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Roger Over

I see the light......s

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Hi folks,Just a quick update. I have just about finished decoding the n2 light files. :-cool Hopefully within a couple of days I will post a program to convert between n2 and .tga.Then I will have a look at the other levels of light map.CheersBruce H

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Hi Bruce,greath news :-)Once we have N2 level (= max LOD) we can repaint and convert back.I have just find out that the map size of day and night are different.Level Map size day Map size night 2 1024k 256k 3 256k 64k 4 64k 16k 5 64k 16k 6 64k 16k 7 64k 16khappy to see your program :-wave agtim

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Guest fu3

As they say around here, Bruce;ONYA :-waveTo those that don't know what this means - it's "good on you, mate" in strine slang.For my part (being away from ground textures for a week or 2), we now have 2 Staggerwings (wheeled and floated) in 2 colour schemes:D17S (Wheeled) - Yellow/blue and Red/blueSD17S (Floated) - Yellow/blue and White/maroonThere are also FLED models for the 2 yellow ones (tail-down for the D17S).And yes, I could do an AI but I'm trying to write the manual right now so that can be later :-rollAndre, yes I too noticed the size difference - hence why the extracted tiles were appearing with large borders around them?Oh, this is good - lotsa FU3 action. New planes, new UKS, new elevation for Seattle... and my new interest in terrain ;-):-waveRegards,Jon Point

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Hi Guys.....Well, there's good news and bad news.Good news first. :-jumpy I have discovered that the n2xxxx.bin file consists of four quadrants, each containing 64 areas of 32x32 bytes each, arranged in a slightly odd but nevertheless consistent way.I can extract a .tga map for each of the quadrants, and it would not be too difficult to build a n2xxxx.tga map.However, there are still a few remaining questions I need to resolve.Bad news. :-hmmm Although FU uses a palette type structure to place night color, (n2.bin contains only palette indexes) it does not appear to do it on a pixel by pixel basis as is the case with day maps.In the lowest level (n2) FU imposes a grid of alternating colors (yellow, blue etc.) over the light map. It seems that if any color from the "palette" other than black (theory, but I think right) is aligned with the grid, then the grid shows through, but in FU's choice of color, not yours.I suppose this was because the original lighting was done using thermal imaging, and that would tend to created rather blurred areas of light. So, by overlaying the grid, you can create the impression of lighting in "street" formation.So, if you want light at the corner of Forth and Tenth Avenue, you ain't going to get it unless FU has decided that the grid overlays that point.More work to be done.We seem to have two threads running on this, I probably shouldn't have started this one. Is it possible for moderator to combine the two?CheersBruce H

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Bruce,Well, that's interesting! It also explains the strange 'repetitive' nature of some of the light tiles. In reality, it makes little difference as I only really want to turn them off! Simply having to find some coordinate and painting it black is all I was hoping for...For UKS/CH/Oz users though, we'd better come up with a better way of doing it, or I don't see myself enjoying my favourite flying times in UKS (dawn and evening) :-( There's definitely something 'griddy' about the lights on the Western Shores that makes little sense - especially as it is mostly beaches :-rollAnother clue:Some years ago I played around with my FU3 Seattle palette (I think we all did at some stage) to remove some yellows and get more blues in there. Ever since (I still use the same palette 'coz I like it), I have noticed that some of night lights are green and blue, whereas before this, they were always yellow or white.Obviously, I'd altered the hue of some yellow colours in the palette and now it was affecting night lighting! The only problem is, I forgot which colour number it was but, it did show to me that the night lights use at least some of the day palette - sort of ;-) Interestingly, models that have night lighting also use the Seattle palette, but ONLY the whites and yellows, and only SOME of them - there is a whole world of info on this if you dig back far enough.Anyway, good to know that you're still on top of it. I'm currently busting on my 5th livery for the Staggerwing and then she/they/them will be launched/delivered/uploaded and I can get back on with digging/flattening/landscaping and planting/placing/pruning ;-)PS Easton State now has a 'wet' airport (Easton Lake). I know Kachess is just around the corner but this one is a challenge to operate from as it is quite small - but just a short 5-minute walk from the perpetual coffee machine at the Glidernut Hangar at ESW.:-waveRegards,Jon Point

