Project Brighton Base 2011: An Upgrade to Orbiter's Brighton Beach

[Loru]

or just develop it in d3d9 / inline client and use Artlav's sc3-dll converter to convert all spacecraft3 modules to dll based ones.

 

[NukeET]

...use Artlav's sc3-dll converter to convert all spacecraft3 modules to dll based ones.

Which is how I did it for Lunar Base Niven v.3.2 for Orbiter 2010. This version works fine with D3D9.

 

[rodion_herrera]

or just develop it in d3d9 / inline client and use Artlav's sc3-dll converter to convert all spacecraft3 modules to dll based ones.

Hmm, will try those! Thanks!

-RODION

---------- Post added 03-17-13 at 01:38 AM ---------- Previous post was 03-16-13 at 10:51 PM ----------

UPDATE: Artlav's converter worked like a charm Now my rotating structure and the pad covers work under D3D11Client!

As you can see from the snapshot, the XR2 has bump mapping, some lighting effects, etc. and in the background is my Brighton Base

Thanks to all those who gave advice. Will be editing the actual base mesh and textures soon.

Oh and btw, if and when I do get permission from Steve/Coolhand to edit the Kara mesh, my "Annika/Sexynaut" will be part of the new package, and her "official" name would be M. Vickers. *chuckle*

-RODION

 

[rodion_herrera]

Update: Fooling around with some bump maps. This won't be the final "tile" or "pattern" but just checking if it works (well actually I haven't tried it out in-sim yet, but I hope it does!):

Furthermore, since I'm going to do my own surface mesh, I was thinking maybe craterlets and small bumps on the surface would be better if it too had a bump map, so it would look realistic based on the angle of the sun (time of lunar day). But since I can't "tile" it, this means it would require a LOT of individual maps per area (to avoid pixellation). So I have to weigh things there.

-RODION

---------- Post added at 11:10 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:11 AM ----------

BTW, pardon me for asking such a dumb question but, how do I actually go about implementing bump maps on surface meshes such as my Brighton structures? I am aware that for vessels, it must be "hardcoded" (?) at the moment, but what about surface meshes for Orbiter+D3D9 or Orbiter-Beta+D3D11?

-RODION

---------- Post added at 02:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:10 AM ----------

Ok after doing a bit of research on my own (which always works, except if you're lazy like me and expect the Orbiter community to come running to the rescue all the time LOL), I found out that placing a suffix "_norm" to the end of a texture file will initiate Orbiter to consider it a normal/bump file of that existing texture file. So I tried using a grayscale bump map, and it didn't work--all I got were really dark/black stipples, which means I really need to make those multicolored normal maps instead of a grayscale bump map. I am currently trying to figure out if I can have these automatically generated within MAX, but if not, I'm currently downloading some tools from nVidia, to allow creation of normal maps from Photoshop. Will keep posting the results of my research here, if only for documentation/reference purposes in the future.

-RODION

---------- Post added at 03:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:47 PM ----------

UPDATE:

So I finally managed to get normal maps in

Now the hard work begins--I have to remap all the textures so they don't appear stretched or out of place in specific surfaces of the structure (repeated tiling to some parts if necessary). Furthermore, although it looks nice, the specularization/shiny parts aren't really that nice on some parts of the structure, so I perhaps need to remove some shinyness to some parts of the building. But now I'm confident that I can implement normal/bump mapping for this new version of Brighton

BTW looking at the D3D11 Client Config dialogue box I see:

_norm

_bump

_spec

_ems

*slaps forehead :rofl:


Yet another BTW: I just noticed something--why are the shadows in D3D11C *NOT* black on the lunar surface. It should be darker than it currently is on a body that has no atmosphere--is there any way to adjust this?

-RODION

 

[Eccentrus]

that is absolutely stunning. Will this work in D3D9 too?

 

[Ripley]

...Will this work in D3D9 too?

Yes, Rodion said it will.

...Standard...Orbiter 2010 install, plus the D3D9ClientR10 is pretty stable...So, I will release two versions of Bright Base 2013--one specifically for the above combination of install...

 

[rodion_herrera]

that is absolutely stunning. Will this work in D3D9 too?

This addon will work in plain-Vanilla Orbiter 2010, but you will not see the enhanced visual effects. In D3D9, I believe you will see some texturing/lighting effects to a certain degree, but the additional effects will be more noticeable in D3D11 methinks.

Again, anyone know how to adjust the "blackness" of shadows in D3D11, or is that something "hardwired"? Thanks!

-RODION

 

[Ripley]

...And the addon will (hopefully) have a permanent download link from now on...

Hi Rodion.
Did you fix your problem of not being able to upload to OH?

 

[rodion_herrera]

Hi Rodion.
Did you fix your problem of not being able to upload to OH?

Nope But I haven't really tried re-uploading there, as of late. The more permanent link I'm referring to, is a private one that I'm planning.

-RODION

---------- Post added at 03:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:22 AM ----------

UPDATE:

Finalizing the base textures and normal maps:

As you can see, I opted to remove most of the baked-in shaded textures because in D3D9/11 the shadowing/lighting should take care of that. Note there's no surface tile mesh (and currently no surrounding terrain mesh) because like I said, I'm remaking all those from scratch.

-RODION

---------- Post added at 04:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:34 PM ----------

UPDATE:

I just noticed that light sources only work vessel-to-vessel? Since the rotating structure on my central base is considered to be a vessel, then it gets illuminated by the lights/thruster glow from the XR2 as seen here:

...but notice the darkened area of the main structure does not receive any light. Is this normal, and is there away to allow surface structure to allow light to have an effect on it?

-RODION