Video tutorial: runway design with AC3D

  • Hi Clayton,

    He actually mentions it at 3:49 in his "Background image for airport design using AC3D" tutorial here:

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    You can just select all of your objects (background, runway, decals, etc) and then rotate everything 90 degrees first. Then, rotate it the other direction 27 clicks (I'm guessing you had it set to 1 degree per click?) and you should have it lined up like my image.

    After that, double check and make sure your crosshairs in AC3D are still lined up over your original reference point in the background image. If they aren't, select all of your objects together, and drag them until the crosshair is back on top of your original reference point location on the background image.

    Then (assuming you're finished with the model) you should be able to export your runway and decals and then convert them for AeroFly.

  • ok thank you Querty, if it wasn't for the time you took to explain it in such detail i would not have got here, but the runway finally is showing up, decals are missing but that is for another day

    thanks again, i will need to record all this so i do not forget the steps !

    Nicely done! The decals should be an easy fix. Things to check: (1) Did you export the decals from AC3D to a .tgi file? You have to export them to their own .tgi file just like you export the runway. (2) Do you have an entry in your .tsc file for the decals? It'll be in the Objects section of the .tsc file and will look like this:

    <[tmsimulator_scenery_object][element][1]

    <[string8][type][decal]>

    <[string8][geometry][ksmn_decal]>

    <[tmvector3d][position][-113.881706 45.122031 0]>

    >

    Instead of "ksmn_decal", that should be the name of your .tgi file for your decals. And the coordinates entered next to [position] should be the same as what you entered for your runway/airport (these are the coordinates of your reference point).

    Check those two things when you have time again and let me know if it fixes it or not.

  • ok thank you Querty, if it wasn't for the time you took to explain it in such detail i would not have got here, but the runway finally is showing up, decals are missing but that is for another day

    thanks again, i will need to record all this so i do not forget the steps !

    Congrats!

  • hello Querty

    this information above has really helped me get the decals in, however i have two problems,

    1 how do i increase the width of the decal so in the night time the runway lights are the corresponding width of the runway and 2 i am having problems actually putting the numbers into the decals at the end of the runways.

  • hello Querty

    this information above has really helped me get the decals in, however i have two problems,

    1 how do i increase the width of the decal so in the night time the runway lights are the corresponding width of the runway and 2 i am having problems actually putting the numbers into the decals at the end of the runways.

    Are you using the new decal TIF that Rodeo provided earlier in this thread. The one in the download zip is dodgy and doesn't show numbers. As for stretching and sizing the width, the video covers that quite well. Is that not working for you?

  • yes thanks Phil i looked at Rodeo's video again and managed to get the numbers into the runway, Querty provided me with the decals that work and i sued that, i got the numbers and was able to change things on the runway using the decal template, however now the runway is floating above the original (photoreal) runway, something i must have accidentally one

    oh well time to look at this tomorrow as i am going to bed soon

    night !

  • yes thanks Phil i looked at Rodeo's video again and managed to get the numbers into the runway, Querty provided me with the decals that work and i sued that, i got the numbers and was able to change things on the runway using the decal template, however now the runway is floating above the original (photoreal) runway, something i must have accidentally one

    oh well time to look at this tomorrow as i am going to bed soon

    night !

    Admirable perseverence! I did a lot of inspecting KDWH 'Y' settings and matching them on my own runway, though I was never sure how important it was.

  • do you know why i am getting this error msg

    converting 3 image files in parallel

    1.24: image './runway_decal_01_color.tif': size=2048x2048 c=4 compr=1 flipv=1 mip=1 cf=1 image './asphalt_runway__typeblue__brightness05_color.bmp': size=2048x2048 c=3 compr=1 flipv=1 mip=1 cf=1 ERROR: (image './Area_Lp1_SnapOff_S027222040_S027241372_E153065049_E153082135.bmp' dimensions is not power of two -> 1765 x 2935

    1.32: ERROR: (cannot convert image file './Area_Lp1_SnapOff_S027222040_S027241372_E153065049_E153082135.bmp')

    7.74:

    9.74:

    9.76: writing scenery tsc file 'C:/Users/clayt/Documents//Aerofly FS 2/scenery/places/ybbn_rwy/ybbn.tsc'

    9.76:

    9.77: // ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    9.77: // SUMMARY

    9.78: // ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    9.79: input folder 0 = './'

    9.79: output folder 0 = 'C:/Users/clayt/Documents//Aerofly FS 2/scenery/places/ybbn_rwy/'

    9.80: file types = 'tsc' 'tgi' 'jpg' 'bmp' 'tif' 'png'

    9.84: 0 files copied

    9.84: 2 textures copied

    9.85: 0 sounds converted

    9.85: 2 geometries converted

    9.86: 2 errors

  • I'm not 100% sure, but I think your background image has been included in one of the items you exported from AC3D. When you export your model from AC3D, you only want to export (a) your runway and the runway outside area, and (b) your decals. Those should be exported to a file called ybbn_rwy.tgi for the runway/outside area and ybbn_decal.tgi for the decals.

    The object that contains the background image in AC3D should not be exported, it's only there as a reference for you to build the runway on top of. The specific reason for the error is that the content converter only supports texture files that are square and max dimensions of 2048x2048, but regardless you want to make sure you're not including the background image object in your export from AC3D.