Hi there guys,

I've been playing (fighting?) with Gmax for a few days now, and I think I'm starting to understand what all those buttons mean...however, I have a problem.

The backdrops I'm using are High-res, but appear very blocky in the viewports when zoomed in. I've changed a few things, such as:

Use Low environment background: OFF
Match bitmap as close as possible: ON
Enable anti-aliasing: ON

Still I get blocks, I've tried the OpenGL and Direct3D drivers, but both have the same effect.

My backdrops are of the 1500x1000 pixel range, and are all 500DPI.

This really is hindering my progress with GMax, and I don't have this problem with FSDS2.

I don't think it's my system, I'm using a 2.4GHz P4/nVidia GF4 4600 Ti 128MB/512MB RAM. By my reckoning, in 24bit format, all 3 backdrops equal about 70MB, so I have plenty of video memory.

Any ideas about this?

Well, like in FSDS I use the 3-views as backdrops, that are placed in the background (as in the P-38 tutorial) but I find that these move around, and are difficult to keep centered. I remember seeing a video tutorial (at aerodynmika.com?) ages ago that showed a method of applying the 3-views as textures to 3 boxes, but I can't seem to trck down that tutorial anywhere, the link I have is dead. If anyone knows where I can find this tute, I'd love to know.

Ric B.

Hi Felix,

As it happens, I have already got a copy of all the Gmax/FSDS tutorial hosten on your site, and very grateful I am too. My question here is not so much regarding the method of backdrop application, more the resulting (poor) resoloution of the images. Is there a way of applying a high-res backdrop, as Gmax seems to resample the image no matter which way you do it.


Quote:

Give me an SA80 and point me towards the desert.

Sounds like you're doing all the right things.
Are you using Gmax version 1.2 or 1.1?

I've noticed there seems to be some changes in setting things up with version 1.2.

Have you tried the Heidi drivers for your video? Those work best for me.

You'll never get a super sharp image of the plans/texture (not when compared to a rendered image) - but at the image resolutions you mentioned- it should be clear enough to work from.

Can you post a screen shot of what things look like in your viewports?

Maybe you've already got it as good as it's going to get.

I recently set up a new model and noticed that the texture maps didn't look as sharp in version 1.2 as they had in version 1.1. I scanned my images at higher resolutions and discovered that you quickly reach a point where higher doesn't mean better. Alot has to do with the quality of the image that you're starting with.

If you have a paper copy of your three view plans - try enlarging the image using a photo copier - and then scan the larger image - instead of just bumping up the resolution of the original drawing.

Just a quick not to eveyone having this problem, I just found a new and excellent tutorial on this issue, with detailed instructions on driver configs and viewport settings. This has totally solved my problems!

here is the link http://www.onnovanbraam.com/index.php?main=tutorials&group=blueprint-setup

Thanks to those of you that helped me on this one!

Ric B.