Simmo W

Having flown Peters 380 I certainly appreciate some of it's beauty and technology. But even some of the youngsters agree the 747 has nicer lines. My own prejudice is being a child of the very late 70s and 80s, the jumbo's prime, I had a huge poster of its flightdeck on my bedroom wall for a few yrs! So I'll always love her, and am pleased Boeing are innovating to keep her going. I'm sure that behind the scenes they are working on a replacement, let me guess- a cattle truck that'll carry over 1000 souls? To me that'll be a sad day, when economics takes over aesthetics. Sheesh, even the new engines have no romance, ah the good old days of standing OUTSIDE a terminal, hearing a JT9D wind up and then proceed to drill into your inner ear. Wonderful. Yes, that livery is awful, but it's like saying Kate Winslet looks trashy wearing an orange tracksuit..

Yeah, those engines add a mean look. I'd love someone to do her justice,"cough" Goran "cough"! A very hard thing to 'hide' behind the curtains!

Better looking than the 380

Great results Rush! A good start, making mistakes is all part of the learning process, don't I know it! As long as you learn from them, you progress. Cool to have Steve's help. I've solved my own little challenge. I've got photoshop elements, amazing value for the $50 or so it cost, I'm getting used to its interface. But it's missing the one feature I need, replace colour with Alpha. So I searched for GIMP's alternative and it's as easy as heck! http://docs.gimp.org/en/plug-in-colortoalpha.html So the below screen shows (from left to right) the final 'dirtier' door, the default door and the raw Ambient Occlusion image I was able to strip using Gimp and layer over the default. Yeah, the effect's subtle, but I think it looks more 'real' and weathered - glad it's possible for the future. Now I've got some serious materials learning to do in Blender, as I think that's the way to go

Yes Oliver, nicely done, love that first sunset passing shot!

Looking beautiful Tom, and yes it's my favourite time of night as well.

Good attitude Rush, I often find answers in other threads like this before having to ask a Q. Thanks to Steve too, for trying to answer my query. Here's the specific question - Below is a screenshot of a snazzy Ambient Occlusion effect I've managed to get in Blender - it reminds me of Theo and Goran's and all the other great Dev's effects. i'm pleased to get a hint of the effect, but now am stumped as to how to apply it to my textures. I'm happy with the base textures of the 'crapper' (the crapware toilet, with all its filth), but as an experiment would like to apply the darker pixels in the below image. So I need to remove all the white, leaving the little darker pixels, then I can just insert the effect as another layer. The magic wand is too heavy, it takes alot of the white with it. In PS Elements 9, I can't find a way to sample the lighter colours to remove them. I've read one method is to access the image/mode/colour table, but I can't get that to activate Anyone got an idea? This would be great to add some real looking highlights. I'm really new to this Blender stuff, so maybe I'm approaching it the wrong way?

Thanks very much for this Pete, I've started watching some of his videos. I've just started playing with Blender seriously, Gawd it does have a big learning curve! But I'm starting to like it, so powerful and capable, for FREE. It takes an awful lot of physical practice, getting used to its interface, but it does sink in. All I can do is admire all those pro devs who have mastered it. I've only got into rendering, lights and uv maps to learn the basics, but have managed to import our sketchup files and fiddle nicely. The below is awful, but I was just playing with the lighting and materials. For scenery, I think we'll still use Sketchup to build, but I could see myself doing all the texturing in Blender, and if I can get an animation or 3 in...woohoo.

Looks stunning! I like the plane too..

Good suggestion steven. I too am having some 'Photoshop challenges'! I need to change a sampled colour (like white) to transparent, I have Photoshop elements 9, have asked Dr Google but can't find anything yet. Sorry to butt in Rush!

Rush, that's caused by a large dirt polygon. It'll disappear if u unclick the runways follows contours option. Kiofka will laugh at that! I did warn u twice in the RTFM, I'll put it thrice next time.. Good point K about the animation plugin. The windmills rotate too, as well as those crazy baggage handlers

Thanks, Rush, glad you like it!

Benny, I downloaded the OSM data from scratch and used the latest Beta, everything ok now, no missing walls. The OSM exporter works well, easy to select areas manually. Ive made the textures much browner to localize the look, but I'll tweak the roof specs when I get time.

It's cooked, eat it here. Glad that's over! Next...

Great background Morten, sounds like u had a ball. Funny, you look like the wizened ole Cap'n and Jan the n00b FO! Looking forward to more updates.

I noticed those incomplete facades too. Is that meant to happen with the latest beta? A friend sent me the conversion, so I can't be sure of the version. I'll do it myself and send details, but is it a known issue? There are quite a few incomplete walls.

Ok, I had to search through the .dsf via the .txt, for the approx. coordinates, and was able to delete all the offending buildings, so now it looks pretty cool, as you can see. Gotta get some new facades though, not quite fitting the Yosemite architectural style Really nice placement though, a lot of effort saved

Thanks Cam. Too late for this one, although I may try to convert after release, good practice.

Thanks for your very clear instructions Tom, and patience. I've bookmarked this thread to assist my own early experimenting with Blender. I feel I need it for any complex scenery stuff that arises, plus it looks much better for texturing. I saw your point about .DDS. Is it still worthwhile converting a lot of textures to .dds, considering we now have that 'compress textures to save vram' option in xplane? Reason I ask is that my KMMH scenery uses alot of .pngs. I'd convert if it saved 20% of vram or so, but would rather not!

Thanks Eric, yes the flag is animated, from opensceneryx. ( i gotta learn animations next!) Same with the windmills. Yep, it'll go nicely with Norcal, and not far from KMPI.

It's finally done, now I'm just having fun flying around Mammoth-Yosemite. Final tests occurring now, so hope to release within 24 hrs. There's a lot more to it, but I filmed to avoid those details so u can enjoy yourself. Flown using Jason Chandler's BX430, a beauty in motion to behold.

Thanks Ben, OE should do the trick!

Thanks Ben. I was hoping to be able to exclude certain of the OSM facade objects, as they sit on top of my custom scenery. I think it's the opposite to what you suggested.

Just tried excluding facades in OE, doesn't work. Any other way of excluding from certain areas, other than delving into the guts of the files?

Great tool Benny, tried it and it seemed to work. For bare areas, it certainly add some civilisation. However I hear you need to work on more tailored facades. I've noticed it as well, they look very generic and out of place in (say) Melbourne, where I am. If you get more instructions produced that tell people how to add new facade styles and even object styles, it'll be even more widely used. I tried it on my about to be released KMMH, but it replaced some of my own custom buildings! I assume using the 'exclude facades' tool in OE would stop this? A birdie mentioned that your facades are taken from the global scenery and that you don't have permission. I personally don't see why anyone would take offence, since your program is designed to ENHANCE xplane even more, and at this stage it is free. Once you start asking for donations, you'll want to use your own original artwork. Thanks again and keep pushing. It was a hoot to see Juniper Mammoth instantly appear!