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Hello all.
First of all, this is something that has been haunting me for years now and I finally decided to sit and address it and that is: PAVEMENT.
After seeing and trying many of the methods available to us, I have to wonder; what do you use and WHY?
So far, I've made my own textures and applied them to custom ground polygons (like in FSX days) using Blender (2.79, I KNOW!) and then inserted them as Projected Meshes. We all know the limitations here include the resolution is limited to that of base ortho, there's a lot of modeling/unwrapping, and no "live" view as you're going about your different layers. While I never came close to "mastering" this method, I still see larger developers use this method and ask myself again, WHY?
The alternative? Well, I just decided to import my own materials (albedo with comps) into a model lib and lay things down as aprons or polygons. I stack them up until I get the desired effect. I like the ability to control color, UV, opacity, etc. all in one place *and* see it LIVE within the sim which minimizes the going back and forth between software and updating textures and so forth. However, this also presented some limitations; mainly just the limitations of the Project Editor, albeit I'm grateful to see ongoing progress.
That all said, after being on a development hiatus for the past year, I'd really like to take the opportunity to approach this with a fresh set of eyes and with more of an open mind. I want to revisit the idea of creating ground polygons within (an updated!) Blender or 3DSMax. While I find a lot of older tutorials and guides, newer content seems to be limited and what is available only tends to cover only a part of the process.
So far, I've been doing them as Bill Womack recommended in his tutorial videos, but they are now quite dated. (see videos here:
)
This tutorial by Austin Saas is also a gem, but again, from almost 10 years ago.
I noticed the addition of GEOMETRY NODES to Blender and it really made me think: There's got to be an updated and more efficient way of to create these ground polys. While perhaps this video might not be the answer, it sure does make me curious as what addons, tools, or other tricks might be out there to help us efficiently create ground polys.
Again, I'm curious as to why/how some of the big title names still use the ground poly method and also some of the pros and cons you see to the various methods. Lastly, what do you specifically use? We live in an interesting age where technology causes my brain to itch with the question: How can we use all available tools to best use?!
Thanks for reading this. The purpose of this is to open the floor to sharing ideas and workflows as I believe this is still an area that needs addressing. Lets come together and hopefully help each other improve our workflows.
Thanks again!
First of all, this is something that has been haunting me for years now and I finally decided to sit and address it and that is: PAVEMENT.
After seeing and trying many of the methods available to us, I have to wonder; what do you use and WHY?
So far, I've made my own textures and applied them to custom ground polygons (like in FSX days) using Blender (2.79, I KNOW!) and then inserted them as Projected Meshes. We all know the limitations here include the resolution is limited to that of base ortho, there's a lot of modeling/unwrapping, and no "live" view as you're going about your different layers. While I never came close to "mastering" this method, I still see larger developers use this method and ask myself again, WHY?
The alternative? Well, I just decided to import my own materials (albedo with comps) into a model lib and lay things down as aprons or polygons. I stack them up until I get the desired effect. I like the ability to control color, UV, opacity, etc. all in one place *and* see it LIVE within the sim which minimizes the going back and forth between software and updating textures and so forth. However, this also presented some limitations; mainly just the limitations of the Project Editor, albeit I'm grateful to see ongoing progress.
That all said, after being on a development hiatus for the past year, I'd really like to take the opportunity to approach this with a fresh set of eyes and with more of an open mind. I want to revisit the idea of creating ground polygons within (an updated!) Blender or 3DSMax. While I find a lot of older tutorials and guides, newer content seems to be limited and what is available only tends to cover only a part of the process.
So far, I've been doing them as Bill Womack recommended in his tutorial videos, but they are now quite dated. (see videos here:
This tutorial by Austin Saas is also a gem, but again, from almost 10 years ago.
I noticed the addition of GEOMETRY NODES to Blender and it really made me think: There's got to be an updated and more efficient way of to create these ground polys. While perhaps this video might not be the answer, it sure does make me curious as what addons, tools, or other tricks might be out there to help us efficiently create ground polys.
Again, I'm curious as to why/how some of the big title names still use the ground poly method and also some of the pros and cons you see to the various methods. Lastly, what do you specifically use? We live in an interesting age where technology causes my brain to itch with the question: How can we use all available tools to best use?!
Thanks for reading this. The purpose of this is to open the floor to sharing ideas and workflows as I believe this is still an area that needs addressing. Lets come together and hopefully help each other improve our workflows.
Thanks again!
