Introducing World2XPlane...

[MikeT707 1,181]

I think all the models that are created can be used in autogen as well. e.g. The european library uses the R2 (From xplane.cz) collection of models, and replaces the autogen in europe with them.

That is good to know because it would be very beneficial to be able to use these methods to regionalize autogen.  Another question.  From a performance standpoint, is it a good idea to create models that have fewer sides.  For instance, a couple of the models that you have on this thread contain chimneys.  Would it be better to not include chimneys and other additional sides?

By the way, just getting started with Sketchup and hope to be creating some items soon.

[tonywob 4,768]

 

 

From a performance standpoint, is it a good idea to create models that have fewer sides.  For instance, a couple of the models that you have on this thread contain chimneys

 

Yes, generally if you can get away with doing it with a texture, then do it on the texture, e.g. Window Ledges, etc.. Also, delete faces that can't be seen, e.g. The floor, ceiling, etc.. I'm sure others who have more experience with 3D modelling can step in here. 

[MikeT707 1,181]

Yes, generally if you can get away with doing it with a texture, then do it on the texture, e.g. Window Ledges, etc.. Also, delete faces that can't be seen, e.g. The floor, ceiling, etc.. I'm sure others who have more experience with 3D modelling can step in here. 

Ok, I am going to create some simple house models.  Can I ask you a favor.  Would you be able to send me a texture sheet that you have so I can give texturing a try without trying to figure out how to create texture sheets.  I will learn that later, but I just want to get started with models first. 

[tonywob 4,768]

Mike, send me a PM with a google address and I can give you access to the shared folder containing the current models.

 

There are only 3 of them, and the texture sheet contains bits used to create 3 of the houses. I warn you though, I'm a beginner with Sketchup myself, so it's not perfect by any means, and I've seen people manage to create 30 houses out of one texture sheet. I wanted to get the ball rolling with creating some models :-)

[Desaix 235]

Mike, send me a PM with a google address and I can give you access to the shared folder containing the current models.

 

There are only 3 of them, and the texture sheet contains bits used to create 3 of the houses. I warn you though, I'm a beginner with Sketchup myself, so it's not perfect by any means, and I've seen people manage to create 30 houses out of one texture sheet. I wanted to get the ball rolling with creating some models :-)

Well if you take a 1024X1024 texture you have plenty of room, even more if you double resolution.

In my plan I'm working on just one atlas for my regional buildings, when you have 6 type of roofs and 24 facades plus some additional art work to fill basement and chymnes that should be enough. But this is on paper...I need to start mapping.

[tonywob 4,768]

So far, I've squeezed 4 out of one texture sheet. 2 different types of roofs, and 3 different wall textures. I could probably get a few more generic buildings out of it.

 

 

This is another building and style which is very typical for my area, so I should be able to create a few variations using the same textures, maybe swapping out the roof, etc. for some variety

[Desaix 235]

Can you tell how many different sizes you need of the same building? For example 10X6 , 14X8, 18X10 ...?

[MikeT707 1,181]

So far, I've squeezed 4 out of one texture sheet. 2 different types of roofs, and 3 different wall textures. I could probably get a few more generic buildings out of it.

 

Screen Shot 2014-02-09 at 00.14.07.png

 

This is another building and style which is very typical for my area, so I should be able to create a few variations using the same textures, maybe swapping out the roof, etc. for some variety

 

Looks very good.  You should be able to vary color on what you have by changing color balance, hues, saturation, brightness, etc., within Gimp or Photoshop.  This would provide variety in a relatively simple way.  I tried that with a texture sheet that I pulled from X-Plane 10 today.  Kind of a fun thing to see the changes one can make.  Let me know if you need any further explanation.

 

Can you tell how many different sizes you need of the same building? For example 10X6 , 14X8, 18X10 ...?

That is a good question.  I would like to know that as well so I can create what is needed.

[tonywob 4,768]

 

 

Can you tell how many different sizes you need of the same building? For example 10X6 , 14X8, 18X10 ...?

 

Actually, the answer is simple, as many as you can. There is no limit, the more sizes the better. What I've done is use JOSM, and have gone round my town looking at houses, measuring them in JOSM and doing it that way. 

 

Also, what is needed is a variety of buildings for the same size. Currently, one of my small houses at 10.5x9.5 is appearing everywhere, so I need to make more houses of the same size.

 

Also if possible, create the same house, but with a one-storey, two-storey, etc. variation. There is a lot of work to do, but the results should be worth it. Outside of cities, people don't seem to map the height and type of building, so a good random variation is good.

