KLEB Lebanon Municipal Airport

[Andyrooc]

Your Lebanon Airport is going to look amazing when done @skiflyzander!

 

One of the 'balances' I'm not sure about, is how much detail to add into the model vs how much you leave it to the texture to add the detail. I'm always a bit nervous about having too many individually textures faces on an object and what it might do to my framerate. You can have mega-detailed objects, but once you have 100 mega-detailed objects at one airport, your PC is going to notice. I tend to err on the side of less detailed objects (ok, my objects aren't that great in the first place :\), but that's my preference because I don't spend a lot of time looking at scenery in X-Plane although I do enjoy a 'nice' level of quality. ie: I tend not to model individual windows unless there's a particular reason for it.

 

Does anyone have a rule-of-thumb they use when modelling/texturing? (heh, reminds me of a look I got when I told a colleague I had spent the weekend modelling! )

[skiflyzander]

So it's been quiet here... for good reason. I just finished moving from Mac to PC (GASP   ) It really wasn't that bad and I'm enjoying the PC experience. I have everything I need, and I'll start finishing up work on the Tower tonight! 

[Flying_pig]

I wanted something else to model since i wanted a little break from the b-29 and this airport looked like it would be a little bit of fun to model so basicly here is the south end of the field feel free to use it in the final scenery package if you want to

KLEP.zip

[skiflyzander]

So I've been able to work on the tower a little more, I think I've got most of the modelling done. I just have an issue with lights. I have no idea how to make omni-directional lights or any other kind of custom light for that mater. So for now I have the tower fully modelled except for some lights! Enjoy the screenshots

 

 

 

 

[Redfisher]

 Nice work.  Now it's time to put some paint on it.

[skiflyzander]

Started with the next building... holding off on texturing for now, as I would rather just model. Release date is definitely going to slip a month or two. Sorry about that! It's been a busy winter. BUT, the good news is that this is the last complicated model. The other buildings that I need to model are fairly simply hangars.

Edited March 20, 2013 by skiflyzander

[skiflyzander]

I've been continuing to work on the terminal and It's starting to look decent... but it's too early for screenshots. I have a question: I am using the object Mast2.obj because there are two of these located at KLEB. BUT, the mast2.obj's are too tall. I looked everywhere and couldn't find shorter masts. Does anyone know where to find any that are a little shorter? I would appreciate the help 

[Redfisher]

I've been continuing to work on the terminal and It's starting to look decent... but it's too early for screenshots. I have a question: I am using the object Mast2.obj because there are two of these located at KLEB. BUT, the mast2.obj's are too tall. I looked everywhere and couldn't find shorter masts. Does anyone know where to find any that are a little shorter? I would appreciate the help 

 

One thing you could do just is just remodel it and use the same texture.  I can't tell you that you have any other options.  I couldn't find Mast2.obj but found a few others.

[skiflyzander]

Very true, Redfisher... I hadn't thought of that. I'll have to see if I have enough energy left to do that I think mast2.obj is a part of the RUscenery library. 

 

I spent some more time on the terminal tonight and it's progressing slowly but there is indeed progress. Check out the screenshots! 

 

 

I'm off to model a few more windows. If I can keep up this pace I should be finished with the terminal sometime next week! 

 

So a little behind the scenes story: I can't see the runway side of the building without getting out on the apron, but there IS a view from across the field and behind a fence. I'll be attaching my telephoto lens to snap some shots of the apron side of the terminal.   Hopefully nobody finds this suspicious and calls the police on me  

"o dear, look at this fellow snapping pictures from the woods... better call the police" Just what I need 

[AnonymousUser68]

Looks very good. I look forward to see how you texture it. My sketchup texturing is terrible.

 

 

 

So a little behind the scenes story: I can't see the runway side of the building without getting out on the apron, but there IS a view from across the field and behind a fence. I'll be attaching my telephoto lens to snap some shots of the apron side of the terminal.   Hopefully nobody finds this suspicious and calls the police on me  
"o dear, look at this fellow snapping pictures from the woods... better call the police" Just what I need 

 

Be ready to "leg it"   

Edited April 4, 2013 by X-Plane Australia

[skiflyzander]

So, I've got a couple shots to show off. The front of this building is finished... mostly. The front has a curb which is integrated into the doors and front of the building. I'm pondering what my next move will be. I'm thinking I'll do the left side, since the right side is modeled. And then it's off to the woods for a few pictures of the runway side of the building.  

