Frosty
SOH-CM-2025
Hey Gordon,
Do you wanna borrow my building textures? The doors and windows on your Nissen look awfully familiar anyway
. It saves you the trouble of painting your own textures AND has the additional benefit of reducing the number of textures loaded in-game.
Some time ago, I started using shared templates for buildings that are from the same 'family' and that differ only in window/door configuration or size. The T2 hangars, Nissen huts and some standardized temporary brick constructions are prime examples. I have been re-texturing some of my models to bring them up to this standard. Some of my templates have blank areas or contain copied parts. I intend to use these to add other details/building configurations when I come across them. From a single .dss I can now texture Nissen roofs ranging from 6 to 127 ft and dormer windows up to 9 bays long, see attached piccie below. The front and back elevations are on another .bmp (I used gmax multi-material to use two .bmp files to texture a single model. Eight fronts or backs fit on one texture sheet, so the possibilities are nearly endless, without adding an equal amount of textures).
If you are interested, there is only one thing I would like to ask: I'd like to keep the general look of the buildings consistent. So if you want to add things to my textures, please let me know. If we both start painting on the same blank area, we'll have a problem when both of our models/textures end up in the same CFS3 install (surely there will be an update to ETO v1.40 someday, even if it is a small one). If you want, I can always paint a particular window/door configuration for you myself. For your personal install and pleasure, you can do whatever you like, of course (yellow polka-dotted Hobbit purple, for instance)
I have scanned all line drawings from the "British Airfield Architecture"-book and you can have these too. If you have the real-life dimensions, you can do a scale calculation. That's how I build them anyway, if I cannot find an actual blueprint of a structure. While my 3D-model's dimensions are therefore fairly accurate, the windows and doors on textures are often 'guestimated'. But hey, it's a flight sim!
BTW, I create the Nissens from a 48-sided cylinder, lengthwise cut in half for LOD100, then it is 36, 24, 12 and 3 for the lower ones. This way you can re-use UWV-coordinates and avoid seeing textures move on the model with different LODs kicking in. LOD_0 is untextured because the texture cannot be seen from that distance anyway. But I always make sure that the model's LOD_0 colour in gmax is the same as the general texture's colour, just to make sure. If you think of the A-20 model, you know what I mean: Not all LOD's are textured but the main parts are in the developer's gmax colours. A weird sight when you encounter one in-game and it switches from it's textured camo job to pink and bright green with different LODs!
I certainly am no game designer and had to learn gmax myself - so I could be doing things in the wrong or very roundabout way - but I texture cylinders one side at a time, meaning the length, then one end and then the other end. After you specify the polygons you are gonna texture, add a 'UWV-mapping' modifier before adding the 'Unwrap-UWV' modifier. Use the 'cylinder' entry for the length of your Nissen and 'planar' for the ends. With a simple Nissen, I end up with a stack like this (read bottom-to-top, as in gmax itself):
Unwrap-UWV (for adjusting the UWV coordinates)
UWV-mapping (for setting the UWV to 'cylindrical')
Edit (for selecting the polygons along the cylinder's length)
Unwrap-UWV (adjusting the UWV coordinates)
UWV-mapping (for setting the UWV to 'planar')
Edit (for selecting the other end polygons)
Unwrap-UWV (adjusting the UWV coordinates)
UWV-mapping (for setting the UWV to 'planar')
Edit (for selecting the end polygons)
There are of course payware programs that can do all the unwrapping for you and you only have to arrange the bits and pieces and paint them. I have one but don't use it very much. My buildings aren't complex models anyway. But it's a lot of work nonetheless.
I have a damagebox for you I got from Dave a long time ago. I think it is just a dummy named appropriately and sized to envelop the model as close as possible. Damageboxes need to be 4-sided, straight-angled and you cannot delete polys. So that's rectangles and cubes. To cover a Nissen you can use a couple of differently sized rectangles, stacked like a pyramid. The more boxes, the closer you can envelop the model but the more polys you add to it. I use three boxes for a Nissen.
However, you do not have to use multiple boxes to enclose a model: I have on occassion tilted/rotated a cube-shaped damagebox because this way I could fit a model with a single damagebox.
I can send you a complete gmax source file to study if you like: model, LODs, textures, damageboxes etc.
