OlaHaldor

If it's not, I won't buy.

Oh come on! Grow up, guys. Either that, or spend more time surfing porn.

My guess is a Piper Saratoga.

LOL! Nice filename, Theo! ;D I should probably hurry and create scenery for an airport that can handle the Hawker and the CRJ then... :

The images doesn't work.

X-Plane 9.40 beta 1 introduced normal mapping, giving the effect of definition and depth, often also done with "bump maps". A normal map will look something like this Depending on the angle of the light source, it will produce the illusion of depth and texture. It's a normal map applied to the curved, weathered hangar. But that was very quickly done using a simple application for such, using the texture I created for the hangar itself, thereby the dents, scratches and other textures would have this "embossing" effect instead of it being only the metal itself. I will not guarantee anything, but I'd REALLY like to produce as a as high quality scenery as possible, and in order to do that, I think it would be utterly stupid not to take advantage of the latest tech and possibilities added to the sim we all love. Therefore, yes, I HOPE I can make normal maps for all the structures. Be it a hangar, a Pepsi machine, a tree or a fuel tank.

9.40beta1 was released after I started doing this scenery, so with the introduction of normal maps I couldn't resist just checking it out. It will not look like this in the final version though, but my goal is to have some sort of normal maps for every building, so they will look more life like.

Thank you. A little newsflash. I've been having loads of trouble with texture baking. Somehow, something isn't right. The last few weeks have been busy with painting and slowly moving into new offices, along with this I've been wrestling with these problems. I've spent all day trying to figure out how I could iron this one out, and I've slowly come to a solution. It's a time consuming process, but all in all I think I'm gonna save time. Since last update I've gone into the clever corner and spent almost a handful of hundreds of green little men on a plug-in that will speed up the texture process with hours, if not days..

That's GREAT news! And I hereby sign both a need and wish for a Windows version.

I don't know how the cutting tools are in Blender, but for LightWave I'd either make a copy to two new layers and make the general shape of how I'd like the cut to be, and boolean with "Intersect" and "Boolean". This way I'd get the wing with space for the flaps, and I'd get the flaps. As far as I know, it wouldn't leave a very noticeable mark with strange shading. This is just theoretical by the way, since I don't do airplanes, I really don't know. But that's what I'd do if and when I'd do it. Just mentioned this in case there's something similar in Blender.

Looked like a really nice flight. And boy what a smooth landing. I'd have to practice for decades to do that in XP.. : If I may, how old is your son? Just asking since he chickened out. One day he'll come along. Don't push him, just don't stop ask him to come along.

I find this topic very interesting, as a regular user and virtual wannabe pilot and from a potential scenery developers perspective. I've purchased the MU-2, I've tried a few other payware aircraft given specifically by their developers in order to create promo videos (and I'm sorry to say I haven't had time to do anything about that yet !) - and I've bought some packs that were cheap but made me curious enough to pick up my VISA and do a fancy ninja move on Paypal. I must say - MU-2 and the others I've tried that are more or less expensive, if I can use that term, are well worth every single cent. The cheaper one however.. The exterior models look ok, interior is less than ok, but the textures are the worst ever. Flat. Dull. Simply just color. No rivets, panels, dirt, oil, smudges etc. VERY disappointing. I asked the developer about it, if there was a paint kit available so I could make my own texture and add panels etc. so I coul make a better quality video using his products - but he didn't seem to like the idea of me creating my own textures at all - they wouldn't reflect something he would stand for, he said. Worst case scenario: I make a texture that simply sucks and others seeing the video or images would think the plane itself sucks, which in turn would result in less sales. I'd say that statement from the developer is very unlucky for his case, and I will certainly not create a MU2-like video for his products - new textures or not, it's not gonna happen. Long story short: textures are very important if you wanna aim for MSFS quality products, whether it's aircraft or scenery.

Ready to be Rick Rolled? Been working all day with meetings and organization of refurnishing of the new offices, about no time to do anything on the scenery. So I spent a few hours testing a little bit of runway stuff. I'm happy to tell you - I'm on track! Gotta sort out some distance issues with some of the markings and add a centerline, then the runway is done! ;D Notice I also fixed some windows on the roof. Might have to reorder a bit though.

