NZ Autogen project?

[creator2003]

Pretty intresting reading and it makes me wonder if you could also make new models and textures as long as the guid numbers could be the same then the sim would call up the auto gen ??the guid are there in clear numbers in the placement tool so saving out the new models with those guid by renaming them in the LODand NAME tool and rebulit textures could lead to having way better looking NZ autogen maybe ??
just a random thought ...
could you point to what texture files are the nz call up texture so i can check it out myself ...

[greaneyr]

Just out of interest, do the houses have to all be two-storey houses? In my experience, the quintessential New Zealand house is one-storey, but I notice all those on the texture sheet are two-storey. That's been my bugbear with current autogen at present - to much multi-level. When you're building scenery on smaller towns like Masterton, Carterton and Feilding, multi-level just makes it look really bad. I was able to overcome it by choosing one particular autogen texture that didn't use any multi-level houses, but that meant limiting the street layout to whatever it enforced. I forget what it was now.

Richard

[toprob]

I've been thinking about the same thing in relation to the extra autogen objects. Even if we could change the texture on some of them, there are still some objects, such as the water towers, which I've never seen here in NZ. However my main concern is still the buildings, which don't have GUIDs.

Also, replacing GUIDs requires that the original model is disabled somehow, which is possible, no doubt, but would require a lot of work:)

The NZ house textures are from BLDZ2.dds, and the commercial buildings and house roofs are BLDG2.dds, I think. This seems unnecessary because the house textures are exactly the same in both, whereas everything else is different, but that's just an observation, there's nothing we can do about it...

QUOTE (greaneyr @ Dec 23 2008, 12:52 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Just out of interest, do the houses have to all be two-storey houses? In my experience, the quintessential New Zealand house is one-storey, but I notice all those on the texture sheet are two-storey. That's been my bugbear with current autogen at present - to much multi-level. When you're building scenery on smaller towns like Masterton, Carterton and Feilding, multi-level just makes it look really bad. I was able to overcome it by choosing one particular autogen texture that didn't use any multi-level houses, but that meant limiting the street layout to whatever it enforced. I forget what it was now.

Richard

Yes, this is a real nuisance, there are single-storey houses in FS, but most are two-storey. However all the autogen house textures are two-storey, on a single-storey house only the bottom half of the texture is used.

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (greaneyr @ Dec 23 2008, 12:52 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Just out of interest, do the houses have to all be two-storey houses? In my experience, the quintessential New Zealand house is one-storey, but I notice all those on the texture sheet are two-storey. That's been my bugbear with current autogen at present - to much multi-level. When you're building scenery on smaller towns like Masterton, Carterton and Feilding, multi-level just makes it look really bad. I was able to overcome it by choosing one particular autogen texture that didn't use any multi-level houses, but that meant limiting the street layout to whatever it enforced. I forget what it was now.

Richard

I guessing they do that to fill in the gaps so to speak being limited in FS9 , and with FSX, gives it some depth , works fine flying over photoreal with a mix of trees , and it dose look well out scale as you pan around at , old country villa's , i did make some single level housing to fill blanks areas that were populated around the Wigram base , i guess thats the best and only solution . when doing autogen files you were limit with each frame , least older agn design .. but still they use the large to place housing .... one house in a area ,still the two story villa .

[creator2003]

Ah ok well ill just see if i can make some kind of textures with them i really cant see it being to hard replacing them with others that i could build outta my photo collections ...

[Timmo]

I took some good pics on the road today- will post them later

[toprob]

Hey, Mike and Timmo, if I'd wanted you two to take on yet another project I woulda asked!:)
This was my rather too subtle attempt to get someone new onboard -- someone who would think, hey, there's something I could do...

I'm glad you both see the scope here -- there are a lot of ways we can improve the autogen, and starting with the building textures is a nice, easy way to back a real difference.

There are a few folk here who are happy to help, so it looks like we have a project.

Testing is a major part of this -- to define the NZ-ness, we need to get some real feedback on what works and what doesn't.

One thing to watch out for is the way the textures are clipped for the narrow side of the building -- windows etc need to be carefully placed so that they don't get cut into unnatural shapes.

[Timmo]

haha thats OK- It is hard for someone to start in all this: Photoshop skills are needed

Anyway my first priority is to release Whakatane tonight/today (have spent the last few days moving out of my flat/looking for a new flat so hopefully I can find all my bits and get it uploaded!) and tidy up/release Kaipara flats.

Perhaps the best way to do this is to upload the house images to your photobucket account, post them in this thread and then we can vote on the list of textures to get a representative mix?

The other thing is the large piece of autogen bush which looks like tropical rainforest (and is associated with out native bush texture) is just dying to be replaced with something more Kiwi....I also took some photos on the drive down to fill that out

edit- Quick and nasty crop of the photos I took before.








all single story.....

