WED- Surface Painted Runway Hold Markings

[fletcherj]

Hey Guys,

I'm curious if WED is capable of creating these surface painted runway hold markings. They are signified by a red square with the runway designations and a black border. They are normally found at taxiway and runway intersections and are hi-vis to alert vehicles and aircraft they are approaching a runway. Anyone know how to create these and implement them into your scenery. I've searched the forums, and toiled through WED but can't seem to find a solution. Here is a pic. Thanks!!!

FletcherJ

[ryancz]

They aren't in WED, but I but you could make them with a .pol.

Actually, new project. I'm going to make a set of them, for each possible runway designation(18)

I'll post here when done.

[fletcherj]

Great! They add so much detail to environment.

[chris k]

These signs and characters/glyphs are all available in the OpensceneryX Library:

Mix and match for desired effect. http://www.opensceneryx.com/

- CK.

[tkyler]

They aren't in WED, but I but you could make them with a .pol.

Best way is with a "draped polygon object". These would be version 10 only though as draped polygons are not supported in V9.....there's just a hair over 350 possible combinations so it's a lot of objects. A draped polygon object is simply an OBJ but with special directives in the OBJ file. If you look in xplane > resources > default scenery > airport scenery > common elements > parking items > asphalt cracks....you will see the components that make a draped polygon object. The minimum required commands are:

TEXTURE_DRAPED path_to / draped_texture

....and further down in the file

ATTR_lod

ATTR_draped

You can use two textures within a single object as long as one of them is TEXTURE_DRAPED.....but I do not think any export scripts you guys have available support two texture exports. For "draped only" polygons....that is an OBJ where every polygon in the object are draped polygons.... this isn't an issue and would work fine. You just make one polygon, texture it with the runway markings, export it, then go in and change "TEXTURE" to "TEXTURE_DRAPED" and then add the "ATTR_LOD" and "ATTR_draped" commands manually as seen in the example file shown above.

Tom Kyler

[tkyler]

somehow posted twice..

Edited August 2, 2012 by tkyler

[ryancz]

Yeah, I'm going to make 18 .pol files, or each runway designation.

It will be v9 compatible.

I should have it done by the end of the day.

I will submit it to opensceneryX.

[ryancz]

Here you go.

1) Download to custom scenery

2) Open Overlay Editor, or WED

3) Click "Hold LIb"

4.1) Overlay editor- Insert desired runway number, move corners for size

4.2) WED- Draw .pol starting from the top left corner, clockwise around (four points)

5) Enjoy!

Hold Library.zip

Edited August 2, 2012 by ryancz

[chris k]

-duplicate-

Edited August 3, 2012 by chris k

[chris k]

Nicely done Ryan! Much easier this way, rather than painting things one-by-one.

Good idea to get this into OpensceneryX ASAP.

Couple of items:

1. You can use 2048x1024 instead of 2048x2048, I noticed the bottom half of each .PNG is just a transparent Alpha. To save VRAM, X-Plane *does* allow for non-square dimensions in a .POL/draped poly..... so you can cut them into 2048x1024 instead.

2. Suggest .DDS compressing them - again save VRAM. PNG 2048x2048 takes 16 Mbytes of VRAM, vs 6-8 Mbytes with DDS w/no Alpha. If you want, post them here again and I'll Xgrind them for you into DDS.

- Ck.

Edited August 3, 2012 by chris k

[ryancz]

I thought polygons always had to be square?

I made them hi-res because it's easier to reduce than expand.

[chris k]

I thought polygons always had to be square?

Yeah... not any more. That seems to have changed a while back - I dont think the official .POL documentation as been updated to reflect that since v8. I use all sorts of differing texture sizes for POLs, as long as they're 'powers of two' on each side. (2048x512 is fine, 256x1024 is fine, etc...)

I made them hi-res because it's easier to reduce than expand.

I wasn't taking issue with the .POLs being "hi-res." I was discussing distributing them as a .DDS, since users using texture compression, the resulting PNG would look terrible; versus pre-compressing the imagery into a 2048x2048 DDS. The resolution *stays* at 2048x2048 either way. Ben did a nice writeup on the difference between the two: http://developer.x-p...-in-x-plane-10/

Anyways, was simply volunteering to .DDS them for you.

- CK.

Edited August 4, 2012 by chris k

[tkyler]

Ryan. good contribution. A few things though. You have 18 variations but there are over 350 possible combinations in total if you add in L, R and C combinations. You're 18 POL files account for being on "one end" of a runway only...for example, you have 18 - 36, which works great if you're at runway 18, but If you're at the other end though, RWY 36, you would have a sign that reads 36-18 with the '36' being first. Also, with POL files, you don't get the preview in WED when you place these...,hence my suggested to go with a draped object.

Tom Kyler

Laminar Scenery Dev

[chris k]

Also, with POL files, you don't get the preview in WED when you place these...

Err, I certainly get .POL previews in WED! =)

And you can definitely see them in WED once placed - Just need to enable [//] Use Texture Map when placing a non-repeating textured .POL

- CK.

Edited August 4, 2012 by chris k

[tkyler]

And you can definitely see them in WED once placed - Just need to enable [//] Use Texture Map when placing a non-repeating textured .POL

DOH! You can see how much I use that feature for non-repeating draped polygons! Thanks Chris. I used draped objects for this kind of stuff.

Edited August 5, 2012 by tkyler

[Pepel81]

Hello everyone,

i follow your topic very interesting for me ! i'am trying to modeling LFCI .

I have a question: when i make a polygon drapped with a paint texture( here in blue) how can i do to do a border line white around the blue paint ?

Sorry for my bad english.

i have seen this post a little old but i think you work hard on xplane 10!

thank a lot

best regards from France Albi

[chris k]

Draw a Taxiway line - (using the line drawing tool), and select the "Solid White (roadway)" line style.

Draw it segment by segment around your POL, then using the Vertex tool, drag the points on the line so that they "snap" to the .POL polygon's verticies.

Its what I do for a white edge line. Works perfect.

- CK.

[Pepel81]

Thank for your help i will try this evening.

I'm just editing my post to say thank you to C K ! it work fine.

Now i'm just search tuto for make my own textures of apron, land etc because in France we haven't rights for satellites images like USA...

And also i would like to know why i'm obliged to edit .pol file and duplicate the file to edit it. (if i make a new file with Textedit and rename it, the file doesn't work in WED) I'm on mac.

I am very intersting to learn how to make a scenery to release it in .org (for free) Xplane 10 is incredible...

Edited August 19, 2012 by Pepel81

[andydckent]

DOH! You can see how much I use that feature for non-repeating draped polygons! Thanks Chris. I used draped objects for this kind of stuff.

numbers.jpg

Is there anyway I could borrow a few of those lovely marking for my scenery I'm trying to make?

Andy

[tkyler]

If I can find them Andy, sure.  I meant to dig those out earlier, but seem to have misplaced the blender file I have them ...or forgotten which I'm not sure.  I'll post here when I hunt them down.   I have a relatively unwavering ritual of waking up, heading out for morning coffee to study for a few hours,  then I settle into my day (GMT + 6).   At some point today,  I'll try and dig around for those.

 

Tom K

[andydckent]

If I can find them Andy, sure.  I meant to dig those out earlier, but seem to have misplaced the blender file I have them ...or forgotten which I'm not sure.  I'll post here when I hunt them down.   I have a relatively unwavering ritual of waking up, heading out for morning coffee to study for a few hours,  then I settle into my day (GMT + 6).   At some point today,  I'll try and dig around for those.

 

Tom K

Thanks! That would be very useful if you can find them!