Discussion Tile making

[LordCroussette]

I've just discovered that we can make custom tiles of level less than 11. To test it I've made a surf tile of level 10. It's very useful if we make a big surface area and want the custom tiles don't differ (using transparent/blurred edges) from the default global surface textures (tiles)! I think that's really wonderful! And will help me in making a pretty big surface area of Kyiv with three airports. It will cover two tiles of level 13:

View attachment 34738

You can make tiles of all levels. Even L1 if you wanted! (Not that we'd really see it since you would need to be really zoomed out for it to show up.

 

[N_Molson]

The whole texture systems work as a hierarchical "tree", with each branch giving birth to 4 smaller ones. So you need 4x level 2 tiles to cover the surface of 1x level 1 tile, and so on...

 

[misha.physics]

I'm searching a better way for a smoothly transition between highly and low detailed textures.

I have the custom highly and default low detailed tiles:



And I would like to make a smoothly transition between them, for exapmle, on the one side. I put them on top of each other (as laeyrs), make "Match Color", set "Fade", then add a layer mask and use "Gradient tool" for edge transparency. But nevertheless the result is not very good, especially when zooming in (last image). So, maybe there is a way to improve this (Even using programs other than Photoshop if necessary.)



What I don't like in my attempt is transparency. I think about some blur with variable pixelization (if it's possible to do). I think the "Edge Blend" function in @jarmonik TerrainToolBox works better.

So, maybe someone can suggest some other ways for colour matching and making a smoothly transition between high and low textures as best as possible.

 

[LordCroussette]

I'm searching a better way for a smoothly transition between highly and low detailed textures.

I have the custom highly and default low detailed tiles:

View attachment 34839View attachment 34840

And I would like to make a smoothly transition between them, for exapmle, on the one side. I put them on top of each other (as laeyrs), make "Match Color", set "Fade", then add a layer mask and use "Gradient tool" for edge transparency. But nevertheless the result is not very good, especially when zooming in (last image). So, maybe there is a way to improve this (Even using programs other than Photoshop if necessary.)

View attachment 34841View attachment 34842

What I don't like in my attempt is transparency. I think about some blur with variable pixelization (if it's possible to do). I think the "Edge Blend" function in @jarmonik TerrainToolBox works better.

So, maybe someone can suggest some other ways for colour matching and making a smoothly transition between high and low textures as best as possible.

Assuming you aren't making tiles that are bigger than 1024x1024, you could just do something like this, y'a know.

A progressive change between each level. The base itself is high-res (like L19) but the further you go away, the less detailed things are. But it's progressive, so you don't have a stark contrast between like L18 and L13. That's how I (and many others) do bases (unless they are islands).

 

[misha.physics]

@LordCroussette, thank you, I really should try this way!

Yes, now I'm using only 512x512 tiles, because it's a golden mean between flickering and detalization for this D3D9 settings:



By the way what's the reason you mean for this?:

Assuming you aren't making tiles that are bigger than 1024x1024

______________
P.S. Does anyone know a solution to this feature?:

 

[LordCroussette]

P.S. Does anyone know a solution to this feature?:

View attachment 34851

That's honestly the first time I'm seeing this lol. Probably a D3D9 issue rather than a tile/base issue.

 

[misha.physics]

Now I know how to manually edit water masks and night lights. One of the airports in Kyiv:

 

[misha.physics]

I just thought maybe someone has seen somewhere highly detailed night maps (with night lights) of cities (at least for one), which (maps) could be used for mask tiles (for the RGB channel)?

 

[misha.physics]

Just noticed, it seems the PlanetTexDir option in the OpenOrbiter *.cfg file doesn't work for the *.flt files located in /Orbiter2016/Textures/Earth/Flat, so you need to put your *.flt files directly in the OpenOrbiter corresponding folder.

 

[misha.physics]

A while ago I was going to make Kyiv ground textures which were supposed to cover two tiles of level 13. These days I returned to this idea. Unfortunately I couldn't find a good map of such large area, so I decided to reduce it to eight tiles of level 15. Here are two airports. Some screens:





What I like most here is the Dnieper River, although I haven't made mask textures yet.

And screens to understand the size of the covered area:

 

[LordCroussette]

A while ago I was going to make Kyiv ground textures which were supposed to cover two tiles of level 13. These days I returned to this idea. Unfortunately I couldn't find a good map of such large area, so I decided to reduce it to eight tiles of level 15. Here are two airports. Some screens:

View attachment 36256View attachment 36257
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What I like most here is the Dnieper River, although I haven't made mask textures yet.

And screens to understand the size of the covered area:

View attachment 36262View attachment 36263

Amazing. With masking and a few buildings, it could be a very epic base.

 

[misha.physics]

Thank you. Earlier you mentioned trees:

We need to learn how to meshes visible behind transparent meshes! Then we would have trees!

Maybe this City Base Mesh with blocks and simple trees will be interesting. It looks like:



I haven't noticed the performance loss on my laptop.

With masking and a few buildings, it could be a very epic base.

Just for a test I made a lot of buildings with highly detailed textures of 512x512 size instead of default 32x32 ones, and it works good as well:



It's not the mesh above.

 

[misha.physics]

I finished making Kyiv textures. There are surface and mask tiles from 8 to 19 level (night lights are left by default):

 

[LordCroussette]

I finished making Kyiv textures. There are surface and mask tiles from 8 to 19 level (night lights are left by default):

View attachment 36301View attachment 36302
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View attachment 36309View attachment 36310

looks great!

 

[misha.physics]

It's here if you would like to try this.

 

[misha.physics]

These days I remembered the famous Wideawake International (Ascension Island) from Orbiter 2010 and decided to retexture it for the new Orbiter. it's really a pretty good place with an airport and beautiful terrain in the middle of the atlantic I covered the whole island with tiles of level 19:





I made a lake because there was a cloud on a highly detailed satellite map. And I'm going to try making an original runway (I need to learn how to do this). Fortunately there's a good native texture:



The mountains of the island look very good, but I think there is needed manual editing of the terrain elevation. Unfortunately I don’t know how to do it yet. By the way, it would be nice to have some tool for visually designing terrain elevation. Just a request I'd like to make a deepening for the lake, since now it looks not good:



It would also be nice to make the shores of the island, namely raise it a little entirely above sea level.

Added: qubic interpolation instead of linear makes it even more beautiful:

 

[Urwumpe]

The weird shape of the lake could also be caused by the coordinates diverging between texture and elevation. Orbiter uses geocentric coordinate (angle measured from the center of Earth), while most map software uses geographic coordinate (angle measured on the surface of a reference ellipsoid). The difference is pretty much about "Where am I in space" and "Where am I on the surface of Earth".

Not sure if it makes sense to provide geographic coordinates in Orbiter one day, while Earth is still a sphere....

 

[misha.physics]

In fact there shouldn't be a lake there, I made it artificially to hide the cloud on the detailed texture from the satellite map.

 

[LordCroussette]

We already have a tiled Ascension Island for 2016, but DAMN! These tiles be looking fine as hell!

Bringing back actual Wideawake International spaceport to replace the simple airbase we have right now would be so cool!

 

[misha.physics]

Thanks. I really haven't seen this addon you mentioned above.

Bringing back actual Wideawake International spaceport to replace the simple airbase we have right now would be so cool!

What do you mean by "actual Wideawake International spaceport"? Such objects as airport buildings or something else, namely what we should add to turn an airbase into a spaceport?

I'm sure it would look better without that fictional lake. A cloud on the satellite map isn't that big:



So, maybe it would be better to paint a mountain texture above this small cloud.