Oh, and I have the 343/43 covered. The model is done but the texture needs some adjusting (has been lying around for 2-3 years...:redf
;-)
Joost
View attachment 81094View attachment 81095View attachment 81097
Do you wanna borrow my building textures? The doors and windows on your Nissen look awfully familiar anyway
. It saves you the trouble of painting your own textures AND has the additional benefit of reducing the number of textures loaded in-game.Some time ago, I started using shared templates for buildings that are from the same 'family' and that differ only in window/door configuration or size. The T2 hangars, Nissen huts and some standardized temporary brick constructions are prime examples. I have been re-texturing some of my models to bring them up to this standard. Some of my templates have blank areas or contain copied parts. I intend to use these to add other details/building configurations when I come across them. From a single .dss I can now texture Nissen roofs ranging from 6 to 127 ft and dormer windows up to 9 bays long, see attached piccie below. The front and back elevations are on another .bmp (I used gmax multi-material to use two .bmp files to texture a single model. Eight fronts or backs fit on one texture sheet, so the possibilities are nearly endless, without adding an equal amount of textures).
If you are interested, there is only one thing I would like to ask: I'd like to keep the general look of the buildings consistent. So if you want to add things to my textures, please let me know. If we both start painting on the same blank area, we'll have a problem when both of our models/textures end up in the same CFS3 install (surely there will be an update to ETO v1.40 someday, even if it is a small one). If you want, I can always paint a particular window/door configuration for you myself. For your personal install and pleasure, you can do whatever you like, of course (yellow polka-dotted Hobbit purple, for instance
)I have scanned all line drawings from the "British Airfield Architecture"-book and you can have these too. If you have the real-life dimensions, you can do a scale calculation. That's how I build them anyway, if I cannot find an actual blueprint of a structure. While my 3D-model's dimensions are therefore fairly accurate, the windows and doors on textures are often 'guestimated'. But hey, it's a flight sim!
BTW, I create the Nissens from a 48-sided cylinder, lengthwise cut in half for LOD100, then it is 36, 24, 12 and 3 for the lower ones. This way you can re-use UWV-coordinates and avoid seeing textures move on the model with different LODs kicking in. LOD_0 is untextured because the texture cannot be seen from that distance anyway. But I always make sure that the model's LOD_0 colour in gmax is the same as the general texture's colour, just to make sure. If you think of the A-20 model, you know what I mean: Not all LOD's are textured but the main parts are in the developer's gmax colours. A weird sight when you encounter one in-game and it switches from it's textured camo job to pink and bright green with different LODs!
I certainly am no game designer and had to learn gmax myself - so I could be doing things in the wrong or very roundabout way - but I texture cylinders one side at a time, meaning the length, then one end and then the other end. After you specify the polygons you are gonna texture, add a 'UWV-mapping' modifier before adding the 'Unwrap-UWV' modifier. Use the 'cylinder' entry for the length of your Nissen and 'planar' for the ends. With a simple Nissen, I end up with a stack like this (read bottom-to-top, as in gmax itself):
Unwrap-UWV (for adjusting the UWV coordinates)
UWV-mapping (for setting the UWV to 'cylindrical')
Edit (for selecting the polygons along the cylinder's length)
Unwrap-UWV (adjusting the UWV coordinates)
UWV-mapping (for setting the UWV to 'planar')
Edit (for selecting the other end polygons)
Unwrap-UWV (adjusting the UWV coordinates)
UWV-mapping (for setting the UWV to 'planar')
Edit (for selecting the end polygons)
There are of course payware programs that can do all the unwrapping for you and you only have to arrange the bits and pieces and paint them. I have one but don't use it very much. My buildings aren't complex models anyway. But it's a lot of work nonetheless.
I have a damagebox for you I got from Dave a long time ago. I think it is just a dummy named appropriately and sized to envelop the model as close as possible. Damageboxes need to be 4-sided, straight-angled and you cannot delete polys. So that's rectangles and cubes. To cover a Nissen you can use a couple of differently sized rectangles, stacked like a pyramid. The more boxes, the closer you can envelop the model but the more polys you add to it. I use three boxes for a Nissen.
However, you do not have to use multiple boxes to enclose a model: I have on occassion tilted/rotated a cube-shaped damagebox because this way I could fit a model with a single damagebox.
I can send you a complete gmax source file to study if you like: model, LODs, textures, damageboxes etc.
Oh, and I have the 343/43 covered. The model is done but the texture needs some adjusting (has been lying around for 2-3 years...:redf
;-)
Joost
View attachment 81094View attachment 81095View attachment 81097
