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New parking and taxi area textures


DragonRR

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Nice work! Forgive me if it has already been asked, but is it possible to change the runway and taxiway markings? Aiming points/touchdown zone markings, displaced thresholds, etc, would be amazing.

ASUS G74, Core i7-2670QM, 12GB DDR3, Geforce GTX 560M 3GB, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

 

Wise men speak because they have something to say, fools because they have to say something. - Plato

 

VV

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hi dragon,

 

it seems to be perfect . . . :-) i will try it for lock on.

 

have you can build in these (my last post in this topic)?

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=34524&page=2

 

regards

 

Well I THINK that the area you circled isn't taxiway to runway but one of the smaller service roads to the parking area. Basically I'm at the mercy of ED with this (AFAIK). I haven't textured the service roads and may not do.. I thought they looked OK as is and any retexturing adds more and more to the memory overhead on the graphics card. The problem (as I've mentioned before) with the taxi way to parking area is that:

 

1. ED have either shrunk or expanded the texture (can't remember which it is right now)

2. I can nearly fix the above by oversizing/undersizing but the joints still don't line up.

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Nice work! Forgive me if it has already been asked, but is it possible to change the runway and taxiway markings? Aiming points/touchdown zone markings, displaced thresholds, etc, would be amazing.

 

Yes probably. Assuming I have my layers backed up properly (several fingers crossed)

 

If you can supply me with photo's/links/schematics/whatever.....

 

EDIT:

 

I based the parking area on ED's. I based the runway on a google map of a Russian airport runway.. (AFAIK)

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Yes probably. Assuming I have my layers backed up properly (several fingers crossed)

 

If you can supply me with photo's/links/schematics/whatever.....

 

EDIT:

 

I based the parking area on ED's. I based the runway on a google map of a Russian airport runway.. (AFAIK)

 

 

Here is Russia's Smolensk airforce base, with aiming/distance markings on the runway.

 

http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=54%C2%B049%E2%80%B230%E2%80%B3N+032%C2%B01%E2%80%B230%E2%80%B3E&sll=52.626916,39.464436&sspn=0.035844,0.077248&ie=UTF8&ll=54.824086,32.036004&spn=0.004252,0.009656&t=h&z=17&iwloc=addr

 

 

Here are two useful pages with general runway marking info:

 

http://stoenworks.com/Tutorials/Runways%20and%20Taxiways.html

 

http://www.pilotfriend.com/training/flight_training/communication/rnwy_mark.htm

ASUS G74, Core i7-2670QM, 12GB DDR3, Geforce GTX 560M 3GB, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

 

Wise men speak because they have something to say, fools because they have to say something. - Plato

 

VV

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"memory overhead on the graphics card".

Only if you the textures are not done correctly and it should be ONLY on a pack cdds not in the folder texturetemp. There are good tricks.. This can greatly make your PC stutter all over or make you lag online like the Skins or many mods out there for example so be extremely cautious.. Textures should be more detailed to look nicer than the original but also they shouldn't affect your Vram load and fps.. it's challenging..

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@Vik.

 

Hmm I see what you mean now. No I don't know if this is possible. I only have, basically, an end cap which has the "threshold" lines. The lines themselves take up about 75% of the whole texture. After that ED just repeat the texture "WPP.bmp" until the threshold piece at the other end.. So... the "touchdown" zones the "landing endpoint markers" and so on would just get repeated all the way down.

 

I didn't see this particular runway.. (and wish I did because it has square tiles which were in my early tests and would have been a little easier). I did see other Runways with the markings you are talking about tho.

 

However although I know how to do texturing I am not familiar the DCS/Lockon placement structure. It may well be possible to change the repeated texture so that other textures are able to be placed in.

 

I hope all that makes sense and if anyone knows more could you please direct me to where I can find more information.

 

This brings me on to Francous!

 

@Francous

 

As mentioned I am not overly familiar with "how it should be done". As you know I've just taken advantage of the fact that the engine will use any correctly named textures over the textures in the cdds files. I have absolutely no idea how to insert a larger texture into a cdds file. I tried it using several tools including Modman and they all refused to do it.

 

However.. I am a little puzzled by your comment that the might be a performance hit. I would assume that the bmp files contained within the cdds file are none lossy compressed...? If they aren't then your comment makes some sense. However.. If they aren't lossy compressed then surely the engine takes the textures and pushes them to the video memory in the same format regardless of whether they are in a cdds file or not? This would suggest (to me) that there wouldn't be any perfromance impact either way.

 

I am prepared to be enlighted :)


Edited by DragonRR
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Draggon,

 

I am not sure what Francous is getting at, but it could be that EDs textures are 4.56MB and yours are 78MB. As you can see yours are a lot bigger than there's.

 

I am going to see if there are any major FPS differences now.

