48 replies to this topic

[TechnicolorYawn]

OK, the first stage is properly sorted now. I've redone the coast around LPMA to gove a much more realistic shape. Tomorrow: meshes.

Before:




After:

[boeing_737]

Good Job!
Looks more realistic...but why is your runway dangling in the sea.?

Edited by boeing_737, 12 February 2005 - 04:26 AM.

[TechnicolorYawn]

Heh.. that's the remains of an experiment to see whether I could make the runway dangle over the sea

I just haven't got round to putting it back.

[IBtheSarge]

   You must be burning a lot of midnight oil, TCY ..... lookin' a bit o' awright there, guv'nor!

More!  More!  More!  

[enterprise134]

Looks good keep going

[TechnicolorYawn]

OK.. first building


Mu internet went down all of yesterday, so I still haven't been able to find out how to make a new mesh for the ground. I had a go with Ground2k, but couldn't work it out. So I had a mess around with buildings instead. It still needs re-texturing and lining up a bit.

[IBtheSarge]

TechnicolorYawn, on Feb 13 2005, 06:39 AM, said:

OK.. first building


Mu internet went down all of yesterday, so I still haven't been able to find out how to make a new mesh for the ground. I had a go with Ground2k, but couldn't work it out. So I had a mess around with buildings instead. It still needs re-texturing and lining up a bit.

LOL!!!!!  Now comes the FUN part -- alignment.  Trial-and-error, boy-o, trial-and-error.  

Also, when you're making your macros (buildings), be careful on the complexity.  A simple six-sided box (left, right, front, back, top, bottom) is 6 polygons, although it is possible to eliminate that bottom polygon and get only 5 out of the box.  As you add boxes, tubes, etc., to complete the building, each of those add-ons adds polygons.  You can start out with a good idea and wind up with a 1,500-polygon building real easily.

i.e., adding a tube (say, for an antenna on the building) that is 0.5' radius and 20' tall, both ends closed.  In order to get the cylindrical effect instead of those boxy sides to it, you'll want 16 sections then select polygon smoothing to make it appear perfectly round.  So instead of a top, bottom, left, right, front and back, you have 16 sections to the tube plus the top and bottom for a total of 18 polygons, which is added to the overall total of the whole macro.  If you add cross-members to the antenna, or guide-wires, the total goes up even higher for every additional part you add.

Let's say the building comes in at 50 polygons; if you put four of those in the scenery, FS9 has to draw 200 polygons, just for that macro.  Now multiply the effect when you add other macros, plus the AI traffic to be displayed at an average of 2,000 polygons per AI aircraft in view ...... framerates go to    and back.

Enough wit da negative waves, Moriarity (sorry, that's the best Donald Sutherland I can do   ) .... it's looooooooookin' good, mon!!!!!  

[TechnicolorYawn]

Bloody ######, making meshes from scratch is difficult.... getting there I think.

[IBtheSarge]

TechnicolorYawn, on Feb 14 2005, 08:21 PM, said:

Bloody ######, making meshes from scratch is difficult.... getting there I think.

   Deja vu, all over again!!!!!  

Said the same thing in my early designing stages -- in fact, if it hadn't been for Brad, I never would have completed ME16 and gone on to KLIZ and now KPBG and KPSM and learning XML.

Anything I can help with?  Not really up-to-speed on terrain alterations, but if there's anything you think I could do, don't hesitate to YELL.       If you get stuck, you might also try to pick Norwegian_Hawk's brain ... he's into Ground2k4 and may have some ideas to make it a bit easier or help solve a problem.

[TechnicolorYawn]

It's not too bad - hard bit is drawing the heightmaps. I've not been able to find any height data detailed enough for what I want to do so I'm having to do it all from scratch. I've found a pretty good tutorial so we'll see how it goes.

