OK, now to share my work with you guys. I need depth!

[commercialcobb]

I have several models (that are attached) that I am quite proud of, but one thing in FSX is there is no depth.. I cant tell the front edge from the offset door. I went through the trouble (keeping in mind "low polygon count and minimal texture count") of adding very small polygons in a darker shade to add depth and nothing really happened. What I did was, where the hangar doors meet, I added a small area of much darker shade to separate it from the doors themselves but it didn't do me any good..

I tried and paid for some texture files of painted metal to use as a texture on the surface but to make them match each other I would have so many textures that you would hit the ground before you saw the airport.. GLITCH GLITCH etc.

How (if at all possible) can I use default "fill colors" to add depth? I am looking to make this scenery as perfect as possible but not kill the frame-rates I already have at a dismal 4.5fps (graphics card failure) when flying into KCHS Charleston SC. And that is with AI traffic off.

Give me a little more help here fellas. I am going to add in a .zip file my .mdl .skp and saved files and pics of the hangars (which are few and far between IT'S A US MILITARY BASE) for ya'll to look at and critique.

Thanks again, I might lose my girlfriend over this new found airport designing and modeling.. Modeling is new to me, I already lost girls with ADE and PSP.. lol

The Boeing facilities are made of metal but the metal sheeting has very rigged lines in the metal itself that its not noticeable more the 100ft away or 30m.. So none of the textures I have found do it any justice.

Let me know what y'all think and how I can add so depth to this project..

Thanks a million or two!!

The files are under the "KCHS" folder and the rest are pics from a distance or satellite of the the hangars.

OK I cannot upload the .zip file so her goes pics and .skp's

 

[commercialcobb]

Photos of the .mdl's in Charleston

 

[commercialcobb]

And Hangar 1

 

[commercialcobb]

And this is how they appear in FSXA... Not much depth at all.. you cant even see the difference from the hangar doors and the face of the hangar.

I know the solution is simple but I am a rookie at this so help me out and send me in the right direction..

 

[hcornea]

The most important thing you need to do is use textures.

I would go so far as to say NEVER use solid colours in FSX.

Using the Boeing Factory KHCN as a guide:
- Polygons are not the problem this model will face (although 3953 is on the high side)
- The BIG problem is that it represents 21 materials (and hence 21 discrete drawcalls)
This is (unfortunately) a VERY inefficient model.

If you must use solid colours then use a single material, and texture and map to a colour palette on that material.

Better is to use proper UVW mapped materials and textures with shading. This is what gives a model perspective.