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Finally got a few somewhat simple building models to import and display in P3D for my first airport scenery project. Have been experimenting with different texturing workflows, and unsure what is best for more complex buildings. So far nothing added has a noticeable framerate hit, but have many more buildings to add if the sim (& not so current hardware) can handle it. I hope to eventually create professional looking sceneries, even if only for personal use. Have become somewhat spoiled with the likes of FSDT, Flightbeam, FlyTampa, etc., and have the rendering ability to create really nice still architectural visualizations. Applying that to a simulation environment obviously is different. I have looked at the way several of the better payware scenery devs model & texture their buildings, and also explored the default scenery textures and have the ADE and MAIW scenery library objects.
Can anyone share some knowledge on what is most time effective for creating great textures? I assume the payware textures are originally created an a much higher resolution than 1024 or 2048, and downsampled for the scenery, correct? If working on a building with details such as window / curtainwall mullions or door frames they are only one pixel wide if at 1024, not to mention wall panel joints which seem to be OK as just grey lines. These details seem obviously only for terminals, support buildings & hangars adjacent to the flightline and runways for me, & everything else in the distance just basic colors with grunge, etc.
So, does everyone actually model doors, windows, wall textures (i.e. brick, block, glass, roof shingles/tiles, etc.) with relief, render to an elevation view using basic ambient lighting with minimal/no shadows, then take into Photoshop or other 3rd party software to clean up / enhance the elevation before mapping to a mass model? OR, do you just create the" painted" wall with all elements as just a decal from the beginning in Photoshop using door, window, building detail decals, etc., and apply to the mass model that was create without details? I can see some advantages to both, but being somewhat of a "purist" I think the rendered scene is more realistic, BUT does it matter at the scale and timeframe they are viewed in the sim? It seems double effort to model building details to render bitmap /DDS decals, then have a separate low-poly mass model to apply Photoshop refined decals to all surfaces, but maybe that is still the quickest and best results route. Maybe, I'm just not good enough yet at Photoshop to create just as realistic looking decal textures from scratch?
I am somewhat amazed at some of the modeling details for some payware that is not noticeable unless you are literally walking, or driving a car / support vehicle around the streets of the airport (which I did... HA!) they are so far from the aircraft paths. Nice work, but not sure I need to do that for flight only interest, aside from arrival & departure taxiing.
Thanks in advance for your input and recommendations.
Can anyone share some knowledge on what is most time effective for creating great textures? I assume the payware textures are originally created an a much higher resolution than 1024 or 2048, and downsampled for the scenery, correct? If working on a building with details such as window / curtainwall mullions or door frames they are only one pixel wide if at 1024, not to mention wall panel joints which seem to be OK as just grey lines. These details seem obviously only for terminals, support buildings & hangars adjacent to the flightline and runways for me, & everything else in the distance just basic colors with grunge, etc.
So, does everyone actually model doors, windows, wall textures (i.e. brick, block, glass, roof shingles/tiles, etc.) with relief, render to an elevation view using basic ambient lighting with minimal/no shadows, then take into Photoshop or other 3rd party software to clean up / enhance the elevation before mapping to a mass model? OR, do you just create the" painted" wall with all elements as just a decal from the beginning in Photoshop using door, window, building detail decals, etc., and apply to the mass model that was create without details? I can see some advantages to both, but being somewhat of a "purist" I think the rendered scene is more realistic, BUT does it matter at the scale and timeframe they are viewed in the sim? It seems double effort to model building details to render bitmap /DDS decals, then have a separate low-poly mass model to apply Photoshop refined decals to all surfaces, but maybe that is still the quickest and best results route. Maybe, I'm just not good enough yet at Photoshop to create just as realistic looking decal textures from scratch?
I am somewhat amazed at some of the modeling details for some payware that is not noticeable unless you are literally walking, or driving a car / support vehicle around the streets of the airport (which I did... HA!) they are so far from the aircraft paths. Nice work, but not sure I need to do that for flight only interest, aside from arrival & departure taxiing.
Thanks in advance for your input and recommendations.