 

On the application front, I've finally got the multipolygon reader working with huge forests. e.g. There is a huge forest just outside Girona which takes up 4 tiles. Previously, the application took about 5 minutes to split up the forest, sort inner/outer members, assemble broken lines, etc. Now it does it in 5 seconds, so I'm really pleased with the result.

 

Looking at orbx scenery, I think what we need is trees in residential areas, so my next task will be to store buildings, and then use a random rule to place a few odd trees around residential zones, without colliding with a house. This should add a bit of life to houses and make them fit in and look much more realistic.

 

Additional realism items which have turned out well are:

 

- Cars parked in car parks (although I need to add some simple logic to get them to be angled the same as the car park),

- Random farm equipment on farms.

- Farms, Cemetries and village green areas surrounded by trees (not filled with trees). This looks really nice when flying over photoscenery.

 

I still need to get street lights in, and I want to do this so that they only appear in residential areas, so this will be a challenge to do.

[Desaix 235]

Great improvements there. Maybe you can place cars near garage if we code a parking position coordinates of some building. Not sure this is doable, maybe it's XP engine to choose a given building, you can just set the type.

 

Of course trees are much more important than anything else because of the immersion and variation they give to landscape. If only people would map JOSM with more details you could push further up like lines of trees along roads but the risk is to give to FPS a massive hit.

[tonywob 4,768]

If only people would map JOSM with more details you could push further up like lines of trees along roads but the risk is to give to FPS a massive hit.

 

If using .for files, X-Plane is quite efficient at placing large forests, the performance hit comes if individual trees are placed as objects. It's possible to make a forest perimeter-only, so it only appears around the outside of a shape, which works greats for farms, and even along roads or rivers (Alpilotx does this with his tree-lines and farms scenery). 

 

In residential areas, to get this to work, I'd have to place tree objects, as X-Plane lets me control the density of the forest, but not the actual placement of trees inside the forest. 

 

 

 

Maybe you can place cars near garage if we code a parking position coordinates of some building. Not sure this is doable, maybe it's XP engine to choose a given building, you can just set the type.

 

I have two ideas,

 

- You could place something into the .obj file, e.g. a code which X-Plane will ignore, but the generator will read, and it would place a car at the coordinate. This would require someone to carefully get this position, and it's probably not feasable.

 

- The other, and preferred way is to map it in OSM using the highway=access;access=drive_way tag. Then we can just place a random car on the drive_way. Obviously, this requires the driveway to be mapped, which most often it isn't. You could also place parked cars along a residential street using this trick.

[alpilotx 505]

Just as a little reminder: people, don't get tangled up in myriads of tiny details! There are enough "big" topics (like just plain creating a few hundred, different looking, simple buildings ... and do it with some main rules in mind) which would already make look the landscape (especially the urbanized landscape) much better ... Going in all the details can come later (don't put the sugar on the cake, while there is no cake!) :rolleyes:

[tonywob 4,768]

 

 

Going in all the details can come later (don't put the sugar on the cake, while there is no cake!)

 

+1 to this, we still need thousands of buildings :-)

[gizmosellsbunnys 106]

I got houses made in stekchup made I use for XPlane, but they built for Arizona or California. I can make objects in XPlane low poly items. I can create basic gas stations, apartments, rowhouses, houses, commercial facilities. Like this idea even if only 5% of buildings are used because it will further help plausibility and immersion.

[mroe 1]

In residential areas, to get this to work, I'd have to place tree objects, as X-Plane lets me control the density of the forest, but not the actual placement of trees inside the forest.

 

Forrest  'Fill Mode ' can be Area,Linear and POINTS.

Also you could cut holes , where _no_ trees should be.

 

 

 

- You could place something into the .obj file, e.g. a code which X-Plane will ignore, but the generator will read, and it would place a car at the coordinate. This would require someone to carefully get this position, and it's probably not feasable.

 

The  .agp-format is intended for something like that .

I don't know if you aware of  or  if it meets your requirements .

AGP's are mainly a mini-scenery as a bundle of various existing objects and vegetation.

In this way  XP's AG can reuse objects (cars, AG-trees, little nice stuff ) and bring in variants .

It is confusing for authors now , but it's something that can easily implemented in the future .

(At latest, if someone use the new growing library to change the default autogen for certain regions. )

 

 

- The other, and preferred way is to map it in OSM using the highway=access;access=drive_way tag. Then we can just place a random car on the drive_way. Obviously, this requires the driveway to be mapped, which most often it isn't. You could also place parked cars along a residential street using this trick.

 

BTW: This are things  which are defined in the roads.net file and can modified there.

Parking cars , trees and other clutter along roads are partially already implemented .

(Will only shown  with higher rendering-settings for roads and objects)