chris k Posted January 8, 2012 Report Share Posted January 8, 2012 Dumb question, pls excuse my ignorance here..I remember a while ago a member made what looked like a nice field of grass using small objects of a few blades of grass, then creating a .for file for it. The result was a field, which had blades of grass shooting up from it, and it looked really good.!Is there a pre-made 'grass' object somewhere in the library system and/or a .for file which scenery designers could use to make a field of grass? (which the density would vary based on the user's preferences, same as 'number of trees')? I cant seem to find any....If not - perhaps a new XP10 'default' object (tkyler I'm looking at you =)) should be built to help us newbie scenery designers to quickly add 3-d grassy areas using WED to our airports? (Green Grass, Light Green, and Dry Brown Grass as the 3 default objects/.for file)Thanks in advance.- CK.P.S. If not, I'll have to see about creating my own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redfisher Posted January 8, 2012 Report Share Posted January 8, 2012 I don't think there's a library object for grass. You'll have to create your own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlos Garcia Posted January 9, 2012 Report Share Posted January 9, 2012 Maybe this can help youhttp://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=12621 Regards Carlos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris k Posted January 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2012 (edited) Thanks Carlos - yes - that's exactly the video I was thinking about...!- CK./me scurries off to add grass .for and possibly .str's out of the grass on taxiway edges..... =) Edited January 9, 2012 by chris k 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkyler Posted January 9, 2012 Report Share Posted January 9, 2012 I have made grass "forest" files in the past but was quickly shot down by Ben S for performance reasons beyond my comprehension. He said that while it could be done, it becomes performance prohibitive quickly, which I have seen myself. Of course I was practically creating a high density cornfield so it was no surprise. Anyhow, the result of that conversation was that In the future, we would look into grass type files similar to for files that was more performance friendly. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simmo W Posted January 9, 2012 Report Share Posted January 9, 2012 Ha, I was waiting for that to be found Carlos!Yes, if you use too much grass, it can affect your health :-)But mild doses- give it a try. ESP along taxiway edges, anywhere that'd most likely be seen by the pilot. But i find xp10's grass textures very crisp, almost not needed, other than more variety. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlos Garcia Posted January 10, 2012 Report Share Posted January 10, 2012 Yes, if you use too much grass, it can affect your health :-) LOL jajajajajajaja Nice .... Question ? Are you the owner of xplane10 wordpress ? Regards Simmo... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simmo W Posted January 10, 2012 Report Share Posted January 10, 2012 Yes Carlos, the 'part owner' along with Chip, who is the main engine room of it right now, until I shake off the scenery bug. Should be soon, years go by quickly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gjalp Posted January 10, 2012 Report Share Posted January 10, 2012 Hey Simmo, happy birthday old man!!!!!Slainte,Andy - getting on in years also NZCH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris k Posted January 10, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2012 (edited) Thanks guys for the responses.tkyler - understood. Yeah I wont know till I try it in terms of it's rendering impact. Perhaps I could LOD it so that it shows up only when you're pretty close.Simmo - Agreed - however, the nice thing about using this 3D grass is that although XP10's grass is nice, it's still 2-Dimensional. There's no 'height' to the default XP10 texture. Your files will allow scenery creators to give some depth/3D to the scene.What I'm really interested in - is an .STR of the grass object, so that I could make just a 2 dimensional grass edge along taxiways. I've seen this effect done (i.e. in the FSX conversion of Philadelphia KPHL here ( http://forums.x-plan...&showfile=11513 ).In that scenery - they use a 2D grass 'object' embedded in the edge of all taxiways and runways. It's a relatively 'cheap' effect (in terms of rendering, as it's just 1 object repeated over and over - instancing anyone? heh), but gives the scenery some depth and detail when taxiing around. Again, only 2D, but 2D "vertically" =)Anyways - looking forward to any new items (textures/obj/str/for/fac's) that are coming in XP10 to help out the community quickly turn out great looking Airport scenery.- CK.P.S. would it be too much to ask for a "dark asphalt" default runway/taxiway texture? Newly paved asphalt is always very dark - Makes me wonder why the X-Plane default texture is almost the brightness of concrete. =) This way, we could have "light asphalt" and "dark asphalt" and use each accordingly.PPS Happy Bday Simmo! Edited January 10, 2012 by chris k Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris k Posted January 10, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2012 (edited) Simmo - Your "grow your own grass" tutorial & Examples were fantastic.Here's the result, after a few hours of mucking around with different densities, randomness, colouring, and height. As per our earlier discussions, I put the grass only on the taxiway edges (so we dont kill the FPS), and it looks fantastic at virtually no detectable loss.The LOD is also calculated automatically (Thanks Tom), meaning that unless your 100m or so from the grass, you dont see it... FANTASTIC! Look forward to really adding