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Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:
- Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
- Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
- Questions about aircraft design can be posted in the Aircraft design forum
- Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
- Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
- Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.
Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.
By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.
Kden
- Thread starter cscboulder11
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And the ALS 5 light bar -
hcornea
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Great start.
With Denver being a large airport it would be good to learn up about minimising drawcalls.
Basically, this involves reducing the number of materials you use, and sharing like materials between objects.
It is much better, in order to do this, to use textures rather than solid colours.
Off to a great start ...
With Denver being a large airport it would be good to learn up about minimising drawcalls.
Basically, this involves reducing the number of materials you use, and sharing like materials between objects.
It is much better, in order to do this, to use textures rather than solid colours.
Off to a great start ...
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My plan is to get everything modeled, build the airport, and then see what frames are like. That should give me a good idea of what I need to do. The textured models will go in the sim, and I've kept a copy of the original model to allow for easier editing, if need be.
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also, it looks like those objects have some detailed cylinders... be carefull, cylinders are polygon magnets... watch your poly counts....
i say it alot to folks, but remember... model poor and texture rich!!!! only model detail where you 'have' to... it will keep fps smoooooth... detail is nice, but will kill the beauty of an airport if it murders frames!!!
if your doing a large field, be sure to keep in mind the 'entire' project poly counts... they WILL add up on you fast!!!!
good luck, keep us up to date on your progress...
i say it alot to folks, but remember... model poor and texture rich!!!! only model detail where you 'have' to... it will keep fps smoooooth... detail is nice, but will kill the beauty of an airport if it murders frames!!!
if your doing a large field, be sure to keep in mind the 'entire' project poly counts... they WILL add up on you fast!!!!
good luck, keep us up to date on your progress...
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also, it looks like those objects have some detailed cylinders... be carefull, cylinders are polygon magnets... watch your poly counts....
i say it alot to folks, but remember... model poor and texture rich!!!! only model detail where you 'have' to... it will keep fps smoooooth... detail is nice, but will kill the beauty of an airport if it murders frames!!!
if your doing a large field, be sure to keep in mind the 'entire' project poly counts... they WILL add up on you fast!!!!
good luck, keep us up to date on your progress...
I'm still quite new to the modeling world (in fact, these are the only models I've made in Gmax). Now where did I put that conversion chart...
And another new model; a center taxi light -
It only looks big. It's really just under an inch tall.
This one was tricky to figure out. I was basing it off this -
I know it's not an exact model, but I didn't feel like messing with the extra slopes over something so tiny. Basically I just made a middle box (green) to be the bridge, modeled where the lights will go (blue), and then split a cone to make the sides. I then put a 1/100th inch thick (.254 mm) box on the bottom (light blue).
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hcornea
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OK ... here's a case in point.
If I may, here's a recent user's screenshot showing one of the taxilights in my scenery,
Yeah, it's a cheat. Most things in Flightsim are. Personally, I considered the polys on this an extravagance ... but it doesn't have all that many as an isolated object. It has 12, and more importantly ... a single drawcall. FSX measures in tverts (this object has a few of those, .. lets say 40)
The problem is ... how many of these objects are you going to have on your airport? The answer is LOTS!
Consider a drawcall buffer (single material) can display 65535 tverts. How many of your taxilights can you place on that basis? My model can be placed = 65535 / 40 = 1600 times (for arguments sake)
Design for minimal drawcalls from the outset. Simplify the geometry, make the texture work for you ... and you will get a usable result.
Nowhere does this matter more than on a large airport ... you have to be ruthless and cunning to conserve resources.
Sadly, no-one (or at least very few poeple) will inspect your beautiful taxilights, but they will complain about poor performance!
If I may, here's a recent user's screenshot showing one of the taxilights in my scenery,
Yeah, it's a cheat. Most things in Flightsim are. Personally, I considered the polys on this an extravagance ... but it doesn't have all that many as an isolated object. It has 12, and more importantly ... a single drawcall. FSX measures in tverts (this object has a few of those, .. lets say 40)
The problem is ... how many of these objects are you going to have on your airport? The answer is LOTS!
Consider a drawcall buffer (single material) can display 65535 tverts. How many of your taxilights can you place on that basis? My model can be placed = 65535 / 40 = 1600 times (for arguments sake)
Design for minimal drawcalls from the outset. Simplify the geometry, make the texture work for you ... and you will get a usable result.
Nowhere does this matter more than on a large airport ... you have to be ruthless and cunning to conserve resources.
Sadly, no-one (or at least very few poeple) will inspect your beautiful taxilights, but they will complain about poor performance!
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"Sadly, no-one (or at least very few people) will inspect your beautiful taxilights, but they will complain about poor performance!"
-wise words
-wise words
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I'm still working on details for now and as the airport goes along, I'll see if I want to cut out any objects completely. For textures, I am keeping it down. I also want to export the final models to Blender to bake them which I've heard improves performance.
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As was stated, texture baking itself doesn't improve performance. That being said, you will be able to get the same effect as having shadows turned on in FSX, which DOES decrease performance (and I personally think baking looks better too.) So it isn't as much of a frame improver as it is a frame "saver"...
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The ALS models are basically finished. Once the 5-light bar (above) was made, it was a cinch to modify it into a 3 and 2 light bar (and a flasher attached for the ALSF-2 approaches). I've also done the runway start lights, so I can just copy off those. Now I'm just debating whether I want to build the entire system in one file or place each bar myself.
I think next up is the taxi sign boxes.
I think next up is the taxi sign boxes.
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I'll add you to the beta list. PM me your email. No date set on the beta yet.
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So I've been making a list of all the taxi signs I would need to make... my reaction to just how many - 
Updates are going to be slow until I finish them all. I want to do them all in one go since if I just do part and come back, I know I'll forget some.
I also updated the taxi sign to remove those mounts. It's a nice detail, but when you have so many, I need to trim it down. Export tests are coming soon and I'll post pictures from that.
Updates are going to be slow until I finish them all. I want to do them all in one go since if I just do part and come back, I know I'll forget some.I also updated the taxi sign to remove those mounts. It's a nice detail, but when you have so many, I need to trim it down. Export tests are coming soon and I'll post pictures from that.
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Textured and flattened the center taxi light so it better blends in. It will be used for all center lights and runway lights.
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Took a break so I don't get bored of the project. I got down all of the gate numbers and the airlines assigned to them, and all gates will have parking spaces in the AFCAD file, along with some GA parking spaces (10 or so should work). The cargo aprons will also have parking spaces, although it won't have all of them, the primary reason being to have space for the user on VATSIM.
I'm still working on getting all the signs I need, and then it's off to make the textures and base model for them.
I'm still working on getting all the signs I need, and then it's off to make the textures and base model for them.
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Taxi sign -
The front is actually 3 faces to allow for 3 textures (current path, next path, and directional arrow). Getting the textures right is a bigger pain than I thought it was going to be. Yes, I know RW signs have all manner of things sticking out, but in the interest of frames, I left them out.
The front is actually 3 faces to allow for 3 textures (current path, next path, and directional arrow). Getting the textures right is a bigger pain than I thought it was going to be. Yes, I know RW signs have all manner of things sticking out, but in the interest of frames, I left them out.
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