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Frequently Asked Questions
How can I get
the most current database for EZ-Landmark?
How does EZ-Landmark
detemine the name and locations of the sites that it displays?
When I use EZ-Landmark,
the names of a few sites are hard to read because they overlap
one another. How can I reduce the amount of clutter?
EZ-Landmark displays
the information for a site on the screen but I cannot see the
landmark itself. What is the problem?
Answers to your Frequently
Asked Questions
Question: How can I get the most current database
for EZ-Landmark?
Answer:
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Download
either of the two latest databases
Depending
on the number of sites that you'd like to include, you can download
and use either of the following two databases
Small
database
has more than 43,000 sites. It includes detailed sites in the
FS urban areas, global mountain peaks, 4000 larger cities of
the world and 38,000 U.S. sites.
Large
database
has more than 170,000 sites. It includes the 43,000 sites above
and an additional 129,000 World Database sites that includes
international cities, towns, rivers, mountains, lakes and rivers
with an average spacing of 15 miles. When using the large
database, it may take up to two minutes to start Flight Simulator
(depending on the speed of your computer). Afterwards you'll
note that the database has 171,506+ landmarks (About box). The
170,000 sites appear when Landmark Density is set to High
(you can set this from menu: Abacus | EZ-Landmark | Options
)
1. Click to download one of
the two databases. You may have to right-click and choose "Save
Target As" to download the database.
Small database EZ-Landmarks.dat
(1.6MB) 8/23/02 11:00AM
or
Large database EZ-Landmarks.dat
(6.4MB) 8/23/02 11:00AM
2. Copy the downloaded database
to your main flight simulator folder
3. Start Flight Simulator and EZ-Landmark will show you the "easter eggs" in
the major cities and thousands more throughout the flight
simulator world.
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Question: How does EZ-Landmark
detemine the name and locations of the sites that it displays?
Answer: EZ-Landmark refers to a database to locate the
sites. The
EZ-Landmark database contains
more than 1000 buildings, bridges, stadiums, rivers and lakes
in the major metropolitan areas of Flight Simulator.
Here's the
entries in the EZ_Landmark.dat database for a few
of the sites in the downtown Chicago area:
2 Prudential Plaza N41
53.13 W87 37.41 1465 1
900 North Michigan N41 53.92 W87 37.53 1491 1
Adler Planetarium N41 51.99 W87 36.38 738 0
Aon Center N41 53.06 W87 37.28 1757 2
Comiskey Park N41 49.34 W87 38.79 689 0
Field Museum N41 51.98 W87 36.95 752 0
John Hancock N41 53.79 W87 37.39 1783 0
McCormick Place N41 51.17 W87 36.70 710 0
McCormick West N41 51.23 W87 36.98 753 0
Navy Pier N41 53.63 W87 36.62 610 0
Sears Tower N41 52.78 W87 38.18 2042 1
Shedd Aquarium N41 52.07 W87 36.81 762 0
Soldier Field N41 51.70 W87 37.01 610 0
Union Station N41 52.64 W87 37.80 765 2
Water Tower N41 53.90 W87 37.51 720 2
Wrigley Field N41 56.89 W87 40.30 621 0
^ ^
^ ^
^
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Landmark Name Latitude Longitude Elev Density code 0=always,1=high
or medium,2=high
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A new entry
in the database can be added using a text editor and separating
the fields by the tab character.
From left to
right the fields are
- Name of the
site
- Latitude
- Longitude
- Elevation
- for best view, use the elevation at the top of the objects
- Density code
- tells EZ-Landmark to display this landmark when display is
set to Low, Medium or Dense
Question: When I use EZ-Landmark,
the names of a few sites are hard to read because they overlap
one another. How can I reduce the amount of clutter?
Answer: There are several things that you can
due to reduce the clutter. You can adjust the EZ-Landmark display
from the EZ-Landmark options dialog. From your Flight Simulator
menu choose Abacus | EZ-Landmark | Options like this:
From the
options dialog:
- Adjust Display - reduce the amount
of information that is displayed for each site. If you display
only the Landmark name, the messages are less cluttered.
- Adjust Landmark
Density -
each site in the database has a "density code", one
of three values: Low, Medium or High. Change this field to display
sites that have matching codes. Sites having a density of "0"
are displayed when Landmark density is set to "low"
or "medium" or "high". Sites having a density
code of "1" are displayed when Landmark density is
set to "medium" or "high". Sites having a
density code of "2" are displayed when Landmark density
is set to "high".
- Adjust Show
landmarks up XX NM away - reduce the distance at which the information
for each site appears. At 10 NM,information for more sites are
displayed than at 5NM.
- Adjust Font
size: use a smaller font size - change the font size of the display to medium
or small
- Change the
density code - change
the density code for any entry in the database. The density code
must have a value of "0", "1" or "2".
This density code works in conjunction with #2 above.
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Description of EZ-Landmark
options
Display
-
you can choose to display a landmark's the name, distance, magnetic
bearing and true bearing
Landmark
Density -
you can choose from three different settings to specify which
landmarks are displayed on the screen. You can individually set
a database entry to display at low, medium or high density.
Show
landmarks -
you can adjust the visibility to display landmarks that are from
1 to 30 nautical miles from your aircraft
Font
size
- you can choose on of three different display font sizes for
optimum viewing
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Question: EZ-Landmark displays the information for a site
on the screen but I cannot see the landmark itself. What is the
problem?
Answer: You can adjust the amount and detail (resolution)
of 3D scenery from the Flight Simulator menu, not EZ-Landmark.
To display the maximum amount
of 3D scenery, use the Flight Simulator menu: Options
| Settings | Display and move the Scenery
Complexity slider to the right until it is set to Extremely
Dense. This ensures that all of the Flight Simulator 3D objects
are displayed.
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