FSX Trees - Seasonal Textures

[Deleted]

I need trees - lots of em.

I'm planting FSX library objects using scruffyduck's ADE and they look great. Trouble is, trees like oaks, chestnuts etc come in at least 5 flavours - vanilla, spring, summer, fall and winter. Whichever you choose, unlike the autogen trees, the textures then don't change with the seasons.

Where do I find trees that I can use this easily that have changing textures? Any ideas you scenery greybeards out there...

[ScruffyDuck]

That is always the problem using library object trees. I guess the only real answer would be to actually place autogen using the autogen tools rather than adding library objects. My self I prefer summer ;D The rest of the time I hibernate

[Deleted]

You're a cheat, Jon

Anyway, here's what I'm doing which I'm pretty certian will work. Bear in mind that any MDL made specially for FSX using Gmax/XtoMdl won't have seasonal textures - but ones made using the FS9 MakeMdl will and will also be compatible with FSX

I made a range of trees for FS8/9 using EOD with seasonal textures but of course, these are APIs which you can place with SceneGenX and that's about it. You can't bung em into FSX using and of the FSX scenery tools inc ADE.

But here's the first thing I can do. I can use the textures with a simple Gmax vertical plane to make a scenery MDL file using the FS9 MakeMdl tool. Then I can use Arno's MdlTweaker to add seasonal textures and make the object turn to face viewer. I can't use the tweaked MDLs directly in your ADE but I'm pretty sure I can if I put them all in a library first using Arno's Library Maker, which will give them GUID's. So that way I get my trees with seasonal textures in a usable form for FSX that I can place with ADE. They would then be a bit like the Rwy12 ones. Do you agree that would work? If so, I just need to know how I then get into my library in ADE.

The next thing I can do is to make cruciform models in Gmax and again compile them with MakeMdl. I've done it successfully but so far I've not cracked how to make the lighting constant on all four faces in Gmax. Trouble is, as you know, if you have shading on cruciform tree models, when you move round the tree in the sim you get a bright face next to a very dark shaded face which just doesn't look right. I think it's something to do with light maps but I haven't worked it out yet. Any advice?

Anyway, having now jumped into FSX scenery design I seem to have landed myself right in the deep end, but I guess I always knew I would if I started

[AirCoaster]

The deep end? You mean the Pacific Rift don't you?

[Deleted]

Yep, but it's fun as I'm getting back into the swing. But totally addictive too and you end up doing scenery things when you should be doing more important stuff.................... like working

I'd like to know what Jon had in mind, though, when he said about tools to work with autogen trees.... any ideas John?

[ScruffyDuck]

I was talking about the SDK tools to place autogen on a landclass or other tile

[Deleted]

Jon, I've been placing a landclass poly in ADE but whereas the default landclass in the area has a good density of trees, the tree density in my poly is miserable in comparison. Here's what I mean.

This is a shot of virgin FSX terrain



And here's mine



The landclass I've used is Cool Mixed Forest which after trying them all is the one that gives the most trees. The other wood/forest ones were pathetic. Ideally, I'd like trees as in the top pic to come right up to the edge of my airport background poly which you can just see on the right of the second pic. My poly is a background flatten, exclude class mask and autogen.

You see what I want lots of times in the sim - where an airport is in a sort of clearing in the middle of thick trees. Usually it looks totally unnatural but that's how I want mine to be - at least down one side anyway.

Any ideas?

Edit added...

Well, I can now get round the problem by filling in with my own trees. After much research I've now got my own tree mdls sorted. The main problem was the lighting - if you look at the default trees they have no shading and in daylight the back of the tree is as bright as the front. I've now found out how to edit the mdl file to get that so at the same time I'm going to create a FSX tree library for other modellers to use because from the forums, everyone (more or less) who's made their own has had the same problem.

