Wave effects on photorealistic scenery?

[Sasa 0]

Hello,Is there any way to display wave effects on photorealistic scenery?At first step by XML I inserted the effect "fx_waves.fx". Of course this effect showed only once and disapeared.Then I tried using "wavecontroller.fx" which is - referring to the effects SDK - used for the default waves, too. Unfortunately NOTHING was visible there. :(My XML code for inserting the effect looks like this:Best regards,Sasa

[ibanez737 2]

I don't know how to get the actual dynamic wave effects in, but I've found that sometimes editing out the water but leaving the white wave foam in gives great results. The trouble is, the don't move of course and they don't reflect or act like water in FS. But a lot of times, especially from moderately high altitudes, you don't notice the imperfections. Sorry I can't give you a more satisfactory answer, but thats the best I can do :( Hope that helps.-Scott

[arno 1]

Hi Sasa,Could you not draw a VTP line for the waves? That is how they are normally placed. I know that photo scenery supresses VTP elements, but could it be that the wave itself is still showing?

[Sasa 0]

> Could you not draw a VTP line for the waves?> That is how they are normally placed. I know that> photo scenery supresses VTP elements, but could> it be that the wave itself is still showing?No, unfortunately it doesn't show through photo scenery. :(Sasa

[Guest Horst]

Hello,Sbuilder is using VTP Photo.So you can see your waves.But you also will see some gridlines in a distance range.Same using VTP class textures.They do not render exactly in FS.Maybe use VTP Photo only on Coastlines?RegardsHorst

[Sasa 0]

VTP Photo?I guess you mean VTP2 polygons using a texture? Same problem there:They won't show through photorealistic phototiles done with the resample tool of the Terrain SDK. :(Best regards,Sasa

[Holger 0]

Hi Sasa,I guess what Horst was referring to is the fact that when placing photoreal textures via VTP2 polys you can choose a layer number (e.g., 4 to 7) that will have the textures end at existing LWM water bodies. Thus, any existing or new shoreline textures with associated wave action will display. I just added shorelines to a VTP photoreal scenery yesterday and the waves show just fine.If you want wave action but don't want to have the VTP2 shorelines themselves display then you can either use a layer between 4 and 7 to make them invisible (provided they are drawn just inside the LWM water polygon) or, if you need to use a higher layer number, define a width of '2', which makes them (almost) invisible.Cheers, Holger

[Sasa 0]

Sure. A nice idea. :)But isn't it a fact that textures for VTP2 polys have to have a size of 256x256 or less?It would be quite difficult to cover an area with around single 450 texture polygons and hope that all of them will fit to each other.Best regards,Sasa

[Guest Horst]

Sbuilder is doing it for you. :)You will find a copy in the library.2.05 (revision 0.5 yet) and the addition from Luis Feliz.Horst

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi Sasa.You need to make a new effects controller for the waves. The default is of the type that expects to be assigned to a vector ( VTP line ). Type 0 is what you need. In the following code, replace the curly brackests with squared brackets, and save as 'Cntrl_MyWaves.fx'. Place in the effects folder to use.{Library Effect}Lifetime=5Version=1.00Radius=50Priority=0{controller.0}lifetime=0.0, 0.0 type=0 delay=15.00, 30.00 x offset=0.00, 0.00 y offset=0.00, 0.00 z offset=0.00, 0.00effect.0=fx_waves, 0.00, 0.00, 0.00, 0.00, 0.00, 0.00, 0.00, 0.00The above code makes the effect of a single wave that is randomly generated from 15 to 30 seconds. That may be too quick, so those numbers in the controller may need to be adjusted. I'm guessing at the radius... maybe it can be zero... or maybe it needs to be higher.The XML file can rotate this to the right heading. x, y, and z offsets can be used so the effect can be made to end at the refpoint, rather than start at it.The effect controller can be attached to a dummy in Gmax, and an object made of it... or several attach points made to create a linear string... and then placed via an object placing program, for ease of placement over a large photoreal scenery.Read up on the effects SDK, and about how to make attach points in Gmax.Dick

[rhumbaflappy 113]

Hi all.I mistakenly believed the above controller could place waves at an angle by using it with an attachpoint to a gmaxed object. But, a friend e-mailed me to tell me the bad news:If you want to rotate that controller, then use XML to place the effect directly. ( Darren, I wish I knew your last name, or AVSIM nickname, so I could give you the credit! )Arno has an ObjectPlacerXML that will allow you to slew and place effects directly, so that shouldn't be a problem.http://www.scenerydesign.org/forum/showthread.php?t=65Dick