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FSX Volumetric Grass Testing

Messages
86
Country
unitedstates
Hello,

I tried doing this grass, looks great in gmax, but I have trouble exporting it to simulator.

Can someone please point me how to export it?

I have tried exporting it directly from 2002 gamepack, keep files, and edit .asm, but the simulator freezes at scenery loading, it does even when I dont edit the .asm.

Or is this problem already in .gmax? I am not sure.

Same thing happen to me sometimes but just export the mdl with the fs2004 or fsx gamepack and load it with mcx convert and place wizard and it should be fine.
 
Messages
757
Country
netherlands
Matthew: Thanks for the tip. I will definitely try it.

jtanabodee: I have fs2002 gamepack that I used succesfully to export ground polys... I will see what I can do with X or 9 gamepacks though.
 

jtanabodee

Resource contributor
Messages
3,921
Country
thailand
Matthew: Thanks for the tip. I will definitely try it.

jtanabodee: I have fs2002 gamepack that I used succesfully to export ground polys... I will see what I can do with X or 9 gamepacks though.

Please be sure that the polygons are not too many for fs2002.
Another thing, may be you can try Reset X form. It might help.
 
Messages
757
Country
netherlands
Hello,

for everybody who would have my problem, try to reexport the texture as DXT3 with DXTbmp. I suppose that my download was corrupt or something, or the 32bit texture supplied was corrupt, or incompatibile with FS2004. It shows 18 bytes less than the one I did by combining 24bit texture and alphachannel by hand in DXTbmp.

(I dont remember if the texture hanged FSX too-back in April, I only tested in FS2004 now)
 
Messages
2,286
Country
us-washington
thanx - will be a great help. I finaly learned how to0 do it, but I am getting a lot of outward-looking spray from the center. Trying to get rid of that.
Bob
 

jtanabodee

Resource contributor
Messages
3,921
Country
thailand
I don't understand about terrible spray - looking effect. Would you mind posting a photo of it?
I think you might need mapping more repeated texture.
 
Messages
2,286
Country
us-washington
Tic- I've posted 2 shots. Hope they upload. :) This is a large patch with many repeats within it as one "object". I do have the grass too tall right now but that is easily change. It's this spray effect I don't like. I didn't use any 'ground' underneath thisw one because it was poking out around the edges.
Bob
 

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jtanabodee

Resource contributor
Messages
3,921
Country
thailand
I don't know how that could be.
I think you might have a wrong mapping method. You need to do this in gmax.
 
Messages
2,286
Country
us-washington
Went to the website weeks ago and was helped a lot. Shawn knows I use FSDS. He didn't mentioin that I HAD to use Gmax. He did mention I might get that effect with stacked polys aas shown in one of his pictures on line. said it can be a perspective issue from top down.

How to corrrect was not offered as yet.

I have made one large and one small poly in the shape of squares. I would assume this can be done in any shape and/or size.

In the pic the stacked polys are directly on top of each other. is it better to try to stagger them a bit? Bob
 

jtanabodee

Resource contributor
Messages
3,921
Country
thailand
I'm sorry I don't know about FSDS, never use that. So I don't know how to help you.
With that effect, I think the problem is the mapping of the texture. If you can do that in FSDS, it would be perfect. But I have no ideas about FSDS. Someone else might help you then.
 
Messages
2,286
Country
us-washington
Thanx for the try anyway. I'm sure there is a simple step I'm not doing. It's there somewhere. If I figure it out I will report back here to help others. Bob
 
Messages
2,286
Country
us-washington
I made some of this in FSDS, but I get an effect that makes it look like it is spraying out from the center. I would like to know how to correct this.

Also- does one make large squares of this grass or small?

I tried following instructions in the tutorial. i see the stacked polys on top of each other and slightly larger with each poly. Is this how? (it is what I am doing) or is this only a beginning example, and I as the student am supposed to guess at the rest of the procedure? Bob
 
Messages
226
Country
germany
Hi Bob,

the idea is to cover the whole area with a single polygon (slice out aprons, hangars etc), map that polygon using the tileable texture (you've to guess the right size) and then clone that polygon about ten times shifting those clones 1cm upwards each to create the 3D effect -> grass has the height of 10cm if you leave the original polygon at Z=0, it's maybe not necessary.