[toprob]

QUOTE (Timmo @ Dec 24 2008, 01:25 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Perhaps the best way to do this is to upload the house images to your photobucket account, post them in this thread and then we can vote on the list of textures to get a representative mix?

The other thing is the large piece of autogen bush which looks like tropical rainforest (and is associated with out native bush texture) is just dying to be replaced with something more Kiwi....I also took some photos on the drive down to fill that out

Probably a good idea to view the textures in the sim -- which is why we either need a lot of testers who are prepared to try a lot of textures, or a series of screenshots showing how the textures appear in various settings.

The rainforest trees are definitely something that needs work, I'm autogenning Te Anau at the moment, and to blend with the default I'm forced to use them, but they are a real compromise...

[creator2003]

Well im happy to beta test textures at least and ill just move on with the project im working on ..

[toprob]

QUOTE (Timmo @ Dec 24 2008, 01:25 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

haha thats OK- It is hard for someone to start in all this: Photoshop skills are needed

Anyway my first priority is to release Whakatane tonight/today (have spent the last few days moving out of my flat/looking for a new flat so hopefully I can find all my bits and get it uploaded!) and tidy up/release Kaipara flats.

Perhaps the best way to do this is to upload the house images to your photobucket account, post them in this thread and then we can vote on the list of textures to get a representative mix?

The other thing is the large piece of autogen bush which looks like tropical rainforest (and is associated with out native bush texture) is just dying to be replaced with something more Kiwi....I also took some photos on the drive down to fill that out

edit- Quick and nasty crop of the photos I took before.

all single story.....

...and pretty much a who's who of Kiwiana houses:) The second shot has just about the perfect amount of stuff -- bushes etc -- around to define it as a real house, without turning it to mush by obscuring the edges.

I did think when looking at these, though, that since all the textures need to end up as two-storey, it may be better to start with two-storey houses.

Maybe those who live in hilly areas may have the best chance of getting some useful shots -- shooting across a valley should give a good choice of nice straight-on shots, unobscured on valley side.

Or maybe NZFF members can donate their own house to the project? We'd just need it's best side...

[Njbb1995]

QUOTE (toprob @ Dec 24 2008, 02:59 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Or maybe NZFF members can donate their own house to the project? We'd just need it's best side...

All four (or more) Sides or just one?

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (njbb1995 @ Dec 24 2008, 03:24 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

All four (or more) Sides or just one?

Im lucky .... I have only three sides .............. mm

[Timmo]

QUOTE (toprob @ Dec 24 2008, 02:59 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I did think when looking at these, though, that since all the textures need to end up as two-storey, it may be better to start with two-storey houses.

Easy enough to photoshop another story on.....there will need to be work done in order to fit it into the allocated space anyway (i.e. select and move windows etc)

[toprob]

QUOTE (njbb1995 @ Dec 24 2008, 03:24 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

All four (or more) Sides or just one?

Only one side -- preferably the 'good' side, with an entranceway of some sort. The same texture is repeated around the autogen house, but cropped for the narrow side.

QUOTE (Ian Warren @ Dec 24 2008, 03:52 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Im lucky .... I have only three sides .............. mm

I've known you for a long time, but I've never noticed that... you have no backside? Then how do you sim?

[Ian Warren]

QUOTE (toprob @ Dec 24 2008, 05:06 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've known you for a long time, but I've never noticed that... you have no backside?

Damm .. Rob ..you tell me you have no backside? always and ever going to be a 3D illusion ........... ..... NOOOoooooo

[creator2003]

Anybody working on this yet ? takers

[Njbb1995]

I might be able to get a descent pic of my house

[Christian]

Great project!

Just a few technical comments:

- NZ has it's own autogen region (region Z). So if you add Z autogens they will only show in NZ. That's the theory anyway

- (not autogen related, just commenting on Robin's remark) I know the lclookup that hooks the ground textures together well from consulting work I did with OrbX. You can't have regional Z ground textures, but simply creating a landclass folder and adding textures will localize them. This way you can show them only in NZ - this is how OrbX does it.

- You can add your own autogen objects. There's a main database for all objects somewhere (as specified in the SDK). I've manually added new autogen from Aerosoft's Lord Howe Island this way, relatively easy to do if you know what you're doing. However, I remember John Venema from OrbX saying that this is what they were planning to do, but the framerates took a dive...

Having said all this, I vaguely understand how things work, but I'm no expert since I never done new autogen myself...

Cheers,
Christian

[Timmo]

I had a quick play on the weekend trying to replace the large 'jungle' autogen texture with one showing NZ native bush as well as replacing one sheet which contains two types of palm with one showing a cabbage tree and a punga....

But they didnt show (that is they still showed the old texture)......Maybe the static objects and autogen objects use different texture sheets? (I haven't tested by placing a library tree yet)

So yep, I'm quietly pottering away in the back ground although most of that was due to holidays