City Textures rework

[rince33]

I spent some time this morning on the landclass city version of this mod. I Trimmed down a few cities and towns to 1940 represent standards. This action should also benefit fps.

There are some techniques using mos textures that could neaten the edges of cities and remove clumps of stray buildings between texture changes.

The main issue with the town and city mos/facility placements is that they pop in and out at a distance whereas the landclass cities don't, depending on your scenery budget. My mesh, scenery and texture budgets are set high to get the most out of this mod.

The landclass cities look pretty good at altitude though villages next to airfields like Tangmere look better with mos/facility building placements.






The placement mod version for comparison.





I removed buildings to the left of the harbour on the outcrop.

[MajorMagee]

I love it!

[rince33]

The main issue with the town and city mos/facility placements is that they pop in and out at a distance whereas the landclass cities don't, depending on your scenery budget.

A correction here. The landclass cities do pop in and out, but at a further distance.

Yeah.. I've been checking various cities and the result of the landclass layout isn't always favorable. It all depends on where two textures join, it can look quite crappy in places, and it cant be individually controlled for each city, which really is a pity.

[rince33]

LONDON EASTERN DOCK

[rbp71854]

Fantastic work! Each screenshot brings new goodies.

[MajorMagee]

[gecko]

LONDON EASTERN DOCK

YES!!!!!

[rince33]

The harbour modular sections are my creation but the large warehouse is an imported il21946 model by Boomer. I added a damage model.

I will create a scaled down version for the dock section seen in the photo provided by MajorMagee. I was going to search for this photo online but now don't have to, so thanks for that. I downloaded it before for my il2 channel mod along with a stack of other 1940's photos that I deleted from my hdd to make space, thinking that I wouldn't need them again.

[Shessi]

Very impressive R!

Just a thought based on your pics. Is there a way of reducing or getting rid of trees in certain areas in CFS3? No criticism of your work, but IMO there are too many trees and they are far too big compared to the houses, which I think detracts slightly from your efforts. Possibly lighter shade of leaf green may be the answer?

Cheers

Shessi

[rince33]

Hi Shessi!

You can reduce the trees by lowering the composite scenery budget values. I generally enjoy a higher tree density when flying over fields and forests, which may affect the tree density in cities. It depends on your own personal preference.
One of the city landclass files I removed because it had an insane amount of trees caused by the tree fillmap.


See post #9 on page 1 of this thread.




I agree with the tree to building size comparison, though smaller trees would probably also have a thinning effect on forest density requiring more trees, lowering the frame rate. Bob2wov also has this building to tree size issue which also leads me to believe it's a Framerate boosting tactic. They are both old sims.

I have adjusted the contrast and added highlights to the tree texture, a personal choice. Stock trees are a bit lighter, though flat. There are things that you can adjust or keep to suite your own preference.

Nothing is final, it is all a wip and subject to change. Yesterday after completing the docks I added some more detail to one of the city landclass textures. So it goes. I will probably add more buildings to the eastern dock model as well at a later date. Constructive criticism is always welcome.

[rince33]

SOME PERIOD MUSIC


Frances Carroll & Her Coquettes Featuring Drummer Viola Smith. Viola died in 2020 at 107.



https://youtu.be/o5c_XZaArH4?t=1

[mongoose]

Very impressive R!

Just a thought based on your pics. Is there a way of reducing or getting rid of trees in certain areas in CFS3? No criticism of your work, but IMO there are too many trees and they are far too big compared to the houses, which I think detracts slightly from your efforts. Possibly lighter shade of leaf green may be the answer?

Cheers

Shessi

i think there would be practically 0 trees in the dockland; in fact I don't reme3mber many even back in the '70's when I taught in that area. The East End, Canning town and the whole dockland area was pretty depressing even then, as the Luftwaffe seems to show.

[mongoose]

SOME PERIOD MUSIC


Frances Carroll & Her Coquettes Featuring Drummer Viola Smith. Viola died in 2020 at 107.



https://youtu.be/o5c_XZaArH4?t=1

Great!

