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Thread: Customized airfields

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    Customized airfields

    A great New Year’s Eve to everyone on the Forum

    With CloD Mod (and also with the old Cliffs of Dover game) it was not difficult to make your own airfield. With settings: Forest very low in the ingame Video Options there were no trees and it was easy to find on the map a place suitable for making a small airfield on it (an improvised, emergency airfield let’s s say for three to six fighters spawned from camouflaged shelters and taxiing to an runway of about 500mts.
    Now with Cliffs of Dover Blitz with Forest very low in the ingame Video Options, there are still many trees and hedges to be seen. Placed around fields and green pastures or bisecting them, they are a nuisance for kite trying to take off.

    Can something be done about this?
    Barraclough

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    Re: Customized airfields

    I've also been wondering about this myself - sometimes you can find good-sized patches of clear fields but they then have those 'ditches' in between them which you can taxi into at a snails' pace and still blow a tyre.
    Having been hanging around the FMB a little over the past few weeks (with an ATAG server mission idea brewing) I'm trying to see if I can create an auxiliary/emergency field that is a decent size and taxi-able all over. Is it possible to somehow 'pave' these areas with airfield-like surface to avoid nosing over into some non-existent ditch?


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    Re: Customized airfields

    Is it possible to somehow 'pave' these areas with airfield-like surface to avoid nosing over into some non-existent ditch?[/QUOTE]



    Don’t know. In IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 under Objects- Ships you had these TestRunways. I think they had a surface “paving” effect.

    Barraclough

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    Re: Customized airfields

    I am just getting into FMB airfield building and see that laying a track down sees it cut a swathe through tall grasses etc, could one create in photoshop an artowk then place it to flatten trees.
    Anyone tried in fact creating a track through trees, does it flatten them ?

    maybe the tracks could be cloned and renamed and colour edited to suit grassland type colours, can one widen them in properties, just thinking out loud here before even exploring them.

    can we create new artwork for applying to such splines ?

    Brainstorming ideas, excuse me if no mileage in any of them

    BOBC

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    Re: Customized airfields

    Quote Originally Posted by BOBC View Post
    I... can we create new artwork for applying to such splines ?
    No, but TFS can add new splines to the game. What did you have in mind ?

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    Re: Customized airfields

    Quote Originally Posted by Salmo View Post
    No, but TFS can add new splines to the game. What did you have in mind ?
    I was after using the splines tool to create patches of short grass, I have used Grass runway 20m to flatten the grass in front of my Caffiers dispersal now, see thread
    https://theairtacticalassaultgroup.c...ad.php?t=27885
    but I had to lay down three splines and move them until the 20m overlapped else I had patches of grass still showing.
    Even now this might be causing it to be buggy as one edit can see play or load mission mess up the shaders in cache.
    I have had to do my first ever cache deletes, enter sim fly something simple then make my way to FMB and pray !
    If I could have drawn a shape and filled it with flat grass, that would be better.
    I need grass 1 foot (30cm ) tall and patchy grass. The grass at dispersal is too tall. scrubby bushes, hedges stuff would be useful.
    The spline tool though is nuts. I have used splines for 30yrs but never experienced this. if I click on the end of the spline nearest the trees and with spline in ObjectBrowser selected , click on land north of that to extend it, I get a Z spline shape. The bend handles have no arms to relate them to the spline and are somewhat odd.
    I cant delete a spline, select the end, it flashes hit delete, or r/c delete, cant get rid of it to draw a better one.
    in my stills I get patches of a more darker straight edged area of grass.
    shot_20180115_235449.jpg

    BOBC
    Last edited by BOBC; Jan-15-2018 at 19:24.

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    Re: Customized airfields

    It would be nice to be able to create airports and/or runways in places where they are not supported by default. Several ATAG missions depended on these kind of temporary airfields and the TWC Missions were using them quite extensively. Of course they don't work now as they all have trees running straight up the runway etc.

    It would be nice if (for example) CloD knew to put no trees within the radius of an airport that is placed in FMB (you can both place airports and declare their radius there--seems like all you would need).

    I have no idea if this would be hard or easy given the way of creating trees in 4.5, but i think it would be quite a useful feature.

    I'm presuming there is no way to do this currently under 4.5, but someone please correct me if I'm wrong!

    Related, no long grass within the radius of an airport would be interesting as well.

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    Re: Customized airfields

    Quote Originally Posted by BOBC View Post
    I was after using the splines tool to create patches of short grass, I have used Grass runway 20m to flatten the grass in front of my Caffiers dispersal now, see thread
    Splines have the beneficial property of being written onto the map over the top of grasses, so can be used to "mow" grass & created vegetation-less areas. The down-side of spline are that they are just a 2-D texture placed on the map, so it's not possible (at least not at the moment) to use splines to create grass patches. I am well-aware of nifty little objects that would be useful to mission builders, such as flexible runways, patch-objects to place or remove certain map items but these would require code-work & 3-D modelling work to get them into the game. *Perhaps* they might eventuate in the future ?

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    Re: Customized airfields

    Maybe just a spline road 200m x 1000m with oval led ends, to allow a two end point spline section ... easier on my equipment than multiple many-pointed splines.

