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How do I make a detailed building texture?

2wheelsup

2wheelsup

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us-utah
I have made some aircraft hangers using the Austin Sass method with blender and gimp with not too bad of result. However, is there a way to get a little better texture for certain items like doors, windows, power meter panels, etc. You know the small items that make up a building. When I put everything on the one texture sheet these items are very small and don't have the detail I am looking to get when I place the building in FSX. I would like to be able to get those items to look more realistic if possible.

Thanks for any help or ideas.
 
simply increase their size on the UV map or alternatively give them their own texture sheet (if they are important enough).
 
I have increased the size as much as possible but they are still small. How would I use more that one texture sheet? So far I only know how to use one texture sheet for each model. Still learning...
 
A screenshot would help define the problem, there might be an easy solution if we knew what you were working with.
You could add geometry for the detail, this would allow you to increase the resolution of individual elements like doors and windows. If the meter box was an actual box, then you could apply a texture separate from the wall texture -- although ideally from the same texture sheet. I've never met a hangar which didn't comfortably fit on a single texture sheet:)
 
Here is the texture sheet for a hanger at KLBE. The marked items are the power meter and door I would like to have more detail. This is ready for use in FSX. The other pictures are of the door and power meter and final hanger.

hanger picture.jpg

power meter.jpg
door.jpg
hanger.jpg
 
Ok, that makes a lot more sense now.
A couple of things -- first, it looks like FSX is displaying a lower resolution texture, have you 'tweaked' the TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD in the config to handle 2048x textures?
It looks like part of your texture is built from photo images, but you really need better images to start with. The logo, for instance, is certainly big enough in your texture, it's just too blurry. Get a sharper logo. Same with the other photo details, the windows etc. If you can't get a better photo, you may need to just make your own textures.
Your door could be added as separate geometry -- cut out a rectangle, and texture it separately. There's plenty of space in your texture sheet for a door with a lot more detail.
 
I adjusted the TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD to 2048 and it did help some. I get most of my textures from cgtextures and they look good when I place them on the sheet, but I have to shrink them down so much the detail is lost when they get made large again in FSX. This is why I was wondering if small items could be placed on a separate texture sheet so they would keep more of the details. Maybe I just expect too much. At least the building is better than what microsoft uses. ( In my opinion anyway) Maybe I just need a new computer.
 
First, I think your textures look great!

A couple of suggestions:

The electric meter comes off a bit flat. You might try a bit of shadowing and a bit of "glare" on the glass (using a bit of "dodge" in your graphics app).

The door looks a bit "slim" when rendered. This is a common issue caused by the texture and the 3D object being slightly different "sizes" In the texture, the door looks to be a standard size so the length of the model on that wall is slightly shorter than the corresponding texture of that wall.

Two ways to correct:

1 Go back to the texture and widen the door some. I'd also recommend some shadowing in the texture to give it a 3D look. Sin ce most doors are somewhat inset to the wall, just using a thin vertical black (or dark grey) line adjacent, inside to the left edge and a thin black line adjacent inside the top edge will work.

2 (the way I do doors) If you are not worried about poly count, make a shallow "inset" in the wall where the door is. (I use gMax and the boolean subtraction function to take out the "door frame" all the way down past the bottom of the model). Add the wall texture as normal - when selecting the plane it should have a notch in it. Then add the texture for the door separately in the inset. Of note this will leave thee very small planes (left, top, right sides of the "door frame") that need t be addressed. I normally start by making my entire model one color - dark grey or black - thus the "door frame" takes on that color

Again, Great work!
 
Ronald, I heard that the Blender cycles rendering didn't work for FSX. Was this information in error. I have only used Blender Render. Also, I was trying to get the meter to show by enlarging the panel. If I leave it regular size on the texture sheet I end up with trying to place a dot of a meter. This is why I was asking if I could use an extra texture sheet for small items in relation to the hanger size.
 
Last edited:
Hangar32 said:
First, I think your textures look great!

A couple of suggestions:

The electric meter comes off a bit flat. You might try a bit of shadowing and a bit of "glare" on the glass (using a bit of "dodge" in your graphics app).

The door looks a bit "slim" when rendered. This is a common issue caused by the texture and the 3D object being slightly different "sizes" In the texture, the door looks to be a standard size so the length of the model on that wall is slightly shorter than the corresponding texture of that wall.

Two ways to correct:

1 Go back to the texture and widen the door some. I'd also recommend some shadowing in the texture to give it a 3D look. Sin ce most doors are somewhat inset to the wall, just using a thin vertical black (or dark grey) line adjacent, inside to the left edge and a thin black line adjacent inside the top edge will work.

2 (the way I do doors) If you are not worried about poly count, make a shallow "inset" in the wall where the door is. (I use gMax and the boolean subtraction function to take out the "door frame" all the way down past the bottom of the model). Add the wall texture as normal - when selecting the plane it should have a notch in it. Then add the texture for the door separately in the inset. Of note this will leave thee very small planes (left, top, right sides of the "door frame") that need t be addressed. I normally start by making my entire model one color - dark grey or black - thus the "door frame" takes on that color

Again, Great work!
Click to expand...


Thanks,
I usually make the door separate like in tip 2. I was just trying to get the door to be better defined by just placing it on the wall texture. (Didn't work) The door still has no defined texture like knobs, and windows, etc. after I shrink them down to fit the door template. The door texture starts out looking just like I want it, but ends up like what you see in my finished model - blaah. Is it possible to get the tiny door that I end up with to look like this door? The one I start with.
Blue Door.jpg
 
2wheelsup said:
Ronald, I heard that the Blender cycles rendering didn't work for FSX. Was this information in error. I have only used Blender Render. Also, I was trying to get the meter to show by enlarging the panel. If I leave it regular size on the texture sheet I end up with trying to place a dot of a meter. This is why I was asking if I could use an extra texture sheet for small items in relation to the hanger size.
Click to expand...

Hi 2sheelsup!

When exporting your project to make the .mdl file you need to use Blenders internal render engine. But you can use Blenders cycles engine to make your textures. You are not limited on the program that you can or can not use to make your textures. You just need to remember to convert them to dds format for FSX.
2wheelsup said:
One texture sheet (that's all I know how to make). It is 2048 X 2048
Click to expand...
You can use more than one texture sheet on an object very easy. To have more than one texture sheet per object, all you have to do is assign a new material to the part of the object that you want to have a new texture. And then you assign a texture to that new material. (The only thing that you need to keep in mind is the extra draw calls that will be needed.)
 
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