FSXA Adding GP Light Maps

[pinkjr]

Hi,

How can I add a night texture light map for a custom ground polygon I've created? No Alphas, just plain bmp light map.

Thanks,
David

 

[tgibson]

I see that the file gp_ParkingDes.bmp in the Textures folder has a night texture called gp_ParkingDes_LM.bmp. The manual states: "If your texture has an "_LM" version, save it too in the Textures folder." I don't see anything else in the cfg files that would specify that. So I assume that you just include the LM texture in the Textures folder and it will be used automatically?

 

[pinkjr]

I thought about that, havent tried it. Id be surprised if it did. Something on the script must tell bglcomp that the texture has an LM partner.

I opened the XML for the scenery and there is no mention of GPs there.

 

[Lane Street]

I opened the XML for the scenery and there is no mention of GPs there.

GPs are SCASM based, not XML.

cheers,
Lane

 

[pinkjr]

Thnka Lane, so does anyone know how to make this work?

 

[gadgets]

My initial response from this morning seems to have disappeared into cyberspace. However, Tom's answer covers what I said.

I thought about that, havent tried it. Id be surprised if it did. Something on the script must tell bglcomp that the texture has an LM partner.

Try looking in ADE-GP.asm

I opened the XML for the scenery and there is no mention of GPs there.

As noted in the manual, GPs are separate from the rest of ADE outputs in a file named ADE-GP.bgl.

GPs are SCASM based, not XML.

Close, Lane, but no cigar. While ADE-GP uses assembler-level coding, it's FS8 BGL commands which are quite different from SCASM.

so does anyone know how to make this work?

As Tom (and the manual) says, add a companion _LM texture to the Textures folder. That being said, given your recent posts in another thread, I wonder if you are asking the right question. In that thread, you seem to be focusing on ramp lighting. If that's really what you are after, ADE-GP doesn't support it and you'll likely have to use different techniques for FS9 and FSX/P3D.

Don

 

[pinkjr]

Thanks Don, that was it!
What do you mean you cant create ramp lights with ADE?
ADE can do almost anything!! We don't need no stinkin effects!

(gotta work on it some, but you get the idea)

 

[gadgets]

that was it!

Not sure what "that" was, but I'm glad it's "it"

What do you mean you cant create ramp lights with ADE?

That not what I said. While you might be able to use ADE-GP to create something that works in FS9, I have never managed to do so for FSX/P3D. Perhaps some detail on what you are showing us would be helpful.

Don

 

[pinkjr]

ahh sorry Don, I didn't mean it to sound like that! Perhaps its was too simple all along. It was Tom's recommended solution, which you also pointed to. Thanks guys!

ok, the ramp you see is a 1024x1024 polygon I created in photoshop. I added weathering, lines, etc.. and installed it via the GP Polygon tool on ADEx. This is FSX.

What I wanted to do was to create an LM of the same Polygon with "painted" light reflections. This is just printed into the polygon, nothing more. The way I do it is add a dark layer in PS CS5, then "paint" the light in (this is more of a PS technique than an ADE concept). I then turned the bmp into a DXT3 using DXTBMP.

To install the LM GP, I simply created the texture and placed it in the same folder as the day texture in ADE, obviously with the _LM in it. When I compiled the scenery, it automatically placed the new _LM texture in the FSX texture folder of my scenery, and it was ready to go.

The result came out to "light" so I will touch up to add more overall darkness, and make the "spot lights" edges more apparent.

I still owe you guys a good tutorial of creating aprons and high quality taxiways using ADE. ADE rocks!

David

 

[pinkjr]

About my comment on ADE cant make ramp lights, it was meant to be funny/sarcastic. Not always comes out the way you want on the internet! ha

Please let me know if you have any questions, I'd be very glad to help.

David

 

[pinkjr]

BTW, the reason the ramp looks a bit blurry is because I have the global and ground texture settings set to mid (my PC is old, great for creating scenery work, but sucks for add on flying!)