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jyd

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  1. Labrat- find me on Skype. Look for Robert Lacy or jyarddog. Probably Robert Lacy might work easier. If there are many, I am the one in Ione Washington. On Skype we have a tremendous advantage. hope to see you on skype asap. Bob
  2. would like to see some pictures of results! Please consider or keep in mind about Skype. I've used it for years. As I mentioned, I've worked with fellows in many different time zones and at THEIR convenience. fun and easy way to exchange ideas, help each other out. Oh well, keep it in mind if you wish to give it a try. Fast way to learn from each other!!! anyway- looking forward to pictures . Bob
  3. The best way to do seasons is: take a screen shot of spring, fall, winter, and / or hard winter. (I usually do fall and hard winter only unless there is a drastic difference in the others in the area in question). I then bring my original bmp satellite into my paint program along with the seasonal screenshot I made as a reference. (ALWAYS start off with your original bmp!!! and when done tag it with the seasonal tag I sent) I then have a reference as to what that season looks like in THAT area!! Then try to match colors as to what you see in the seasonal screenshot. This is where Metrix again comes into play (yes you can perhaps do all this with the tools within GIMP or other paint programs, Metrix is so easy to use and does such a good job). For hard winter I would suggest using a slightly off white color (so yo do not get red splotches) as to match your default snow, but adjust the opacity of your brush so your 'snow' does not blot out objects in your bmp. (have to play with this a bit). Next - try drawing a select-line precisely around roads and then choose in your effects I think - or adjustment of colors- a sepia tone. This colors roads with a slight brown look as if the road were plowed and left a bit muddy. That is tedious work but fun and rewarding. SO- Each season is done by you manually.
  4. Raziz- That is the usual problem - tough to find the latest google dll. Often when I find one it is not the latest.... and so on... anyway we finally find one but it has the same problems as the others, then a few months later it doesn't work anymore!! VE is decent, but as with others sometimes you get that purple-ish gray tint. I use Metrix for that. Now- I am not sure if it will work in GIMP. Metrix is a 32 bit thing and will work only in 32 bit paint programs. Even though GIMP comes in versions of 32 bit I am still not sure if it will work in GIMP 32, but you can try. download from the link I sent above unzip and follow instructions. Then take that plug in and put it in your Gimp plug ins (if you are using GIMP). it is so very easy to use!!! To make sure the color in my photoreal matches the default surround area, I take a screenshot of the default area and us that in the same paint area as my bmp. This way I can grab the wanted color and put it in the bmp where I want. Results: very difficult to tell where your photoreal ends and default begins!!! Bob
  5. yes- looks good. But follow my instructions and you can change that funny color to the surrounding area. Also - that looks like a square. Take your bmp to your paint program and color everything white you want the user to see and everything black you DON'T want your user to see ( i.e. default) Then take your smear or smudge brush and smudge the sharp line between your black and white... use a large brush... hardness about 46 and opacity about the same. When done save as a TIFF file (TIF) and leave the file name the same but tag it with _B This is what is called a blend mask. You will be ecstatic at your results. Bob
  6. raziz- that is the usual problem with google dll. tough to find the current one. Once you do it is fine - for a couple of months - then it changes and you go though all this again. I use VE also. funny color now and then? You can get that from any satellite image. Get Metrix at http://www.jnrubin.net/psi/ so easy to use. free. at the end of one year it turns off. just go there again after DEC 31 and get another... always free. Joshua Rubin says so. it is only for 32 bit paint programs. will not work on 64's. Gimp not sure either way. Take a screenshot of your area and use that as a template for colors you want. or if there is good color in your map you can use it right there as well. You will be surprised at how well you will be able to change the colors in many areas to "clean up" the funny color in your map sometimes kinda purple (if it happened) and make it really tough for anyone to tell where your photoreal leaves off and default begins!!! Bob
  7. My offer extends to anyone here for help, Skype, etc. Love doing this on Skype so much easier. This helps others when I the past so many have helped me. what goes around comes around. Bob (JYD)
  8. Night version: You really should get a screenshot of your airfield at night so you have a reference what default night looks like at your airfield. (i.e. how dark is it? what color are the lights in the surrounding area? open your bmp with your gimp. Make a layer (some guys make two- one yellow)... one you can call 'dark' or 'night' or whatever. using your layer slider on 'dark' layer, slide it over until it gets really dark but you can still see roads and such on your bmp. Now get your paint brush adjust hardness to maybe 30 or so (you want it to have fuzzy edges), and opacity to about 15. (yep - that isn't much but gives you more control) Brush size ... make it a little bigger than an intersection of two roads. (you can adjust all these as you see fit). Now click once to drop a splotch of yellow right in an intersection... doesn't look bright enough? in the same place click a few more times until it is bright yellow to your liking.... too bright? hit undo a couple of times to back off the times you clicked. You can also make your brush smaller and more hardness and more opacity and click once in the center to make it look like that is where a light bulb is!!! The point is... you fuss with it as you see fit and have fun doing it. When done run your slider back to where you can BARELY see any objects (roads etc) in the bmp. Compare to your picture of your airfield at night to get how dark the area is at night and how bright the lights are I default and what color (usually yellowish - orange.) Now merge your layers and SAVE AS OR EXPORT ( I think that is what Gimp says), BUT DO NOT CHANGE THE NAME BUT ADD THE _N TO IT. This should save to your SBX work folder. Now refer to the above instructions in my previous post. Then compile your photoreal. Rename your photo and put it in your active scenery and go see. both post took about 45 minutes of typing and thinking - so as not to give erroneous instructions.... would have taken about 10 minutes on Skype. I'll bet your night map looks great! BTW- tired of clicking 2,000 times just to get to SBX's work folder? Create a shortcut for that work folder and put it on desktop somewhere. I have a folder that has a bunch of "tools" I use for designing. The less time I spend trying to navigate all over my machine to get somewhere -the more time I have designing! ;) Let me know how things work out for you. Have any default ground sticking out beyond your photo at the seashore? I have an easy trick for that. Bob
