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FS2004 Textures for GP objects

Mr.Crocodile

Mr.Crocodile

Messages
243
Country
italy
Guys, I’m using the last versione on ADE but I did not abandon v1.70 yet.
I noticed a strange behaviour creating some gp poly.
ADE GP 2.2.16. I create the poly, I select the texture (I have some textures called for example asphalt_01.bmp and asphalt_01tracce.bmp) for example asphalt_01.bmp. When I compile the project, I found in the texture folder, both the above textures instead only the one I selected.

If I make the same operation using ade v.1.70in which I have ADE GP 1.0.32 the problem does not appear.

Moreover If I move the project (copying the file .ad4) from v1.70 to v1.76 folder and I open it with ade v1.76, when I edit the gp poly, strangely, the two Main Texture Size field are grey even if I clic on Reset or if I select another texture.
But if I create another gp with the same texture, the above fields are usable.

The project I’m working with is under FS9.


Andrea
 
both the above textures instead only the one I selected.
Click to expand...
Perhaps the extra texture was in the folder from earlier - or perhaps there is another GP in the project that uses the second texture. For any project, ADE-GP only copies the textures used in that project.
the two Main Texture Size field are grey even if I clic on Reset or if I select another texture.
But if I create another gp with the same texture, the above fields are usable.
Click to expand...
How did you select another texture if both comboboxes were disabled? I suspect in the first case, ADE-GP is waiting for you to specify the material to be used whereas, ADE-GP selects the default material when you creatae a new GP. Material was not a GP property in 1.70/1.
Don
 
gadgets said:
both the above textures instead only the one I selected.
Click to expand...
Perhaps the extra texture was in the folder from earlier - or perhaps there is another GP in the project that uses the second texture. For any project, ADE-GP only copies the textures used in that project.
Click to expand...
No, I’m completely sure that there is only that gp in the project. And if it should be another one with the other texture the same result should appear also using ade 1.70. The ad4 file is the same.

the two Main Texture Size field are grey even if I clic on Reset or if I select another texture.
But if I create another gp with the same texture, the above fields are usable.
Click to expand...
How did you select another texture if both comboboxes were disabled? I suspect in the first case, ADE-GP is waiting for you to specify the material to be used whereas, ADE-GP selects the default material when you creatae a new GP. Material was not a GP property in 1.70/1.
Don
Click to expand...

The texture combobox is accessible. Main Texture Size fields instead are greyed.
It is possible that it is waiting for the material selection (I’ll check) but in this case I have two questions:
On the manual I read that material field is not related to FS9 or I misunderstood?
The material combobox contains only “default” as choice. Is there something that I lost?



Andrea
 
I made a test starting from a stock airport loaded in ADE 1.76 (last updated version available).
I created a ground poly. As you can see in the following image
Clipboard01.jpg
from the Main Texture combo box I selected Pav_asfalto01.
Below the two Main Texture Size (M.) are available and it is possible to modify the two numbers.
After I click OK, then from the main ADE window I want to edit the gp again.
The following ADE GP window
Clipboard02.jpg
now shows the two Main Testure Size (M.) greyed. Even if I click on Reset they remain greyed and it is not possible to modify the values to adapt the texture.
This is the first problem.

The second one is related to the "Compile" phase.
As you can see there is only one Poly in the project.
Clipboard03.jpg
I clic on Compile and in the Texture folder of the scenery I found two textures:
pav_asfalto01.bmp
pav_asfalto01_tracce.bmp

I made another test using a another texture: pav_asfalto06.bmp and in the Texture folder of the scenery I found 4 textures:
pav_asflato06.bmp
pav_asflato06_tracce.bmp
pav_asflato06a.bmp
pav_asflato06a_tracce.bmp

Obviously the Texture folder of the scenery test was empty before the test.
Hope this could help to better understand.
Thanks
 
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Hi,

Windows may only be looking at the first 8 characters in its search, and includes all textures that match those 8 characters. Try putting your unique characters at the front of the texture name, instead of at the end.
 
Hi friends.
Where can I download library objects from airports terminals for I use in ADE 176?
Thanks.
 
tgibson said:
Hi,

Windows may only be looking at the first 8 characters in its search, and includes all textures that match those 8 characters. Try putting your unique characters at the front of the texture name, instead of at the end.
Click to expand...

This could be an idea but why does this problem appear only using ADE-GP 2.x and does not appear with ADE-GP 1.0.32?

Moreover in my ADE Textures folder I have 39 different asphalt textures named Pav_asfaltoXX.bmp that is more than 8 characters long. It save only those with the same XX number. I would expect that it save all the 39 texture if it would consider only the first 8 characters.

