Sarge's Military Macros
#1
Posted 30 October 2005 - 05:37 AM
I was wondering if anyone had a copy of Sarge's Military Macros that he released last year. I have tried Sarge's website and unfortunately the URL for the zip download was "not found".
I realise that Sarge has been very unwell and would like to wish him all the best from across the big pond. It is a dedicated man who will carry try and carry out his hobby whilst lying in his hospital bed.
Weve never met Sarge, but if you read this, keep your chin up and you'll get there. Youve got so many friends on here from all over the globe.
Take care.
Tom
#2
Posted 30 October 2005 - 08:53 AM
There will be two (or more) new packages forthcoming -- at least one each of military-related objects and civilian-related objects. These are primarily buildings. Each zip will contain: a small JPG of the object (source), an API file (for use with placement programs like FSSC), an SCA file, a LibObj file, and the necessary textures if other than the default FS9 textures.
Military Package(s) will contain: taxi-in fighter, bomber, and transport maintenance hangars built to specs for each type of aircraft; two (or more) BOQ/BAQ quadrangles; fire/crash rescue (both closed bays and two "drive-in" bays), CSG complex, CES complex, SPS complex, Base Operations and Control Tower, JP-4/Jet A-1 bulk storage tanks, at least one MAC terminal, munitions storage igloo, hardened and soft aircraft flow-thru shelters, warehouses, and others.
Civilian Package(s) will contain: ILS transmitter site, NDB transmitter site, VOR/DME/TACAN facility, warehouses, two (or more) terminals, taxi-in maintenance hangars for GA and Commercial aircraft, two or more control towers, fire/crash/rescue facility, and others.
Terminals will NOT have jetways; by doing so, I would be forcing you into my idea of what your parking set-up should look like at that terminal and which size aircraft could park where. Runway 12 Object Placer has a sufficient number and variety of jetways that can be added once you have determined your parking set-up.
When they are ready, they will be uploaded as "selectware" -- only available from sites I select, which will be limited to my site, FS2004.com file library, and possibly the AVSim file library. Check Six! Designs (under the J&L Enterprises umbrella) will hold all copyrights and intellectual property rights to the packages and the individual objects contained in them. Still FreeWare, but still with copyrights deriving from the designer's efforts.
#3
Posted 30 October 2005 - 09:04 AM
Wing Hq & Staff facility, or Weapons Center complex (for large bases) -- comes with chainlink fencing, guard shack/ECP, and a centered stand for the flagpole (search AVSim for animated flag/flagpole by Jeff Stanyer)
BOQ/BAQ quadrangle, style 1
Civil Engineering complex -- with chainlink fencing
Bomber Taxi-In Maintenance Hangar -- tested with B-1, B-2 and B-52
#4
Posted 30 October 2005 - 10:53 AM
Thanx for the quick response. Your new api look excellent and i cant wait till you get round to releasing them. Am very new to scenery design and am planning to contribute something back to the hobby which has caused my dear wife to become another Fs2004 widow lol. Take care and keep up the good work.
Tom
#5
Posted 30 October 2005 - 11:44 AM
flyingjock1, on Oct 30 2005, 11:53 AM, said:
Thanx for the quick response. Your new api look excellent and i cant wait till you get round to releasing them. Am very new to scenery design and am planning to contribute something back to the hobby which has caused my dear wife to become another Fs2004 widow lol. Take care and keep up the good work.
Tom
My T-hangars to reopen Pease AFB and Plattsburgh AFB are in the 100 polygon range and have textures taken from photos of the real hangars; ditto with the "Mole Hole" for both bases. There are two different munitions storage igloos -- one is a basic igloo, concrete covered; the other is a complex igloo with natural terrain covering that changes as the seasons change. (The "Mole Hole" also changes earth-covering textures as the seasons change.)
Naturally, the complex versions have more polygons; but, if you use XML to place them, FS9 only loads the initial set of polygons no matter how many copies of the object you place in the scenery. It might get a little intense if you use placement programs like FSSC since those programs load a complete set of polygons into memory for EACH COPY of the object that is placed. In those cases, just do a representation of the scenery (3 or 4 igloos instead of 12). I'm not absolutely certain how Runway 12 does it, but I believe it's an XML based placement program so the polygon savings should be there, also.
#6
Posted 10 November 2005 - 10:15 AM
Couldn't keep this one below the century mark ... it comes in at 146 polygons. (Textures to be added later today/tomorrow) Also working on a whole range of munitions that it can carry, including AGM's, AIM's, CBU's, GBU's, AMRAAM's, SRAM's, and a lot of dumb iron.
(Don't send requests yet; it'll be part of the military objects package. )
Edited by sarge, 10 November 2005 - 10:16 AM.
#7
Posted 10 November 2005 - 10:27 AM
#8
Posted 10 November 2005 - 10:45 AM
TechnicolorYawn, on Nov 10 2005, 11:27 AM, said:
#9
Posted 10 November 2005 - 11:17 AM
For one wheel, 4 from both ends, which makes 8, plus 2x4 for the polys taken off the edges (one square is 2 triangle polys), making 16 per wheel, and 64 less for the whole trolley.
#10
Posted 10 November 2005 - 02:33 PM
TechnicolorYawn, on Nov 10 2005, 12:17 PM, said:
For one wheel, 4 from both ends, which makes 8, plus 2x4 for the polys taken off the edges (one square is 2 triangle polys), making 16 per wheel, and 64 less for the whole trolley.
If I change it to 12x1:
I save 4 polygons per wheel (14 vs. 18), x4 wheels = 56 wheel polygons. Savings going from 16x1 to 12x1 is 16 polygons.
