"Under Construction" Autogen is lacking

[Guest jrobert]

One thing I notice when I'm flying around in the flight simulator world is how everything is complete. I fly in a neighborhood and all the houses are built up... I fly downtown in a big metropoltian city and all the buildings are beautiful but... here's the problem... In real life, there's always something under construction somewhere. I thought that it would be nice to occasionally see buildings in a sort of "unfinished" state such as an autogen hirise building showing only its steel skeletal structure with maybe a crane nearby or "unfinished" homes showing their wood framing members. The point is that no matter where you fly within the flight simulator, everything is complete. I think we need to see some non-flight simulator related activity down on the ground. Nothing has to be animated -- just included as a type of autogen. Your thoughts, anyone?

[1mikel151 71]

Part of that could be that to design a building with lots of steel beams would require a few more polys that a complete building, same as an incomplete house, probably just thinking of performance more than anything else.It's hard for me when I am in the design program, you get these great ideas, but then after thinking about how much detail you would have to cut out and the LODs you have to make to make it still look believable, I just move on to something else.Regards, MichaelKDFWhttp://www.calvirair.com/mcpics/mcdcvabanner.jpgCalVirAir International

[JSkorna 137]

I want to see the pot holes in the roads by my house!Hope this helps,Jimhttp://www.hifisim.com/Active Sky V6 Development TeamActive Sky V6 Proud SupporterHiFi Beta TeamRadar Contact Supporter

[Guest jrobert]

An "under construction" model doesn't necessarly have to have any more polygons than that of one of the custom building models that already ship with FS2004. For the steel skeletal structure of a hi-rise building, not every steel beam has to be modelled. In fact, the beams don't even have to be modelled at all. I was thinking about the possibility of the steel beams being rendered as a texture only against an invisibility mask such as what Microsoft does for the various ground antennas at VOR or NDB stations. This method would not reduce framerates.Have a look at the fence in this image to see an example of what I mean.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/146491.jpg

[Guest pixelpoke_from_MSFT]

>One thing I notice when I'm flying around in the flight>simulator world is how everything is complete. I fly in a>neighborhood and all the houses are built up... I fly downtown>in a big metropoltian city and all the buildings are beautiful>but... here's the problem... In real life, there's always>something under construction somewhere. I thought that it>would be nice to occasionally see buildings in a sort of>"unfinished" state such as an autogen hirise building showing>only its steel skeletal structure with maybe a crane nearby or>"unfinished" homes showing their wood framing members. The>point is that no matter where you fly within the flight>simulator, everything is complete. I think we need to see some>non-flight simulator related activity down on the ground.>Nothing has to be animated -- just included as a type of>autogen. Your thoughts, anyone?>I can't say that under construction objects has been something we've considered, but it's not a bad idea. It won't happen this time (from our side, anyway) but there's no reason someone couldn't add a model or two after ship...Cheers,Jason

[Guest artmartin]

Jason, don't we already have the ability to change the autogen building textures in the .agn files? Wouldn't it be possible to make part of that texture file a "building under construction" texture? I've never attempted an autogen texture replacement but I had to code my autogen editor to allow it. Can that texture file include transparency? If so, it should be pretty simple to make a framed building texture.Art

[Guest grapesh]

"Under construction" model will eventually be required once a timeline feature is introduced for FS world, that is, every significant object will have a life span from the beginning of construction to completion and maybe destruction. So, some generic construction autogen replacements, maybe with cranes, trucks, and steel beams will be much needed. The problem is that Aces do not seem to consider this option yet, based on prior posts.:(

[Guest]

wonder how you'd account for the fact that a building that's under construction now in some stage doesn't stay that way?Virtual construction company, so buildings move towards completion?Can imagine the complaints even now from people who think it's "unrealistic" that the buildings that are under construction never get completed...

[Guest Rodger Christmann]

"Can imagine the complaints even now from people who think it's "unrealistic" that the buildings that are under construction never get completed..."...they might get completed in the next version of FS though.(at least the sim is always "under construction" anyway :-) )But seriously, after living with building construction next doorfor more than 1 year now, I definately DON'T want it in the sim.Thanks for your understanding,:-waveRodger

[siggy 154]

I could live with some construction projects taking forever, that's "as real as it gets" :-), but I would be rather disappointed if Lake Eyre was empty after torrential rain or was full in times of drought, it just kills the immersion.Cheers,Siggy

[Guest]

I can imagine an empty lake reducing the immersion factor when you try a water landing on it, but a full one? :)

[KERNEL32 497]

>wonder how you'd account for the fact that a building that's>under construction now in some stage doesn't stay that way?>Virtual construction company, so buildings move towards>completion?>>Can imagine the complaints even now from people who think it's>"unrealistic" that the buildings that are under construction>never get completed...I've requested time and again, they need a random generator that "generates" the scenery (blg's in a seperate folder that would be used over and over again, deleted, then created again once the random gx program is run) before launching FS (if the person running FS decides to generate it). Sure it would take a long time to generate, but it would be well worth it!This would open then doors to being able to RANDOMLY generate:Buildings/houses, roads, etc that are under construciton, Boats/Ships, Random ground fires/smoke (I see A LOT of smoke/fires when flying as a passenger ITRW), ILS failures/runway closings, animals (I guess they have them in upcoming FSX? But should they be frozen in the same spot for 5 years until FSXI?)Immersion can *make* a simulation or *break* a simulation. Without immersion, these forums wouldn't even exist.