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Hi Guys,Just to prove I haven't been doing nothing here :-rollI thought you might be interested to see an extracted light file for Sanfan tile afad (just east of SFO).The first image has the palette reduced to plain ol' yeller. The second is extracted with Sanfran palette intact.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/162650.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/162651.jpgNot too sure that the sizing is spot on yet, seems to be a little off the mark.As I mentioned previously, FU seems to overlay a grid on the light map, so that close up you see intersecting "streets". From a distance, any color other than black will show up as a continuous yellow blob.Anyway, it's all fun......CheersBruce H

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Hi Bruce,Is this a day map with added night map as overlay ? :-wave agtim

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I uploaded the wrong non-palette image. :-roll The one I meant to upload follows. It has much better fit for the light map.Andre,Yes, I extracted the light map, then overlaid it on the day map to help put it in perspective.I will tidy up the program to extract the map, then post it so you guys can have a play around with it.I still need to look at the higher levels, don't think they will be too difficult after this. Also I need to convert back from .tga to night map.Cheers:7 Bruce Hhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/162692.jpg

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Hi Bruce,Congrats this looks good :-) :-wave agtim

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Hi Jon,Thanks for the info on the change in palette. I think what happens is that FU refers to it's palette for the night colors (normally yellow, blue, mauve etc.) so if you change those values in the palette then it will show up in the night lighting.Unfortunately, apart from fiddling with the palette which is going to effect day colors as well, it doesn't appear that we can choose a particular color and place it at a partticular spot. If we could, I guess we could have Maccas and KFC signs up and down the highway:-erks I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the Staggerwing, sounds great what you have done. :)CheersBruce H

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Guest R_Driscoll

Congratulations Bruce - I think we had all just about given up on night lighting of terrain, and suddenly you seem to be breaking it all open. You must be pretty good at cryptic crosswords! The idea of someone one day being able to develop a proper nightlighting for UK is a longterm dream of mine.Robert.

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Guest fu3

Ah Rob - you're back!I am also recently returned from up north. Oi loiks the lend, I do ;-)But no broadband :-(But no traffic & no noise apart from the animals :-)Anyway, now I'm back, I'm looking forward to getting into some night lighting mods myself...Regards,Jon Point

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Guest R_Driscoll

Oi, oi'm beck. With 400 photos of Londinium town at that. I could model every building on the Thames just about. Don't worry, I won't (although I might do a few more bridges now ...). Managed to get to Stonehenge and Bath. Good to see so much happening here!CheersRobert.

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Hi Folks,I've been AWOL for a few days on domestic engineering duties, so poor old FU hasn't had much of a look in. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year.The latest story is, LightGen2 is slowly coming together. It can now extract n2 light tiles to .tga, build n2 from .tga, and manipulate the tilindex to turn lights on/off for the various levels.A little more work and it should be fairly useful. My apologies to all concerned for the time taken.Most of the cryptic part is finished now thanks Robert... all that really remains to do is build the n3-n7 levels and it should be "dun an' doosted" as they say back in the old country. All the trips overseas, farms etc, it's all making me a bit itchy to go somewhere. I was thinking of doing UK again later in the year, but there are a few things in the way. So we will see.BAD NEWS....It appears that there is a bug in FU which stops light maps being displayed correctly in rows and columns above AZ. So that means a fair slab of OZ and UKS will be without lights unless the source code falls of the back of a truck in the near future. Fair rips a hole in your nightdress it does......:-hmmm An option may be to split regions into smaller sections and use common tiles / airports to "refuel" on the way. I'm not convinced that is a good option, but if we want lights it may be the only way.Anyhow, back to it.Cheers,Bruce H

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Bruce,Sounds interesting - the fact that it's sorta working. The bit about the lights only working within certain tile ranges is weird *:-*"All the trips overseas, farms etc, it's all making me a bit itchy to go somewhere..."Well, I can't speak for Rob (who can?) enjoying the fruits of his salary tier but I would love to see Old Blighty again - it's been, well, decades..."The farm" is a nice place to relax - when you can relax. Let's just say that it's fairly busy most of the year and the family that live there needed to get away for a holiday (for the first time in years...), so we spent our time catching up - fixing fences, mowing overgrown grass, pulling thistle and watching over the herd and the young-uns.I get a holiday next Xmas, when we're supposed to heading over to the US West coast to catch-up with the relos. I fully intend to spend a few days in WA as well, hopefully catching-up with Vitek at BlanikUSA in Wenatchee. Pity that all the backcountry strips will be closed then (in fact much of the Cascades), otherwise I'd really enjoy hiring something small from Harvey and doing a training flight over to ESW and back ;-) Betcha I'll be here, working in 40 degree heat again though :-rollRegards,Jon Point

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