P3D v4 GMAX and the Tutorial for Ground polygons.

[Bulent Eroglu]

I got told to follow this tutorial to gain some knowledge about scenery design and how GMAX works and that. So I thought let me give it ago but I am encountering some issues which are causing me to stress a lot. So I done the section where it wants me to get the average coordinates, I have done the section where it wants me to convert the values within MCX but now I am on GMAX and I am clueless.

What the exact issue is that I got told to create a plane I press plane on the right hand side as shown on the right hand side of the image.

I created the plane with 1 segment on length as well as width.

Now, it tells me to convert it to editable poly which I simply right click then convert to editable poly. Now, that's done I proceed and it tells me that I need to go to vertex and choose vertices in vertical. I didn't do that because I can't find it.

I am stuck where it wants me to create a material. I will put some images to help you guys understand what I mean so its easier for you to understand.

So I am in the material navigator and I pressed new as I want a new material.

I pick standard from the list and this is what I get...

So far so good, I want to use the satellite image as suggested so it could help me when plotting the taxiways and runway. so I press the box next to diffuse then another window pops up then I press Bitmap then I browse through to find the image

I found the one I wanted and whenever I press it gives me a error. I have different file types for example BMP and they won't work either. When I try use the BMP it gives me an error unsupported image file type. Its a pain and I have nothing else then report it here so you guys could help me. Thank you in advance.

Bulent Eroglu

 

[bob5568]

Which tut are you following?

 

[Bulent Eroglu]

Which tut are you following?

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php?title=Ground_Poly_Tutorial_for_the_year_2014+

 

[bob5568]

Good morning, thanks for the reference. Before you get into it too far, you need to set up gmax first with the appropriate gamepack...I can tell by your screenshot you haven't done that, as you have no "aces" drop-down menu. You also don't have access to fsx materials. You will need that installation.

The stuff about verticals is a little confusing. All he is saying is you want your plane to be aligned with the world grid of the top viewport in gmax, so the top left vert will be identical in x as the lower left vert. Your already are in that state, and it is the default, so I'm not sure why he makes a point of it, but it doesn't hurt. The key is setting the reference point, and getting the dimensions of the plane in meters to match your photograph.

As far as image compatibility with material editor, I would have thought jpg was ok, but convert it to bmp and try that...

 

[Bulent Eroglu]

Good morning, thanks for the reference. Before you get into it too far, you need to set up gmax first with the appropriate gamepack...I can tell by your screenshot you haven't done that, as you have no "aces" drop-down menu. You also don't have access to fsx materials. You will need that installation.

The stuff about verticals is a little confusing. All he is saying is you want your plane to be aligned with the world grid of the top viewport in gmax, so the top left vert will be identical in x as the lower left vert. Your already are in that state, and it is the default, so I'm not sure why he makes a point of it, but it doesn't hurt. The key is setting the reference point, and getting the dimensions of the plane in meters to match your photograph.

As far as image compatibility with material editor, I would have thought jpg was ok, but convert it to bmp and try that...

Thank you for replying to me. I tried to find the gamepack cause I saw FSX game pack on other peoples GMAX but I couldn't seem to find it. Any chance you could link me or something please, thank you.

 

[bob5568]

It looks like Arno has posted them here. Go up to the top ribbon that is on "forum" now, and change to resources. Go to sdk, think fs2004 is on the second page.

 

[Bulent Eroglu]

It looks like Arno has posted them here. Go up to the top ribbon that is on "forum" now, and change to resources. Go to sdk, think fs2004 is on the second page.

Alrighty, thank you, I got the game pack FS2004 now installed however I still can't load images. I have BMP as well as JPG but still no hope...

 

[bob5568]

Alrighty, thank you, I got the game pack FS2004 now installed however I still can't load images. I have BMP as well as JPG but still no hope...

hmm, something weird about that.

Have you attempted any basic tutorials for using gmax yet? I just messed with the tutorial you've been following, and I must admit, I struggled a bit. The author assumed you have some skills to start with, and his use of splines is different than I'm used to. I got to the same place he is teaching, but only by using pre-existing skills.

Do you know about the use of sub-object levels? If you convert a rectangle to an editable spline with your right-click, you'll see menu options activate if you open the editable spline level and expose the lower levels, and click on "spline" sub-object level. You'll need this to succeed with his "attach" and "boolean" recommendation.