Regards

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]



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Yes my textures are pretty large but you can't have 4 times the current texture resolution and have the same size file/memory load.

 

However I've done several in game tests and I can't see any FPS difference with and without the textures. I am, however, certain that once you are up to the limit of available graphics card ram you will have problems if you then insert another high resolution replacement skin into the game. If you used my textures and (for example) had a 128mb graphics card I'm quite sure you would get pretty awful stuttering no matter how fast the GPU was.

 

Generally (for me) the biggest performance reducing factor by far is having a Wingman.


Edited by DragonRR
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Dragon,

 

I would agree, on modern graphics cards with this game a texture set of the size you have done probably won't make a difference.

 

I was thinking I had a difference then the other 3 cores woke up and it was fine.

 

Anyway due to me being a kind citizen I have played around with ModMan for you. Check your emails.

 

Ok check your emails in 5 minutes, it didn't like that!

Regards

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]



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Talking to a programmer friend:

 

The only way I can reduce the overhead is to either:

 

1. Reduce the texture size.

2. Convert the files to DDS format

3. Get it into the CDDS file

 

I can't do (1) because that would drastically reduce the quality no matter what clever techniques I might try using.

 

I can't do (2) because the game won't replace the corresponding bmp file in the CDDS pack. (Although I'll come back to this)

 

I can't do 3 because the file has to be the same texture size etc..

 

However!

 

My programmer friend suggested saving the file as a DDS and simply renaming it to a bmp..... This actually worked!!! And has reduced the file size down 5 times! My programmer friend suggests that the game is unlikely to compress textures on the fly and therefore this really will reduce the memory overhead by up to 5 times the original bmp size.

 

I'm going to repackage the mod and re-release!

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OK packaged up now only 12mb in size! Readme included.

 

http://www.xeos.co.uk/Runway_OLD_Concrete_V1.2.rar

 

I should point out that whilst my friend "discovered" this "feature" Experienced modders may already be fully aware!

 

However.. I did try doing all this through Modman and Modman despite pre-compressing the textures to DDS format, extracted them back to bmps and they were actually larger than the original bmps!

 

MODMAN COMPLIANT VERSION: (Thanks to Skypat for his help)

 

http://www.xeos.co.uk/Runway_OLD_Concrete_V1.2_MODMAN.rar

 

Please note that the Modman version might have a slightly higher memory overhead.


Edited by DragonRR
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@Vik.

 

Hmm I see what you mean now. No I don't know if this is possible. I only have, basically, an end cap which has the "threshold" lines. The lines themselves take up about 75% of the whole texture. After that ED just repeat the texture "WPP.bmp" until the threshold piece at the other end.. So... the "touchdown" zones the "landing endpoint markers" and so on would just get repeated all the way down.

 

I didn't see this particular runway.. (and wish I did because it has square tiles which were in my early tests and would have been a little easier). I did see other Runways with the markings you are talking about tho.

 

However although I know how to do texturing I am not familiar the DCS/Lockon placement structure. It may well be possible to change the repeated texture so that other textures are able to be placed in.

 

I hope all that makes sense and if anyone knows more could you please direct me to where I can find more information.

 

Aaaah, I see, I see. Too bad it's set up that way, I too would be interested in knowing if there is a way to modify the texture layout. There must be somehow. I'd love to make replicas of real airports from around the world, new terrain for different locations etc.. could really get into this whole modding thing... but I'm getting sidetracked here :D

 

Again, excellent work on the textures. Ironically one of the biggest contributors to realism is imperfection, and all too often things look too squaky clean and perfect in computer games/simulations. Dirt, wear, cracks, dirty glass, you name it, are all a part of reality! Thanks for contributing to the immersion of the software.

 

PS: If anyone out there made cockpit glass with a hint of grime, wiper marks, scratches, etc on it, or has any advice on where to start with something like that, it would make my day ;)

ASUS G74, Core i7-2670QM, 12GB DDR3, Geforce GTX 560M 3GB, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

 

Wise men speak because they have something to say, fools because they have to say something. - Plato

 

VV

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in fact you can ;)

 

put all your files in a new "mynewtextures.cdds" file (use ED tool to do it)

then in your graphics.cfg file, just add:

 

highFolder = ".\\Bazar\\TempTextures\\";

common = ".\\Bazar\\Terrain\\Surface\\mynewtextures.cdds";

common = ".\\Bazar\\Terrain\\Surface\\LandTexturesBMP.cdds";

common = ".\\Bazar\\Terrain\\Surface\\LandTexturesTGA.cdds";

 

like your cdds file is the first in the list, lockon will look at your .cdds file before going to others cdds files ;)

 

if you make a .cdds file, i can make a modman package which will install your mod automatically and will add also automatically the .cfg entries for users

 

best regards

Skypat

 

 

Talking to a programmer friend:

 

The only way I can reduce the overhead is to either:

 

1. Reduce the texture size.

2. Convert the files to DDS format

3. Get it into the CDDS file

 

I can't do (1) because that would drastically reduce the quality no matter what clever techniques I might try using.

