Add-on distance model pt. 2

[oldwheat]

Continuing with my 'glue sniff'. Could one of you 'scasm' wizards possibly come up with a program for adding a distance LOD to an existing model. I think that the ethical concerns would be minimal especially as it is prudent to obtain permission to upload converted aircraft & if you are using the same for your own use, no problemo. This would do wonders for lowering FRs on converted or non-multires CFS2 aircraft. 'Glue sniff #2 would be to make the distance LOD semi transparent & perhaps a little more refined (tho still simple) & make the switch over at a closer distance without spoiling the visual effect too drastically. It might even appear more realistic.

[sc7500]

Not a Topic Hijack, Mr. Brown - an associated question.

This has been a nagging question for me going on 4 years...

Does adding MIPs to an image affect frame rates and / or add LOD to an image ?

I've been using BMP2000 to convert image files with 7+ MIPs after repaints and it seems to help with both...

TIA
SC

[oldwheat]

That's a very good question! It's been my experience that usually how an image is saved has minimal effect on FRs but never have played with MIP tweaking. It's something that warrants further study. If CFS2 is spared from rendering complex pixels 'out' where they aren't really needed, it would have to help. I've only used BMP2000 for converting AF files to date, perhaps I've been missing something here. It theoretically should even raise the FRs somewhat with multi-res birds. Hmmmm.

[oldwheat]

....

[oldwheat]

Ahh c'mon, Somebody should be able to take this on.

[oldwheat]

I'm being persistent ...

[Jagdflieger]

Looks like a great project OW. Wish I could help.

[The B24 Guy]

Hi Oldwheat,

The problem is with the texturing of the "distance model". One really needs to use FSDS or Gmax in order to create the model and map the needed textures.

Adding them in using SCASM is not really that hard.

Regards,
B24Guy

[oldwheat]

t wouldn't be a major hassle to do a simple distance model or two with FSDS. For the furthest LODs, texture isn't even required. Closer LOD models could be mapped to the stock textures but to my thinking, the most important LODs are that show at a 'distance' where a simple shape would do the job.

[oldwheat]

So, back to my original question = Would it be feasible to makeup a simple utilitity for scasm (MDLC?) to accomplish the 'graft' once the distance models are created?

[sc7500]

... while digging for Diamonds...

SC

=============================

Food for thought:

From Avsim Forum dated :
Oct 14 2004, by Luis Feliz Tirado
[http://forums1.avsim.net/lofiversion...hp/t79553.html]

Mipmaps are a way for Flight Simulator to display lower resolution textures when an object is far away. If you create a building and use textures that are 1024x1024 pixels in size, Flight Simulator won’t be able to display these textures at that resolution at a certain distance. So, when we save a texture, we also save a copy that is 512x512 pixels, and one that is 256x256 pixels, and 128x128 pixels, etc. These are all saved into one big texture, so we don’t have to manage all these little textures independently. Flight Simulator automatically picks the texture size that it feels is most appropriate. DXTBmp creates mipmaps by default.

You might see some negative talk about mipmaps, especially on aircraft-building forums. This is because on aircraft, mipmapped textures don’t look as sharp as regular textures; however, on scenery objects, using mipmaps is the preferred method.

[oldwheat]

I have played around a little with mipmaps (very little ) but the results were under-whelming as far as I could tell. It may call for a little more experimentation however. Personally, I believe that textures pixels are just a small part of the whole equation. The game still seems to think that it has to draw all of the parts of the model at any distance unless they are in or missing from separate LODs.

[The B24 Guy]

So, back to my original question = Would it be feasible to makeup a simple utilitity for scasm (MDLC?) to accomplish the 'graft' once the distance models are created?

It would be easy to do it by hand. Just paste in the new LOD and create a "if visable size jump" for it.

Regards,
B24Guy