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FSXA GP Line Backing Texture

A

art209

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637
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unitedstates
When I create a line for a taxiway shoulder, the painted line pattern is fine but the asphalt backing texture is stretched the length of the line. What am I doing wrong? I see in the definition files that the taxiway shoulder texture is 100F and the asphalt texture is 20F, but I assume that the GP editor takes this into consideration and tiles the line accordingly. A GP editor window screenshot is attached.

Art
 

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Sorry Art, the dimensions assigned to dimensioned textures are nominal and apply only to the initial application. After that, you are free to stretch, reduce, rotate, etc. as you wish.

Based on your screenshot of the GP editor, it appears you are going to get 19 perpendicular lines along what I assume is a taxiway shoulder which, presumably, you intend to superimpose on a asphalt poly of the same size. If you used a gp_asphalt ... texture for the shoulder, you would have created that poly separately from the horizontal lines and, presumably, when you did, the initially displayed size of the texture was very small.

Since you are dealing with two separate polys and two different textures, its not clear what you see as the underlying problem. If you are saying the gp_asphalt texture was stretched along the entire 1878' of the poly without your intervention, then please try to create a sequence of operations to demonstrate.

Don
 
Thanks for replying Don.

gadgets said:
If you are saying the gp_asphalt texture was stretched along the entire 1878' of the poly without your intervention, then please try to create a sequence of operations to demonstrate.
Click to expand...

It's probably more like the 20F asphalt texture is stretched to 100F like the shoulder marking texture, but I tried substituting a larger asphalt backing texture to match the 100F shoulder marking and got the same result. Anyway, I have given up on using the backing texture feature and just created a separate taxiway shoulder texture that includes the asphalt instead of an alpha channel and it works fine.

Art
 
I just re-read your earlier post, Art, and noticed the words "line" and "backing". I had earlier (carelessly) inferred from you screenshot that you were applying the textures to two individual polys - for reasons you'll appreciate in a moment.

Recognizing what you were actually saying, I now understand the underlying issue. That "perpendicular line" texture is not intended to have backing applied. It is meant to be used standalone, either over the shoulder area of a taxiway, an apron intended to serve that purpose or a separate GP. "Backing" is intended to be used with narrow lines such as a yellow parking lead-in line whose width and visibility are to be enhanced by a wider, black line underneath.

I need to take a close look at that particular section of the code - and perhaps implement the ability to do what you initially tried.

I can see that your use of a dedicated texture takes care of your situation. The texture supplied with ADE-GP uses an alpha channel so that it can work with any background (but, of course, requires that a background be provided).

Thanks for pointing out the problem.

Don
 
Yes, we now understand each other. It had just occurred to me to use the gp line for taxiway shoulder paving instead of adding paving and then applying the lines. I don't know how others do shoulders, but this is much easier for me than what I was doing.

taxiway_shoulder_fsx.JPGgp_TwyShoulderLine_100F.jpg line_definition.JPG
 
Art, I've taken a quick look at the code. I've been able to duplicate the issue (easily) and I have confirmed there's a problem with the scaling of the backing texture. Fixing it may be somewhat more difficult. However, I'm confident I can make it work.

Don
 
Thanks for the tools you provide and the upgrades. If the backing texture feature creates two stacked polys, I suppose making a new line texture with the background incorporated is more efficient as far as the final result even thought it's a little more work and less flexible.

Art
 
No new textures should be required. ADE-GP is in fact creating a second (background) poly for you and then overlaying it with the one to which the transparent shoulder texture has been applied. The problem, as you've discovered, is the background texture is incorrectly scaled. Once I fix that, your original approach of creating a single line in ADE will work.
 
Yes, I understand. The point I was trying to make was that, even though it was more work to create, the use of a single poly should be better for frame rates in FSX, and making a new texture might pay off in performance when the line is used extensively in the scenery. Not to say that use of lines with a backing texture is not appropriate with less repeated usage.

Does it not take FSX twice as long to draw a line poly with a backing poly than to draw a line poly with the background in the texture?

Art
 
Not sure where the "more work" comes in, since you are only drawing a single line/poly. Regarding FPS, yes, I agree, one poly is better than two. But, if you use a single poly/texture, you are going to need a separate texture for each background. If users want to go to the trouble of creating such textures, ADE will support that approach. But I'm going to stick with the current transparent texture approach as the base since it is the most general case and can be applied over anything - or, as you have discovered, have a custom backing applied by ADE-GP (once I fix the scaling issue).

Don
 
gadgets said:
If users want to go to the trouble of creating such textures, ADE will support that approach.
Click to expand...

That's what I meant by "more work", not something you want to do for one time or few usages. Being able to add a backing texture to a line texture is definitely easier and a great added feature.

Art
 
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