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FSX Photoreal ground: grass everywhere...

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32
Country
france
Hi all,
I've made a photoreal scenery for LFQC airport but it seems that there is default grass everywhere over the photoreal ground textures (see pic).
Is this normal, and if not, how to avoid this ?
 

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ollyau

Resource contributor
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1,026
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us-california
Try unchecking Land detail textures in your FSX display settings.
 
Messages
7,450
Country
us-illinois
Hello:

Please correct me if I am mistaken, but it looks like you are using custom photoreal textures for the RWY / Taxiway surfaces seen in the screenie. :scratchch


If that were the case, I would assume that you also used the same photoreal (1-piece ?) texture on the "grass" ground surfaces adjacent to the RWY / Taxiway.


So I'd then be compelled to inquire if perhaps you may have applied transparency (and/or a different 'degree' of transparency) to a 8-bit "Blend Mask" TIFF associated with the photoreal texture area of the "grass" ground surfaces adjacent to the RWY / Taxiway ?


You may recall that beginning with the FSX SDK, applying more than a certain degree of transparency in a "Blend Mask" associated with the photoreal texture allows underlying default textures (and even default autogen scenery objects) to be displayed by the FSX rendering engine at run time.

[EDITED]

Dick Ludowise (aka "rhumbaflappy") summarized some helpful info here:

"In order to get FSX water or land vector polys to show while using photoreal, you need to use a blend mask to create a "hole" in the photoreal. Blend masks can also create transparency. "

http://www.ptsim.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=980&p=4843



FSX - SDK Resample accepts 8-bit greyscale or a 24-bit greyscale (preferably 'dithered' with ex: Floyd-Sternberg to minimize banding artifacts) with no layers or compression for blend masks ...in "GIMP and making a Blend Mask" - mini-tutorial by Ian Routley aka "hcornea"

http://aussiex.org/forum/index.php?/topic/7923-gimp-and-making-a-blend-mask/

"Resample actually doesn't seem to mind 24bit (8 bit per channel) blend masks.

A greyscale image in this format will work fine.

What it does not like is layers and certain types of compression.

I use Photoshop, but 24bit blend masks (greyscale, with no layers and no compression work fine.)
"


...also see:

http://www.fspassengers.com/forum/read.php?f=9&i=4634&t=4634&page=8

"It looks like FSX uses only 4 bits for the blend channel. Christian (Buchner) dithers the blend mask (in TileProxy) to mitigate these banding artifacts a bit.

I was able to achieve the same effect using Photoshop by converting the mask bitmap to 4 bit (ie. index mode with a palette of 16 colors), with Floyd-Steinberg or noise dithering enabled, then converting it back to 24 bit. You need to have a smooth black to white transition
"


[END_EDIT]


BTW: Results vary if either a "color fill" rather than gray scale image ...or a INF "NullValue" is used with a 'Blend Mask' associated with the photoreal texture:

Simple Satellite Scenery Tutorial Using Maps2bgl Program
- mini-tutorial regarding 'color' in Blend Masks by MaurizioG (aka "Maurizio Giorgi")

http://aussiex.org/forum/index.php?...ps2bgl-program/page__view__findpost__p__17284


...See also these informative references:

OZx Developer Guides: Making Scenery for Country Airstrips - tutorial by Prof. John Hocking

http://aussiex.org/ozxteam/ejh/ejh_Tutorial_1.0.zip



Making custom ground textures - mini-tutorial by Luis Feliz-Tirado

"Any part of the selection for which there are no tiles will display in pure white (RGB values = 255,255,255) and will serve as a Null Value, that is, will be completely transparent and display the underlying terrain. "


...Also:


"Be careful, as other parts of the image may also have pure white pixels, and they too would be completely transparent, so you may want to edit the Map in any image editing program first before compiling into custom ground. "

http://www.ptsim.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3435


Default NullValue of the .inf file - mini-tutorial by Luis Feliz-Tirado

http://www.ptsim.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=2147&sid=fc7d0cb1683fa683cdc6ecda54451162


Make photo-real ground textures - tutorial by Luis Feliz-Tirado
http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=fsxsd&DLID=140539&Cookie=1



Possibly the underlying Airport Background "MaskClassMap"- ExcludeAutogen texture you chose (...in ADE ?) for the replacement Airport background polygon "mapped" to a 'grass land class map', and is showing through the photoreal 'top' layer ? :confused:

If that were the case, one might be able to reduce the degree of transparency in the "grass" area of the photoreal texture so that the underlying (default ?) texture(s) cannot "pop through" to be displayed.


