FSXA Helpers and ground-polys

[GHD]

I decided to attempt to create some car park markings, so first of all made a rectangular helper of the correct dimensions.

Unfortunately, as far as I am aware. the only way to rotate a helper is via the rotate handle. Since I know the required angle, it would be useful to be able to type in the value.



Then, I needed to create a GP, so I carefully placed the vertices on the corners of the helper. Now came the tricky part. How to resize the polygon in the GP editor window.



In fact, the result wasn't too bad, but it would have taken many trial and error attempts to get a good fit:



May I humbly request a new feature of a combined helper and texturiser for car park markings.

In real life, car park markings are roughly the same in all car parks, only the length of the rows vary.

I would imagine that some clever person could automate this task

 

[scruffyduck]

George

Create the helper. Rotate and size it as required. Select the helper shape. Right Click > Make Custom Ground Poly. That should make one step easier at least As for automating certain types of ground poly I am sure we can work out how to do that since ADE could pre-populate most of the properties.

I guess in simpler cases it could also generate the required U.V values but that is the area where the editor is intended to do the work. However it should be possible to automate some types of ground polys

 

[scruffyduck]

We don't have edit on helper shapes but I could add it, of course.

 

[GHD]

BTW. Copy / Paste GPs work but it doesn't preserve the texture mapping

If the mapping were preserved, it would make creating carparks a doddle.

 

[scruffyduck]

BTW. Copy / Paste GPs work but it doesn't preserve the texture mapping

If the mapping were preserved, it would make creating carparks a doddle.

Oh - well it should copy everything that is in the GP object. I will check it George..............

 

[gadgets]

George, since you can see that the texture is 16 parking spots wide, with the new texture resize feature, set the width of the texture to 16 * whatever width you want the parking spot to have.

Don

 

[GHD]

I have been setting the Main Texture Size and V values the same for the two copies of the polygon and the results are different for each.

 

[gadgets]

Once again, we've got some new information. There's no previos mention of two polys being textured diofferently.

I have been setting the Main Texture Size and V values the same for the two copies of the polygon and the results are different for each

Are the two polys the same size? If not, by setting identical V valuies you are telling the system to cover two differnly sized areas with the same segment of texture.

A screenshot of this situation would be helpful.

Don

 

[GHD]

Are the two polys the same size? If not, by setting identical V valuies you are telling the system to cover two differnly sized areas with the same segment of texture.

I stated before, I am using copy/paste so if they are not the same size there is something wrong with the communication between ADE and the GP editor.

 

[gadgets]

It no longer matters. Please see my post in the beta thread.

Don

 

[GHD]

If not, by setting identical V valuies you are telling the system to cover two differnly sized areas with the same segment of texture.

When the editor is first opened, the U/V values are not populated. One needs to move a vertex before they are:



So it is impossible to transcribe the values to other instances.

 

[gadgets]

As mentioned on page 4 of the User manual, these textboxes dispay the common U/Vs among selected vertices - just like the Gmax UVW editor. Since you haven't selected any vertices in the screenshot, nothing is displayed in the textboxes.

Don

 

[GHD]

As mentioned on page 4 of the User manual, these textboxes dispay the common U/Vs among selected vertices - just like the Gmax UVW editor. Since you haven't selected any vertices in the screenshot, nothing is displayed in the textboxes.

OK.

I loaded one of the rectangles and noted the Main Texture Size and the U/V values for each of the four vertices.

I then loaded the "copied" rectangle and attempted to change the U/V values of each of the vertices to be the same. The program ran out of memory.

What I had forgotten was that the texture mapping of second rectangle had been rotated through 180 degrees



Like ET, I called home

 

[GHD]

Sorry, the above was using a "copied" GP. I won't do any futher testing until I get the all-clear on copied GPs.

 

[scruffyduck]

Here is the relevant bit from the log for Don:

System.OutOfMemoryException: Out of memory.
   at System.Drawing.Graphics.CheckErrorStatus(Int32 status)
   at System.Drawing.Graphics.DrawImage(Image image, Single x, Single y, Single width, Single height)
   at ADE_GroundPolys.GPEditor.NewBG()
   at ADE_GroundPolys.GPEditor.CalcScrollBars()
   at ADE_GroundPolys.GPEditor.Zoom(Boolean bZoomIn, Single nChange)
   at ADE_GroundPolys.GPEditor.pbData_MouseWheel(Object sender, MouseEventArgs e)

That bears some resemblance to the problems ADE gets when it cannot allocate a bitmap.


There is a second error which I guess is somewhat related:

System.OverflowException: Overflow error.
   at System.Drawing.Graphics.CheckErrorStatus(Int32 status)
   at System.Drawing.Graphics.DrawRectangle(Pen pen, Int32 x, Int32 y, Int32 width, Int32 height)
   at System.Drawing.Graphics.DrawRectangle(Pen pen, Rectangle rect)
   at ADE_GroundPolys.GPEditor.DrawData()
   at ADE_GroundPolys.GPEditor.OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)

 

[gadgets]

George, were these exceptions raised when the zoom level was at a useable level, or we're you testing to see how far you could go?

Don

 

[GHD]

George, were these exceptions raised when the zoom level was at a useable level, or we're you testing to see how far you could go?

Don

No, it was another case where the image was off screen so I needed to zoom out and use the scroll bars.

 

[gadgets]

I won't do any futher testing until I get the all-clear on copied GPs.

George, you don't need to stop testing. However, if you move or copy an object or add or delete vertices, for the time being you do need to call the GP Editor and then click OK - whether or not you make any further edits.

Jon's and my work at the moment is focused on making the process automatic.

Re the exceptions below, it would be helpful if you could give me a process/file that would allow me to reproduce the problems.

Don

 

[GHD]

Hi Don,

I couldn't reproduce the crash but I am having problems with MTS/U/V.

The attached project when compiled gives a resonable result in FSX but I wanted all three polygons to have exactly the same texture dimensions.



I edited the top polygon of the attached project and noted the texture size and U/Vs for each vertex.



I then edited the middle polygon top-left vertex to have the same values as the previous. The display is nothing like the upper polygon:



When both of these polys were edited, the polygon positions had not been preserved and the picture was outside the dialog area.

 

[gadgets]

Small matter of a "+" sign where there should have been a "-".

Tom, this should address your issue as well.

Don