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Ground illumination P3D V4

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19
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belgium
Hello guys

I'd like to create ground illumination for P3D V4 (creating the illusion that it's coming from light poles), if possible with airport design editor, which, of course, only shows up at night. If needed I could use sketchup as well. The GP manual of ADE, in contrast to the general manual, is very vague about this. It includes having to use Gmax, which is an old program and I'd rather not use. To be clear, I do NOT want dynamic lighting, just a texture on the ground that looks like it (I'd be able to create the texture myself). I'm already trying this for 2 days, without success.

Looking forward to your answers and kind regards
Aderik Verraest

Verstuurd vanaf mijn H3113 met Tapatalk
 
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168
Can you make your day and _lm (night) texture, but give the day texture a 100% alpha, so it is invisible in the day?
 

gadgets

Resource contributor
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9,388
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ca-britishcolumbia
The GP manual of ADE ... is very vague about this.
On the contrary, it is quite specific. It says GPs for illumination such as is displayed in the manual "would be difficult to create solely with ADE" and explains why. It then goes on to say the author created the GPs used for illustration with Gmax and then gives explicit instructions for the user to do so.

However, the limitation referred to in that explanation no longer exists if you are using a recent version of ADE that supports transparency in displayed polys. I'll update the user manual accordingly.

Gmax … is an old program and I'd rather not use.
What's your concern with age? It's capability that's important. While admittedly, Gmax is getting a bit "long in the tooth", it includes far more capability that most of us will ever need and, in association with the FSX Gamepack, is quite suitable for creating all but the most esoteric scenery for P3D.

Don
 

tgibson

Resource contributor
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11,327
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us-california
If you want to use another tool, you can use Sketchup, Blender, etc., Import them into ModelConverterX, and use the Ground Polygon Wizard to create them there.
 
Messages
19
Country
belgium
First of all, thanks for the replies and sorry for my late reply.
I tried some things. It seems to be working via modelconverterx, though, it does give me a problem. I found 3 options:
1) I create NON-FS8 style ground polies and add the night texture via modelconverterx. This gives me a nice night texture, but, somehow, it takes a loading time on HDD drives (causing a loading terrain data of about 10-15 minutes when starting your flight at the airport, or causing black ground polies when flying back to the airport).
2) I create FS8-style ground polies. Everything works fine. But somehow, the night texture uses the alpha texture of the day texture, causing me to see nothing. (I tested this by using a different alpha texture).
3) The normal ground poly is FS8-style, reducing the loading time. The night texture poly is a NON-FS8-style poly. Problem: I can't get the NON-FS8 poly over the FS8 poly, no matter how high I put it. When turning off the FS8 poly, it shows up.
In all cases I used the modelconverterx ground polygon wizard for the night texture polygon.
Any solutions?
Kind regards
Aderik Verraest
 

gadgets

Resource contributor
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9,388
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ca-britishcolumbia
Aderik, you seem to have made this an apparently much more complex issue than it need be.

Re your numbering:
1) I can't comment on using MCX. You shouldn't have to.
2) How can it be that "Everything works fine" but you see nothing?
3) You're "mixing apples and oranges" and maybe using both red and green apples.

Forget MCX and the Gmax reference for the moment. What happens if you create simple poly in ADE and then follow the instructions in the ADE-GP manual for illumination GPs? Also, have you considered that it may be your textures that are at fault? For test purposes, try using stock textures.

Don
 
Messages
19
Country
belgium
Hello

In fact, the easiest way (for me at least) would be to know what is causing the loading time. (The standard ground poly is exported by ADE, and even without the other night lighting GP it's the same: way too long loading times.)

Do you have any experience with this?

Aderik
 

gadgets

Resource contributor
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9,388
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ca-britishcolumbia
Don't see any connection between ground illumination and loading times. You're only creating a single GP. There is no basis for me to even guess at the cause of the extended loading time.

To diagnose this yourself, if you are sure the problem lies with ADE_GP, temporarily delete the ADE-generated .bgls with the name suffixed with "_GP", check that problem has gone away and then re-instate those files one-by-one until the problem recurs. Then you at least know which file to investigate.

The only way I can be of further help is if you attempt to create the night illumination solely with ADE-GP (i.e., no use of MCX) and answer both the questions in my previous post. Then, if the results are not as expected, send me the .ad4 file and any custom textures you may have added. Please don't send me anything until you've actually tried it yourself.

Don
 
Messages
19
Country
belgium
I only have one _GP (I disabled the ground illumination testing things, so this is just a standard ground polygon generated by ADE). It gives me the following problems (see pictures). Watch the framerate as well.
1547749580054.png

1547749601236.png

1547749635305.png

Instead of... (Just a part of it, but I guess you get the picture now...). This is after loading it from the start of the scenario. The loading time is about 15-20 minutes instead of 5.
1547749725383.png

Aderik
 

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Messages
19
Country
belgium
Aderik, you seem to have made this an apparently much more complex issue than it need be.


2) How can it be that "Everything works fine" but you see nothing?


Don
I just don't see the night lighting. All the rest shows up. My bad, wrong formulation.
 

gadgets

Resource contributor
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9,388
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ca-britishcolumbia
JetairFly 773, you keep asking for help; I respond with a list of things I need to help you; you send me something else. If you want further help, please focus.

It gives me the following problems (see pictures). Watch the framerate as well.

The loading time is about 15-20 minutes instead of 5.
I have no idea to what problems you are referring. At to the framerate and long load times, I suggest you look at the disk usage shown by the task manager. Load times should be in the order of seconds (in my case, about 15), not minutes. You appear to have hardware problems.

Don
 
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