Braided rivers

[EssieP]

In your opinion is it better to...
1 create braided rivers by drawing the outer banks, then using polygon holes to make the islands?
or
2 Create a string of shapes that split & meet across the islands- what is mean is make a series of shapes like this:
--XX--
with an island in-between the Xs (if that makes sense- more like a "Y" on its side).

 

[Mace]

I've done it using both methods. And both work equally well.

The answer is, I think there is no "best way".

PolygonHole might be slightly more elegant under certain circumstances. Drawing around the islands may give visual problems at the joints, where a "braid" meets another braid, but it won't if you're very careful in your positioning in Google Earth. Also it's really not noticeable unless you get right up on it, closer than anyone but you, the designer is likely to look.

I think both methods work well.

 

[EssieP]

How do you deal with the slope of the river, vertex altitudes presumably have a lower altitude downstream. Is it necessary to use some trigonometry?

 

[Mace]

I am not that good at mathematics.

I deal with the slope by making segments, at 1m elevation increments. I know, this is not a good solution because it makes "steps", but 1m steps do not have a noticeable appearance from the air, and even if you are simming a boat, the drop off is not that major.

I do want to attempt to enter slope data. However I have not done this yet. If you find a workable method, please post here about it.

 

[EssieP]

If I do work out the slope angles, where can I enter that?

I'm considering drawing new river polys each time the river turns onto a compass bearing N, E, S or W so I only have to calculate one slope vector ( X or Y)not both.

 

[rhumbaflappy]

Hi EssieP.

You;ll sacve a lot of trouble by using this 'texture':

// Legacy_LandWaterMask_Water_NoFlatten
[Texture.381]
Name=Legacy_LandWaterMask_Water_NoFlatten
Color=FF638AC2
guid={5835459A-4B8B-41F2-ADC1-DEE721573B28}
Textures=OCEAN_SEA_LARGE_LAKE
FlattenMode=none
LandClassRemapType=none
ExcludeAutogen=Yes
RenderToTexture=Yes
RenderPriority=80000
Water=Yes


It is mesh-clinging water in FSX... no slope needed.

Dick

 

[EssieP]

I'll try that when I get home.

At Home: that works more than well-enough! It's going to save a huge amount of time and the water shader is hardly any different!

 

[Mace]

The Legacy waterpolys are ok, but my concern with them is that they won't work in FS11--that is almost guaranteed

I also don't like the way legacy waterpolys look, in that they are often not very "flat", only as good as the underlying mesh.

I will try to discover a good method for sloping the river polys but as I said, I'm not a math whiz.

 

[EssieP]

The rivers have worked this evening because the mesh they are drawn on is pretty even so the results are sound. In real life rivers do vary in slope, some parts are steeper than others.

Another thought is that the river can be drawn insections that are on an equal line of laitiude sometimes, so only one slope need be calulated.

I'm thinking of putting together an Excel spreadsheet to do the trigonometry anyway.

 

[rhumbaflappy]

The Legacy waterpolys are ok, but my concern with them is that they won't work in FS11--that is almost guaranteed
QUOTE]



Why would you assume anything of legacy will work in FS11? It's 2-3 years away, and the Aces team has NOT committed to backwards compatibility in future versions.

Just save your source code, and recompile it using the next version's tools... and don't worry about something that has not even been in the alpha stage.

Dick

 

[Mace]

Why would you assume anything of legacy will work in FS11?

I didn't. (scratches head)

And I don't

Dick I think you mis-read my post. You are agreeing with me, it's likely NOTHING legacy will work in FS11. Especially the legacy water.