 

I can't do (2) because the game won't replace the corresponding bmp file in the CDDS pack. (Although I'll come back to this)

 

I can't do 3 because the file has to be the same texture size etc..

 

However!

 

My programmer friend suggested saving the file as a DDS and simply renaming it to a bmp..... This actually worked!!! And has reduced the file size down 5 times! My programmer friend suggests that the game is unlikely to compress textures on the fly and therefore this really will reduce the memory overhead by up to 5 times the original bmp size.

 

I'm going to repackage the mod and re-release!

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Dragon,

 

I took a look at this this morning, but I can't get the CDDS studio to work (it works, it just just doesn't complete, no errors just does nothing).

 

Links you might find of use:

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=18234

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=19735

 

May Skypat knows of a more up to date CDDS creation tool?

 

Everything else seems straight forward.

 

Good luck

Regards

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]



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OK new MODMAN compliant version up. Tested and it seems to work fine. I suspect it may have a slightly higher memory overhead than the "cheat" version but I could be wrong. All links have been updated in this thread with the alternate version.

 

MODMAN COMPLIANT VERSION: (Thanks to Skypat for his help)

 

http://www.xeos.co.uk/Runway_OLD_Concrete_V1.2_MODMAN.rar

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Can anyone confirm that the Modman version works with no issues?

 

Literally stumbled upon your Mod this afternoon after a lot of time spent getting the new Vista install up and running............

 

Installed Modman and your Mod was the first to install.......and it works flawlessly!

 

And I hasten to add - Superb :thumbup:

Novice or Veteran looking for an alternative MP career?

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[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]

'....And when I get to Heaven, to St Peter I will tell....

One more Soldier reporting Sir, I've served my time in Hell......'

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Can anyone confirm that the Modman version works with no issues?

it work perfect for me with modeman

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]

 

Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 @ 2.33GHz-4,00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 333MHz-ATI Radeon HD 4600 Series -saitek Χ45-Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

 

"MINOAS11"

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How about some asphalt :D (I know, its not typical for such an airfield. This isn't actually something I'm 'working on', just some experimentation from today). Aged concrete on the taxiway of course!

 

 

22323837d1.jpg

 

cd46263aef.jpg

 

6e0385e6cc.jpg

 

b481bbd2ce.jpg

 

a98255f962.jpg

a98255f962.jpg


Edited by VikVaughan

ASUS G74, Core i7-2670QM, 12GB DDR3, Geforce GTX 560M 3GB, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

 

Wise men speak because they have something to say, fools because they have to say something. - Plato

 

VV

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How about some asphalt :D (I know, its not typical for such an airfield. This isn't actually something I'm 'working on', just some experimentation from today). Aged concrete on the taxiway of course!

 

 

I agree with that !

 

I want asphalt !

 

I love asphalt ! :megalol:

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New link for the MODMAN version of this mod on Lockonfiles

 

http://www.lockonfiles.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownloaddetails&cid=158&lid=1304&title=DCS-BS%20Worn%20Out%20Runways#dldetails

 

I actually found one Russian runway... here:

 

http://maps.google.co.jp/maps?ie=UTF8&om=1&t=k&ll=54.890332,20.590096&spn=0.033568,0.080338&z=14

 

which appears to have Asphalt!

 

Also.. I'm considering removing the landing tyre marks from the runway threshold tile as it isn't very realistic to have signs of landings at that point. Anyone have an opinion on this?

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That looks really good Vik. I did think about Asphalt but it seems Russians aren't too keen :)

 

I wonder if there is a way to change the texture by airport? So one has aged concrete, one aged + tarmac, another with a mix of tarmax aged concrete and new concrete.

 

 

It seems there should be. They appear to be composed of several snap together sections like building blocks. There must be a file (hopefully) that defines which go where for each air field. I'd like to know also.

 

Actually, I've been wondering if there is a way to build entirely new airfields, perhaps entirely new terrain/theaters. In anticipation of the A-10 module, I've had this ambitious idea that would require me brush off my old 3d modeling skills.. I haven't opened 3ds in years! Something along the lines of a recreation of southeastern Ontario & Quebec/northeastern US, with realistic representations of major military and civil fields. It would involve Quebec separatists resorting to forced millitaristic action in an attempt to remove the province form the country, with Canada calling on US A-10's to help resolve the situation.. haha.. anyway.. waaay off track. I think I'm gong to browse the install folders and see if I come accross anythign with regard to airfield texture placement.

ASUS G74, Core i7-2670QM, 12GB DDR3, Geforce GTX 560M 3GB, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

 

Wise men speak because they have something to say, fools because they have to say something. - Plato

 

VV

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