Hi. I'm just finishing up a set of general-purpose "runway length remaining" signs, along with a python script that will insert them into appropriate .stg files as desired. I used the FAA Advisory Circulars 150/5340-18C (Standards for Airport Sign Systems) and 150/5345-44 (Specification for Taxiway and Runway Signs) for the physical size of the signs, the physical size of the numerals upon them, and for the script's placement of the signs (including checking taxiways and other runways in runways.dat to avoid conflicting placements, adjusting +/- 50 feet as necessary). This is part of an effort overall to do up KDCA and KSDF, but the signs and accompanying script should be generically applicable, at least in the U.S. I dunno whether the international standards are different (if you do, please let me know). Right now, they're single-sided signs (I may adjust the script to do double-sided signs by placing two single-sided signs back to back, but I'm holding off on making double-sided signs directly because that's 105 or so signs to make and I'm tired).
I've run into two issues with which I'm hoping folks here can help me.
One's a Blender/ac3d materials + texturing problem. The other deals
with the relationship between the parameters in the .stg file, and the
actual placement of the object.
1. When I first tried to make these guys, I applied a black material
to the entire sign; then, I took the appropriate white-numeral-on-black
texture and UV-mapped it to one face, rotated so that it looks correct
from Blender's "front" view. Everything looked great in Blender,
both in the 3D windows (with "textured view" on), and in the rendering
window. Once exported to ac3d and brought into fgfs, though, what I
got was a black square. After lots of tinkering around with the shading
numbers for the material by editing the .ac file directly, I found that
the only way I could get the numeral to show was by assigning emissivity
to the material. Does this make sense to you? It sure doesn't to me.
Even worse, when I did this (added emissivity to the material), the
opposite side from the side where the numeral is supposed to appear
*also* showed the numeral, but rotated 90 degress. It was as if I'd
UV-mapped it to that face too (with a bad/uncorrected rotation), even
though I didn't (I've checked and checked). Why is this other side
showing the numeral too, and with a bogus rotation on the face? Any
ideas on things I might check?
I solved this problem in the interim by UV-mapping *all six* faces
on the sign, but mapping the five blank faces to small parts of the
white-numeral-on-black image that only showed black. Naively, I
would expect that texturing all six sides like this involves needless
texture manipulation at runtime -- hence my desire to just paint the
whole thing black, then apply texture to one face. But as noted
above, this hasn't worked.
2. My understanding of the .stg file lines is this: a line like
OBJECT_SHARED Models/Airport/Signs/distance_1.xml -85.746956 38.181455 146 165.47
places the object at the lat/lon specified by the first two arguments
after the path, at an altitude ASL in meters given by the third
argument after the path, and with a rotation from true north given
by the very last argument. This seems borne out by my experience with
placing the Washington Monument -- I gave it an angle of 0, and it
was aligned with its sides facing N, S, E and W. So I would have
expected that if I gave these signs an angle value equal to the
runway direction, they'd be facing you as you took off from either
that direction, or the opposite direction, on the runway. Instead,
the signs show up at an unusual angle from the runway direction.
It's as if the signs were not aligned properly within Blender --
except they are, I've checked and checked. Am I misinterpreting
what the angle setting (that last argument) in the .stg file means?
If not, can you think of anything I can check as to why angle 0.00
isn't giving me a sign that points north or south, but instead
at a weird angle?
Thanks,
-c
--
Chris Metzler [EMAIL PROTECTED]
(remove "snip-me." to email)
"As a child I understood how to give; I have forgotten this grace since I
have become civilized." - Chief Luther Standing Bear
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