vtp1 polys and fssc polys

[gius]

Hi to all,
i have a question: is it possible to cover a ground poly made by fssc with another, this one made with Ground2k? i have realized a photoreal ground layout of Berlin with fssc ground polys, but i am unable to "refine" the borders of that area with Ground2k: i have tried tweaking scenery library layers and G2k layers but no results. I will post some screens tomorrow...
Thanks for the help
Gius

[Robert John]

Hi gius,
If I understand your question, I would say no, I will go for ground polys made with ground2k every time, alas I don,t know how to use ground2k.

If your object has a ground poly, you can remove it.

Scenery ground polys made with a 3d program tend to flicker if the texture is not zbias and the placement area is not flat.

Ground polys made with airportforwindows dont seem to flicker but also the area needs to be flat.

Ask someone who uses ground2k to help place your ground texture within the game with you,
Tobob done La Rochelle ground and some 3d objects. The ground is good.

RJ

[gius]

Hi gius,
If I understand your question, I would say no, I will go for ground polys made with ground2k every time, alas I don,t know how to use ground2k.

If your object has a ground poly, you can remove it.

Scenery ground polys made with a 3d program tend to flicker if the texture is not zbias and the placement area is not flat.

Ground polys made with airportforwindows dont seem to flicker but also the area needs to be flat.

Ask someone who uses ground2k to help place your ground texture within the game with you,
Tobob done La Rochelle ground and some 3d objects. The ground is good.

RJ

Hi RJ,
thanks for the reply: i have already flattened the area and the z buffering is not needed, but the resulting map is square, so i must refine the borders: i believe now that the better way is to apply an alpha mask to the fssc polys.
Hoping this screen can give in idea...

Attachment 67760

[Robert John]

Hi gius,

looking good.

I think you almost got it working how you want it. Like myself get there in the end.

Try

mr_scenery-tutotial.

It may be of help.
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...N&page=2&pp=20

RJ

[simonu]

VTP1 polys made with G2K are part of terrain, they hug mesh, no flatten needed. The speckled detail effect gets added at sub pixel level so when you are really low or on the ground the 4m square pixels are not so obvious and the edges "kind of" blend with landclass, but not like the landclass edge fold.
But as terrain, VTP1 polys will always be under flat polys built using FSSC or airport or any other flat scenery tool.



Gius, I am pretty sure you could use your photo real image with ground2k and "burn" that image into the background terrain, maybe not as one big square but as areas defined by real features like roads and rivers.
VTP1 polys and lines (which are just lots of polys) can be layered and you can control which is on top, so you can hide edges with roads and streams.

There is a tool called MyFsGoogleEarth that creates a link so that Google earth will track plane position, very useful to find real location in flight sim, Uses FSUIPC module so works with CFS2 just as with other FS.

[gius]

Hi guys,
thanks for the help and suggestions.
To Simonu: i have splitted the big image in several tiles with a prog called Tilemage (it's free), but how can i burn those tiles in Ground2k? i have only a knowledge in Sander's tutorial...
Bye
Gius

[simonu]

Guis, I hope you understand my language,
I try to explain simply for you.
maybe not need to use Tilemage,
exact squares only needed if try to fit image altogether.
In which case Make One VTP1 poly for each tile.

Need to know true CFS2 location of corners of image.
Use MyFSGoogleEarth to show CFS2 plane position in Google earth. GoogleEarth Mesh very similar to Rhumbaflappy mesh...
Also have Ground2k show CFS2 plane position
Have CFS2 in slew mode, disable stick,
set in CFS2.cfg
[PREFS]
PAUSE_ON_LOST_FOCUS=0



If apply texture as square VTP1 poly, can use alpha channel of texture, use transparency to mask around features so photo is blended with landclass better, like in latest Maskrider airbases.
set up ground2k projects for your area, cover area in several small projects much better.
Big project crash and lose everything.
Save a lot!!!!! like, every time add new poly. or compile project to see in CFS2 or change anything... Save A LOT!

Ground2k very good program, but very easy to crash, user error, not fool proof you might say.

Can use image as project map, G2k must have project map but we do not need one because you can work in CFS2, with G2K and GoogleEarth all linked, so project map can be screen shot of area or LWM viewer output or even just a blank bit map.

Once project initiated Make VTP1 poly just like LWM or coast or road, In G2k it is all the same. Just have to click New Object button, and then make correct selections.
Takes a bit of practice, Don't expect to get right first time. Take a look at attached. Tute

[gius]

Simonu,
thanks for the head up and the tutorial, i have tried to apply this way, but i am obtaining only a coloured, untextured block, although i have followed litterally the method illustrated in the tutorial, so the question is: how can i have the proper result? i will post a screen soon...

