Posts by larrylynx

  • How would you guys recommend texturing this runway?

    a decal doesn't need to be just a white line...its a polygon with a texture on it, what ever texture you want...

    How to do all the edges, cracks etc gets a little more of a problem because fs2 forces you to use a runway object for runway, aprons etc. You have to cheat and copy which bit of the runway meshes you want to add extra detail, UV map them individually then apply them as a decal, time consuming but do-able. Decals can be stacked so in theory you could apply 10. If you get a very detailed sat image it could be broken down into smaller 4K textures and applied to these meshes.

    Something to also remember, FS2 is very VR friendly so adding lots of textures and objects will start to impact on this eventually.

    Forget any realistic night lighting FS2 is very poor in this department, we don't even have aircraft landing lights

    P3D/FSX are far more user friendly when it comes to making addons of every sort

    Steve

  • 3d Buildings - textures needed

    Hi.. Objects are placed using the pivot point (3ds Max) or what ever is similar in ac3d/ sketchup etc. Always best to make sure it at zero in the vertical axis if you want that object to be on the FS2 ground plane

    This is fine for small objects but for large objects or groups some of the edges/objects may appear to float because of sloping ground modelling in FS2.

    Solution, break up large groups or for a single large object you may need to rotate it to align with FS2 ground plane, you can also move the verts beneath zero but this can cause things like doors to be slightly submerged.

  • How do I create a ground poly for texturing?

    you add decals using, errr decals, read the tutorials that Jeff has written.

    It is possible to add extra detail over the top of a runway, apron etc using a errr decal. I add tyre marks this way. i also add grime and surface repairs this way. Just copy the mesh where you want this to be, make it a decal and apply the texture , I use a transparent PNG ( not a PNG with a alpha map) . Keep the colours weak in the PNG as they are quite strong in the sim

    So my advice....read up on decals

    Steve

  • Poly count limit or recommendation?

    I always stick to these rule,s

    if you don't need to model it then don't,

    If a texture map will do then use it,

    If its not seen then delete it, similar to old western movie scenery where they only made the fronts

    Save polys where you can so you can use them where you have to

    For EGGP I used 3 * 4K textures for buildings. One of those had 15 or so buildings on it and I still had space free on all of them

    EGGP had close to 700,000 polys and FS2 doesn't seem to mind

    Steve

  • Use VOR much anymore IRL?

    I quite often instruct in a 737 simulator ( and a vulcan simulator, no mod cons in there) where its program the fmc and follow the magenta line, well that's their plan, by the time the Gremlin gets to work they mostly fly VOR for the majority of the route, by hand of course. I would guess 90% find it a challenge and all thank me for making it an interesting and hard work flight.

    The way i see things is, if you know the basics inside out any luxuries are a bonus

    Steve aka Gremlin

  • Object texture issue 3dsmax

    Hi Rodeo

    I believe the error is with png files in general, with or without an alpha channel as that was my first thoughts too. I do hope IPACS will not change anything with png file support as its very useful as it stands to add extra texture detail to aprons, runways etc.

    Steve

  • How do I create a ground poly for texturing?

    HI

    No hard and fast rule for repeating textures, what ever looks good in the sim. I stick to 15*15 on runway and 10*10 on taxiway/apron but thats just my preference.

    Use the standard UVMap modifier for taxiway and aprons. Open the gizmo tab to adjust the rotation and placement and set the U and V repeat sizes in the modifier itself

    Steve

  • 3DSMax Airport design - joining surfaces without overlap

    Hi

    Looking at the screenshot I see several areas of concern

    Bad poly spans across several others, this will cause any welds in those areas to fail and will prevent the two meshes being joined

    Long thins polys can cause rendering errors. Get rid of them, find a better way to structure the mesh. If you were to do this in 3d rather than 2d the rendering artifact would be very obvious

    The extra area in the centre simple adds polys for no reason and causes those long polys, as does spline modeling with the quadify mesh command. I do not use this method for that very reason, its too unpredictable. Better to build things buy hand in some cases using the create command in the polygon section.

    I have very quickly suggested some improvements (in yellow). Don't be scared to add futher edges, remove edges and collapse lots of verts together. The area in the centre is not seen in the final airport unless you add a texture to it, ie, not the background texture. When vertex shading, this area will be black and therefore invisible.

    Always look at a mesh and think how you can improve it. Its nice to just press a button and think its done the best job but sometimes there is nothing better than the human eye

    Try to never have polys with more than 4 edges, in the bottom left of the image I can see a poly with 6 or more. Add extra edges using the cut comman to for the mesh to ne more predicitable, Did I mention..I DON'T LIKE QUADIFY FOR THIS REASON. Don't assume the program will add polys that look as good as the ones I added in this area. it could and probably will add long this polys like I suggested in blue

    Steve

  • How do I create a ground poly for texturing?

    Forgot to add,

    If you do use a transparent PNG file keep the colouring to a very small percentage, I use between 5 and 10 percent. Its hardly noticable in the PNG file, you need a white backgroundto see it in the paint program but stands out like a dogs what nots in the sim. remember not to include the white background in the final PNG file else it won't be transparent.

    Tried to attach a png example but it doesn't show correctly,

    Steve