  9. labrat- I do get the same discussion about Skype. Future reference- You can use or not use Skype. It is free. no camera needed just microphone. can turn shut it down when not needed. I've had Skype for years.... no problem whatsoever. Europe? No problem Here's why: I have Skype friends in Scotland, England, Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, and guess what!! Thailand also!! since I am retired I can talk with them when THEY are available. Anyway- keep all that in mind to consider at another time as you see fit. ------------- Now - back to business. ;) No you do not download different seasons. You will use only your summer download and will use that. Other than that, yes, you will compile your seasons as you said, but you make your own seasons. Here are the correct tags to use: Summer is- su spring is- sp autumn is fa winter is wi hard winter is hw night is N water mask is W Gimp is fine. You always start with your bmp you downloaded from satellite. You do Not change the file name of that, but for each season you will add the appropriate tag as I posted above. thus...... example- LXxxxxxxxxxxx34567_N.bmp, or LXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx34567_hw.bmp, etc. THEN save or export from Gimp. All this will save to your work folder in SBX. Next you will right click the edge of your map in SBX and choose properties. Now- see the tab called seasons? click that. going to choose night? choose night and you are taken to work folder and you choose the bmp with _N. If you don't see anything go bottom right and choose 'all files'.... sometimes SBX is too dumb to realize yo u have bmps there! hahaha. More later.
  10. Labrat- The easiest way to take you through all this is to be on Skype so we can share screens. Look for me Robert Lacy in Ione, Washington. or might try Jyarddog. However, to start with ALWAYS start off with a summer view. Night is done with layers which is easier than it sounds. When done with our seasons and night we put a tag on them so we can ID them in SBX. edge of your map in SBX right click and choose seasons. From there you will see tabs to choose. I will be busy today and tomorrow with music. tomorrow afternoon, my time, (PST) I will be free. One other starting tips... to label your night map, use the tag _N (NOT _lm). Hope to meet up with you. Years ago guys tried to teach me and it took months because they knew what they were doing but could not teach it!! After I finally learned I taught about 14 other guys in 20 minutes each guy how to do photoreal.... getting started. BTW- Yep I am a retired teacher! :) What paint program do you use? All are very good. Some are easier to work with sometimes. I use Corel PSP X9. email is jyarddog@potc.net. Usually not good to type one's email here but the guys here are pretty darned good fellas. Bob
  11. That one I have not seen... or don't remember. I'll be out of town for the rest of the day. I went off li ne on skype, but you can send a request contact anyway. When I get back home I will see it. I will ask some friends here if they have seen this. We will work this out. Bob
  12. 1. on top choose view and uncheck background 2. repeat #1. to show background 3. if this does not work scroll mouse in or out and wait 4. numbers will load again. 5. if not just roll the mouse wheel a little and let it do the number again. 6. bottom left screen you see how high up yo are looking. usually I like to be about 500 meters. Or try 1km I've down this a few times and then finally I would get a good screen but there might be some white squares but they are off of where I am going to work. I can ignore that. If it still stalls at 1. 7. go to edit and scroll down to choose VE Virtual Satellite. and repeat the above. 8. sometimes even after all this it might stall on the second screen. If so, hid background and repeat. As I have been saying on Skype we could have done this in a heartbeat. By now you would be doing fine photoreal. Skype is free.
  13. lja- can't help if you don't contact me on Skype. Too much info, typing, and teaching steps to do it here. I will work with you on what you want after we contact each other on Skype and I find out what tools yo have already.
  14. find me on skype.my info is in one of the posts just above here.
  15. I am not sure what you mean here. I think you are talking about an airport on main land but close to the sea? Without being on Skype together this is hard to describe, but I will try. If we meet up on Skype we can do this easier. Once you Take your bmp to your paint program, we start using white and black colors only (this will be your blend mask which is basically going to be an alpha channel). Just as a review we color everything white that the user is supposed to see in the photoreal. Everything colored black will be a transparency that shows through to default FSX. Once this is done you might want to smudge some areas on the inland side, unless you drew a whit part right down he side of a road, which hides photo and default nicely. But let's make our white right along the shoreline. When done save as (not 'save') and choose tiff as file type and add a _B to the end of the file name. Then compile your items with SbuilderX. When done rename photo01.bgl to anything you like and put it your active scenery sub-folder. In the game you might see default line sticking out. In SbuilderX make a poly around the shoreline and choose ocean - perennial as a water-class. This will take care of the default shoreline sticking out. FSX isn't too good with correct shorelines. ;) I am Robert Lacy on Skype - there are many - I am the one in IONE
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