some depth to NZCH now =)- CK. Edited January 14, 2012 by chris k 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simmo W Posted January 10, 2012 Report Share Posted January 10, 2012 That's great! Glad u found it helpful. The colour matches nicely. Yes, I found that xplane 9 drew it quite late in any case. Now build me some good clouds :-( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simmo W Posted January 10, 2012 Report Share Posted January 10, 2012 Hey Simmo, happy birthday old man!!!!!Slainte,Andy - getting on in years also NZCHHa, it's not my real birthday for a few more months, but sadly (??) the age is right! It's easy to remember at least (after 43 your memory starts declining, hence 44 being handy) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris k Posted January 10, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2012 ...mowing Simmo's grass.- CK. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gjalp Posted January 11, 2012 Report Share Posted January 11, 2012 Hey CK, looking good!!! Upon rfection of the NZCH scenery I really need to get my 3d model of the Aeroclub finished....just need textures and an AO map Simmo......no worries, Im just 4 behind you!!!!!!!Slainte,AndyNZCH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hueyman Posted January 11, 2012 Report Share Posted January 11, 2012 I'm waiting for the day where every part of empty field will be filled with GRASS !! Real 3D grass like Austin let us think before... Some sims offer thathttp://www.dignews.com/legacy/screenshots/whirlwind_over_vietnam_02.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris k Posted January 11, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2012 Ok, it *does* look really nice, but yeah - as tkyler/simmo mentioned there's a huge FPS hit if it's too dense.I'm now trying to find a nice balance between speed/FPS and some kind of believable 3D grass.... i.e. at sparse/populated it should have very minimal impact, while at 'overgrown' or 'tree hugger' level, it should be generally flushed-out (thus allowing the user to control the density just as they do with all other forests).Still tweaking - but the effect is very nice. - CK. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simmo W Posted January 11, 2012 Report Share Posted January 11, 2012 Nice ck! I remember the frustration- it looks so good, but has a 5-6fps hit. Then it pops up too late as well. But In reality, are the central grass areas that long? Haven't paid the lawnmower man enough :-)I really liked the earliest edge planting, that really is enough, maybe a touch less height. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john82088 Posted January 11, 2012 Report Share Posted January 11, 2012 WOW! Looks great!John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris k Posted January 12, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2012 But In reality, are the central grass areas that long? Haven't paid the lawnmower man enough :-)I really liked the earliest edge planting, that really is enough, maybe a touch less height.Yeah - this was just me playing around.I'm gong to go back to the "edge of taxiways/runways" only. I've also lowered the height on the edges considerably (0.3-0.5m now instead of 0.8-1.2m) which is much more realistic. I'm going back to just trying to give a "slight impression" of edge grass now.Anyways - This was me trying to get a feel for the 'fill densities', and how it would affect FPS. Note the FPS in the screenshots.., it went from normally 45-50 fps to 11 to 19 FPS depending on distance/fill/density/etc... so yeah, large fields of the stuff are simply not attainable with good rendering speed, no matter how nice they look =)- CK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simmo W Posted January 12, 2012 Report Share Posted January 12, 2012 god that is a drop! But nice for screenshots! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gjalp Posted January 12, 2012 Report Share Posted January 12, 2012 The grass looks fantastic, but you would find it on the very extremes of the runways......the grass is kept pretty short around the main runways (02, 20 11 and 29), around 02,20 grass you might find a few more gass tufts. In the middle "islands" between the runways/taxiways you might find more tufts.Just my .02 cents worth Slainte,AndyNZCH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlos Garcia Posted January 12, 2012 Report Share Posted January 12, 2012 (edited) I dont know maybe is a "BIG" mistake what I going to write... Maybe you can try with some kind of Texture or Change the Default Xplane Trees to some kind of grass...Sorry if this dont makes any sense.... just a crazy idea...Something like this one http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=5120Carlos Garcia A Edited January 12, 2012 by Carlos Garcia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blumenmann Posted February 6, 2012 Report Share Posted February 6, 2012 Just made some experiments with this technique:http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=15655I think this is a really easy and powerful way to generate more interesting elements like e.g. grain fields araound the airports. For X-Plane 10 this is really great because the grass or the grain is just generated when you are close to them.Something strange with very small structures happened in the distance. When you are far away the grass disapears even when the LOD parameter is set very high (e.g. 20000). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris k Posted February 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2012 Nicely done Bluemann!!We should somehow get a bunch of pre-made grass forests into OpensceneryX soon, so others can take advantage of this technique. =)- CK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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