Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
Manny

GMAX Ground Poly Q (Help)

Recommended Posts

Ok..I managed to create a Ground Poly and apply texture to it and then placed it on my scenery for the runway. However, I have a couple of Qs.1. Do I need to apply material to the poly before applying the texture?2. I have that Specular shine on the runway. I need a matte finish. What do I need to do to get rid of the bloom/specular effect on ground Poly?3. Since texture needs to be a square 512 or 1024 etc, What do I need to do for runway texture? the runway is long. So It uses one long strip of the square texture wasting valuable texture realestate. Can I have a long bmp instead of square bmp?4. So far, I have been using 24bit bmp textures and then converting it into DXT1 in Image tool and then saving it as bmp for FSX. How do I create a DDS textures? What are the steps to take a jpg all the way to a DDS texture? I use photoshopThanksMannyhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/189057.jpg


Manny

Beta tester for SIMStarter 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Looks pretty good, Manny. Let's see:1. When you apply the material to the polygon, you are applying the texture.2. In the Material Editor, find the check box for Bloom and uncheck.3. You can make a long texture, but the dimensions should be power of 2 and I suppose that the longest dimension is 1024 pixels. However, that is not the main problem. With the application of the round earth spheroid to FS X, ground polygons much over 100 meters will not align with the curved ground, so objects and airplanes will display below the polygon in places.4. To create a DDS texture, use Imagetool as you already do, and save the DXT1 with a DDS extension.Best regards.Luis

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi Luis,I am still not able to remove that specular shine. I modified the material attribute to say.."no specular", no bloom etc...and I also used default black color material. Still Its shining when the sun hits the runway.Hmm...Manny


Manny

Beta tester for SIMStarter 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Are you using the FSX gamepack for this? That is not really the best choice when you want to make ground polygons. Most developers will still make them with the FS2002 gamepack as that allows tweaking for proper ground polygons. The MDL format is not really suited for that.


Arno

If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can't be done.

FSDeveloper.com | Former Microsoft FS MVP | Blog

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yes Arno, I am using FSX sdkI was reading the FS2002 and the tweaks etc (I have everything saved :)I thought FS2002 SDK is required for the proper rain effect etc so I intially wanted a simple ground Poly and felt FSX SDK should be good enough for that.Manny


Manny

Beta tester for SIMStarter 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi Manny,No it is the other way around, rain effects can only be done with the FSX SDK. But if you want a proper shadow to the casted on the polygon and no flickering, then the FS2002 gamepack is the preferred way.


Arno

If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can't be done.

FSDeveloper.com | Former Microsoft FS MVP | Blog

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

All right Arno.I created the Ground Poly (a simple rectangle runway with textures) using the FS2002 SDK and tweaked the asm file to say ADDCAT OBJECT_0_SCALE, 8Now what?If I read the Wiki it says to do a bglc ****.asmHowever, this is for FSX and I have only bglcomp and that expects an XMLSo how do I convert this asm file that I have into a bgl? (I am assuming I need to convert this to a bgl and not an MDL and place it like other 3D objects).Thanks MannyPS: When I exporter the ground Poly from GMAX into a bgl, I did not select the option Flatten. I wasn't sure if I needed this.PS2: If it is a BGL, how does it to know at what altitude this ground poly should be at?PS3. What are the primary steps after what I have done?PS4. I tried the BGLC_9.exe and I was able to get a bgl file. Not sure if I can use that as is in FSX. I also tried it with a -mdl switch and got an MDL file but that does not work when I create an object library. It gives me some error Invalid MDL file, RIFF header missing.Manny


Manny

Beta tester for SIMStarter 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The reason why you use the FS2002 gamepack is that you cannot create this type of scenery using any other gamepack or SDK. So the FSX bglcomp can't be used, which is why you use BGLC_9.You need to end up with a BGL at this stage, but you would have entered the location when you exported from GMAX. Like all GMAX scenery, it will elevate itself to the mesh by default, so you won't need to worry about elevation. This is what effectively 'glues' the polys to the ground. You just need to make sure that the area under it is completely flat.The BGL you end up with is already placed, so you don't need to put it in a library.'Flatten' is not necessary in the exporter options.Godzone Virtual Flight, for 'Real New Zealand' sceneryhttp://www.windowlight.co.nz

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks toprob.OK.. So I have that bgl after the asm tweak using BGLC_9. And I placed it right at the middle of where the runway center point should be. I got the coordinates for the location (Long./Lat) using the the ADE. But the AFCAD runway is visible instead of my Poly. And yes I did flatten the whole airport area.Hmm...Manny


Manny

Beta tester for SIMStarter 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

OK..I see something. I see two parallel lines (I assume these are the edges of the runway. But I don't see the runway texture itself. Hmm...Mannyhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/189500.jpgThe runway texture you see there is of the photoscenery. But the parallel lines you see there is where the actual ground poly texture should be.


Manny

Beta tester for SIMStarter 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Some guesses...Maybe it's a texture problem, so you may have to recheck your texture in FSX.Do your flatten and runway elevations match? (normally you'd see a default runway texture over the photo background.)Godzone Virtual Flight, for 'Real New Zealand' sceneryhttp://www.windowlight.co.nz

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah..I see the default runway texture over the photo background. I thought maybe that was hiding the Ground poly and I temporarily took it out by making the runway width 0.MannyLet me try creating another simple ground poly in another location and test this thing again. Manny


Manny

Beta tester for SIMStarter 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

toprob.OK.. Now I see it. I used DXT1 with mipmaps.Thanks.Manny


Manny

Beta tester for SIMStarter 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

toprob,I get the textures and since I did the entire runway in a single Poly I am running into the round earth thingi where the beginning of my rwy is fine but after a few feet, the default rwy texture seems to bleed through. so I guess the solution is to build multiple Polys. But the question is, how do I make sure all these multiple Polys sync up nicely?This is a tedious process.What is the best practice?Manny


Manny

Beta tester for SIMStarter 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

You don't really need to make multiple polys, just divide your poly up into length segments of about 100m each. So if you want a runway of 1200 metres, just make it 12 segments.Godzone Virtual Flight, for 'Real New Zealand' sceneryhttp://www.windowlight.co.nz

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

  • Tom Allensworth,
    Founder of AVSIM Online


  • Flight Simulation's Premier Resource!

    AVSIM is a free service to the flight simulation community. AVSIM is staffed completely by volunteers and all funds donated to AVSIM go directly back to supporting the community. Your donation here helps to pay our bandwidth costs, emergency funding, and other general costs that crop up from time to time. Thank you for your support!

    Click here for more information and to see all donations year to date.
×
×
  • Create New...