Project Male International Airport

[george7378]

Well, I've decided to try and create my own surface base for the first time. I've chosen my favourite airport in the world - Male International (pronounced 'Marley') in the Maldives. The only thing I've done so far is create the surface tiles, and it's the first time I've tried doing that, so it's not perfect yet! As you can see from the screenshots, they're not quite aligned properly (despite the fact that I copied the exact values from the Surface Tile Calculator into Google Earth - does anyone have any tips regarding this? Thanks).

I'm hoping to put some custom models into it too, and of course I'll add a proper Orbiter runway, and some nice 3D models to complement the surface tiles. I might also extend the tiles to include some outlying islands.

Anyway, thanks for looking!

 

[RisingFury]

Make sure the tiles blend in better with the rest of the ocean. Keep up the work :thumbup:

 

[george7378]

Thanks, I did try using a gradient tool to make the edges fade to transparency using Paint.NET, but when I saved it as a .dds DXT1 file, it got rid of the gradient and replaced it with hard edges. Is there any way to get round this?

Thanks!

 

[orb]

Thanks, I did try using a gradient tool to make the edges fade to transparency using Paint.NET, but when I saved it as a .dds DXT1 file, it got rid of the gradient and replaced it with hard edges. Is there any way to get round this?

Either save it as DXT5, which will preserve the gradient, or use (1-bit) dithering (if image is very high resolution).

 

[george7378]

Great, I can't wait to try that out!

 

[csanders]

As for the alignment, once you know the "grid numbers" for your tile, you can kind of ignore the whole "longitude/latitude" or each individual tile. They all fit together in a grid, so if you get your tile images to align with each other in an image editor, they should align with each other in Orbiter.

In other words, the top of tile "Earth_3_1_1" should align with the bottom of "Earth_3_1_2"

Kind of like this:

 

[george7378]

OK, thanks for the tip - I found that it was the compass in Google Earth which was not properly aligned causing the skew. I've fixed it, and made the edges fade into the water too:

 

[Notebook]

Looks good, are you using the "r" key in Google Earth to reset the view?

N.

 

[Loru]

I'd extend alpha map over the sea more and make opaque/transparent transition wider. As background for water in that part I'd use blue/cyan colour (it will blend into the orbiter's sea according to alpha map). Also I'd clean up taxiways and "stay areas" out of this planes

 

[george7378]

Cheers Notebook - yes, I found the reset button after my first try!

Loru - the transparency is certainly the hardest part to get right! I tried extending it a bit more, but it looked a bit fake because there were stationary boats and wave crests in the Google Earth water, and since Orbiter has an animated water surface, it looked best to restrict it to the island. Is it easy to swap a more natural water surface into the image to replace the Google Earth ocean?

Also, I'm certainly going to cover the runway, taxiways and parking areas using proper surfaces! I'm going to add some buildings and what not aswell.

 

[csanders]

Maybe make 1 tile below all your current tiles, that will be a "background for the base, and have it's color match the aqua/cyan of the water around your base.

Example (black is transparent):

Basically, try to make it look like this:

But as you mentioned, Orbiter's animated/reflective water will be blocked by the tile, so it still might look unnatural.

 

[Loru]

Loru - the transparency is certainly the hardest part to get right! I tried extending it a bit more, but it looked a bit fake because there were stationary boats and wave crests in the Google Earth water, and since Orbiter has an animated water surface, it looked best to restrict it to the island. Is it easy to swap a more natural water surface into the image to replace the Google Earth ocean?

You have image editor! Delete them and replace with water/sand. Grab water surface from a photo and replace that from google earth. This is your texture and with some skill and patience you can achieve whatever you want

---------- Post added at 06:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:17 PM ----------

and I just noticed I forgot to add original banaba island layer as "multiplier" to main surface tile :facepalm:

---------- Post added at 06:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:21 PM ----------

Should look like this:

 

[george7378]

That's an impressive island - thanks for showing me.

I've added a runway, some pads and some other generic stuff. I think I'm going to try my first flight from this base next, to see how it looks in flight before I make any more changes.

 

[Loru]

Really nice.

I see you've encountered the same problem - aproach lights in water
Solving it was easy but painfully time consuming.

---------- Post added at 08:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:32 PM ----------

However I see the island surface tile lack a lot of Island itself. I suggest adding more surface tiles.
Don't rush it and take your time. This is excellent choice of location IMO (it will fill the gap between AIA and Pacific bases)

 

[george7378]

Haha, thanks a lot I actually really like the approach lights in the water - it gives a sense of just how small the airport is! Also, some airports actually have that (I think KSFO does).

---------- Post added at 18:46 ---------- Previous post was at 18:44 ----------

Yes, I cut off a lot of the island for my first try. I think I will at least add the main city of Male too.

 

[george7378]

I just did a quick single-orbit flight from/to Male, and I actually think it looks pretty nice as it is during takeoff and approach, although it would look a lot nicer with the additional scenery of surrounding islands. I think they'll be the next thing I add.

 

[Loru]

Looks really nice.

1 suggestion. If you move to adding surrounding islands (apart from completing this one) can you comment/mark in cfg file surfacetiles so users can turn them on/off (by adding/removing semicolons). It would be really nice IMO

something like that:

;** HERE STARTS MAIN ISLAND ** 
BEGIN_SURFTILELIST
4 3857 -20 1
4 3857 -20 2
4 3857 -20 3
;** HERE STARTS ADDITIONAL ISLANDS ** 
4 3857 -20 4
4 3857 -20 5
4 3857 -20 6
4 3857 -20 7
END_SURFTILELIST

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Looking good George!

 

[george7378]

Loru - that's a great idea, but I suppose it would get quite inconvenient if I also put 3d objects on the islands - you'd have to comment all those out too.

PhantomCruiser - cheers

 

[Loru]

Same "comment separators" can be used for 3d objects.
Eg:

;** here are main island objects **
...
;** here are north island objects **
...

etc.

I've done similar separation for CSSC objects not to get lost in them.