6 replies to this topic

[IBtheSarge]

Over the next few days -- in preparation for placing the earth-covered munitions storage igloos at KPSM -- I'm going to be reworking my macro.  The front and back of the igloo have a concrete texture; but the igloo itself uses the default FS9 terrain textures.  I'm going to be working on using "conditional presets" so that the correct terrain will show up, depending on the time of year that KPSM is the starting or destination airport.  I.E., if you go there in the spring, you'll see spring-time grass on the igloo; in summer you'll see summer grass textures; and in winter you'll see snow on it.

Basically the same process (create in FSDS2) with the addition of the conditional presets added to the macro, and then XML to call out and place multiple copies of the macro.  When called out, FS9 will read the preset data during the draw process and then, depending on the season FS9 has loaded, will only draw the macro with the corresponding seasonal texture.  This will keep users of the KPSM scenery from seeing snow on the ground and bright green grass on the igloo.

[Folgers]

AWESOME!

[PiP]

Is FSDS2 needed for that Or can it be done with any macro?
I cant fnd any of that in thr SDK?

[IBtheSarge]

PiP, on Feb 26 2005, 02:42 PM, said:

Is FSDS2 needed for that Or can it be done with any macro?
I cant fnd any of that in thr SDK?

I would imagine it can be done with any software that you can create macros with -- it's the "process" that I've launched into ("how" to do it).  From what I've been able to do so far, it's fairly simple if the entire macro has the seasonal texture or it's just a one-part marcro.  If it's a multi-part macro that has to be joined together, it's a tad more complex but still do-able if you have the patience for it.

Soon as I get a successful test of the process, I'll post the steps here and on my site in the designers' forum.

[IBtheSarge]

TEST PROJECT COMPLETED -- SUCCESS!!!!!

I reworked my earth-covered munitions storage igloo to see if I could set it up so the earth textures would change as the seasons change.  I'm not going to detail the process here (I'll put that in a step-by-step tutorial).  Here are some screenshots of the macro and texturing as it proceeded through the design process in FSDS2:


I placed the macro for a test in the infield of KPSM.  Here's a screenshot of a flight created on 27th Feb (winter in New Hampshire):


Here's a screenshot after I changed the date of the flight to 27th April (spring in New Hampshire):


Here's a screenshot after I changed the date of the flight to 27th July (summer in New Hampshire):


Here's a screenshot after I changed the date of the flight to 27th September (fall in New Hampshire):


I did NOT exit FS9; I simply hit ALT then selected World and then Time and Season.  FS9 had no opportunity to pick up any scenery changes or a different macro.  The texture changes were triggered by FS9's codinig of the season for the time of year the flight started.  As I changed the date, FS9 changed the seasonal code to render the appropriate ground textures, and that also triggered the change in the textures over the igloo.

[Cheech]

wow... thats awesome!

[IBtheSarge]

Renegade, on Feb 27 2005, 06:19 AM, said:

wow... thats awesome!

  
Look at the last post in the Project: Pease AFB New Hampshire thread.  I've started working on the "mole hole" (the partially underground Alert Crew Facility).  Same thing with the conditional pre-sets for the ground texture in that macro.