Dirt and grass runway models

[Guest fu3]

All,I've just uploaded some dirt and grass strips that I have been sitting on for a while ;-) A better alternative to oversized logs (and don't disappear at a distance), yet blend-in fairly well (lots of transparency). Make up the length you want!I use them, and now you can too ;-)Grass strip at Bandera - up close and off the ground:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/161599.jpgDirt strips - close-up at Easton State and (a rather drifty) approach to Bergseth:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/161600.jpgUp, up and away from Easton!http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/161601.jpgShould be available shortly :-waveRegards,Jon Point

[Christopher Low 5,352]

Jon,MOST of my grass strips are now lined with tractor tyres, and the logs have been sold to some Australian bloke in the construction industry ;-)Chris Low.

[Guest R_Driscoll]

Yes, and I chopped them up into smaller bits and used some around parking spots in the UK, others in Jon's little log fire in the FBO. Shouldn't have used my pruning saw though. It took 438 hours and three trips to the chiropractor.The transparency works well there. Jon, I assume its on/off transparency? You haven't worked out some way of getting partial transparency with scenery models by any chance?Robert.

[Guest fu3]

You should have sold them! A friend recently sold 2 trees from his country property - and got almost $30k :-eek Turpentine is one expensive timber!"On-off" textures?Why, yes it is! And why do I sound proud? 'Coz I worked out a new way of doing it that is sooooo easy, a middle-aged design engineer could do it.First, create a fountain fill from pure black through to white. Resize it to 256 high by 64 wide. Now, save as 'one bit' (i.e. black and white), using a hlftone screen set at - and here's the trick that makes it stop looking like newsprint - 23 degrees! The result is a white background with lotsa black dots on it, all arranged into pretty (but fairly random) patterns ;-) Now, colour-mask-select the black bits and copy them to a transparent background. Now, any time you want something to fade out, simply import the saved black bits and stick them on the texture. That's it (apart from running fixmip to do the real work)!It does give a good go at partial transparency, because there are holes all over the texture - including the middle (just not as many). Look at the middle of Bergseth - it just fades away. BTW, the actual texture IS a grass runway texture from somewhere in Google Earth. I just recoloured it for the grass and dirt strips.These strips were such a vast improvement over anything I'd already done, I just had to upload them :-)Regards,Jon Point

[Guest R_Driscoll]

OK, makes sense and looks very effective. In the original FixMip there was an option for transparency that used proportioning - i.e if you specified 25% transparency then one in 4 points would be set to black. The results were staggeringly unimpressive, with both regular and randmo dot placement, but I might have another look at this. It probably works well for distance and high densities of points, but not so well up close for things like windows. Glidernut had a brilliant solution too for transparency of the front windscreen in the TigerMoth, which was to choose an exact proportion to give a very good illusion of transparency (50% I think, but every second row offset by one).I still haven't had time to test your one-sided textures for the Buckhingham palace Victory fountain, but I will. On the other hand, The Tower of London now has two walls and a central White Castle. And a CD of FU3-UKS wings towards Sweden as we speak.On the other matter, the log, I couldn't sell it. I only (to be honest) ever loaned the log to you Chris. I always wanted it back. Although you really didn't have to return all 275 of them (I've cut up one, 274 to go but I need a new saw). But I couldn't sell them. I grew them from single points, fed them, textured them until they grew into mighty trees (rootless and branchless to be sure) and selling one would be like selling a baby. Just couldn't do it. Anyway, enough nonsense, Time to log off (ouch), Robert.

[Guest fu3]

Rob,Yes, the 'consistent' patterns look BAD :-erksHere's the one I use, actual size (well, pasted onto a white background):http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/161671.jpgIf you use Corel Photopaint, I could send you the CPT file, or if you use some other program, let me know which, and I'll see if I can export it OK. The trick is to apply it as a 'one-bit' pattern (i.e. black dots, transparent background) and paste it 1:1 without anti-aliasing. You simply apply it and your video card's FSAA does the rest ;-) As to scaling, you do that from the original greyscale image before altering the colour mode. The rub is that you cannot display it over too large an area, or the holes become obvious (like they do at particular angles and altitudes but I don't care...). The limit here is a 256 pixel mask along about 200-250ft for a strip, or across it, about 125 feet. Stretching the strip to actual length (the original image was 768x2304) made the points appear as slots - and waaaay ugly :-( I'd say it works well close-up to about 50ft, or from an aircraft, about 100ft. The strips work well because when you're close enough to see the mask pattern, the angle causes the 'gaps' to fill-in ;-)Why it took me soooo many years to apply a trick I've used for decades, I'll never know :-rollAs to logs, I found a log-jam up some river (in the ground texture) and I thought I could use a few hundred for that :-lolPS FU3.7 "Backcountry Edition" is almost ready - but how big an email can you accept? Or maybe we should do lunch and swap discs? By necessity, many .mod files in the base install require updating ('coz all of the original LGS models float or sink), so the easiest way to use it is with a virgin copy.And Chris, I haven't forgotten you - I just have this problem with strange CTDs in the F3 view (I thought I'd sorted it) but I proved last night that it's NOT the GPS! I may have to go back to turbine engines though, which I'm not at all happy about :-( We'll see...:-waveRegards,Jon Point

[Christopher Low 5,352]

Thanks, Jon. I was thinking about asking you whether the S340 had made it into the northern hemisphere yet :-lolChris Low.