Perhaps one of the ADE team might comment as to whether / how one can actually predict how FSX "maps the land class" for a Airport Background specified by ADE (based on the GUID used internally) when one chooses a particular Airport Background ex: "MaskClassMap-ExcludeAutogen" from the ADE pick list. ;)


PS: I'm also assuming you may have retained the "Flatten" associated with the underlying default FSX Airport Background CVX BGL based on the discussion in a prior thread here at FSDeveloper:

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63269


If that were the case, IIUC that default FSX "CVX" BGL file is likely a hybrid "Flatten-ExcludeAutogen-MaskClassMap" polygon, and one may be able to determine what class map is "popping through" by loading the FSX default (or "stock" as Jon often calls it) LFQC Airport Background BGL file into TMFViewer and right-click on the Airport Background polygon to identify what 'texture GUID' was used by FSX locally.

Hope this helps ! :)

GaryGB
 
Last edited:
Messages
32
Country
france
Thanks mates for all these useful information.
Switching off detail ground texture in the display FSX settings wipes out the grass, but everywhere ( outside the airport too :mad:).
I'll investigate how to get rid of it only where there's no grass.
Gary, I have no transparency on the airport area, I just made a blend mask so the photoreal texture fades out in the surrounding landclass.
 
Messages
7,450
Country
us-illinois
Hello:

IIUC, your Blend Mask has a gradient of transparency only along the outside perimeter of the Airport Background area where superimposed photoreal imagery (actually a form of "custom land class", BTW) is intended to fade into the surrounding (underlying) default FSX land class textures ? :confused:


PS: I edited my post above:

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showpost.php?p=222135&postcount=3


GaryGB
 
Last edited:

hcornea

Resource contributor
Messages
2,388
Country
australia
The effect you are seeing is a replacement LandDetail texture (looks like the REX freebie one)

There is no way to selectively change the texture.

In general the solution is to use a more generic one, or to use a custom ground poly of Apron surface.

The texture is called detail1.bmp
 
Messages
7,450
Country
us-illinois
Hi all,
I've made a photoreal scenery for LFQC airport but it seems that there is default grass everywhere over the photoreal ground textures (see pic).
Is this normal, and if not, how to avoid this ?
The effect you are seeing is a replacement LandDetail texture (looks like the REX freebie one)

There is no way to selectively change the texture.

In general the solution is to use a more generic one, or to use a custom ground poly of Apron surface.

The texture is called detail1.bmp

Hi Ian:

Would I be correct the OP used 'terrain-mesh-clinging' "photoreal custom land class" instead of a textured 3D ground poly for the area in his screenie above ? ;)


I'd be fascinated, though, to learn how one might achieve superimposition of Detail1.BMP as a visible 'terrain-mesh-clinging' texture layer displayed on top of 'terrain-mesh-clinging' "photoreal custom land class" (or a FS default airport background 'ClassMapped' land class texture popping up through same). :scratchch

It would be interesting as well to see how one can substitute textures for a single airport using the default "Apron" objects without also globally changing their associated texture sets throughout the FS world ! :)


http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57303&highlight=detail1.bmp


"FSX materials support detail maps via extended material parameter rollout, however. So an FSX native material can use this property"

...and:

"detail1.bmp is the specific texture used for resampled ground imagery terrain. It is not applied to 3d geometry."

Does mapping of Detail1.BMP automatically get applied internally by Resample when making 'terrain-mesh-clinging' "photoreal custom land class", or does it need to be specified in the INF file(s) prior to doing so ? :confused:

Thanks for any clarification you might offer on this option involving Detail1.BMP (I've thus far not seen "detail1.bmp" mentioned in the Resample SDK docs.) :cool:


GaryGB
 
Last edited:

hcornea

Resource contributor
Messages
2,388
Country
australia
The blending of detail1.bmp is controlled by the LandDetailTexture switch on the fsx menu.

Unfortunately you cannot selectively apply different detail maps to different resampled terrain (a real shame)

You can specify your own detail map and its tiling as part of the FSX materials property (as you quoted above) ... so that is one way to get differential detail mapping. (My preferred method!)
 
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