Exaggerated tube as an example:
Edited by sarge, 10 November 2005 - 02:40 PM.
#11
Posted 10 November 2005 - 02:42 PM
#12
Posted 10 November 2005 - 04:07 PM
So what you have actually looks more like this:
Edited by TechnicolorYawn, 10 November 2005 - 04:16 PM.
#13
Posted 10 November 2005 - 04:37 PM
TechnicolorYawn, on Nov 10 2005, 05:07 PM, said:
Each of those 16 polygons that make up the tube are single-sided; if you didn't close off the ends, and flipped the image around to look down the tube, there would be no polygons around the circumference. In fact, to texturize the inside of a tube in FSDS2 (like the eye on the tow bar), you have to copy/paste an exact duplicate of the tube right on top of the original tube, then go to "poly" mode for the duplicate and flip the polygons to face inside.
That's why when I create a surface that sits flat on the terrain, I can't use a polygon (single sided); I have to create a box (six sided) and delete the left, right, front, back and bottom polygons. If I use just a simple polygon, there is no opposite surface to block the default terrain from trying to represent, and that's what causes "flashing" of the surface I'm trying to place. With the box minus 5 sides, FS9 still reads it as a box and presents the texture on the top surface as priority over the default terrain texture.
#14
Posted 10 November 2005 - 05:01 PM
I may just be behind the times...
I'll also have to find out if the box thing works in Gmax too. I have a feeling it won't, as a box with the sides and bottom removed is indidtinguishable from a plane in Gmax. Certainly I'm going to have to experiment. Possibly make a 'proper' tube with the multi-sided polys, and a 'complex' one made up of entirely 3 sided polys, and make 2 sceneries, one with loads of copies of one, and one with loads of copies of the other. If this is right, then one should be noticeably slower than the other.
Edited by TechnicolorYawn, 10 November 2005 - 05:05 PM.
#15
Posted 10 November 2005 - 06:36 PM
TechnicolorYawn, on Nov 10 2005, 06:01 PM, said:
I may just be behind the times...
I'll also have to find out if the box thing works in Gmax too. I have a feeling it won't, as a box with the sides and bottom removed is indidtinguishable from a plane in Gmax. Certainly I'm going to have to experiment. Possibly make a 'proper' tube with the multi-sided polys, and a 'complex' one made up of entirely 3 sided polys, and make 2 sceneries, one with loads of copies of one, and one with loads of copies of the other. If this is right, then one should be noticeably slower than the other.
Polygons are single-sided surfaces with only 4 vertices (points). A six-sided box has 8 vertices (points) shared between the six sides. If you remove a surface (polygon) of the box, there are still 8 vertices, but only 5 texturable surfaces. As you remove more and more surfaces there are fewer and fewer polygons to texturize, but the 8 vertices remain (just invisible).
FS9 sees the vertices but only loads/draws the surfaces that remain, assigning a higher priority to the called-out texture, so that any conflicting default textures are suppressed. In the case of a polygon, however, FS9 sees the 4 vertices and single surface; since it isn't a solid object (which I'm guessing FS9 needs to see more than 4 vertices to consider it a "solid" object), it gets the same priority as the underlying default texture and "flashing" can result, sometimes even if the Zbias has been adjusted to "1" rather than the default "0". Why flashing occurs with adjusted Zbias, and why its an inconsistent occurrence in FS9, has never been explained; it may well be something internal to FS9's coding that sometimes accepts the new Zbias and sometimes doesn't. The coding guess would be my guess as well, since it also happens when the underlying surface is an AFCAD-called texture, which is supposed to be a non-layered presentation.
Edited by sarge, 10 November 2005 - 06:37 PM.
#16
Posted 11 November 2005 - 02:52 AM
If I create a box, it will be the standard 8 vertices, with 6 4-sided polys. If I delete one surface, then I still have the 8 vertices as they are all part of the remaining 5 surfaces. If I delete a surface that would leave a vertex that is 'hanging' - not attached to any other surface, then Gmax gives me the option of deleting it or keeping it. I can also create just vertices on their own and then join them up to make a surface later (This is how I make all my ground polys).
Zbias has to be add manually when you create a material before assigning it to an object. All materials have a zbias of 0 by default.
#17
Posted 11 November 2005 - 06:53 AM
TechnicolorYawn, on Nov 11 2005, 03:52 AM, said:
I may have to explore this oddity further once I'm finished with the first three airbases.
#18
Posted 11 November 2005 - 08:11 AM
Search for 'ground polys' on http://www.scenerydesign.org for more as I can't explain it very well...
#19
Posted 11 November 2005 - 11:22 AM
TechnicolorYawn, on Nov 11 2005, 09:11 AM, said:
Thanks for the link; will check it out.
#20
Posted 12 November 2005 - 10:02 AM
Now there are but two questions I have to resolve:
a. Do I assemble the 146 polygon trailer + three 98 polygon bombs (440 polygons total) and THEN place the object; or,
b. Do I place the 146 polygon trailer then place the three bombs on it individually?
Also considering two polygon-saving steps:
a. The tire texture is a square, photo centered on a black (transparent) background. Instead of four 16x1 tubes with the texture applied, can I get away with a five-sided box (bottom polygon removed), apply the full texture to front and back of the box, and a segment of the tire on the left, right and top polys? That would save 52 polygons on the trailer.
b. Remove the fuze and fuze extender from the bomb (and reduce the polygon count). Fuzes and extenders aren't installed on the bombs during movement from the Weapons Storage Area (WSA) to the flightline; they installed just before load-up or after load-up.