[Pat Pattle]

Excellent work Glen, as always! The docklands are a great addition!

[rince33]

Thanks Clive.

Just getting stuck into the next section. I spawn at Hornchurch and have to fly quite a distance to place and check objects, quite time consuming. I listened to a brilliant audio book of Frank Herbert's Dune that got me through the eastern dock last week. This week progress is a bit slower.

I'm still experimenting with the city landclass textures, trying to strike a balance between green and concrete grey backgrounds.

[Shessi]

Hawt diggigdy momma!

Jungle jazz at it's best...

I did a double take that there we were talking about CFS3 land classes, and then 1930's jazz dance bands...nice one Glen!

And yes G, with all the housing, industry and pollution, not much tree life in Docklands lol.


Cheers

Shessi

[rince33]

I halved the tree size and I think the cities look better now, so that was a good call Shessi.









IMAGE FROM POST 182 WITH THE SAME SETTINGS

[rince33]

I've taken a break from this mod for a while.

The docks is still a wip. Ive taken a 2d approach, courtesy of Luftwaffe recon maps, to create the commercial dock layout which is non existent on the current map.

I created a building fillmap to achieve a treeless city landclass lso file, but the Sdk rgn2lso.exe tool does not work. I have read that the Sdk version is faulty. If anyone has the working version, an upload would be appreciated, if not.... it's all good, I like trees.

[mongoose]

Glad to see that you're still aroun; always good to have a break from a big project! looking good and I hope someone has ideas about the trees. Not sure why MS CFS3 developers were so keen on them!

[rince33]

Something different. I've always used reshade to get a sharper and and added contrast feel to my Hurri And Spit cockpit. These reshade settings do affect FPS, so I decided to edit the effects on the textures instead. The Hurricane texture is slightly blurred and causes the higher res gauge textures to pop out . This has always freaked me out a bit, so I edited the cockpit texture for a sharper and more realistic effect.
The Spitfire uses the Hurricane sight mechanism texture and I've added a bit of weathering to the flat black panel using the Hurri panel texture and also edited the joystick cover texture.

## If you use these please back up your originals first##

https://www.mediafire.com/file/tob6xleyv8cfhz4/cockpitmod+hurrandspit.7z/file

[gecko]

I've taken a break from this mod for a while.

The docks is still a wip. Ive taken a 2d approach, courtesy of Luftwaffe recon maps, to create the commercial dock layout which is non existent on the current map.

I created a building fillmap to achieve a treeless city landclass lso file, but the Sdk rgn2lso.exe tool does not work. I have read that the Sdk version is faulty. If anyone has the working version, an upload would be appreciated, if not.... it's all good, I like trees.

Fantastic work!

It also really highlights how much detail is missing from the stock terrain and water.

[MajorMagee]

FYSA, the cockpit download was blocked on my system with a Severe virus warning.

[Pat Pattle]

Looks superb Glen! I always look forward to seeing your progress. Can't wait to fly over it myself.

[rince33]

Thanks Clive, Mongoose and Gecko. The game map is based on a more modern map image and not 1940, a bit lazy on Microsoft's part. Once London is complete, I'll look at what can be done to Gravesend, Portsmouth and Southampton.

MajorMagee

FYSA, the cockpit download was blocked on my system with a Severe virus warning.

Wow! this is a first for me, and I've uploaded many mod files over the years. I placed the folder on my desktop and did a scan and picked up nothing, and my antivirus software is up to date.

The included folders contain just 3 recently edited texture files. I usually create new folders to contain my texture work, though this time I used existing game aircraft and shared folders, just deleting unneeded files.

This zip file contains just the three 'dds' texture files. See if this is blocked as well.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/8m1hm...s+only.7z/file


The hurri texture goes to the 'BoB_Hurricane_Mk1_Shared' and the two Spit files go to the 'Bob_spits shared' folder.

[MajorMagee]

It got blocked as well.