Google Warehouse buildings in xplane..(scenery question)?

[Muskoka 104]

It's a start, CN Tower in Toronto. Have to adjust location a bit, will have textures soon.Glen

[Simmo W 24]

Excellent work guys! Yes it does get quicker after hundreds of repeats

[Geofa 108]

This is most interesting! Following the process Geofa posted, I was able to add the Washington Mutual Tower (model from Google Warehouse) into the Seattle CBD, and with texture! I did the texturing in Google SketchUp with help from Simmo's texturing tutorial video. The texture mapping process was kinda slow and painful, and it took me about 2 hours to get the texture half-decently mapped to the tower, though I have never really done any texture mapping before so this contributed to the time taken. Also, the curved surface of the Mutual Tower made aligning the texture more difficult. Anyway, here're some screenshots which show the result (haven't gotten the exclusion zone to work yet). Alright, I'm off to bed.

Honnli-for someone who doesn't know what they are doing-could you explain how you did the texturing-do you remove it and replace it with something? Your results look great!

[Muskoka 104]

Looking for the same help Geof,I have managed to remove the existing textures in Sketchup, and replaced with a plain concrete texture as a test, but can't get it to show in XPlane. The tower is there, but it's still bare. Xplane does complain about not being able to find the texture, it's there and a 64x64 png. Is there some sort of folder structure that must be used. I looked at some other custom scenery I have downloaded and there seems to varying folder structures between them.Perhaps someone can steer me in the right direction.Glenedit: My mistake by choosing something so bland. I changed the texture to a red and it shows now.Ok, got that figured. No I want to texture it properly. When you say it needs to be one texture file, I take it that one file is more like a pallet to draw from, so all the different colours or patterns are stored in that one png file?

Edited December 13, 2011 by Muskoka

[Geofa 108]

I don't even know how to remove the existing textures-or do we want to?All I know is in abut 40 minutes I have poulated the city of Detroit with more real life buildings than fsx ever had-now if I can just get them textured!

[Muskoka 104]

I just followed the first part of Simmo's texturing tutorial video and was able to figure out how to change the texture, just can't get my head around this one texture file thing when it comes to texturing in Sketchup, which at time feels more like ketchup to me. I've never used it before.Glenedit: Think I'm going about this backwards. I have the Google model to work with, I should be "texturing" the model in Gimp or something similar, and then going from there to Sketchup. In other words, strip it down to one textured image before bringing it into Sketchup, then export to XPlane 8 obj, and so on.

[Honnli 69]

Thanks Geofa. For the texturing process, you will need an image manipulation program (I used The Gimp, it's free). Now, the way I did it is probably not the best or the correct way of doing it, but anyway. What I did was I first took 5 snapshots in SketchUp of the original textured object straight from Google Warehouse (one image for each side of the object - front, left, right, back, and top). To do this, first, change the camera perspective to Parallel Projection, then move the camera to one of the Standard Views (front, left, etc) and do File->Export->2D Graphics (remember to disable axis display, shadows, and/or anything that can get in the way of the image; using a template with nothing but white background also helps). Save the image in bmp or png format (jpeg format will most likely lower image quality). For models that are not centered or came rotated, just move and/or rotate it to match the views. After that, I created a new canvas in Gimp (the size must be a power of 2). I used 1024x1024. Then I opened the aforementioned 5 snapshots of the model and cut/copy and paste only the model in each of the image into the new canvas. Move them around however you like (in the future, it would be better to have textures for more than one objects in one file to make loading faster). Save this new image in png format, and with no space in the file name (if you must use spaces, use _ instead as Simmo suggested).Now that you've got the textures in one file, head over to SketchUp. Now, with the model loaded, remove the original texture (and yes, you need to). Refer to Simmo's second (texturing) tutorial video. After you have cleared the original texture, load your new texture file into SketchUp and paint it onto the now bare model one side at a time (you'll need to reposition the texture on the faces). Basically, you paint the texture onto one face on one side of the model, and carefully reposition the texture so that it fits that face (and the feint overlay matches the other faces on that side). After you're done with that face, use the eyedropper tool and click on the textured face. Now you can paint the other faces on the same side and it should look somewhat decent. On sloped or curved surfaces, you might need to make the texture "Projected" so it looks right. Also, with curved surfaces, you'll need to tick Hidden Geometry in the View menu to show all the faces in that curve (you can't reposition textures on "faces" that consists multiple faces like a curved surface, only on a single face). Once you're done with that side, do the next side, but this time, use the corresponding side in the one texture file. Once you're done with the four sides, do the roof/top. Again, refer to Simmo's video if you're not sure. After you're done mapping the texture to the model, export and import it into XP10. And voila. Here's what my texture file looks like.Happy texturing.

[Geofa 108]

Thanks!-I think I have it figured out and will go for it tomorrow..

[jasonX 24]

You probably might be better in getting several building textures in one texture file. Then xplane will only have to load one texture instead of 1 texture for every building. But if it doesn't affect your FPS then what the heck ;)

[Honnli 69]

Yes, it should be better (performance wise) to get the textures for multiple buildings into one file instead of having one file per building, you're right. Though if you fit too many textures into the one file, then the file will either have a very large dimension, or the textures will be small and low resolution (especially with skyscraper textures). I'm currently trying it that way, though it's turning out to be an exercise of tetris.. =

[greggerm 312]

Now to extend the process a bit...How do the models look at night?:) Greg

[Honnli 69]

Here's your answer.. =PIt's in its own timezone. XDHaven't done the night texture yet. I only did it as a test for now. Still trying to figure out if there're easier ways to go about texture mapping objects.

[Geofa 108]

I was looking at the obj file in notepad. It appears there is a definition at the beginning for a picture file and a lit file (which I assume might be night textures) . I wonder if there is a way to do all this quicker by inputting there? My fantasy is a utility that you would merely download the structures you want-hit convert-and all would be automatic.

[Honnli 69]

Yeah, I'm with you there. As for the definition for the lit file, I just used the same daytime file since I don't have a lit file, yet, so clearly, just pointing the lit definition to something doesn't make it work. Though making the lit file shouldn't be that hard since you've already mapped the day texture (which is the hard part).

[Muskoka 104]

Guys, need some guidance...I have removed the textures from the model I downloaded, prior to that I exported a 2d image. When I get to the point of painting, that works, and I have hundreds of little towers painted onto the single tower, but when in the video he goes to the context menu and selects "Texture" and "Position" I don't have that option. Any suggestions.Glen