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MSFS20 Guidance needed in ground layout topic

b2soft

b2soft

Messages
17
Country
ukraine
Hello. I’ve checked several tutorials regarding ground layout (aprons, taxiways, markings) and tried some stuff on my own, but there are some questions came to my mind.

1. How aprons are normally done? I want to use custom textures. Iirc metalness is not supported by projected meshes, so either create an Apron or insert 3d model? 3d models will not follow terrain. Apron objects are pain (still no snapping in SDK). What is the best/common practice here?
2. How taxiway markings are done? Default taxiPath is a no-go, too generic (leaving them only for AI). Painted Lines with custom material are jagged and not smooth. Projected mesh - sometimes low resolution since its only 4 px/cm. 3d model - not snapping to ground. What is the best/common practice here? (Sure, bot talking about 8k texture overlay applied over 256x256m polygon)
3. I need a specific layout of taxiway and runway lights objects. I found LightRow but it’s limited to taxiway lights only. May I create somehow a LightRow using my own objects (like maybe a row of yellow in-ground lights)?
4. Not everything is possible with default taxi signs (some symbols, like holding point, are missing). I assume, in that case 3d object is the only solution? Plus a lit version for nights
5. If I want to create an airport in 3ds/blender (for items 1 and 2), how to match the satellite image between blender and sim? I have aerial (made from SimpleAerial from SDK) a bit shifted compared to default Bing texture, so I assume it won’t be the same in Blender?

Thanks in advance for any guidance in those questions
 
1 - I've no idea what the best practice is, but I hand draw the aprons. Quite a few developers seem to totally flatten the airport so they can use one giant 3d model for the ground markings. That obviously won't work with somewhere known for its elevations.

2 - Not all custom lines are a blurry disaster. It might be that the worst ones are replacing the narrowest parts of the stock lines texture. It's worth experimenting with them as it can be less work. This one looks good enough for me, but I am easy to please. It replaces the Wide Yellow line.

A custom texture with a painted line doesn't work as smoothly the stock lines. It doesn't seem to agree where the line ends sometimes, but I'd start there myself.

3 - You can use your own objects in lightrows by adding a light preset in the airport object properties. It gives you the choice of mesh to use from the object list and multiple options with the lights such as colour, intensity, flashing etc.

Create a lightrow and then you add the preset in its properties.

4 - If you want more flexibility then you will need to model your own taxi signs. Light emission distance might be a bit of a problem with your own models.
 

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superspud said:
1 - I've no idea what the best practice is, but I hand draw the aprons. Quite a few developers seem to totally flatten the airport so they can use one giant 3d model for the ground markings. That obviously won't work with somewhere known for its elevations.

2 - Not all custom lines are a blurry disaster. It might be that the worst ones are replacing the narrowest parts of the stock lines texture. It's worth experimenting with them as it can be less work. This one looks good enough for me, but I am easy to please. It replaces the Wide Yellow line.

A custom texture with a painted line doesn't work as smoothly the stock lines. It doesn't seem to agree where the line ends sometimes, but I'd start there myself.

3 - You can use your own objects in lightrows by adding a light preset in the airport object properties. It gives you the choice of mesh to use from the object list and multiple options with the lights such as colour, intensity, flashing etc.

Create a lightrow and then you add the preset in its properties.

4 - If you want more flexibility then you will need to model your own taxi signs. Light emission distance might be a bit of a problem with your own models.
Click to expand...
Thanks! But you are replacing the only one line (the widest possible), so to have 5lines its better to have 5 textures instead of one packed?
 
I only needed that one extra line, but many developers have multiple lines on one texture sheet. I found worse results in different areas of the texture but the tolerances are so exact it takes a lot of attempts to perfect.

Lots of stuff in your community and Official folder will have custom line textures to experiment with so maybe it's worth finding one and trying some different things.
 
Every ground material (polygon, apron, projected mesh, painted lines) is baked into default terrain, so the final resolution for them is always the same, and is no more than 4cm *pixel

So to make a painted line everything more than 20 pixel wide should be a waste of texture space

There is a very interesting topic here

www.fsdeveloper.com

Painted Lines - their secrets exposed!!

Need to have a catchy title... Anyway, in order to be able to create my own painted lines patterns I tried to make some sense of the confusing mess that it is. The main goal was to figure out the mapping of the different line styles between the ground/target texture and the "optional material"...
www.fsdeveloper.com www.fsdeveloper.com
 
mamu said:
Every ground material (polygon, apron, projected mesh, painted lines) is baked into default terrain, so the final resolution for them is always the same, and is no more than 4cm *pixel

So to make a painted line everything more than 20 pixel wide should be a waste of texture space

There is a very interesting topic here

www.fsdeveloper.com

Painted Lines - their secrets exposed!!

Need to have a catchy title... Anyway, in order to be able to create my own painted lines patterns I tried to make some sense of the confusing mess that it is. The main goal was to figure out the mapping of the different line styles between the ground/target texture and the "optional material"...
www.fsdeveloper.com www.fsdeveloper.com
Click to expand...
I’ve checked this, also found, that people use service line texture space, since its has more pixels per area, and then create different textures files with only one line being in this particular spot. But will try more.
So, painted line with a custom texture is kinda OK, no need for projected mesh the same as with aprons?
 
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