/to latitude/longitude works.
The good thing about having to make tiles is that you could release those tiles with your base.

As you see how to locate and size buildings, you may see that probably some improvements could be needed.
My idea when I made Surface Base Wizard was to make a calculator only, not the rest of the program, for I intended people to learn the basics of math with it, so you have a not so user friendly program because it is a calculator with a viewer, and not really an edition program.

Since there was no previous software, it was an experiment that started as calculator and became bigger. I started to create Alysimia city and I reached a point where it was impossible to handle so much data. So I added the viewer to the calculator.

In time you will realize that this program is an enhanced calculator, intended to make people to learn math, so I apologize about the lack of usability. As a hobbyist I was a newbie when I designed it.

 

[Urwumpe]

Be aware that bases must have latitude and longitude so the conversion from XYZ coordinates from/to latitude/longitude works.
The good thing about having to make tiles is that you could release those tiles with your base.

As you see how to locate and size buildings, you may see that probably some improvements could be needed.
My idea when I made Surface Base Wizard was to make a calculator only, not the rest of the program, for I intended people to learn the basics of math with it, so you have a not so user friendly program because it is a calculator with a viewer, and not really an edition program.

Since there was no previous software, it was an experiment that started as calculator and became bigger. I started to create Alysimia city and I reached a point where it was impossible to handle so much data. So I added the viewer to the calculator.

Well, you have two important advantages why I have to use it:

1. I only want to make quick and dirty bases of some of the East Coast Abort Landing sites for the Shuttle. Calculating the mess accurately with pocket calculator and pencil is not desired.
2. I have no time nor interest making a better surface base editor now. Using C++ and wxWidgets, it should be possible making a basic base editor in a few weeks, but until it would be as capable as SBW, it would take a moment more. A moment which would be missing for SSU.

 

[ar81]

If you do not need precision, once you create an object you can use MOVE/SCALE/ROTATE SCREEN

Calculator has a function that allows to calculate scale for buildings.
It is the Tex param.

If your building texture has a certain amount of floors in it, and you estimate a floor height (3 meters normally), you could scale textures properly, so all buildings have floors with the same height. I used it a lot in Alysimia. You may see that it keeps a sense of proportion.

If you want more details look for TEX HEIGHT (BUILDING TEXTURING) in the manual.

 

[eveningsky339]

Not to pull things off topic, but I'm having a minor issue. I cannot see the selected textures for any given object when I click the 'display textures' button. The boxes simply remain empty.

Nothing too traumatic, but it could get irritating if I want to get picky about how my buildings look.

 

[ar81]

Not to pull things off topic, but I'm having a minor issue. I cannot see the selected textures for any given object when I click the 'display textures' button. The boxes simply remain empty.

Nothing too traumatic, but it could get irritating if I want to get picky about how my buildings look.

The software can't read DDS textures.
You need to convert them.
Read the manual.
There you may find where they should be located.