MSFS20 Painted lines - taxi, edge lines, etc - can we create a custom texture sheet for custom lines?

[astaticmusic]

As we have been able to do with programs like ADE, where you can create your own custom taxi lines..etc. - lines that will follow a curve - (being the most important thing to clarify here)
Is it possible to this in msfs? is there a texture sheet or somewhere we can add one? Has anyone managed to do this yet?

It would be nice to see some better, more appropriate lines able to be made, instead of the plain yellow (yellow with the black border for example)

 

[RJC0235]

Is this what you were thinking?

 

[astaticmusic]

Yes! that's the ticket!
Thank you!

 

[astaticmusic]

Hi everyone,
The custom lines work, but for some reason they are SUPER jagged, even though this is a 2048 texture sheet, i cant seem to get them to smooth out. here's the example.

would anyone have any idea how to sharpen these up?
Thanks!

 

[astaticmusic]

here is a close up.

 

[RJC0235]

Odd, I have seen other people (possibly you posting elsewhere) that line textures are very jagged. I think it may be to do with how it applies the textures of the lines. I think it applies them to a grid, so if your curve goes the wrong way to the grid, it looks quite bad. Do your default lines look like that? It could be you are putting too much detail into a texture that was originally designed for big block colours

 

[astaticmusic]

Hi,
Nope there's not a crazy amount of detail going into it, just simply replacing the default texture sheet with a modified one, using more than 2 colors now, using 3.
this is perplexing.

modified vs. the asobo original sheet.

i tried making the sheet huge, but it made very little difference if any at all. it seems the sim is locked in at using a certain resolution when it projects a texture. I wonder if theres a way to change the projection level.

 

[Tangerine]

Hi,
Nope there's not a crazy amount of detail going into it, just simply replacing the default texture sheet with a modified one, using more than 2 colors now, using 3.
this is perplexing.
View attachment 63986

View attachment 63987

modified vs. the asobo original sheet.

i tried making the sheet huge, but it made very little difference if any at all. it seems the sim is locked in at using a certain resolution when it projects a texture. I wonder if theres a way to change the projection level.

Take a look at this thread:

MSFS20 - Apron Textures

So...at the moment i'm trying my best to make my apron ground poly made in Blender (Projected Mesh) look good with a PBR material from Substance Painter. And it doesnt even look good at all, not even 4096x4096. So i'm probably missing some important information regarding how to handle these type...

www.fsdeveloper.com

 

[astaticmusic]

Well thats unfortunate.
I usually do all the markings on the ground poly, but i was hoping to get a nice result from the new sdk version tools.
its gonna be a tough decision whether or not to just use these as is, or project the whole thing...and my project is XTRA large...hmmmmmmm.
Thank you for the insights!

 

[Tangerine]

Well thats unfortunate.
I usually do all the markings on the ground poly, but i was hoping to get a nice result from the new sdk version tools.
its gonna be a tough decision whether or not to just use these as is, or project the whole thing...and my project is XTRA large...hmmmmmmm.
Thank you for the insights!

I use ground polys with Projected Mesh in the sim, but still cannot get good resolution in the taxi lines.

 

[Tangerine]

Regarding Texture quality between Projected Mesh vs Apron, nowadays since the last patch it seems the same.
So my approach is going to be Projected Mesh for the apron + Painted Lines with IN-Sim Tools.

 

[pbeeby]

........@Tangerine, in your Image above of the 2 surfaces, it doesn't appear to show the Asobo Detail Texture blending through.
How have you done this, as every attempt I have made to put either a ProjectedMesh or Apron Surface type into the Sim, the result looks like this as taken in this shot by @astaticmusic earlier in this post ???

Kind regards,

Pete.

 

[squawkingvfr]

@astaticmusic would you be willing to share your textures at a certain point as assets people can use at their own airports? I'd love to use them for my airport project (and give appropriate credit, of course) so that I don't have to reinvent the wheel.

 

[astaticmusic]

squawkingvfr​

if you look at the two texture sheets in one of my above posts, you'll see that its super simple to make. watch the video, and he gives you a few links to thinks you can use too.

