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MSFS24 Fake terrain material blend & rain and puddles effect

B

Bikuafuro

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10
Country
portugal
Hi everyone!

I'm developing an heliport and I'm having some problems with regards to using custom meshes for the ground. The problem is that when using a custom mesh with the fake terrain material applied I couldn't find a way to seamlessly blend this custom mesh with the existing terrain.

I've tried with alpha blending, decals etc... with no luck. Using the albedo map with transparency was the one that gave me a close to perfect result but I get some artifacts in the transition zone, a sort of shadow, although I've checked "Don't cast shadow" in the material parameters.

Another problem that I'm having is regarding the rain effects and puddles when there's rain in sim. The fake terrain material is not producing the wet effect like the default terrain, even though I've read somewhere that this should happen. Do I need to do anything do make this effect work?

Thanks in advance.
 

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Hello:

You may wish to review a MSFS video tutorial by Federico Pinotti (aka "mamu") linked in the context of the threads cited here:

https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/t...es-to-textures-in-sketchup.460121/post-934645

While the Material type which is the subject of mamu's video is vegetation, IIUC, any projected mesh may also be color matched.


Also, IIRC, use of "Offsets" at boundaries of Polygons allow their Materials to be blended via overlaps.


I have not yet tested "Offset" blending (2) adjacent Materials intended to display (2) different Asphalt stone granularity sizes.

A stone granularity size "bump map" displacement modifier is a visual effect imposed on texture Material rendered in MSFS


It is possible that like IRL, an abrupt transition from one Asphalt stone granularity size type to another may look more realistic.




Regarding the MSFS "rain" "wet" and "puddle" topics, here are some threads I researched and cited:

https://www.google.com/search?q=site:+www.fsdeveloper.com+GaryGB+rain+wet+puddle&client=firefox-b-1-d&hs=JxGp&sca_esv=c1cfdfa4ee1befca&ei=UXF_acGTM96JptQPkYTJgQQ&ved=0ahUKEwiBgPz2zbiSAxXehIkEHRFCMkAQ4dUDCBM&oq=site:+www.fsdeveloper.com+GaryGB+rain+wet+puddle&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiMHNpdGU6IHd3dy5mc2RldmVsb3Blci5jb20gR2FyeUdCIHJhaW4gd2V0IHB1ZGRsZTIFECEYoAEyBRAhGKABMgUQIRigATIFECEYoAEyBRAhGKABSLUWUNEEWJEMcAF4AJABAJgBYqABvwGqAQEyuAEMyAEA-AEB-AECmAICoALIAcICBRAhGKsCmAMAiAYBkgcDMS4xoAfwCrIHAzEuMbgHyAHCBwUwLjEuMcgHBoAIAQ&sclient=gws-wiz-serp

GaryGB
 
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Thanks for the guidance @GaryGB!

Regarding the blend material, I'm aware that I can blend materials in sim dev mode with polygons and aprons. But in my case I'm using a mesh modeled in blender so I can have a step from one terrain level to the other. The problem surges when the geometry modeled in blender using the fake terrain material doesn't match the one applied to an apron in sim, as expected, therefore my need to use some king of blend between both surfaces.

Unfortunately I don't think there's a way to apply a projected mesh or a material using polygons or aprons objects in top of an imported custom 3d mesh, like for example with decals.

I could model the entire apron in 3d to solve this problem but then I get the problem with the rain and wet effect not being displayed on the custom 3d geometry, like in default ground surfaces.
 
Normally, for FS2Kx, I would use a 3D model for the entire Helipad area; but MSFS Material blending is still poorly documented.

Until we know more of methods required to create a "projected mesh" Material blend between default MSFS terrain mesh and an imported 3D model Helipad G-Poly that also allows display of a (relatively 'transient') "wet-in-rain" effect, you could try Terraforming Rectangles, as Terra-forming Rectangles in layers may allow for straight upper-level edges instead of using a 3D model sloped surface adjacent to the 'step':


https://docs.flightsimulator.com/html/Developer_Mode/Scenery_Editor/Objects/Rectangle_Objects.htm

"IMPORTANT! When stacking terraforming rectangles, the falloff will only be used for the lowest priority rectangle. All rectangles on top will have their falloff behave as if it was set to 0 and so give the sharpest transition possible"



That may allow positioning of your own 3D objects used to replace the central MSFS default Helipad extent area, while also allowing "Terrain Skirts" along edges of custom 3D objects in order to overlap both sloped terrain surface and 'step' area edges.


You may wish to test what minimum size a "Priority 0" Terra-forming Rectangle may use when placed in a 'stack' under super-imposed higher Priority Terra-forming Rectangles ...in order to eliminate having sloped edges in central Helipad flatten areas.

However, IIUC, Terra-forming Rectangles in lower stack priority layers via their 'offset', may also allow use of sloped edges 'peripheral to' ...central Helipad flatten areas. :idea:


So, in summary, I would try layered Terra-forming Rectangles, and then place a flat 3D model Helipad on top of its central area.


Note that in later 2025 there were updates to MSFS 2024 SDK Docs on FLIGHTSIM MATERIAL TEXTURES > faketerrain

https://docs.flightsimulator.com/ms...htm#standard-decal-porthole-glass-faketerrain



If a flat 3D model Helipad does not appear "wet-in-Rain", try using Projected Mesh, as that is still high resolution terrain imagery in MSFS.


Note that in later 2025 there were updates to MSFS 2024 SDK Docs on PROJECTED MESH OBJECTS: ;)

https://docs.flightsimulator.com/ms...nery_Editor/Objects/ProjectedMesh_Objects.htm

"If several meshes are drawn on top of each other, they must have different priorities. The lowest priority is rendered first and higher priorities are rendered over it. By default, they are drawn below every other object in the airport, although this behavior can be changed with the Draw Before option in the Properties."


GaryGB
 
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Thanks very much for the info @GaryGB!

I'll do some tests and see if I can get the step without the use of that ground geometry to hide the transition from the terrain levels and will report back with my findings. That would be the ideal solution.

What I found so far was that I always get a smooth slope between the different terrain heights, given that the difference in height is quite low (from 0.5m to 1m), but will do some more tests with this new info and hope it works.
 
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