TFFF Martinique Airport with AC3D - Work in progress

  • Hello Rodeo,

    No, the outside surface stop a few meter to runway. The mesh is from vogel69 Martinique free DLC. But i'm on Beta channel, I will investigate. Maybe a vertice escaped. I will inform you.

    It looks nice and very well detailed so far, but you should probably try with a different set of textures for the color of the runway (and taxiways probably), seems to me way too dark!.

    Cheers, Ed

    Textures are temporary but runway at tfff is dark also "dirty layers" will be probabely added too.


    Oh and yes, this scenery will be a freeware

    Edited once, last by thomasph (May 23, 2019 at 11:56 AM).

  • Textures are temporary but runway at tfff is dark also "dirty layers" will be probabely added too

    That´s probably the best way to go to try the runway doesn´t look like new. BTW, are you going to model the airport terminals, gates and jetways too, or plan to use AFS2 default buildings?.

    Keep up the good work.

    Cheers, Ed

  • Good luck with the "dirtying up". I've experimented with adding skid marks using transparent PNGs but haven't got a proven process yet. Cracks also are a nice touch. I was recommended https://www.textures.com/ to get cracks but haven't used this yet either.

  • Good luck with the "dirtying up". I've experimented with adding skid marks using transparent PNGs but haven't got a proven process yet. Cracks also are a nice touch. I was recommended https://www.textures.com/ to get cracks but haven't used this yet either.

    Yes,

    this is a quite interesting topic for us AC3D users. How can we make the runway dirty? As far as I know the runway texture will be created by the converter using the aerofly library.

    Can we add dirt as decals? Yes I did that, but it has to look good as well :/

  • Hi

    Ok, this is all from memory and some years back so hopefully I got it all ok. I don't have the original modelling files so I can't verify this. It should work with AC3D but no guarantee

    It is possible to add some shading to surfaces using a transparent PNG ( in my case). By transparent I do not mean an alpha layer. You will need to have a background with nothing on it, in fact its not there. In your painting software make a new file 4096*4096, make a new layer, leave it blank, then delete the background. With a new layer above the first one, paint on your grunge, tyre marks, concrete colours etc. Save as a normal PNG, not a 32 bit. keep the colours very very subtle as it seems to be a very strong effect. If you wish to see what you are doing then add another layer between your paint layer and that first blank layer. You can import a copy of your mesh onto this layer as a screen grab or top down render to help guide you, just remember to delete this when you save.

    You will not get super fine detail as a 4096*4096 doesn't go a long way over a fill size airport but it does add variation.

    In your modelling program, copy all of the surfaces that make up your runway, aprons taxiways etc. to a single decal object. apply this PNG as a decal. You will need to adjust the decal numbering to get it in the right place, mainly below all the other decals like taxi signs and lines.

    In the Liverpool grab you can see lots of random concrete colouring plus some linear ones.

    This can also be used just for a runway

    It's all about thinking outside the box

    Steve

  • I just did a very quick test on the same way of runways decals:

    - I create a 4096x4096 file in photoshop or gimp.

    - I drawn some dirty trails

    - I remove this dirty trails of alpha channel

    - save it in .tif with alpha channel

    - in my .tsc file i added a new decal layer called "tfff_dirty"

    - In AC3D i created a new group called "tfff_dirty"

    - I applied the dirty .tif image where i want

    - saved it and export all .tgi files

    - converted it into .tmb

    And result:


    I think I'm doing something wrong with the alpha layer because it looks white in afs2 but it still works.

    Didn't we include this "dirt" layer in our king-man airport example?

    Anyway it is possible to assign another texture layer for the tyre markings and oil stains, etc and as far as I know we do this for pretty much all default airports.

    You speak about this file probabily:

    It's a good base but it does not seem transparent and it's limited in use (corner for example)

    Edit: White are caused by opacity of gradient. Dont use gradient.

    Edited once, last by thomasph (May 23, 2019 at 11:20 PM).

  • I tried an image of 512x512 with some skid marks,

    added it in AC3D to a rectangle covering the touch down zone of the runway.

    Also you can place several of these decal rectangles in different sizes on top of each other to make different dirt structure.

    It worked, but I got white effects along the borders which don't look good.

    I'm not a gimp expert, so I'm not sure where to find the gradient...

  • larrylynx,

    thanks Steve, your suggestion did the trick!

    I was always focussed to create a good alpha channel, but always had strange looking border lines.

    Do not care about the alpha channel, create markings at a transparent layer and save it as png.

    I use this now just as a decal in AC3D, and can place them in different sizes and positions.

    1. Create an image 2048x512 or something similar, add a background layer from a screenshot.

    2. Paint markings, delete background layers, keep only the one transparent layer, save image as png.

    3. Create rectangles in AC3D and use the png as texture. You can also overlay some of them.

    Thomas, sorry for posting this in your airport thread. But I'm happy we finally have a solution for AC3D as well.