Andrea
 
Last edited:
Andrea, I'm back home now. Is this still an issue? If so, what were you trying to accomplish by changing the textures size.

The focus of this thread seems to have changed from the initially-reported extra file in the texture folder. Perhaps a restatement of the current issue would also be worthwhile.

So, I'd like to focus on it. If you want to pursue this, please attach (or e-mail me) your .ad4 file user with ADE1.76. I only maintain the latest release, so I can't test (or even comment on) the operation of an earlier release.

Don
 
Hi Don, welcome back...
Yes, I do confirm that the problems are still there.
I made a clean installation of ADE 1.75 then I follow the wizard to be sure that all the information of the old 1.70 version would be correctly imported in the newer one (all the settings seems to be correctly imported but not the projects and the MFBD.dbs file, but anyway I copied them in the new installation folder).

I my first post I underlined two different problems both related to the GP-editor.
  1. I have a quite big collection of textures for the ground. They are named using a simple criterion: Pav_asfaltoXX_xx.bmp where XX is a number and _xx could be a further comment (not always present) to better identify the different texture. So for example:
    Pav_asfalto01.bmp
    Pav_asfalto01_tracce.bmp
    Pav_asfalto02.bmp
    Pav_asfalto02a.bmp
    Pav_asfalto02_tracce.bmp
    Pav_asfalto06.bmp
    Pav_asfalto06_tracce.bmp
    Pav_asfalto06a.bmp
    Pav_asfalto06a_tracce.bmp

    Now the problem I noticed is that if I use Pav_asfalto01.bmp for a ground poly, when I compile the project I find in the texture folder both the "01" textures. If I use the one with Pav_asfalto01_tracce.bmp, I find only this one in the texture folder after the compilation. If I use the Pav_asfalto06.bmp texture, I find all the four "06" related textures.

  2. The following is the Texture_def.txt file used for the test:

    Pav_asfalto01|0M|0M|false
    Pav_asfalto01_tracce|0M|0M|false
    Pav_asfalto02|0M|0M|false
    Pav_asfalto02a|0M|0M|false
    Pav_asfalto02_tracce|0M|0M|false
    Pav_asfalto06|0M|0M|false
    Pav_asfalto06_tracce|0M|0M|false
    Pav_asfalto06a|0M|0M|false
    Pav_asfalto06a_tracce|0M|0M|false

    The textures are used without specifying dimensions. I created a gp poly and in the GP editor I defined the dimensions in the "Main Texture Size (M.):" fields (to decide the area to be covered by the texture).
    But this operation is possible only the first time I edit the gp poly. If I access the gp editor for the same poly, a second time, the fields appear to be greyed out and it is not possible to modify the values anymore.
    And if I click the Reset button the texture covers the entire gp area and it is not possible to change it anymore without cancelling the poly a recreate it from zero.

    I tried to use a texture specifying the dimensions in the def file as follow:

    Pav_asfalto01|10M|10M|false
    Pav_asfalto01_tracce|0M|0M|false
    Pav_asfalto02|0M|0M|false
    Pav_asfalto02a|0M|0M|false
    Pav_asfalto02_tracce|0M|0M|false
    Pav_asfalto06|0M|0M|false
    Pav_asfalto06_tracce|0M|0M|false
    Pav_asfalto06a|0M|0M|false
    Pav_asfalto06a_tracce|0M|0M|false

    This time the Main Texture Size fields are greyed with 10.00 indicated inside but the texture is not scaled and after I compiled the project, in the simulator the image appears to be bigger than I espected.

    I'll send you the project via email.

    Ciao
 
Last edited:
Andrea. in the first case, so as to load either .bmp or .dds (whichever is available), ADE-GP searches textures on filename only. Since both textures satisfy a search for a filename beginning with "Pav_asfalto01", they are both installed. Obviously (now), the search string should include an ending ".". I'll fix this in the next release. But, since the consequences are of minor significance, I won't make a new release on that basis only.

The second case is a little more difficult. The texture dimension text boxes are not intended to overrride the size in the texture definition. The logic was developed a long while ago. But, I suspect my intention at the time was that those text boxes were for use only when the texture definition was not previously specified. Once specified, if you wish to change one or both the effective texture size, you would do so by moving the vertices in the GP Editor. To do otherwise now would involve "major surgery" and possible destabilize ADE-GP. So, I think users are going to have to live with this one - though I will update the user manual to make the operation clear.