 

[bob5568]

Alrighty, thank you, I got the game pack FS2004 now installed however I still can't load images. I have BMP as well as JPG but still no hope...

I just loaded any old image and it worked fine. Have you done these steps:
1. open material editor
2. choose material type
3. scroll down to maps section
4. click on diffuse map
5. click on bitmap
6. select your image file

 

[Bulent Eroglu]

hmm, something weird about that.

Have you attempted any basic tutorials for using gmax yet? I just messed with the tutorial you've been following, and I must admit, I struggled a bit. The author assumed you have some skills to start with, and his use of splines is different than I'm used to. I got to the same place he is teaching, but only by using pre-existing skills.

Do you know about the use of sub-object levels? If you convert a rectangle to an editable spline with your right-click, you'll see menu options activate if you open the editable spline level and expose the lower levels, and click on "spline" sub-object level. You'll need this to succeed with his "attach" and "boolean" recommendation.

I have no idea about GMAX, I am literally new to it. So the last things you said I have no idea :/

 

[Bulent Eroglu]

I just loaded any old image and it worked fine. Have you done these steps:
1. open material editor
2. choose material type
3. scroll down to maps section
4. click on diffuse map
5. click on bitmap
6. select your image file

Yh I exactly do that, I was thinking it might be because of the size of my file but the size is 60mb so I thought it might not be cause of that...

 

[bob5568]

Yh I exactly do that, I was thinking it might be because of the size of my file but the size is 60mb so I thought it might not be cause of that...

I'll bet it is the size, didn't know you were loading something that big. Try it with a small image, to prove you know what your doing.

 

[bob5568]

I have no idea about GMAX, I am literally new to it. So the last things you said I have no idea :/

When I suggested a simple project to learn gmax, I didn't mean an airport ground poly. I meant SIMPLE and tutorials like http://www.tutorialboneyard.com/gmax-tutorials/

 

[Bulent Eroglu]

I'll bet it is the size, didn't know you were loading something that big. Try it with a small image, to prove you know what your doing.

I guess that will be a problem, I get the images from SBuilder so its big file size...

 

[Bulent Eroglu]

When I suggested a simple project to learn gmax, I didn't mean an airport ground poly. I meant SIMPLE and tutorials like http://www.tutorialboneyard.com/gmax-tutorials/

Will take a look at it right away. Thank you.

 

[tgibson]

As long as you keep the proportions the same, you can shrink the image you get from SBuilder to a reasonable size (i.e. around 1024 x 1024 pixels) and use that version in GMAX. You can use any size you want in the sim that P3D accepts (don't know its max size), as long as you don't kill the frame rate with huge images. As long as you keep the proportions the same it will all work fine.

PS. Note that any BMP image used in GMAX should be a 24 bit image, not in DXT or DDS format. This is not true for the bitmaps used in the sim.

 

[jtanabodee]

Hi,
1. You need to set up your plane at x,y coordinate 0,0. In you picture, your plane is not there.
2. You jpg file may be there is something wrong with it. Try open it with Photoshop or Paint (in Windows) and save it again with jpg or bmp. It might help.
Other than that, I think you are jumping to Gmax and know nothing. You need to get through other simple tutorials.

Gmax/Max are difficult. You need quite a big learning curve. Try searching tutorial in YTube and do things as tutorial at the same time. Watching those tutorial only does not increase your skill.

 

[zzip]

Hi,
After 2 months of studying GMax, I managed to insert an SBuilderX image into GMax.
I used the tutorial from Jirayu Tanabodee and the video of revrengary:

I translate everything in Dutch to understand everything well .
Everything works perfectly until I start with the Material Editor.
The photo is there, but the problem is that the photo is so bad that it is worthless to work with.
The original BMP image of SBuilderX, is reduced to a JPEG of 9 MB.
The FSX GamePack has been installed correctly.

Can someone help me?
Thank you in advance.
Grtz
zzip

 

[hairyspin]

The video driver in Gmax needs set to its highest resolution, as this post explains:- http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforu...rted-With-Gmax?p=759491&viewfull=1#post759491

You’ll need to restart Gmax before the new setting works.

 

[zzip]

Tom,
I had already changed the "Driver" setting to OpenGL or Direct3D.
Which is the best btw ?

But I have been stung from this institution.
Thanks for the quick response

Grtz
zzip