 

[Angelus1971]

Hi

I've looked everywhere but I dont seem to be able to add my own line type which is missing from the taxiway library lines. What i'm trying to do is create the following taxiway edge markings. If you have a look in the attached file there are lines with lines at right angles but there are various spaces between the lines at right angles and i cant seem to find a texture to get use or make. Its not about changing what already there, but adding a new polyline.

 

[Franzlhuber]

I get some decent results by using different texture slots for the custom markings. For example I used the "edge servide dashed" texture space for the yellow-black centerline.
See attached texture file.

Also if you just want a singe color line, just create a small png (like 256x256) in that color with like 80% transparency. Make your own material from
that png and then you can alter the line width, by trying out different line types in the properities option.

Maybe this might help some of you.

 

[flightzoomer]

I get some decent results by using different texture slots for the custom markings. For example I used the "edge servide dashed" texture space for the yellow-black centerline.

Excellent idea to use other slots. My concern would be that, that the type "Edge service dashed" is 0.61m wide, which is a bit too much for the 0.4m wide standard taxiway center line (according to this document). Therefore I am using the type "Hold Short Taxiway" as the line for the normal center line (0.45 m wide).

Here are the different widths of the various line types:

Texture layout	Width in Meters	Length in Meters	Tile	Left U	Right U	LeftUPixel	RightUPixel
CenterLineSolid ( Solid Centerline )	0.3​	25​	TRUE​	0.0625​	0.033203125​	128​	68​
EdgeLineSolid ( Solid Edge line )	0.45​	25​	TRUE​	0.11328125​	0.03125​	232​	64​
EdgeLineDashed ( Dashed Edge line )	0.45​	12​	TRUE​	0.375​	0.28125​	768​	576​
HoldShortRunway ( Hold Short, Runway )	0.9​	12.6​	TRUE​	0.2109375​	0.03125​	432​	64​
HoldShortILS ( Hold Short, ILS )	0.45​	12​	TRUE​	0.53125​	0.40625​	1088​	832​
HoldShortTaxiway ( Hold Short, Taxiway )	0.45​	12.6​	TRUE​	0.2109375​	0.17578125​	432​	360​
ServiceCenterDashed ( Dashed Service CenterLine )	0.225​	22​	TRUE​	0.712890625​	0.681640625​	1460​	1396​
ServiceEdgeSolid ( Solid Service EdgeLine )	0.3​	25​	TRUE​	0.896484375​	0.8828125​	1836​	1808​
ServiceEdgeDashed ( Dashed Service EdgeLine )	0.6098​	4.878​	TRUE​	0.71875​	0.6328125​	1472​	1296​
WideYellowLine ( Wide Yellow Line )	1.05​	25​	TRUE​	0.05859375​	0.033203125​	120​	68​
WideWhiteLine ( Wide White Line )	1.05​	25​	TRUE​	0.896484375​	0.8828125​	1836​	1808​
NonMovementBoundaryLine ( Non Movement Boundary Line )	0.9​	25​	TRUE​	0.16015625​	0.0703125​	328​	144​
EnhancedCenter ( Enhanced Center Line )	1.2​	25.62​	TRUE​	0.61328125​	0.55078125​	1256​	1128​
WideRedLine ( Colored Red Wide Line )	1.05​	25​	TRUE​	0.93359375​	0.93359375​	1912​	1912​
SlimRedLine ( Colored Red Slim Line )	0.3​	25​	TRUE​	0.93359375​	0.93359375​	1912​	1912​
SlimBlackLine ( Colored Black Slim Line )	0.3​	25​	TRUE​	0.90234375​	0.90234375​	1848​	1848​
SlimYellowLine ( Colored Yellow Slim Line )	0.3​	25​	TRUE​	0.91796875​	0.91796875​	1880​	1880​

 

[Angelus1971]

Hi

Both good ideas but they only allow modification of existing lines - I'm looking to create a proper Edge_Solid_Ortho as the line at 90 degress to the edge line is way to big, way to fat and unrealistically spaced - It needs to be variable spacing so i'd have to create a new line but have no idea how to do this unless i just put down a poly with it pre-drawn which is going to be a nightmare as there are a lot of these types of line.

