Making Gmax Trees...

[Blood_Hawk23]

Hey all,

Over the last week I've been trying to make some trees. I wanted to make them like Lindsay's and MR's. What I've been wanting is a large group of trees for GSL placement. Something simular to Wolfi's.

With Allen's help I have been able to make them. Allen was able to get the coding required to make it all work. He also helped me figure out how to apply it to more then one object at a time.

As of right now I'm trying to get higher res images. I've found that most of the stock and freeware treesheets lack detail. I'm working on that issue.

I hope to get a detailed "How To" finished real soon. With this you'll be able to make a 2 poly object that will always face the players. So it will work with any image you want and with more than one.

For now if anyone working in Gmax wants the basics just PM me and I'll send what Allen and I have been working on so far.


Guis,

This would help your Euro buildings. It would reduce the poly count of your trees by half. Actually more than that. Your current trees use 8 polys. These will use 2. Though to get the finished model your work load will be increased a little bit. I'll send you an email so you can see the difference.


I'll get some pics real soon.

Till Later,
John

[Allen]

The code isn't mine but a guess using Rotate to user (ASM tweak). http://www.fsdeveloper.com/wiki/inde...er_(ASM_tweak) The prob is this says to change the .asm but the code from Robert John's Making Exploding Objects in Gmax for CFS2.rtf (I use the same code for my CFS2_Exploting_Objs_Using_****) don't use the .asm

You have edit the _0.asm and use the Fs2004 gamepack tweek that says to change BGL_CALL_32 to SPRITE_VICALL. Than add the , 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0 as shown in the both FS2002 and FS2004 tweeks.

The change is quite simple. Befor you export out of gMax make sure the Y axis is facing UP. The tree or trees of you make a cluser will rotate on the Y axis to face the player. FSDS users I don't don't know what axis will be used so you may have to test things fo find the right axis. If you make a cluser of tress do NOT attach all of the trees to the main tree in at the center.

Export the object like nomal using any of my CFS2_Exploting_Objs_Using_**** set ups. Now the new step! Before you run the Make my object.bat go to the CFS2_Exploting_Objs_Using_**** folder and find the Myobj_0.asm in the folder and do like shown below to all BGL_CALL_32 found in the Myobj_0.asm (if you want to damaged/destroyed version of the object to roate the same do the same to the Myobj-d_0.asm)

Change

BGL_CALL_32 Myobj_*gMax_NAME*_1

To

SPRITE_VICALL Myobj_*gMax_NAME*_1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0

When changes are done save the changes to the _0.asm and run the Make my object.bat like normal.

[Blood_Hawk23]

I have 4 new textures that I'm going to use. Right now they are in 1024x1024.



There is a small birch, med and large oak and a small pine. I have the bmps with alphas and the 256 for gmax.

I'll get some screenies when they are in gmax.


Allen,
It might not be your code but you helped to get it implimented into our project. Couldn't have done it without your help.

[Allen]

They should work better than my quick use of the CFS1 tree.
Attachment 13505

[Blood_Hawk23]

here are a couple screen shots.





Allen,
I have a bit of a problem, its too dark. I've checked the textures. They are fine. I think that it might be the model. I'll send you a copy.

[Allen]

In gMax try adding "Color"

[Blood_Hawk23]

are you talking about in the material? is it the self lumination?

next question... what shade should I use?

Ok just added.

RGB
44,44,44

[Allen]

Yes in the Material right below Self-Lumination.

[Blood_Hawk23]

Yes in the Material right below Self-Lumination.

ok 54,54,54 is still too dark. I'll go to the lighter greys and see if that will work. any suggestions.

[Allen]

Yes in the Material right below Self-Lumination.

Attachment 13517

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[Blood_Hawk23]

oh... I clicked the box... LOL...

[Blood_Hawk23]

Alright still no luck. I've sent a copy to you.

[Allen]

Convert one of the flat trees that are working right to gMax and check it's Material settings.

[misson]

To get better frame rates, which distance they show up?

Good job by the way!
Cheers
Mario

[Allen]

I spent a few hours hitting my head but have no idea why the tress are so dark.

[Blood_Hawk23]

To get better frame rates, which distance they show up?

Good job by the way!
Cheers
Mario

About 10,000 feet which is the standard distance. Though if you'd like I can make it so they will only show if your setting are on extreamly dense.

Allen,

Still no luck. Do you think the DTX3 format could be the problem?

