Hi Gary,
I'm starting to feel guilty about all the time you are taking to help me... Thanks...
No problem... as others do here and on other FS web forums, I enjoy replying to threads which are topically interesting, and which might be of incidental benefit to my own learning or review process, while hopefully also benefiting another individual ...and perhaps numerous others who may read such threads later on while searching for solutions to their scenery development challenges.
I'll read over that night lighting map... So the light map is just blended with the underlying terrain... Cool...
So - I'll spend some time going over this in great detail but you seem to think this invisible layer -theory (hasn't been tried ?) - might be the solution to all my Resampled problems ??? I think I need to read this post a few dozen more times - LOL... Let me digest this and poke around - it's certainly worth a try... Ideally – this would be the “perfect” solution if it works…
Interesting that the *_LM.BMP "Light Map" is a custom photo-real land class texture which is "modulated" (as to its brightness ?) by FS at run time, isn't it ?
And FS Ground Shadows, if enabled, are super-imposed on
top of all terrain textures... including one's custom photo-real land class texture(s) when displayed by FS at run time !
So, AFAIK, it's possible to utilize transparency in pre-FSX default land class textures
and custom photo-real land class textures if one can discern what the rules are for their use.
Stop and think about it: the default land class textures are originally derived from aerial imagery that have been edited to create textures which would tile seamlessly when rotated in more than one orientation, and when placed in various locations and combinations of position ...at run time.
In FS9, default land class textures are 256 x 256 pixels (and in FSX they are 1024 x 1024 pixels).
IIUC, those textures can be even larger "powers of 2" in size ...if we set "TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD" (not to be confused with "TEXTUREMAXLOAD") in either version of FS to allow the larger texture sizes to be used on terrain texture tiles (...and other FS objects).
http://www.simforums.com/forums/nicktexture-max-load-post_topic28692.html
One might wonder if other custom land class textures can be "modulated" (as to ...transparency ?) by FS at run time depending on how the BGL which maps that texture is coded.
Bear in mind that we are discussing both the default terrain textures and any add-on "custom" terrain textures as being types of
land class tiles.
That means when we make a VTP (aka 'Vector Textured Polygon') area to drape onto the terrain mesh, it is a "tile" of a certain size, with the visible or "opaque" portion of the land class texture polygon drawn by the developer ...surrounded by a invisible or "transparent" border
outside that textured vector polygon.
The invisible or "transparent" border outside that land class textured vector poly-line or polygon extends out to the perimeter of the LOD-8 land class "tile" corners, where it is 'placed' onto the vector coordinates of the FS Quad Matrix Grid vertices at run time.
FYI: In FSX, the equivalents of VTP polygons are the Compressed Volume X (aka "CVX") 'vector' objects compiled to BGLs via SHP2VEC, which has been proven to allow one to annotate the invisible or "transparent" border outside the 'visible' land class textured vector polygon that extends out to the perimeter of the land class "tile" corners.
AFAIK, FS default land class texture tiles are LOD-8 land class "tiles" with 256 x 256 pixel BMP textures, each mapped to a quad-tree array of LOD-13 sized "cells".
Those FS default LOD-8 land class texture tiles are mapped to *an*.AGN autogen annotation files located in [FS install path]\Scenery\World\Texture folder.
We might ask ourselves what is different between default and custom land class texture tiles by examining the BGLs that place them, and how those
ex: default land class tiles are mapped to *an*.AGN autogen annotation files located in [FS install path]\Scenery\World\Texture folder.
One might wonder how "custom" photo-real land class (which has essentially the same structure as default land class "tiles") is also mapped to *an*.AGN autogen annotation files located in a
local \Texture folder paired with a local \Scenery folder.
Perhaps we might find a way to implement a completely transparent land class texture tile layer that either allows display of underlying autogen through to the "top" layer, or which when properly integrated into the "active" [FS install path]\Terrain.Cfg file, allows one to create a surface we can annotate with autogen while allowing at least the underlying layers of blended textures to show through it.
Hmmm... we still have a couple of months of the "Hard Winter" season to get this all figured out and implemented ...in time for Spring, right ?
LOL - I realize I can't use the UT textures - but - they are not exactly hard to imitate… I’m pretty handy with PSP… The resolution will be off anyway – as I’m pretty sure the VTP lines support a better resolution than my Resampled terrain…
IIRC, resolutions for mapped textures which can be displayed for vector polygons (including VTP2 ?) may be different than for mesh-clinging photo-real land class tiles made via Resample.
BTW: It is interesting by comparison, that in FSX, when one sets the resolution slider for textures to 7 cm, FSX automatically also sets the Terrain Mesh Resolution slider to 10 Meters.
When one increases FSX's texture resolution slider, textures displayed on "vector" content such as roads, streams, railroads etc. become increasingly sharper and detailed at run time.
One might further wonder (and test) whether "some" of the FSX.Cfg parameters we are now aware of as having an impact on FS rendering engine behavior, may also actually work in FS9.Cfg... such as:
// [TERRAIN]
// IMAGE_PIXELS_FOR_AUTOGEN_POLYGONS=256
Applicability of the example shown above is of course only speculative at this point, but one
would likely need to enable more terrain vertices for display of maximum 'precision' vector content in FS9 via setting TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL (aka "TMVL") to 21 or higher in FS9.Cfg, in combination with having loaded a LOD-11 resolution terrain mesh BGL in the area of one's scenery.
BTW: Like other "precision" vector content, legacy scenery flatten polygons (LWM flat or LWM3 sloped/tilted) are also aliased by FS to the vertices of nearby LOD13 Area Points (1/256th of an LOD13 quad's 1,223 Meters per side is 4.8 Meters, which is the closest achievable inter-point distance for vertices), assuming one has TMVL set to 21 or higher in FS9.Cfg.
I've also been thinking about making my project larger - instead of 9 LOD13 - making it 25 to move the edge of the photoreal that much further from the approach to the airport... Thats a big jump though...
Image isn't great - but - this is the Resampler photo tiles with Autogen
Your project appears to be off to a great start... looks good !
GaryGB
