WIP, NAS FT Worth

[falcon409]

Looking good!

Thanks! I do have a question though, I have stayed away from doing an AFCAD for the time being, but I need to get that in the works as well. This may sound dumb, but do I just draw in the taxiways and ramps in AFX as usual, or is there another method for doing a hardened surface when using Photoreal scenery as a base?

 

[Navy Chief]

Didn't Vought Corporation share a part of that airfield?

I got these pictures from the Vought Heritage website:

http://www.voughtaircraft.com/museum/index.htm

But there's another site at:

http://www.voughtaircraft.com/heritage/

 

[falcon409]

Chief, there's a pic once you enter the first links website. In the upper right, there is a small shot and you can make out an airfield and the Chance/Vought plant in the foreground. . .if you were to pan to the left, you'd eventually see DFW Airport. The airfield that's shown in that photo is the old Navy Dallas rwy and parking ramps. They moved to NAS Ft Worth (Carswell AFB) and I believe the old airfield is vacant right now.

I don't know who claims Vought really, because they are centrally located between Dallas and Ft Worth. Maybe someone down in that area might know more. Michael maybe?

 

[Meshman]

Thanks! I do have a question though, I have stayed away from doing an AFCAD for the time being, but I need to get that in the works as well. This may sound dumb, but do I just draw in the taxiways and ramps in AFX as usual, or is there another method for doing a hardened surface when using Photoreal scenery as a base?

The hardened surface is the AirportBackground_Flatten made with SBX. Photo scenery is just a "texture" to FSX and lays on top of the terrain, flattened or not, just as the default textures do.

Now when you make the jump to Gmax runways and taxiways, it'll be a different story (somewhat). But I figure that's a good two, three weeks away before you fire up Gmax...

 

[falcon409]

Well, as is the case with me, if something bad can happen. . .it will. Yesterday I posted a thread about how the J: drive(my external drive), where most of my scenery programs are located, suddenly decided to switch from J: to K: because I had plugged in my iPod to download some music and the external drive wasn't online.

Wellll, that meant that now every program on the J: drive is looking for something it can't find. It took me a while, but I was finally able to find everything SBuilderX was looking for and get the drive letters changed over. Then when I opened the job for Carswell, it tells me the bmp is in error and "will" be deleted. . .what?. . .and there's no option other than "ok", no "cancel" or anything, just "ok". So it deletes the "map". Now I have a real nice flatten and nothing else. I've gotta go back and load the background, make the map from the background, color correct, darken, adjust, etc. Geeze.

 

[jdhaenens]

In other words, yes. Go ahead and make the runways and taxiways with ADE or some other FSX capable AFCAD replacement. If the concrete and asphalt seem to be at a drastically different altitude than the scenery, post and we (probably Meshman 'cause that's one of his specialties and I don't use Sbuilder) will help.

 

[Meshman]

When SBX mentions it's deleting the MAP or background image, it's just from the opened project file. The MAP should still be sitting in the \Tools\Work folder or whatever folder you might have it stored in. You can use the File | Add Map function to bring it back in.

 

[Bone]

Chief, there's a pic once you enter the first links website. In the upper right, there is a small shot and you can make out an airfield and the Chance/Vought plant in the foreground. . .if you were to pan to the left, you'd eventually see DFW Airport. The airfield that's shown in that photo is the old Navy Dallas rwy and parking ramps. They moved to NAS Ft Worth (Carswell AFB) and I believe the old airfield is vacant right now.

I don't know who claims Vought really, because they are centrally located between Dallas and Ft Worth. Maybe someone down in that area might know more. Michael maybe?

Grand Prairie, Texas

 

[falcon409]

Bingo, couldn't think of it, thanks Bone.:ernae:

 

[tigisfat]

Isn't there a scenery design program that lets you build on top of your new photoscenery so it matches?

 

[falcon409]

Isn't there a scenery design program that lets you build on top of your new photo scenery so it matches?

I don't know really, I do know that building the aprons, etc over the photo scenery sucks. Not that it's difficult, just that it ruins the look of the actual photo texturing. Covering the ramp areas with a flat color kills the whole reason for using photo real scenery. I'm gonna have to step back and consider another option cause this ain't happenin'.

 

[tigisfat]

I don't know really, I do know that building the aprons, etc over the photo scenery sucks. Not that it's difficult, just that it ruins the look of the actual photo texturing. Covering the ramp areas with a flat color kills the whole reason for using photo real scenery. I'm gonna have to step back and consider another option cause this ain't happenin'.

I'd do both, plus edit the pics you're using for your ground textures. Check out all the ORBX airports, they're amazing and use edited photoscenery and some flat ramps. I think they clean up taxiway edges, plus they use grass to help edge taxiways in.

 

[falcon409]

I'd do both, plus edit the pics you're using for your ground textures. Check out all the ORBX airports, they're amazing and use edited photoscenery and some flat ramps. I think they clean up taxiway edges, plus they use grass to help edge taxiways in.

There were several things that bothered me about the drawn in aprons. . .one was that from the air the difference between the photoimage and the flat color stands out like a neon sign. . .the other was the hard edges. I thought about using something to break up the edges and grass would be the obvious choice, but I have yet to find a grass object that actually works in FSX. I have several, but the alpha channel knocks out anything behind it, the effect is less than ideal.
I was all for leaving the image as is and cleaning up the edges to remove the badly "feathered" appearance when taxiing, but the aircraft kicks up dirt and dust because it isn't a hardened surface and so that doesn't work either.

Still working on it.

 

[tigisfat]

have you tried making the drawn taxiways slimmer so that some of the unreinforced concrete photoreal stuff comes through?

One thing can realism when using photoreal paron textures is parked aircraft drawn from above, all fuzzy and whatnot.

 

[falcon409]

have you tried making the drawn taxiways slimmer so that some of the unreinforced concrete photoreal stuff comes through?

Yep, I guess it's the color that bothers me more than anything, it doesn't mesh well at all with the photoimage.

One thing can realism when using photoreal apron textures is parked aircraft drawn from above, all fuzzy and whatnot.

Yep, and if I go back to the photoimage as the base, I'll knock out the areas where aircraft show up.

The problem I'm running into now is that I'm beginning to see a drop in the framerates. There are a lot of buildings, vehicles, fences, vegetation, static aircraft, etc. and I'm not half through with it yet. By the time I'm done with this, what I'll have is a scene I can take a screen of and show everybody how it came out and that's it. The frames will be so low you won't be able to fly within 10 miles of the base without it going to a slide show.

Those small remote airfields are lookin better and better all the time. I probably won't go this extreme again.