Runway Center Line Fix

[+baffmeister]

I started working on a customized runway and the SF-2 center line not lining up at some spots raised it's ugly head. Of course I became totally side tracked with the issue but do have a fix I'm working on. The original center line used an odd number of pixels so when some of the bit maps get rotated for some of the runways the pixels don't line up. The fix is to widen the center line by one pixel in the correct direction. After a couple of hours of microscopic copy and paste with Gimp the results look good but I still have a bit of clean up to do in a tricky area. [ had to move one of the taxi lead in lines by one pixel.] I will probably post the fix at some point but will wait to see if TK responds to a post I made at the ThirdWire forum. The main reason for this post is regarding the runway number bit maps. It would be nice if it were possible to put the appropriate runway number on a runway when it's not aligned north/south. My idea is to remove the 18 / 36 numbers from the default bit maps and then overlay it with a TGA of the appropriate number. It would require 36 TGA's to cover the 10 degree increments used in real life. First question, Is it possible? Second question, does any one have time to work on it? I don't have a clue how the model/TGA stuff works.

Edited February 18, 2012 by baffmeister

[Wrench]

I just paint the numbers out on the runway maps, cause I'm always rotating airfields to proper headings. That is, if I'm not too lazy!

 

I honestly don't think it's possible, or implemented to change the heading decal (actually a bmp, for the runway itself). Which DO exist in the terrain cats. Look for the "Runway TH***.bmps" in any terrain cat.

 

iirc, the 'drm' listed in the airfield inis are for the little signs at the head/tail of the taxiways and runway ends. Never noticed if they change, after airfield rotation

[+baffmeister]

The drm signs do change with airport rotation, last time I looked. For runway numbers, my idea would require the manual placement of TGA's at the appropriate end of the runway. Once the positioning information was figured out it would be relatively easy to add a couple of new objects into the airports target area.

[+baffmeister]

To clarify my question a bit, for manual placement of runway numbers I am assuming it would require 36 separate lods each with it's own TGA. Would there be issues placing the new lod's over the existing runway lod's? Things like flickering images etc. Would the lod have to be a bit thicker than the existing runway lod in order for the TGA to show up? These are the kinds of issues I am wondering about.

[+baffmeister]

Did some testing placing flat lods with bit maps over top of a runway and it appears to be a no go. TGA's may be another matter. Some strange behavior with the bit maps. If I placed a flat lod with bit map on the runway and my aircraft was on the runway [ or close by I presume] the bit map would not show through the runway bit map although you could see the piece of the bit map that wasn't covered by the runway. The strange part is, if I entered the game with my airplane at a different airport and then used the free camera view to go to the test airport, the extra lod with bit map was clearly visible showing over top of the runway! I can only assume there is some kind of visual priority thing going on with the game engine but I know nothing regarding that topic. Next I went looking for a flat lod with a TGA to test but couldn't find one in the parts bin so to test the reaction with a TGA over the runway bit map I just placed the small airfield 3 across the runway and "voila" the small airfield TGA covered the runway bit map no problem. Didn't see any flickering either. If any modellers are interested in putting together a smallish flat lod with a TGA so I can do further testing please let me know. I think it may be possible with the right sized lod and TGA to just cover over the existing runway numbers with the correct ones if an airfield is rotated to a new heading. Cheers.