Simviation Forum - Panel lines in FSDS

Nov 20^th, 2004 at 10:38pm

CAFedm Offline
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Anyone know how to go about adding panel lines to an aircraft created in FSDS? I was thinking of toying with the textures (e.g., put an edge around moving parts) but this seems to be a tedious way to go about it.

Thanks - Brian

Brian

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Reply #1 - Nov 20^th, 2004 at 11:47pm

Felix/FFDS Offline
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Panel lines are in textures - whether gmax or Fsds..

Either that, or I'm not understanding the question.

Felix/FFDS

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Reply #2 - Nov 21^st, 2004 at 1:46am

CAFedm Offline
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Thanks - I was under the impression there may be software designed to draw panel lines on easily. Messing with textures (especially getting them lined up around control surface cut-outs and gear doors) seems like a lot of hit-or-miss work, but if that's the way to go then so be it.

Brian

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Reply #3 - Nov 21^st, 2004 at 8:08am

Felix/FFDS Offline
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Quote:

Thanks - I was under the impression there may be software designed to draw panel lines on easily. Messing with textures (especially getting them lined up around control surface cut-outs and gear doors) seems like a lot of hit-or-miss work, but if that's the way to go then so be it.

But that's why you create the texture templates in FSDS. In that sense, your templates have the mesh lines on them, so if you've created the control surfaces (or at least the provision for the control surface before splitting them off from the main part) your "lines" are there to guide you.

In any case, I also use VAS Gold to work off the source (fsc) file to align panel lines, etc.

Basically, I'll create my wing, as a strutured part, taking care to privide for the control surfaces (flaps, etc) that I would be cutting out later. Generally, before I split the control surface off, I'll take the template of the otherwise " finished" wing, rework the template (crop it to size,etc) and assign it to the wing. That way, when I do split the ailerons and/or flaps, the correct texture is assigned.

This is just one of the ways, since you can assign one texture to several.

Felix/FFDS

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Reply #4 - Nov 21^st, 2004 at 2:10pm

Merlin66 Offline
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I agree 100% with Felix. The VAS Gold makes things MUCH easier. Matching up the edges of camoflage between various parts etc.

For camo I usually prepare a base PSP layer which has no blurred edges, this can be used easier to register the fit up, and when correct, duplicate the layer (hid the orginal) and apply 2.5 to 4.0 gaussian blur.

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Reply #5 - Nov 21^st, 2004 at 2:17pm

Merlin66 Offline
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Another thing with panel lines......
A one pixel wide line applied to say a 256 x 256 texture will appear wider than one on a 1024 x 1024 texture. This can make the end result look a bit tacky when various parts don't line up 100%.

Use standard 1024 x 1024 texture sizes if you can for maximum resolution.
I worked out at one stage that on a standard fuselage, a 1024 texture would give an effective panel line about 8-10mm wide on the finished plane..... a bit wider than the real thing!

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Reply #6 - Nov 21^st, 2004 at 4:16pm