City Textures rework

[Pat Pattle]

Fantastic work mate! I'm loving all of this stuff. To me, groundtextures and airfields etc. are as important as the aircraft themselves if we want true immersion in this sim. Keep it up!

 

[rince33]

To me, groundtextures and airfields etc. are as important as the aircraft themselves if we want true immersion in this sim.

I couldn't agree more Clive.

 

[rince33]

Quite a bit was done today and I think its starting to look like something now. This is Ramsgate, most of the background buildings will be removed when I resize it.

 

[Flamingskull5000]

Big improvement! quite a task also......

 

[Pat Pattle]

Wowser! They look blooming marvellous! Love the detail of the gardens etc. They're the best city textures we've had IMO. Looking forward to flying over them soon.

 

[rince33]

Thanks Clive, this texture required a lot of road adjustments due to the poor quality of the original road mask. The next texture, largecity, wont need any road adjustment editing so it should go quicker. Its still quite messy where two textures join though.

I may remove the concrete texture because of distant repetitive tiling issues, but If that bit is darkened it may not be so obvious.

I like your Bob package buildings.

 

[Pat Pattle]

" I like your Bob package buildings"
Would love to say that was my work but can't. John "Johnno UK" Benfield was the clever chap that did those. He repainted the stock texture sheet, very clever.

 

[mongoose]

Great work as Clive said. A couple of ?s, can terraced or 'row' houses be made, as many of UK towns had houses of this kind. as for roofs, many were slate or other dark material. Red was hardly ever used; if it was, it was darkened by pollution!

 

[Pat Pattle]

Something like this James? Very much wip and has to be placed via the GSL.

 

[rince33]

"can terraced or 'row' houses be made, as many of UK towns had houses of this kind. as for roofs, many were slate or other dark material."

I could do that in blender, but I have little knowledge of the mos editor to position them with proper spacing on the map. For now I just want something that to me at least, is better than the current city textures.
Later I may look into the mos editor in more depth.

The roof texture can be changed on the scenery sheet. I will give it a go.

 

[rince33]

Something like this James? Very much wip and has to be placed via the GSL.

Is there a GSL editor or must it be placed manually in the global_layer.csv file with notepad?

 

[gecko]

Clive, do we have the tools to turn those models into .sm files for scenery? They would be a major improvement!

 

[Pat Pattle]

Clive, do we have the tools to turn those models into .sm files for scenery? They would be a major improvement!

There is a tool set Daniel, but I have yet to get them to work! They can work, I've seen the results but it needs more minds and time put to it.

 

[Pat Pattle]

Is there a GSL editor or must it be placed manually in the global_layer.csv file with notepad?

There is an editor available on Martin Wrights website, it's good, but using the standard SDK .bat and notepad/Excell route is no more complicated. Either way you need to know the Lat/ Lon co-ordinates of what you want to place.

 

[mongoose]

Something like this James? Very much wip and has to be placed via the GSL.
View attachment 92424

Exactly, although it seems not that easy from what you all are saying. Would be nice though for allcountries. Has WOFF/WOTR ever tried to do this?

 

[rince33]

I replaced the terracotta roof tile with slate, historically accurate but aesthetically not as pleasing, but that's just my inner artist speaking.

Ive always preferred a balance between aesthetically pleasing and historical accuracy when it comes to terrains. The slate tiles may grow on me though.

I placed highlights on the tree textures a while back because the 2D tree textures appeared a bit flat in game. I thought the trees were a bit dark in the screenshots so I brightened the tree texture and reduced the highlight a bit.

 

[Shessi]

Good going R,

Ha ha more like rich surburbia there, with detatched houses and tree lined avenues.....I'd live there!

Of course UK's housing isn't all (lol) terraced slate roofed housing, but for the 'working masses' up to the 40's, it is the typical type of housing, as Pat is showing in his last post. (see Dover photos below)

Yes, I agree R, terracotta tiles do look more colourful/pleasing, but us dowdy Brits love a dark grey slate/concrete/asbestos roof tile

TBH, my mind is blown that we're discussing such minute ground detail of a 20yr old+ combat flight sim at all!....

Cheers

Shessi

 

[rince33]

Yes, I agree R, terracotta tiles do look more colourful/pleasing, but us dowdy Brits love a dark grey slate/concrete/asbestos roof tile

Okay, I added some road detail and now you can see where aesthetics comes into play. Road detail combined with slate roofs looks damn ugly, too much grey, whereas terracota plus road detail looks balanced and real purty.

 

[mongoose]

I hate to be critical of others who put a great deal of effort into trying to make CFS3 better; however, IMHO, the ? is whether we want a realistic sim or a beautiful sim. Much or the UK, and probably Europe was pretty grim WRT housing and even roads, as illustrated by Shessi. Most house heating was by coal, so everything was covered with pollution, even the trees would have been a darker colour, in towns at least; even moths adapted to be a dark colour, as the trees were so effected by pollution. The roads, if Tarmac, would probably have been a dark grey, maybe lighter if gravel. Grass, whatever there was, would also be in bad quality.
The makers of the sim probably lived in suburban USA, as I now do; very different from 1940's Europe!

However, your last picture is much more in the realistic direction, and I respect your efforts on this difficult task.

 

[rince33]

I really don't mind the criticism and I understand the desire for historical accuracy. I have seen some of the limited wartime colour footage that is available and I noticed that all stone buildings were a dirty black. The American bomber pilots used to say "If you want to find England, just look for the biggest, dirtiest cloud and that goddamn island will be under it" or something to that effect. I had already decided to keep the slate roofs for the sake of historical accuracy.