[IBtheSarge]

TechnicolorYawn, on Feb 15 2005, 03:41 AM, said:

It's not too bad - hard bit is drawing the heightmaps. I've not been able to find any height data detailed enough for what I want to do so I'm having to do it all from scratch. I've found a pretty good tutorial so we'll see how it goes.

First time's a real !!!!  But believe me, as you do more and more, they get easier and easier.  Hang in their, mate .....    

[TechnicolorYawn]

Hooray! I can make meshes (might take while until I'm any good at it, but it'll do for now..)

The proplem is that the default flatten area for the airport is still there even with my mesh over the top. Any ideas how to get rid of it (or make it a different shape)? I haven't a clue.

(ignore the spikes, they're parts of the heightmap I haven't finished yet)

[IBtheSarge]

TechnicolorYawn, on Feb 15 2005, 05:11 PM, said:

The proplem is that the default flatten area for the airport is still there even with my mesh over the top. Any ideas how to get rid of it (or make it a different shape)? I haven't a clue.

The only place I would know to look for the default flatten (hopefully it isn't hard coded into the default scenery for that world area, in which case it's gonna be a real to get to) .... is look in the scenery.cfg file in the main FS9 directory.  Look for the world area that your scenery is in and see if there's a flatten statement in there; lats/longs should let you determine which is which if there's more than one.

If it isn't in there, I haven't a clue.  _Hawk might have something more in this area; like I said, terrain modification isn't quite my forte.  Sorry ....  

[TechnicolorYawn]

Got it!

There's a little program you can get from AVSIM called LWMViewer which will decompile and display any scenery bgl, and you can load by name, or by location. With this I just found out what bgls were active around LPMA, got the name of the flatten bgl (FL943200.bgl for those who are interested) and renamed the extension. Hey presto! No flatten

[IBtheSarge]

TechnicolorYawn, on Feb 15 2005, 08:55 PM, said:

Got it!

There's a little program you can get from AVSIM called LWMViewer which will decompile and display any scenery bgl, and you can load by name, or by location. With this I just found out what bgls were active around LPMA, got the name of the flatten bgl (FL943200.bgl for those who are interested) and renamed the extension. Hey presto! No flatten

As they say in Texas, "Thar ya go!"     

[TechnicolorYawn]

Landscaping really coming along now. It seems to be missing out part of the mesh towards the bottom of the airport. There is a LOD 8 boundary there (the mesh is LOD 13) so I think I'm just going to have to make 2 meshes for either side of the boundary. Bit more work tonight and I think I'm ready to start playing with modelling the runway extension. One thing I didn't realise is that any objects you add with AFCAD are automatically flattened.

[IBtheSarge]

TechnicolorYawn, on Feb 16 2005, 04:00 AM, said:

One thing I didn't realise is that any objects you add with AFCAD are automatically flattened.

I ran into that LOD boundary problem when I was working with EZ-Landclass; that's why I gave up on terrain modification .... too much data, too many questions.  I'll stick with the sceneries and let you and Norwegian_Hawk work the terrain.  

As for the AFCAD, yep -- that's something everyone is hoping Lee will address in the next version.  AFCAD doesn't handle varying elevations along the length of a runway or taxiway or parking apron.  If one end is 500' MSL, the whole thing is at 500' MSL.  I think it has something to do with the way Microsoft has built the "operation" side of the sim .... it doesn't want aircraft to "porpoise" down the runway/taxiway for some reason (another little bit of realism that was left out of the sim).  Generally, airport hard surfaces are straight-and-level -- where possible; but some do run uphill, some run downhill, and some have little dips and rises in them.  Not enough to constitute a safety-of-flight issue, but enough to be noticeable.  MS left that little feature out ......

That latest screenshot is looking spot on!!!!  

[TechnicolorYawn]

Lastest screenshot. I'm now starting to add the platform.





This is shaping up to be a really succesful project - compare it with a shot of the best freeware LPMA scenery I've been able to find:

[[V1]-[VR]-[V2]]

beautiful, cant wait to d/l it