So now ..... onwards and upwards

[ScruffyDuck]

Sounds like you are getting there

[Deleted]

Jon, another question. Do you have a method yet for importing object libraries into ADE? If not it will be a messy business getting my trees into my FSX scenery, as far as I can see anyway.

Alternatively a method for creating GUIDs for MDLs the way that SceneGenX does would do. I'm having to work with FS9 MDLS created by MakeMDL and after being exported from GMax they have no GUIDs so cannot be imported into ADE.

[Deleted]

Jon, I hope you see this. Here's where I'm at. As previouslymentioned, I'm trying to find the best way to get my trees into my scenery. Obviously I'd prefer to use just one tool, ADE, and this is what I did.

1. Made a library bgl (called conifers) using Arno's Library Creator
2. Took a note of the GUIDs from the library txt/xml file
3. Placed the library file in FSX\Scenery\Global\Scenery and the textures in the corresponding texture folder
4. Added the following lines to the adeObjectList.dat file (I guessed that the last 2 numbers are to with dimensions but factored down slightly, but I dunno for sure)

B9DB38CD-C3CA-7044-BB9F-914459B7B3B3|Conifer 9|Conifers|conifers.bgl||0|19.88|22.86
62558C99-8B07-774D-A9E4-933ECE396B08|Conifer 8|Conifers|conifers.bgl||0|19.88|22.86
E6F31616-D829-0540-AA0E-0DBC52CB18C4|Conifer 7|Conifers|conifers.bgl||0|19.88|22.86
42487E0D-E82B-3448-B294-E01BEA7D5C3A|Conifer 6|Conifers|conifers.bgl||0|19.88|22.86
876BF028-9D71-104D-97B1-A786065CE2E8|Conifer 5|Conifers|conifers.bgl||0|19.88|22.86
1F70DCD1-A7AA-7D4B-A0F5-3218AFEEE44D|Conifer 4|Conifers|conifers.bgl||0|19.88|22.86
3B65E826-AF3B-1F4B-BD8F-6A144BF96822|Conifer 3|Conifers|conifers.bgl||0|19.88|22.86
8D2ABE64-D9F7-754B-9838-1418F3A5672C|Conifer 2|Conifers|conifers.bgl||0|19.88|22.86
282BBDAE-BB85-5048-B5B7-970CDD3C3C9D|Conifer 1|Conifers|conifers.bgl||0|19.88|22.86

5. Fired up ADE, did a database scan and then an 'add library object'
6. Found as expected that I had a new category (conifers) and all appeared ticketyboo
7. Saved, compiled

But disappointingly, no object showed up even though everything looked right

I then fired up FSXPlanner, and loaded the bgl file created by ADE. I then added a custom object and just typed in the GUID where it asked. Saved and compiled and the object was there, as you can see below.





So I know my MDLs and object library work. As you can see, I've got a nice, properly lit object with seasonal textures so I've achieved what I wanted. But it ain't very convenient having to use a separate tool to get em into my scenery that I've created with ADE

Any ideas?

[ScruffyDuck]

Sept 27, 2008 3:12:44 GMT -5 rollerball said:

Jon, another question. Do you have a method yet for importing object libraries into ADE? If not it will be a messy business getting my trees into my FSX scenery, as far as I can see anyway.

Alternatively a method for creating GUIDs for MDLs the way that SceneGenX does would do. I'm having to work with FS9 MDLS created by MakeMDL and after being exported from GMax they have no GUIDs so cannot be imported into ADE.

You can get both object libraries and mdl files into ADE. Check out the release notes that are installed with version 1.37. Mdl Files are described in the User Models section and you add new libraries in the Library Object Manager. I would strongly advise against adding anything directly to the databases! And in any case you don't need to

[Deleted]

My notes say that importing objects will be possible in a future version which is why I've been experimenting...

Edit added

OK - got there. The facility was there all the time. I didn't realise that 'Tools' was a button. It just looked like a label to me.

Maybe your buttons need to be made to look, well..... more like buttons

[ScruffyDuck]

It is actually a menu item