Some textures in place in front of those hangars. Red tarmac for helipads and in front of the hangars..

These are EXCLUSIVE for X-Pilot. I'm to tired to put them up anywhere else. ;D I said to myself about 4 hours ago I wouldn't sit up all night.. But then I got the hang of the texturing of this hangar, fixing minor problems here and there, adjusting according to the comments from Alex. And so I went all the way and made it into X-Plane. I'm impressed by myself. Two days (48h or so) hours of work, and this is what I've got so far. Hope normal mapping will be easy on this one.. : Featuring a few different angles mostly like a spotter or photographer from another plane would've shot it. Enjoy!

Quick update. This was a hard nut to crack, UV mapping wise. But I eventually just did the one-click thingy and will see how it's gonna go in a few minutes when the baked render is complete and I've got it in the sim. A render meanwhile..

Added more details. Lamps on all sides, a few antennas, air vents on the roof and a ladder. And the real deal..

Added some stairs. Oh boy do I love the fact that I use LWCAD! I can't thank these tools enough..!! I started with the upper platform, then made one step at the same height as the platform. A copy tool makes it possible to copy the selected polygons (the one step in this case) and offset it as much as I want in XYZ, and add as many copies I want. Now the cool thing is that the new copies will offset just as much as the first copy - BOOM! In a matter of a few seconds, you have all the steps. My smile is as big as ;D , so I gotta create a short video to show how I made the stairs with the railings and all. Now for the render.... Made the logo in 3D and put on the wall where it should be. Now there's very few details left really. Just gonna add some antennas and some air condition units, and a few lamps around the building. Then I'm gonna convert this hangar to the other one which has a slightly different entrance on the back.

Some details added - still more to add..

Screenshot of the restaurant. As mentioned - need windows. I think this one especially will be very nice with normal mapping and add a new degree of realism to it "in-game". Here's one of the hangars as well. Starting to create details like air condition etc. now. Gonna redo the normal mapping for the curved club hangar, and create for the three other buildings I've completed as well. Then I'll make a few screenshots in X-plane. I've got loads of other things going on other than scenery development at the moment as well - give me a little time..

I'm almost done texturing the restaurant part of the club buildings. I only need some photos of windows, and it's all set. Then I need to texture the containers behind the restaurant which is the simulator room. Starting to model the other hangars today. I think these will be ready pretty quickly.

I had a problem with one of the buildings. It turned blue, no matter what I did with the texture, there was a blue tint. I've read somewhere that whatever color the polygon is, it won't transfer over to X-Plane. During modeling I give every part its own color so I can quickly see what's what when I assemble the pieces. Before final export for Blender I forgot to make this the default grey color LightWave uses. and BOOM - I've had two days of headaches about this problem. I just figured out what went wrong a couple of hours ago, fixed it, and now the building is shown correctly in X-Plane.

A little update then. We're having so much trouble placing the objects around the airfield with the sloped runway feature switched ON, so we're gonna develop further with it OFF, which means we will not support how it looks with sloped runways switched on, unless Laminar or someone else makes a tool so we can fix the landscape. Because in real life - there is no slope at all, not on the runway nor where the buildings are. I've got a few hangars left to model, and a couple of smaller things like an old "follow me" car, and probably a bit of fences, and some gadgets and boxes to place inside the open hangars - then there's the whole process of UV mapping and texturing it. Good news is NORMAL MAPPING LOOKS SWEEEEEEET on the hangar!

Hey Tom! Long time no see. I guess I should've been asking here, but the activity in my thread about the scenery kind of made me get over to the .org - thought I'd get my question answered quicker over there. Rude of me? Hell yeah. :-X FlyingJackal helped me out, so I've got this thing going now. Goran asked me if I could do a tutorial for UV-mapping, separating and ordering polygons using LightWave. And I might just do that some day. It'll cover LightWave only though, since Blender is only a gateway to X-Plane for me.

A Pepsi machine in front of the building...