I have been making some blended photoscenery using a custom blend mask, I have been successful but there are a couple of problems:
Note these are not just thin rectangular blend masks but have large black areas.
I followed the instruction to create a greyscale .TIF image with the same name as the photo scenery but added _B as instructed - this almost worked. The multi source .INF file was created and it compiles without errors. However when viewing the resulting BGL file in TMFviewer the whole of the black area shows up black. After some headscratching I figured that I didn't need the NullValue = 255,255,255 statement and removed it from the .INF file. Now dropping the .INF directly onto resample.exe worked and with a little tweaking things are starting to look good.
I have one very strange effect, at some places at the edge of every image so far created I see red/yellow areas. I can see no reason for this except that they seem to occur where the shape of the mask is concave - anybody else seen this?
Geoff
Blendmask
- luisfeliztirado
- Posts: 436
- Joined: Sun May 15, 2005 9:15 am
- Location: Santo Domingo
Hello Geoff,
Have you seen this thread on making custom ground textures?
http://www.ptsim.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1060
Best regards.
Luis
Have you seen this thread on making custom ground textures?
http://www.ptsim.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1060
Best regards.
Luis
Hi Luis,
Yes indeed this is where I found out how to create the TIF with the _B in the filename. But I wonder if I am going about this in the wrong way? Here are the steps:
1. Create a .bmp map file using the option Add Map>From background.
2. Edit this .bmp creating white areas where I need transparency and save.
3. Create a blendmask (256 greyscale TIF) from this edited image, and name it the same as the original image but with the _B added. (Incidentally either LZW or Uncompressed seem to work)
4. Rename the .INF file to be the same as the image name and drop it on resample.exe (this is where it was going wrong until I removed the NullValue statement.)
I just spotted the information about the compression quality; I am going to try different settings because the new BGLs created are much larger than the ones without the blendmask...
I have a feeling I am missing something here, but not quite sure what!
Geoff
Yes indeed this is where I found out how to create the TIF with the _B in the filename. But I wonder if I am going about this in the wrong way? Here are the steps:
1. Create a .bmp map file using the option Add Map>From background.
2. Edit this .bmp creating white areas where I need transparency and save.
3. Create a blendmask (256 greyscale TIF) from this edited image, and name it the same as the original image but with the _B added. (Incidentally either LZW or Uncompressed seem to work)
4. Rename the .INF file to be the same as the image name and drop it on resample.exe (this is where it was going wrong until I removed the NullValue statement.)
I just spotted the information about the compression quality; I am going to try different settings because the new BGLs created are much larger than the ones without the blendmask...
I have a feeling I am missing something here, but not quite sure what!
Geoff
Hi Geoff,
I would not make changes in the 1st bmp except if I need a color match to the existing default landclass (there is a programme that can do that very efficiently which minimizes the need for the blend mask). May be I would check if there is no pure white in this image so that I can live with the NullValue (which has been reported to cause some problems). Then I would make a copy of the 1st .bmp and I would give it a name of ._B. I would save it as 256 B&W with the TIF format.
Here is the code that SBuilderX uses to determine if there is a blend or water mask job:
If the blend mask only has shades of gray I found that white zone shows will show my 1st .BMP and black zones will show the default. In the Tools/Bmps folder you will find a blendmask.tif file that SBulderX uses to create a photo BGL from the background with a single click. You will see black around the borders and a transition to the main white zone.
Kind Regards,
Luis
I would not make changes in the 1st bmp except if I need a color match to the existing default landclass (there is a programme that can do that very efficiently which minimizes the need for the blend mask). May be I would check if there is no pure white in this image so that I can live with the NullValue (which has been reported to cause some problems). Then I would make a copy of the 1st .bmp and I would give it a name of ._B. I would save it as 256 B&W with the TIF format.
Here is the code that SBuilderX uses to determine if there is a blend or water mask job:
Code: Select all
Dim IsBlend As Boolean = False
Dim IsWater As Boolean = False
Dim BlendName As String = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(Maps(N).BMPSu) & "_B.TIF"
Dim WaterName As String = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(Maps(N).BMPSu) & "_W.TIF"
If File.Exists(My.Application.Info.DirectoryPath & "\tools\work\" & BlendName) Then
IsBlend = True
End If
If File.Exists(My.Application.Info.DirectoryPath & "\tools\work\" & WaterName) Then
IsWater = True
End If
Kind Regards,
Luis
- luisfeliztirado
- Posts: 436
- Joined: Sun May 15, 2005 9:15 am
- Location: Santo Domingo
Hi Luis,
Many thanks your additional information corresponds exactly with what I am seeing! I am now experimenting to see if I can reproduce the strange red/yellow artifacts; that I see at one or two places around the edges. I think it may be due to an imperfect fit between the various images...
One thing I have found is that reducing the quality to 50% has hardly any discernible effect on the appearance in FSX but reduces the size of the BGL file by about 70%. However this may be more noticable on higher resolution images - I will see.
Thanks again
Geoff
Many thanks your additional information corresponds exactly with what I am seeing! I am now experimenting to see if I can reproduce the strange red/yellow artifacts; that I see at one or two places around the edges. I think it may be due to an imperfect fit between the various images...
One thing I have found is that reducing the quality to 50% has hardly any discernible effect on the appearance in FSX but reduces the size of the BGL file by about 70%. However this may be more noticable on higher resolution images - I will see.
Thanks again
Geoff