 

Enjoy a few shots of the mostly complete front: 

 

Edited April 5, 2013 by skiflyzander

[skiflyzander]

Left side is finished. The fence took a while, but I'm happy with it. I'm off to the woods in a couple days to grab some pictures of the back of this building. Texturing this thing is going to be a nightmare... Holy crap. 

 

I hope everyone's enjoying the screenshots

 

 

 

[Redfisher]

Looking awesome.

[skiflyzander]

The KLEB Terminal is FINISHED. Finally... apart from texturing. That took a while, but I got it and I've got the detail I want. I think you guys will like it From here on out, the buildings should be extremely easy to model and the rest of this project shouldn't take me TOO long.

 

Enjoy the screenshots.

 

[AnonymousUser68]

Nice work, the shadows look great in sim. Get ready to start painting, it takes me longer than the modelling itself.

[skiflyzander]

So I'm having a texturing problem. I edited the texture for one of my hangars to make the colors a little less intense and more lifelike. All was well. I flattened the layers and saved it as a .png file replacing the old file. The problem is that the changes don't appear in sim, or in sketchup. Does anyone have an idea of what I may have done wrong here? I would like to be able to edit my textures without having to totally retexture everything in sketchup. Texturing in sketchup is awful. 

[Redfisher]

First, I wouldn't flatten the file.  There's no need to.  It's always a good habit to save the layered file, then save as .png without flattening it.   Layers are a good thing  To your question, I'm at a loss without more details.

 

When you say texturing in Sketchup is awful, what do you mean?

[skiflyzander]

First, I wouldn't flatten the file.  There's no need to.  It's always a good habit to save the layered file, then save as .png without flattening it.   Layers are a good thing  To your question, I'm at a loss without more details.

 

When you say texturing in Sketchup is awful, what do you mean?

 

Ops, too late for that ^^ Already flattened it. Is that a bad thing? 

 

I guess the only other detail is that I want to use the updated .png file but my changes do not show up in the simulator after I've made the changes. For example, I changed the color of something, but that color change does not appear. Redfisher... do you use sketchup to model and texture? 

 

Texturing is just awful because it takes forever and is somewhat of a hassle to move the texture around.

[chris k]

Do you have a DDS version in the same directory as the png?

XP will load the DDS instead of the PNG if you have [X] Enable texture compression.

[Redfisher]

Ops, too late for that ^^ Already flattened it. Is that a bad thing? 

 

I guess the only other detail is that I want to use the updated .png file but my changes do not show up in the simulator after I've made the changes. For example, I changed the color of something, but that color change does not appear. Redfisher... do you use sketchup to model and texture? 

 

Texturing is just awful because it takes forever and is somewhat of a hassle to move the texture around.

 

As far as texturing is concerned, it's a bit complicated to explain here in the forum.  PM me sometime and I'll give you a hand.

[skiflyzander]

Do you have a DDS version in the same directory as the png?

XP will load the DDS instead of the PNG if you have [X] Enable texture compression.

Hey Chris, I do not have a DDS file in the directory. All of my texture files are PNG files. Is there an advantage to using DDS? From what you said... i'm assuming DDS files have less of an impact in the sim?

 

 

 

 

As far as texturing is concerned, it's a bit complicated to explain here in the forum.  PM me sometime and I'll give you a hand.

 

Thanks for the offer Redfisher. There are a few things I have questions about, so when the time comes I will ask you for sure. One of those questions is about transparent textures

 

I saw the other day that the owner of the Signal hangar has changed. This new company is Granite Air Center and they already have a new logo on the hangar. I had to make the Sign on the hangar and retexture it. Hence all of these questions So here is a picture of what the new sign looks like! 

 

 

Edited April 22, 2013 by skiflyzander

[chris k]

http://developer.x-plane.com/2012/01/dds-revisited-in-x-plane-10/

[skiflyzander]

Nothing like a little light reading. Thanks for the link Chris. 

 

Did a little work. Let there be grass!

[Flying_pig]

do you use sketchup to model and texture? 

you should probably use Blender to texture stuff as blender lacks a little thing called a render engine for texture baking simply put also textures are much easier to move around in blender then in sketchup in fact you can even edit and save the .png's in blender and watch the effect on the model in real time

here is a comparison of skecthup and blenders render engines

Sketchup render engine

Blender render engine

Need i say more?

[Cameron]

here is a comparison of skecthup and blenders render engines

 

Render engines have little meaning to X-Plane. The sim is what counts.