 

[yorgosGK]

No matter what you really do, projected mesh or even painted Aprons overlayed, gone are the days of insanely crisp taxi lines.

Other than if you have a flat plain textured with Albedos & Roughness/Metalics and you literally go 0.01M above the ground. Or you have molded all the taxi lines with mesh and place them. Of course this introduces other issues like terraforming wont bend the mesh (and have fun trying to get the 3D model bang on), and z-index competing when you are away from the tarmac just isnt efficient at all, and by looking at the "big devs" work they have also caught this. You can go right into any aprons elements in any scenery and you still see that default bumpy normal on the ground. I guess in a way its accurate lol, I mean its ground for crying out loud.

The best solution for me is literally apron everything with comped normals and roughness and divide huge tarmacs and aprons with 4 or 5 4096 PNG's that you trace in PS. Then go in with 512x512 PNGs and overlay ground goodies or duplicated elements like cracks and stuff. You get good results and the workflow is 100x more efficient. then have a mapped line file like above to connect them. It looks pretty good!

 

[yorgosGK]

Is there anyway someone can potentially put this into a template of some sort? Properly mapping this data is kind of weird lol

Excellent idea to use other slots. My concern would be that, that the type "Edge service dashed" is 0.61m wide, which is a bit too much for the 0.4m wide standard taxiway center line (according to this document). Therefore I am using the type "Hold Short Taxiway" as the line for the normal center line (0.45 m wide).

Here are the different widths of the various line types:

Texture layout	Width in Meters	Length in Meters	Tile	Left U	Right U	LeftUPixel	RightUPixel
CenterLineSolid ( Solid Centerline )	0.3​	25​	TRUE​	0.0625​	0.033203125​	128​	68​
EdgeLineSolid ( Solid Edge line )	0.45​	25​	TRUE​	0.11328125​	0.03125​	232​	64​
EdgeLineDashed ( Dashed Edge line )	0.45​	12​	TRUE​	0.375​	0.28125​	768​	576​
HoldShortRunway ( Hold Short, Runway )	0.9​	12.6​	TRUE​	0.2109375​	0.03125​	432​	64​
HoldShortILS ( Hold Short, ILS )	0.45​	12​	TRUE​	0.53125​	0.40625​	1088​	832​
HoldShortTaxiway ( Hold Short, Taxiway )	0.45​	12.6​	TRUE​	0.2109375​	0.17578125​	432​	360​
ServiceCenterDashed ( Dashed Service CenterLine )	0.225​	22​	TRUE​	0.712890625​	0.681640625​	1460​	1396​
ServiceEdgeSolid ( Solid Service EdgeLine )	0.3​	25​	TRUE​	0.896484375​	0.8828125​	1836​	1808​
ServiceEdgeDashed ( Dashed Service EdgeLine )	0.6098​	4.878​	TRUE​	0.71875​	0.6328125​	1472​	1296​
WideYellowLine ( Wide Yellow Line )	1.05​	25​	TRUE​	0.05859375​	0.033203125​	120​	68​
WideWhiteLine ( Wide White Line )	1.05​	25​	TRUE​	0.896484375​	0.8828125​	1836​	1808​
NonMovementBoundaryLine ( Non Movement Boundary Line )	0.9​	25​	TRUE​	0.16015625​	0.0703125​	328​	144​
EnhancedCenter ( Enhanced Center Line )	1.2​	25.62​	TRUE​	0.61328125​	0.55078125​	1256​	1128​
WideRedLine ( Colored Red Wide Line )	1.05​	25​	TRUE​	0.93359375​	0.93359375​	1912​	1912​
SlimRedLine ( Colored Red Slim Line )	0.3​	25​	TRUE​	0.93359375​	0.93359375​	1912​	1912​
SlimBlackLine ( Colored Black Slim Line )	0.3​	25​	TRUE​	0.90234375​	0.90234375​	1848​	1848​
SlimYellowLine ( Colored Yellow Slim Line )	0.3​	25​	TRUE​	0.91796875​	0.91796875​	1880​	1880​