[UncleTgt]

Hi Guis,

If the texture is'nt saved in the correct format, it won't display. Did you get a solid grey block? If so, the texture bitmap needs to be saved in a format the game can display.

My experience is only with creating extended 8 bit textures (FS70 format in BMP2000 by Martin Wright), like the stock terrain. I used G2K VTP poly linking commands to make use of them in game.

We know blended airfield backgrounds a la Maskrider, saved as DXT3 with alpha channel will display, just never tried linking them to a VTP poly in G2K, so that format should work. Maybe DXT1 works too?

[gius]

Hi UncleTgt,
you are right, the format was DXT1, and now, with 8 bit format, the poly works...
Greetings,
Gius

[simonu]

I'm pretty sure only 8bit format works in the CFS2 terrain engine. You can use imagetool from the FS2002 terrain sdk to convert images to 8bit , its really good because it runs in batch mode so you can proccess a lot of textures with a single batch line

 imagetool -batch -8 *.bmp

output files get the suffix .mip so a rename batch is also needed.
DXTbmp by Martin Wright is handy for getting at the alpha channel for editing.
The default CFS2 shore lines are an example of 8bit with alpha for transparency mask at edges.

[gius]

Hi Simonu,
the texture appears with 8bit format, but the resolution in very poor and the effect is pixelated, so i think about to come back to my old method; or you can suggest me a Ground2k feature i do not know??

[Jean Bomber]

Hi Simonu,
the texture appears with 8bit format, but the resolution in very poor and the effect is pixelated, so i think about to come back to my old method; or you can suggest me a Ground2k feature i do not know??

Hi Gius
It's the reply of "photoreal terrain in cfs2" thread,even if we do a 1024x1024 bmp texture cfs2 engine seems to resize it at 256x256,that will cover an fs area ,about 1,2x1,2km,around 4m by pixel ,that seems to be the limit of this old game but many places stay interesting,look at the latest Uncle Tg's Carolines islands (where my contribution ,except that I've done around Truk,is very few regarding the oustanding efforts than Uncle has done to relaese this project). Few new overboosted game have sceneries at some altitudes with this look and have not these accurate locations and mesh, admitting we have to work with the blur,must better to suggest than really show about terrain texture,I advice you to rework an existing city bmp and make it at the 40's Berlin colour, if that could be defined...,instead of make an huge flatten that will not done a good result in anyway

JP

[simonu]

Gius, are the textures 8bit mip maps?
Also what size are the textures?
CFS2 landclass are 256x256 squares that load into about a 1024 metre square in the game. 1 pixel covers 4 metre square.

In these screen shots of my experimental work a chopper is a few meters over the edge of a runway.You can see layers of VTP1 polys with scasm built flat scenery on top.
The run way is done in both layers with the same texture. See how badly the edge is pixelated because the VTPpoly is diagonal to the lod grid, where as the flat runway has a nice straight edge.
The flat scenery can show higher resolution, This shows up better when I click the firfox bar in the bottom right and CFS2 loses focus, it stops blending with detail and the pixels jump into clear view.
But remember, VTP1 scenery is much kinder on frame rates and is really for viewing from High altitudes.
Flat scenery is for low altitude at air bases.

[Jean Bomber]

.....The flat scenery can show higher resolution, This shows up better when I click the firfox bar in the bottom right and CFS2 loses focus, it stops blending with detail and the pixels jump into clear view.
But remember, VTP1 scenery is much kinder on frame rates and is really for viewing from High altitudes.
Flat scenery is for low altitude at air bases.

Where the interest that stay in this game is to mix all these layers ,using g2k for the background and the MR's fssc method for some specific places,in the cfs2 terrain built,adding the mesh layer for large pieces playing with the lod 8 or 9 and a contrario the gsl/layout objects level,where the texture could be at 1024 but could cost in fps,could also add ,as another layer,the old fssc building object function where the texture are displayed as 128x128 even if they are no destroyable and are not multilod could done interesting result reworking the bmps and they have also night texture ,fly over Casa,Morocco, by night to see...the Rick's place

JP

[simonu]

Jean, d'accord.

[gius]

Yes guys,
we know the limits of our game, and this is the reason why, ho have an acceptable level of detail, i have choosen to make the city with flat method. the way i have learned from you could be used perhaps in one of my other projects.
Thank you
Gius