[Allen]

BMP fomat change had no effect....

[Shessi]

Gents,
Just a couple of ideas. In Gmax remove the material shine effect/colour etc completely, and see if that lets you texture it lighter.

Or how about an alpha channel that makes it very slightly see-through, which may give a lighter effect.

Shessi

[Blood_Hawk23]

Shessi,

I'll send a copy so you can see it.

[Blood_Hawk23]

Allen,

I sent you a message on the moving on the wrong axis issue. If you change the pivot to be aligned with world then it works fine.

ok here is some thing. you know how we alway set a model to be viewed from the back. what if we set it to front and let the pivot as is. I'm going to try it and see what happens. I think its always turn the wrong way when we use the code.

I have a couple other things to try. but i'm running out of ideas and fast.

[UncleTgt]

John,

Just a wild guess , but could you make the material 100% transparent, so the texture sits on "glass". Maybe that allows light to pass through, & lightens everything up? You would only need to texture one face (the other face would show the mirror image).

[kelticheart]

Blood_Hawk,

they are splendid indeed. Finally we'll be able to see Northern Hemisphere trees in ETO!

Lindsay's trees are fine, but they look too much "Aussie" gum trees to be 100% credible up here. Apart from the CFS1 model, which I do not like much, and Wolfi's nice forest patches we only have Gary20's BoB trees available for Europe.

BoB trees are fine, but limited in number and shape to represent European natural variety fully.

Ouch! I was almost ready to release my interpretation of Pen32Win's primary French airports, of which I had patiently replaced all of later Lindsay's tree libraries with Lindsay's/Mask Rider's early trees. I did this over a long period, because my first experiences with GSL work did not reveal immediately the frame rate impact of enriching airports with lots of trees.

When I found out that Lindsay's later tree production produced a sizeable negative impact on CFS2 animation rate, I was so burned out with all the work I had done before that I left everything alone for a while. Besides, I wasn't sure yet that the problem was in the trees and not with some other scenery object.

Then Pen32Win discovered the problem which took him to overhaul Gary Burns' BoB object library and, in turn, that took me back to the experiment lab, using Pen's meter to judge the frame rate efficiency of each single scenery object then available.

Finally Canion's ETO object lib was released together with Captain Kurt's great ETO repaints of CFS2 primary stock objects. Both added yet another dimension to dressing up any ETO airport, while my GSL projects took on the aspect of the famous canvas woven by Penelope, Ulysses' wife.

Woven by day and then taken apart by night........To date this must be, at least, the fifth time I re-did those sceneries with new objects released or replacing the worst fps performing ones!

Now I am facing the same job with your new trees.......

NO PROBLEM! As long as the final results will be something that will not spark again the same little devil of "hey, I could improve that......"

At any rate, my aim is to create sceneries that will be easy to recognize as belonging to that nation. This world does not look the same all over, so British airports will look similar among them and different from the French ones, the German ones, the Italian ones and so on.

Besides: no PTO objects in ETO and vice versa: no tropical forest patches or Japanese hangars in France and no hardwood forests or RAF barracks in South Western Pacific!

No scenery shall be exempt: I am using Achim's packs, good for early war years for their simplicity, Pen32Win's 2TAF (some of Pen's works look great to represent airfield late-war buildup)and Gary Burns' (aka Gary20) BoB airports. In any of these, every time I was able to find aerial pictures, I tried reproducing the historical layouts with the material at hand.

Last but not least, someone should look into the Cees Donker's magnificent RAF object library. Stunningly beautiful, historically sound objects, yet quite heavy on fps. If their frame rate could be improved, the resulting sceneries would become the best RAF airfields ever seen!

Cheers!
KH

[Blood_Hawk23]

UT,
I'll give that a try. they don't cast shadows anyways so it won't hurt to try.

Kelti,

yeah thats my plan. trying to get some standardized tree types. You would think that there would be more online. but i'm having a devil of a time getting info that I can use as a reference.

If anyone has some pictures or info on tree types in Europe, please pass it along.

[Shessi]

BH,
I wouldn't blow a fuse over the type of trees too much, oak, pine, birch is a pretty good european mix. You could always mix in different sizes, and have small versions of the trees as bushes. It's the overall colour impression which is possibly more important.

Cheers

Shessi

[Blood_Hawk23]

well right now the color is black. I haven't tried UTs idea yet. I'm going to try that next.