Modeling - Getting Started
This page guides you through getting started with modeling.
Notice for Volunteers
|
|
- We need people to go out and take good pictures of all the buildings at their local airports, build models, and create textures (that could be different people for each task).
- We need people to start modelling identifiable human-made landmarks like bridges, stadiums, and major buildings. Around the San Francisco Bay area, bridges are especially important. Once you have identified some buildings or objects you would like to have (Aircraft carriers, fuel bowsers, cars, towers, ...) you will need to check out the tools for creating and placing these objects.
Getting Started
Generally one can start with a blueprint using their favorite imaging software like GIMP, Photoshop, or Paint shop pro then separate various views (front, back, etc...) into greyscale jpg files. Then import them as a background for easy modelling in your favorite 3D modelling software program.
3D Software
To begin, you will need to create models in a 3d modeling appliction. Three popular ones are AC3D, Blender and SketchUp. FlightGear can display models in several formats, any format supported by PLIB is acceptable. AC3D is the most popular format for including scenery in Flightgear. Most or all of the default scenery bundled with a Flightgear release are in AC3D format.
If you do not have AC3D, Blender offers many import and export tools. See the Blender website for further information.
Blender
|
|
Blender is more difficult to learn to use, since it is not quite as intuitive and is far more powerful. However it is GPL'd, and there are lots of tutorials to help with learning.
Note: Before you start modelling its recommended to activate the 'Backface Culling' option (Viewport Shading -> Options). This will allow you to spot faces with inverted Normals. In FlightGear these faces will be invisible. To check your model for this issue switch Viewport Shading to Solid. Now you will be able to spot the affected faces. To correct them, mark all affected Faces. Then go to Mesh -> Normals and click 'Flip'.
Placing Objects on Scenery
There are several ways of doing this. The most direct way is to simply add the required data by hand.
The easiest way is to use the UFO's object placement feature (in version 9.10 or higher). When operating the UFO, left-clicking the mouse anywhere on the ground will place an object, and pressing space-up or down will cycle through the models. Coordinates of placed models can then be dumped to the terminal or written to a configuration file.
Obsolete project? Another method is to use FlightGear Scenery Designer (Project Site). After setting the paths to your scenery data, simply load up the area where you want to place the object. Load your .ac format model, and right click on the desired spot to place your model there. Export the modifed scenery to save it, rerun Flightgear and your model should be there.
Finding, Creating, or Using Textures
Models in Flightgear use textures with PNG format.
Most image editors support editing PNG files, like GIMP, Adobe Photoshop, etc.
The old SGI rgb format (.rgb extension) is no longer supported. (see http://scenemodels.flightgear.org/)
Once you have made your model building, you will want to apply some textures to it, so it looks as realistic as possible. This is possibly one of the hardest areas, as a good model with bad textures will still look bad. Since Flightgear and the scenery data are all released under the GPL, any textures that you use must also be able to be released under this license. This will probably prevent you from just using anything you come across on the net, unless it is already under the GPL. It is quite common for people to state that their pictures or textures are free. Since Flightgear can be sold for profit, and is released on Linux distributions that are sold, check that there are no clauses stating that the item can not be sold or used for commercial use.
Improve model performance
|
|
Related content
Wiki articles
Problems and Solutions
Resources
| ||||||||||||||