• There seems to be an uptick in Political comments in recent months. Those of us who are long time members of the site know that Political and Religious content has been banned for years. Nothing has changed. Please leave all political and religious comments out of the forums.

    If you recently joined the forums you were not presented with this restriction in the terms of service. This was due to a conversion error when we went from vBulletin to Xenforo. We have updated our terms of service to reflect these corrections.

    Please note any post refering to a politician will be considered political even if it is intended to be humor. Our experience is these topics have a way of dividing the forums and causing deep resentment among members. It is a poison to the community. We appreciate compliance with the rules.

    The Staff of SOH

  • Server side Maintenance is done. We still have an update to the forum software to run but that one will have to wait for a better time.

Scenery sneak peek

M

MCDesigns

Guest
I had a burst of inspiration today, I guess it's because I finally finsihed one of my non FS projects and it was a load off my mind. I got quite a bit done on one of my (many) FS projects and figured I post a sneak peek.

Anyhoo, the project takes place in Holger and Bills beautiful Tongass area, nestled in a valley. It has a sloped runway, a dock for float planes and features mostly custom objects with some subtle animations (sign sways with the wind), etc. I like creating the little details that make things more visually realistic at ground level, so I am open to suggestions on any of these things. The ground textures are done by using a photoreal map with my own custom texture since there is no sat imagery in this area. This way I can be assured everyone will see the same thing and it will look better than just custom landclass. I still have a few objects to create and then finish the seasonal textures, but it's coming along nicely.

this is just the dock area, it will have a couple of more buildings and the path you see leads to the larger area with the aircraft parking, office, rental cabins, etc.

otterrun.jpg
 
Wow!!! Michael I'm floored by the atmosphere you've created!! I can almost hear the low whine of outboard motors and Eagle's Screaming!!:ernae:
Very Nice!!
 
MCDesigns said:
The ground textures are done by using a photoreal map with my own custom texture since there is no sat imagery in this area.
Click to expand...

how'd you do that if you dont mind me asking?? :) i've been trying to figure it out for ages but all the tuts are just "go to blah blah server, save sat image, done" all well and good if there is sat imagery but useless if there isnt :isadizzy:
 
stiz said:
how'd you do that if you dont mind me asking?? :) i've been trying to figure it out for ages but all the tuts are just "go to blah blah server, save sat image, done" all well and good if there is sat imagery but useless if there isnt :isadizzy:
Click to expand...

Hey stiz, as long as you can get a "image not available" screen, then you can save it. All the sat image is, is a big BMP depending on resolution. I just get a zoom of around 17 or better, save it and then do the custom texture deal on it and add a blend, some autogen and seasons. Helps if you are artistic, LOL.

As for size, I can usually get a street view map and this helps with size of the map. If not, a normal zoom setting of 14 is about right for a runway.
 
That is looking amazing.......

I am with BOOm..Its almost as if you expect to hear motor boats and wildlife about...
 
MCDesigns said:
Hey stiz, as long as you can get a "image not available" screen, then you can save it. All the sat image is, is a big BMP depending on resolution. I just get a zoom of around 17 or better, save it and then do the custom texture deal on it and add a blend, some autogen and seasons. Helps if you are artistic, LOL.

As for size, I can usually get a street view map and this helps with size of the map. If not, a normal zoom setting of 14 is about right for a runway.
Click to expand...
I remember you telling me all about that and I still don't comprehend how you can take a blank screen and create an entire scenery. That's obviously what separates the quick stuff I do with the amazingly creative work you do Michael. You create truly "custom" scenery, just as Holger and Bill do. I take a bitmap and put default objects on it, lol.

The few things I've seen you do are beautifully done and this one is no exception. Amazing work.:ernae:
 
i agree with the others. my first thought was "man, if i was there, i'd totally be reelin in a big smallmouth or a northern"
:applause:
 
That is looking amazing mate, also again very glad to have you with us at OZx, I cannot wait for PNW to be released so that we can have a look at stuff that can added by OZx to the PNW package :)
 
MCDesigns said:
Hey stiz, as long as you can get a "image not available" screen, then you can save it. All the sat image is, is a big BMP depending on resolution. I just get a zoom of around 17 or better, save it and then do the custom texture deal on it and add a blend, some autogen and seasons. Helps if you are artistic, LOL.

As for size, I can usually get a street view map and this helps with size of the map. If not, a normal zoom setting of 14 is about right for a runway.
Click to expand...

never knew you could do that ta!, gonna have ta play around this evening! :jump:
 
Looks great, Michael. Did you use DXT1 or DXT5 for the cattail transparencies? Or are they made up of discrete planes?

Jim
 
jdhaenens said:
Looks great, Michael. Did you use DXT1 or DXT5 for the cattail transparencies? Or are they made up of discrete planes?

Jim
Click to expand...

Thanks Jim. If by discrete, you mean separate, they are double sided, crisscrossed planes. I had them doubled up, but couldn't lose the odd angled shading even though they looked fuller. Texture is DXT3, I find that 1 compromises the IQ to much and 5 gives me some artifacts between the image and the alpha. The cattails are actual 3D objects I have used for CGI renderings, much to heavy for FS, but they render into PNG form in poser very well, LOL.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top