Don
 
Last edited:
gadgets said:
Andrea. in the first case, so as to load either .bmp or .dds (whichever is available), ADE-GP searches textures on filename only. Since both textures satisfy a search for a filename beginning with "Pav_asfalto01", they are both installed. Obviously (now), the search string should include an ending ".". I'll fix this in the next release. But, since the consequences are of minor significance, I won't make a new release on that basis only.
Click to expand...

Ok

The second case is a little more difficult. The texture dimension text boxes are not intended to overrride the size in the texture definition. The logic was developed a long while ago. But, I suspect my intention at the time was that those text boxes were for use only when the texture definition was not previously specified. Once specified, if you wish to change one or both the effective texture size, you would do so by moving the vertices in the GP Editor. To do otherwise now would involve "major surgery" and possible destabilize ADE-GP. So, I think users are going to have to live with this one - though I will update the user manual to make the operation clear.

Don
Click to expand...

Here I suspect I didn’t explain correctly what is the problem from my point of view.
I well understood the criterion to use def file and dimension text boxes.
I found two different behaviours depending on the def file used.

The Def file with “0M|0M” in all the defined textures, was created to have the possibility to decide the coverage area every time I use a texture. In this way I should have the possibility to access the gp editor for a particular poly and change the dimensions freely. The problem is that using that kind of def file I can define the coverage area (by way of the dimension boxes) only the first time I access the gp editor after I finished to draw the poly. If I double click on the same poly in a future moment, the boxes are greyed out and it’s not possible to modify them again anymore. I think this is not a desired behaviour also because the old 1.0.32 gp editor version does not work in this way.

Instead I found that if I use a def file in which I predetermined the dimensions of the coverage area of the texture (10M|10M in my def example) after I finished to draw the poly, the gp editor show correctly the dimensions in the two dimension boxes (that correctly are greyed out as per the above discussed criteria) but the texture is not correctly scaled following the defined dimensions but covers the entire area and after compilation it results in a wrongly enlarged and grainy texture in the scenery.

Hope this is a little bit clear description of the situation

Ciao
 
While I haven't done an exhaustive check, this is the first time you've mentioned a dimensioned texture not being correctly scaled. And, to my knowledge, no one else is reporting such an issue. In all other respects of your post, ADE-GP appears to be working as intended, i.e., once you've established texture dimensions either via the texture_def file or manually, you can't change those dimensions.

I expect this latest difficulty may be due to you having attempted to change to a dimensioned texture after having manually specified the dimensions for another texture manually. It's possible there's a problem with a complex sequence of operations but, before I go "digging around", I'd like for you to define a sequence of operations that will create the situation.

Incidentally, a made a development release yesterday that avoids the unused texture being copied to the scenery texture folder and I also updated the user manual to clarify the use of the texture size text boxes.

Don
 
I can also report that in several cases my already dimensioned texture has been resized upon entering the Editor again. It's almost always correct when you first create the GP, but editing often causes it to be resized.
 
Without details for re-creation, I'd be looking for a "needle in a haystack", Tom

Don
 
Sorry guys, I thought I described 3 times the operations I made that caused the strange behaviour I found but it seems I was not clear enough to be understood. So I tried to make a video of the screen that shows exaclty the operation I made. I would like to underline that I did not want to make "not allowed" operations with the pre-defined dimension of the textures.

Simply I have two different situations:
In the first case I have a def file in which the textures are not dimensioned (every texture is defined with |0M|0M| ) and this should allow to manually define the dimension in the dimension boxes inside the GP editor. The problem is that after I made this manual definition, if I enter the editor again (maybe because I selected the wrong texture and I want to change it, I cannot change the dimension anymore because the boxes became greyed. Moreover if I clic on RESET button, the texture covers the entire area of the poly and it is not possible to go back again. The only way to work is cancel the poly a recreate it again. (See the video Test.mp4)

In the second case instead, I want to use a def file in which the texture is pre-dimensioned (I indicate |10M|10M| for example to the Pav_asfalto01 texture). In this case I create the poly and inside the GP-editor window, I read the predetermined dimensions (10M, 10M) inside the greyed boxes, but the texture is not scaled correctly in the poly area (see the video Test2.mp4) and after I compiled the project the area is not correctly covered with the texture as I expected, instead the area is covered with only one tile of texture that results enlarged over 100 times: infact the rectangular poly of the test has dimensions 124x87m so it should be covered by more than 100 tiles of the 10x10m texture.