Do you have screenshots of your work? Would make it easier to solve the problem :)
EDIT: Found two screenshots, but can you post a screenshot of the object as it is in FSDS please? With planes visible. etc - it might be a mapping problem.
Be sure to apply a face or box UV modifier to the plane before you start cloning it.

EDIT2: No scaling! The size of the original polygon has to remain the same in every clone. The only thing you do with the clones is to shift them upwards
having 1cm space between each one of them.
 
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Messages
2,286
Country
us-washington
Ah! I have been scalling them bigger an dbigger as I saw in the tutorial! I tried not calling and got funny long grass strips.

I don't think I can cut a piece out of a poly in FSDS unless I do it via boolean. that is possible. Remeber that FSDS is a fine program but not as powerful as Gmax. Bob
 

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Messages
2,286
Country
us-washington
I read your comments. Looking at the pics this might be why AI am getting these results? Bob
 

jtanabodee

Resource contributor
Messages
3,921
Country
thailand
Hi Guys,
I'd like to post my progression about 3d Grass.
I can use MCX by using Groundpolygon Wizard. But you need to uncheck both two little box for Project flat polygons.... and Filter out non-ground polygons. Then on the Options box, you need to uncheck Slice and group polygons. Your grass will be successfully converted to ground poly. If you have problem with the curvature of the earth, you need to slice the grass poly to be less that 100 meters apart by yourself. Don't let MCX do it. Nevertheless, you can use tweaked asm method as usual. I don't see much different.

Other than that, you can add seasonal variation to your grass as well. I think it might be fun if you turn this in to 3d snow over the grass. I don't have snow in my project. But you could try by changing the alpha and the texture abit.
This is my Spring-Summer texture. Grass is green and beautiful.

VTBSspring_zps8c7ad5b5.jpg


This is my Fall-Winter. Grass become brown.

VTBSFall_zps358f7f85.jpg


Let's try it.


If you do this on a small scale then it works fine, but the moment you go big, you will notice a massive frame hit. When I say big, I mean something beyond 1000 meters. Obviously it is only good for extremely flat areas. Due to these limitations I abandoned the concept.
This time I use 3dGrass for the whole airport and the fps is not bad at all. Some fps hit but not as much as AI airplane do.

Another thing, if you tweak or us MCX groundpoly wizard, you still have layer priority over the height of the grass.
If you have other higher layer than the grass, the grass will not show over other higher layer. You can have very simple grass all over the place. Cut it out just when you need photoscenery to be seeen.

Grass is in lower layer than line. So the line display over the grass despite the grass has some polygons 10 cm above the line.

3dgrassTweakedASM_zps9fba6cf1.jpg


In this picture, the grass is layer 8, the edge and the taxiway asphalt is on layer 12. The grass is simple rectangle here.

3dgrasslayer_zpsf23cb695.jpg


You can have 3d grass really smooth blend with the photoscenery. Just let the edge of the layers above the lowest one in the same plane. You can see it blend nicely. You can see on the left side, the edge of the layers of grass (I have 10 layers, 0.015m apart) are in the same plane in vertical. So you can see the sharp edge, the end of grass. But on the right side the 3d grass is blend nicely with photoscenery. Since all the edges of 10 layers are not in the same plane in vertical.

3dgrassgradualyblend_zps1fc36494.jpg
 
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Messages
2,286
Country
us-washington
This is very well done. Is is great to know I can use MCX to work on this. But I need to know how to do this from the start..... step by step and NOT using Gmax. I use FSDS. You see the results I've gotten (above).

I have followed the vgrass tutorial. But it does not tell you to not stack the grass layers in ever-increasing sizes (gets that spray effect). but the pictures show to do it. An e-mail letter said not to do it. (He did that just to show the layers a bit better.)

some instructions say to slice out areas where you don't want the grass. But it never tells you how to do that.

It would be great to see a tutorial on this, step by step and interval pics to show what it should look like at that point in the tutorial... test on Friday. :) bob ..... again - wonderful work!!!
 
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