danchircop

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Hi all,recently I posted a topic in the scenery design section regarding certain display issues encountered in Fs2004 and if something will be done to correct them. Although their was some response, it's nice to see whether the FS team can share their views about it.You can find the topic here:http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=set_threaded_mode&forum=123&page=&topic_id=30493&prev_page=show_topicThanks Daniel

Hi ArnoI'm fully aware that Gmax is mainly intended to create 3d object, but the fact that scenery designers are trying to find new ways to create their sceneries, simply shows that the XML format is, perhaps not the best way. First of all we can't determine the number of repetitions of texture tiles we can assign to a ground polygon. We are restricted to what MS has set. Correct me if I'm wrong. We also can't rotate the texture in a ground polygon. This is quite useful when applying textures to show concrete slabs and wanting them to point in the right direction for example.The texture always points North. I know you can rotate the bmp itself but I don't think it's the ideal way. It's true that certain problems arise because we try to go into alot of detail but in my case it's a little different.The airport I am creating has part of its main terminal situated below ground level. Although it's below ground level it's still visible, and literally had to 'dig' a hole into the terrain in order to get that part of the terminal be visble. Then obviously I have to patch up everything with gmax in order to cover the hole nicely. However one particular problem was that at certain points where the ground has been lowered and part of my ground polygon (to create a parking ramp) floats over the hole, that part of the building situated below ground level was visible through the ground polygon. Obviously this is because 3d objects have higher display priority.So for me the only solution was that my ground polygon has to be created with Gmax. In this case it's not a matter of detail but it's because the way the real terminal is constructed. So there are issues here that I think it would be nice if the Fs developers will have a look at them.It would also be nice if they can share their ideas about this.Daniel

Hi Arno,thanks for your reply. It's always nice to read your posts. Your help here is invaluable."I think some scenery designers are trying to do more with GMax,then what the gamepack has been designed for. If you look at the default scenery, you will see that all things like airports, ground polygons, etc have been made with different parts of the scenery. Not with the 3D object code that MakeMDL is creating. I think this is not a problem of MakeMDL, but a problem of the designers, they think that GMax can do everything, while it is only intended for 3D objects"True however i don't fully agree. After all once we add the zbias to the material name and tweak the asm file it works. Not 100% but it works. I know there are shadow problems etc.. So I think it's a matter of perhaps adjusting the makemdl and make it work. One can create a polygon in Gmax and all he has to do is to add a prefix to the object name like groundpoly_xxxx for the object name and makemdl will automatically recognize it as a ground poly. Same like adding tick18 in order to make the animation work. This is just an example and I know it's easier said than done, but up till now no one said that it can't be done. Anyway we'll wait and see what FSX has to offer!! :)Daniel

Hi everyone, i would like to point out a few issues that have always left me with a big question mark. Now that a new version has been announced i hope that these issues will be ironed out in FSX.1. I mainly use gmax as my scenery design program and I do wish that its tools are given more support. As most scenery and aircraft designers know, Gmax is a very powerful program and I'm pretty sure that 80% of the scenery can be created with it.First of all why isn't it possible to create ground polygons directly with Gmax? Why do we have to manually tweak the source code in order to make it work. I'm pretty sure that there is a solution to it. There are several other things that we have to manually tweak and usually alot of time is spent trying to find a way around certain problems.2. Opacity/transparency is also another issue. When one tries to set the opacity of a polygon through the Gmax material editor (for eg to create window panes for a control tower) one will notice that that the clouds will appear in front of the glass and the clouds are not actually obscured by the glass. So in this case Fs is finding a problem with their display priority.However this problem doesn't seem to exist in aircraft models. Why? I know that instead of using the opacity setting we can assign a DXT3 texture to create glass, but now we have removed the possibility to create a reflective glass.If I'm not mistaken it was possible to create reflective glass in Fs2002 but it seems that this was removed in Fs2004. Isn't it much easier to use tools available in the material editor the same way we create the dynamic shine by using the specular level? 3. I don't know if this was mentioned already and it's not actually an issue but it's more like, if we'll we be able to create it one day. Up till now the main light source in Fs is the sun. When the effects were introduced we could see the light coming from the anti-collisionbeing reflected by the aircraft's fuselage etc... That was a nice touch however these effects do not cast any light on scenery objects. Why do certain features work on aircraft models and on scenery models they don't, I can'understand. It would be nice that one day we'll be able to create proper lights that actually cast light on to the ground and 3D objects. That will partially elimnate the use of night textures and the overall night ambience will be more realistic. Is Flightsim's graphic's engine able to handle this or is it still too demanding for today's hardware?Having mentioned Gmax, everybody knows that its future is uncertain. What is actually going to happen to it and is MS still going to produce a plugin for it to export our models? I think Gmax's capabilites will enable us to continue creating 3D models for years to come as long as makemdl continues to enhance its support to it.A big thanks to the Flightsim team for all their work and listening to all our requests and complaints. I'm pretty sure they all end up with a headache at the end of the day!! :)RegardsDaniel

Thanks Luis, the solution I can think of at the moment is to copy the original image and match it again with the 256x256 images produced by the resample tool. Daniel

Hi, I've read in several threads in this forum that in order to avoid having the the resample tool to resample your images (so that they can be draped onto mesh terrain) it's best to use either photoshop or paintshop pro to resample the images to get a resolution of 4.8m/pixel. As such I agree! But even though they have been resampled already, once I go to create the images and bgl, the resample tool still re-touches my images and it ruins them completely. Is there a way how I can avoid having the resample tool not touch my already resampled photo? I just want it create the bgl and split the photos for me only!!Thanks and regardsDaniel

Hi again and thanks for the reply but as such I don't think it makes that much of a difference whether I use Arno's program or not. All that Arno's program does is that it groups the objects into a library for you. You can still assign the GUID that the makemdl created in the xml file, in Arno's program.The thing is that with your system you have to place the objects by manually coding the coordinates etc.. via the xml file.I just want to place the objects via a program such as Airport or FSArchitect by creating macros and calling them through the GUID. As I said the buildings did show up in FS2004. The only problem is that they only appear when you set the density setting to dense and I can't control their visibility, range wise either (ie V1 parameter). I presume that there's either a problem with FSArchitect or with scasm. I also used the Scasm 2.95e but the problem still remained.This is the code that the scasm is creating for a particular building: MACRO: Hangar 3 Area( 5 35:51:44.488787 14:28:37.367274 8 ) RefPoint( rel :noObj 0.500000 35:51:44.488787 14:28:37.367274 v1= 14816 v2= 32767 ) RotatedCall( :rot 0 0 316.49 ) Jump( : ):rot CallLibObj( 0 6FEB874B 46B045F0 90971CA2 4ECE7E5E ) Return:noObj EndAHope it helps. I'm really frustrated.ThanksDaniel

Hi everyone, I have created a few buildings for my scenery using Gmax. I then grouped them together into an object library using Arno's XML object library creator. (BTW excellent program Arno!!) I then placed the buildings in my scenery as macros using FsArchtitect. Until now everything worked perfectly. The buildings showed in the scenery as well, but I encountered two problems: 1. The buildings only showed up once I set the display setting in Fs2004 to dense. Lower than that the buildings disappeared, even though I set the display setting to very sparse in FsArchitect.2. How am I going to adjust the V1 parameter for the buildings? I've tried modifying it from Architect and by manually editing the scasm code itself but it was useless!!Please Help!!RegardsDaniel