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Making Lines

dan

dan

Messages
78
Country
us-rhodeisland
Hi All:

I'm fairly new to scenery design, and I'm tyring to add some lines for the apron "roadways" at the airport I'm making.

First, I tried making a basic line in FSSC. At first, one of the lines appeared in FS. I continued my work, and the lines would no longer appear! I recompiled the bgl many times and set the lines to be at a higher layer. No luck.

Then I decided to make a a narrow road to act as a line. I made a tiny texture for the lines, and then I get this error message:

Error in line 25
-> Bitmap( apronroadlines.bmp 0 0 0 0 )
-> in expression .. nes.bmp 0 0 0 0 ) ..
Error in line 40
-> Bitmap( apronroadlines.bmp 0 0 0 0 )
-> in expression .. nes.bmp 0 0 0 0 ) ..
Scasm compilation status: error(s) 2

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Dan
 
Hi Dan,

The bitmap command can only use files with the 8.3 naming convention. Check your FSSC settings, it is probably set to Fs98. Else the LoadBitmap command is used, that has no trouble with longer filenames.
 
arno said:
Hi Dan,

The bitmap command can only use files with the 8.3 naming convention. Check your FSSC settings, it is probably set to Fs98. Else the LoadBitmap command is used, that has no trouble with longer filenames.
Click to expand...

Even worse - it was set to FS95! Hopefully It'll work out now. Man do I feel dumb now!

Thanks Arno!
 
OK.

The file compiled fine, but I still can't see the markings!

Thanks for the help so far,
Dan
 
An Update...

I tried making the lines (yet again) and have made an interesting discovery.

When I first made them they were a bright read just to be conspicious. Then, I made them an off-white as they are in real life. After the color change they disappeared!
 
Hi Dan,

Are you using a color on them? That does no longer work (since Fs2002 or so, can also be Fs2000, can't really remember). Try to use a texture on them.
 
arno said:
Hi Dan,

Are you using a color on them? That does no longer work (since Fs2002 or so, can also be Fs2000, can't really remember). Try to use a texture on them.
Click to expand...

Well, yes and no.

I did use a color and have in the past (bright red) and I CAN see them. I can't see them as the light gray.

But I tried using a texture and it didn't work either.

Thanks,
Dan
 
I think I've made somewhat of a breakthrough. For the heck of it, I made a road of normal width in FSSC, and it appears! The very narrow one did not. Is there some width restriction on roads?

The only other thing that I think my need changing is the scale setting in FSSC. Does this affect anything?

Thanks,
Dan
 
Hi Dan,

It all depends on the scale used for the reference point if the line appears or not. The width is set as an integer value, so if the width is to small for a certain scale it ends up being rounded to zero.
 
SUCCESS!

I changed the scale from 1.0m/pixel to 0.1m/pixel and now it works! Now I just need to make a better line texture.

Thank you for your help!
 
Good to hear that :). One additional warning, don't make the scale very small, because you will trouble with long lines in that case. The maximum value of the coordinates of the lines are 32767. So if you make the scale 0.01 for example, you can have a maximum length of 327 meters.
 
arno said:
Good to hear that :). One additional warning, don't make the scale very small, because you will trouble with long lines in that case. The maximum value of the coordinates of the lines are 32767. So if you make the scale 0.01 for example, you can have a maximum length of 327 meters.
Click to expand...

OK. I was planning to make many seperate roads, so is that fine, or is it a total amount?

The only other question I have is regarding texture. FSSC does have a transparency setting for color, but this doesn't seem to have an effect because of the texture - is there any way to get around this? I also need to find a beter line texture...

Thanks,
Dan
 
dan said:
OK. I was planning to make many seperate roads, so is that fine, or is it a total amount?
Click to expand...

No, this is for each line. It is the distance from the reference point of the line that counts. If I remember correct, FSSC places this reference point at the center of each line. So it affects the line itself only, not all lines together.

dan said:
The only other question I have is regarding texture. FSSC does have a transparency setting for color, but this doesn't seem to have an effect because of the texture - is there any way to get around this? I also need to find a beter line texture...
Click to expand...

I think you would then have to use a texture that has an alpha channel to define transparancy. But I am not sure if transparant textures work on roads, it is a long time ago that I tried it, but I think they did not show.
 
arno said:
I think you would then have to use a texture that has an alpha channel to define transparancy. But I am not sure if transparant textures work on roads, it is a long time ago that I tried it, but I think they did not show.
Click to expand...

I just tried it - it didn't work with an alpha channel on it. I'm just trying to find the right shade. Maybe I'll have to take a picture of a local road and use photopaste. :rotfl:

Well I'm glad I finally have this figured out. It took all five days of my Thanksgiving break, but I got it! Thanks Arno! I'll be sure to post screenshots of this project when the time comes. :)
 
OK, I've hit another wall here.

I've been looking at some of the photo material that I have, and instead of a pure white line, it's a white line with black edges.

It seems that FSSC isn't the greatest at mapping textures. Is there a good way to do this?

Thanks!

Dan
 
Hi Dan,

I would put effects like that in the texture. Just give your texture black edges and then should look fine on your line.
 
D'oh! :banghead:

I feel stupid! Thanks again Arno for dealing with my dumb questions!
 
OK, sorry to dredge this topic back up!

I've been making my lines, and I think that if my lines had rough edges they would look much more realistic. However, it seems that transparency cannot be applied to the road textures. Is there any way to get around this?

Thank you very much!

Dan
 
Not that I know of. It indeed seems to be a limitation of the roads (old style) that you can not use transparancy on their textures.
 
arno said:
Not that I know of. It indeed seems to be a limitation of the roads (old style) that you can not use transparancy on their textures.
Click to expand...

OK - That's was the answer I thought it would be.

I think I do have an idea though - I think where they should be transparent if I just put the color of the material they're supposed to be on the same effect will be produced.

Thanks as always Arno!
 
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