KCSG is born...

[Badge]

Well I took the first steps this week to developing my home airport the modeling is the easy part but what I love doing are textures. I have spent the last two days working on my first building, the Air Evac LifeTeam Hangar that is the newest building on the grounds. Using a ton of photos I took last weekend I created the texture below from scratch. I prefer to not use photos for the textures themselves in any project I do. It is more time consuming but the end result is a much richer model. The shot below is till lacking the grime and ware and tear that will be added later.

Enjoy!

[n4gix]

Good start! Now, only a half-gazzillion more to go...

[Badge]

Your telling me, fortunately all the T hangars are pretty much the same so that will save some time only a few differences on each namely the hangar number. This first one will be one of only a handful that will get a lot of detail as I want to model the folding door animation to give those who wish to fly in with a heli something to play with.

I know you cant see it in the small pics but I found it funny that they had a DANGER OXYGEN sign right next to their gas grill

[n4gix]

Kind of like the notices on microwave products: "Caution, may be hot when removing." No duh!

Or signs posted next to a fueling area that warning: "No smoking within 50 feet!"

By the time you're close enough to read it, you're already too close!

[Badge]

Speaking of gas grills and such are their such items already in the fsx libraries?

[mdm248111]

Originally Posted by Badge

but what I love doing are textures

Nice work on the textures! I wish I could make good hand textures

[n4gix]

Originally Posted by Badge

Speaking of gas grills and such are their such items already in the fsx libraries?

Not that I'm aware of. I made my own for the FBO/Lounge's covered patio area as part of my 33MO - Leaming Field infrastructure improvements...

[Badge]

Another quick question can you model everything around a building with the building and export to fsx at the same time or do you have to do everything individually?

[n4gix]

Originally Posted by Badge

Another quick question can you model everything around a building with the building and export to fsx at the same time or do you have to do everything individually?

This "FBO/Lounge/Patio" area is one, single .mdl file...

...which includes 36 animated fan/lights, 16 picnic table/benches, fireside chairs, 6 trashcans, 6 overhead door lights, etc.

The entire scene uses a single 1024x1024 bitmap, so aside from the animated fans, it's a single draw call when rendered in FSX.

I've made the patio roof "see through" in GMax to show the patio details. The "gray squares" are the projection polygons for the various light's "ground splashes."

[Badge]

Excellent thanks!

[Badge]

Here is a quick Max render minus additional details.

[n4gix]

Lovely! Your graphics are far crisper than the "default" building's artwork.

[Badge]

Ive had to do and redo all kinds of stuff on this model to nail the dimensions which in the end worked out great as I can base all the other buildings off from this one for proper scale as it is 100ft x 50ft here are some updated pics. I am spending a lot of time on this one model as it will establish everything else that follows.

[mdm248111]

WOW! Those textures are AMAZING! How did you get the roof to look like that?

[Badge]

They are just simple white bars with a drop shadow and a small stroke, then dirtied up with some gunge brushes Ive made.

[Badge]

Quick question as I am building these buildings for FS and this one in particular, is it better to model the heli pad and surrounding area with this one model or do it separately?

[n4gix]

Originally Posted by Badge

Quick question as I am building these buildings for FS and this one in particular, is it better to model the heli pad and surrounding area with this one model or do it separately?

That's a very good question, and one for which I have no good answer save "it depends..."

For precise placement and alignment, you may find it easier to simply model an entire cluster of objects in a single scene, and then export as a single .mdl file.

After all, it is very, very simple to change your mind and export each object as a separate .mdl from the scene should you later wish to do so...

[Badge]

Gotcha! So for the surrounding grass etc I should just apply some edge masks to make it blend in with the ground polys for the whole airport base texture?

[n4gix]

Yep, that should do the trick for you I think. I haven't really tried "grass" myself yet though...

[Badge]

Another texture question, say I want to use one texture file for all airport building signs so I can do them in higher quality and use them for several different building models, does flightsim know when I call the texture into several different building files to draw from just that one texture after everything is exported? I hope this makes sense.