Obviously these behaviours are not present in the ADE1.70 with old 1.0.32 version of the GP-Editor that currently I'm still using because of the above problems but I perfectly understood you cannot follow both of them.
 
gadgets said:
In all other respects of your post, ADE-GP appears to be working as intended, i.e., once you've established texture dimensions either via the texture_def file or manually, you can't change those dimensions.
Click to expand...

Sorry Don, maybe only in this moment I better understood this sentence. So it seems that in this version of GP.Editor, after you specify manually (in the editor) the dimensions you cannot modify them again. It could be a policy. The only difficult could be that if after I selected a texture and I dimensioned it and closed the editor, I found that I selected the wrong texture, it won't be possible to dimension it again without erasing the poly and recreate it again. This in some cases could be a problem.
So it remain only the problem related with the second case I described above with the pre-dimensioned texture in the def file.
 
Last edited:
I thought I described 3 times the operations I made that caused the strange behaviour I found but it seems I was not clear enough to be understood.
Click to expand...
The first time you used the phrase "not scaled correctly" was in your post of earlier this week. You may have hinted at this situation in other posts, but I did not infer a similar connotation.

In the first case I have a def file in which the textures are not dimensioned (every texture is defined with |0M|0M| ) and this should allow to manually define the dimension in the dimension boxes inside the GP editor. The problem is that after I made this manual definition, if I enter the editor again (maybe because I selected the wrong texture and I want to change it, I cannot change the dimension anymore because the boxes became greyed.
Click to expand...
The user manual states - even more clearly since I edited it earlier the week - that once you have specified a texture dimension by whatever means, that dimension cannot be changed from these boxes. The operation may have been different in an early version of ADE-GP (which would have been an unintended operation) and has since been corrected. At the moment, if you want to change the dimensions of a texture, once specified, you must delete and reenter the GP or manipulate the vertices in the GP editor.

Your point about Reset is valid. Currently, Reset only addresses the location of the vertices - as stated in the user manual. It may be possible to check whether or not the then-assigned texture is dimensioned and, if not, to clear the current dimensions. But, in doing so, for consistency, all other user-assigned parameters should be reset, e.g., width, layer, etc.. I suspect this is not what you - or anybody else would want. As well, clearing the current texture dimensions may not be desirable in all circumstances. Therefore, while it may be possible to do what you seem to want, I'm reluctant to implement it.

I want to use a def file in which the texture is pre-dimensioned (I indicate |10M|10M| for example to the Pav_asfalto01 texture). In this case I create the poly and inside the GP-editor window, I read the predetermined dimensions (10M, 10M) inside the greyed boxes, but the texture is not scaled correctly in the poly area
Click to expand...
In order to respond, I would need your .ad4 file, your texture_def.txt and both your 24-bit and compressed textures. You can attach them to a post or e-mail them to me at don at stuff4fs dot com.

Your second post immediately above appears to correctly reflect the operation of ADE-GP.

The only difficult could be that if after I selected a texture and I dimensioned it and closed the editor, I found that I selected the wrong texture, it won't be possible to dimension it again without erasing the poly and recreate it again. This in some cases could be a problem.
Click to expand...
I appreciate this may be inconvenient, but allowing re-dimensioning of a texture is a very complex undertaking in the current design and would almost certainly de-stabilize ADE-GP. Presumably, if the poly is of a complex shape, use of the copy/paste functions should prove should minimize the effort involved.. It might also be possible (I haven't checked), instead of re-dimensioning the current texture, to temporarily apply another texture - dimensioned or not - and then re-apply the original undimensioned texture and re-dimension.

Don
 
gadgets said:
The first time you used the phrase "not scaled correctly" was in your post of earlier this week. You may have hinted at this situation in other posts, but I did not infer a similar connotation.
Click to expand...

Yes yes, sorry I did not refer in particular to the scale problem. ;)

Ok, I understood all the other point you described. I'll send you the files you requested so you can check.
Thanks
 
gadgets said:
I appreciate this may be inconvenient, but allowing re-dimensioning of a texture is a very complex undertaking in the current design and would almost certainly de-stabilize ADE-GP. Presumably, if the poly is of a complex shape, use of the copy/paste functions should prove should minimize the effort involved.. It might also be possible (I haven't checked), instead of re-dimensioning the current texture, to temporarily apply another texture - dimensioned or not - and then re-apply the original undimensioned texture and re-dimension.

Don
Click to expand...

I just tested the possibility of copy/paste function but the problem is that when you paste a poly, it pastes it with the defined texture so when you edit it, you find the previous texture and the problem of re-dimension is still there.

As far as I saw, temporarily changing the texture does not give the possibility to re-dimension
 
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