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FS2004 GMax: How do you create your ground polys?

darren s

darren s

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Making my scenery for FS2004, using GMax with the FS2004 Gamepack with the FS2002 MakeMDL and MDL Commander.

So, how many layers do you use for the ground itself?

mine is something like this

Photo, raised 0.01m in gmax, layer 2 on the .asm
grass noise, raised 0.02m in gmax, layer 4 on the .asm
runways, raised 0.03m in gmax, layer 6 on the .asm
taxiways/aprons, raised 0.04m in gmax, layer 8 on the .asm
ground markings, raised 0.05m in gmax, layer 10 on the .asm
dirt/cracks, raised 0.06m in gmax, layer 12 on the .asm

So that's 6 polys for the ground, then I add my grass edges, then vegetation, then I add all the fences and gates etcetera....then finally I model all the buildings and other things such as PAPI, windsocks etcetera.

Is this the best way to do so? am I on the rite track? I have seen developers photoshop all their runway dirts and cracks etc directly on to the runway/taxiway/apron textures. Is that a good way to do it?

I am looking to make my scenery up to FlyTampa, Aerosoft and UK2000 Extreme quality

Regards

Darren
 
Ground polys should always be exported at 0.0m with 2002.

My layers start at 12 for the photo, 14 for a grass layer, 16 for the apron, 18 for the cracks, 20 for dirt stained and 22 for taxiway markings.

:)
 
Southwest said:
Ground polys should always be exported at 0.0m with 2002.

My layers start at 12 for the photo, 14 for a grass layer, 16 for the apron, 18 for the cracks, 20 for dirt stained and 22 for taxiway markings.

:)
Click to expand...

Interesting, if i tried putting all my ground polys in gmax at 0.00m, I'ld see mega flickering even with the asm tweak.

Also interesting that you start from 12, why is that?

Regards
 
Hi,

If you have a flatten in your scenery as well then having them at elevation 0.0 is no problem (it is actually the preferred way)
 
darren s said:
Interesting, if i tried putting all my ground polys in gmax at 0.00m, I'ld see mega flickering even with the asm tweak.

Also interesting that you start from 12, why is that?

Regards
Click to expand...

Interesting that you start with 2 actually, I thought it was supposed to be like 0, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, etc?

Jim
 
JRobinson said:
Interesting that you start with 2 actually, I thought it was supposed to be like 0, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, etc?

Jim
Click to expand...

From what I was hearing, some people even start off with 0! then go up in intervals of 2; 2, 4, 6, 8 etc

Darren
 
arno said:
Hi,

If you have a flatten in your scenery as well then having them at elevation 0.0 is no problem (it is actually the preferred way)
Click to expand...

Tried this arno, but I either don't see anything or I get flickering. That is WITH the asm tweaks and proper layers
 
And a proper flatten in your scenery, that has the same elevation as your airport XML?
 
darren s said:
From what I was hearing, some people even start off with 0! then go up in intervals of 2; 2, 4, 6, 8 etc

Darren
Click to expand...

Never heard that, thought they were supposed to be in multiples of 4. I did try one at "0" once and it conflicted horribly with the afcad stuff. I started my numbering at "4" and haven't had flicker issues.

I haven't tried Arno's polygon tool on an FS9 polygon yet, but I used an asm tweak to keep GPs from suppressing agn and it worked perfectly every time in FS9, doesn't work in FSX. Here's a link if you're interested:

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showpost.php?p=151063&postcount=4

MCX probably does the same thing, Arno?

Jim
 
Hi Jim,

I am not sure if ModelConverterX already implements the FS2004 trick to keep autogen, it has a way that works in FSX (the same trick does not work in both).

Most people will indeed start with layer 4 and then increase in steps of 4. This is a custom that still comes from the days of FS2000 or FS2002. So FS2004 and FSX might work fine with smaller steps as well. But as said, 0 sometimes gives issues.
 
Regarding what goes in each layer: I try to combine similar things in the same layer. Thus the overall (actually "under all") ground texture is layer 8; ramps, parking aprons, taxiways and runway are 12; runway markings & taxiway markings are 16; runway wear marks, skids, cracks, etc. are 20.

My goal was to cut down on the number of layers as I thought I had read somewhere that there is a performance cost with more layers. That said, I am not all that happy with the results (Leros airport; I posted some screen shots in the showroom forum a few months ago). So I'm wondering if separate layers for each single purpose would be better?
 
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