    Tone the texture down a bit to blend in with the landscape tiles ... lighten the color to a unbleached former wheat-field color. I saw a picture of some LW on a rough field and you could see the wheat straw and stubble still on the ground. For relief, add some machine tracks, just narrow shadows depicting equipment tires (like you get when mowing a lawn) maybe at 3-5m intervals.

    On an unrelated note, how about tarps for covering the glass on static aircraft to keep the glare down.

    Also, how about the flaps being in a relaxed position on static aircraft.

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    Re: Customized airfields

    Quote Originally Posted by ATAG_kiwiflieger View Post
    I've also been wondering about this myself - sometimes you can find good-sized patches of clear fields but they then have those 'ditches' in between them which you can taxi into at a snails' pace and still blow a tyre.
    Having been hanging around the FMB a little over the past few weeks (with an ATAG server mission idea brewing) I'm trying to see if I can create an auxiliary/emergency field that is a decent size and taxi-able all over. Is it possible to somehow 'pave' these areas with airfield-like surface to avoid nosing over into some non-existent ditch?
    You can use "spline roads" in FMB and it might help the surface. I doubt it would cover over a ditch, though--but you could try it and see.

    I successfully made a runway using a spline road on a stretch of beach and it works OK. Some areas nearby were too rough to taxi, however, and my solution was just to move all the spawn points to places I had tested as been smooth enough. So they spawn in, taxi to the nearby runway (made from a spline road, type 40 meter runway), and go. It's basic and I'm sure it wouldn't hold up well to too much traffic--but in this case that is kind of the point.

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    Re: Customized airfields

    HI,
    anyone care to try their hand at creating patches of reduced grass using splines ?
    show results, post the files and .mis ?

    Cheers
    BOBC

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    Re: Customized airfields

    I've got a few 'rough airfields' working in beach areas. This is the only solution I have found for this in 4.5--the only area that is 'tree-free' enough to allow a runway.

    I just put a concrete runway along the beach, spawn points right along it (or even ON it) and it seems to work.

    If you aircraft are spawning in the ocean rather than on your spawn points, try moving the airport icon more inland, and keep the spawn points near the edge of the airport circle rather than near the middle (see separate post I just made in this forum on that topic).

    The concrete runway/spline road seems to help both in clearly indicating where it is safe to land and also providing a better surface for take off/landing.

    You have to test and check things carefully because any part of the runway that is underwater won't work well . . .

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    Re: Customized airfields

    [QUOTE=flug;303633]I've got a few 'rough airfields' working in beach areas. This is the only solution I have found for this in 4.5--the only area that is 'tree-free' enough to allow a runway.

    I just put a concrete runway along the beach, spawn points right along it (or even ON it) and it seems to work.



    Yes, I succeeded in making an airfield runway on the beach between Deal and Kingdsdown for a 3 Sptitfire spawn.
    Barraclough

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    Re: Customized airfields

    Quote Originally Posted by flug View Post
    I've got a few 'rough airfields' working in beach areas. This is the only solution I have found for this in 4.5--the only area that is 'tree-free' enough to allow a runway.

    I just put a concrete runway along the beach, spawn points right along it (or even ON it) and it seems to work.

    We are using this on the TWC Mission Server now and it . . . sort of . . . works.

    The problem is that some times the concrete runways are there & visible, and sometimes they aren't. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why or why not. You put them in place in FMB, they look great (you have to SAVE the mission before they become visible, or whenever you change them to update the visibility--but once you do that they show up just fine, you can test them, they show as visible). But once you put them in a multiplayer mission they show up sometimes, and other times they don't.

    If anyone else observes this type of problem, or finds any kind of solution, please let us know!
    Last edited by TWC_Flug; Feb-08-2018 at 00:48.

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    Re: Customized airfields

    Quote Originally Posted by Salmo View Post
    No, but TFS can add new splines to the game. What did you have in mind ?
    It would be interesting to create paved splines of 15 meters of wide for certain taxiway please.
    And create different asphalt splines for taxiway or runway.
    Last edited by Fred901; Jun-14-2018 at 12:27.

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    Re: Customized airfields

    Quote Originally Posted by Fred901 View Post
    It would be interesting to create paved splines of 15 meters of wide for certain taxiway please.
    And create different asphalt splines for taxiway or runway.
    You can in-fact do pretty-much that already. In FMB, just select a concrete runway spline of (say) 20m wide, or perhaps an asphalt roadway & lay it down over the top of the taxiway path. Custom splines shows up in single player missions, but due to a bug, not in multiplayer missions.

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    Re: Customized airfields

    Ok Salmo and thank you for your reply.
    I am redoing english airfields as they were in 1940. Finally, i try !
    Many warhouse are badly positioned on airfields.

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    Re: Customized airfields

    Quote Originally Posted by Fred901 View Post
    Ok Salmo and thank you for your reply.
    I am redoing english airfields as they were in 1940. Finally, i try !
    Many warhouse are badly positioned on airfields.
    Hi Fred901,
    how are you getting on with your accurate RAF airfields 1940 ?

    Have you any we can try out ?

    BOBC

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    Re: Customized airfields

    Hello BOBC,

    Unfortunately, we can not move the buildings already present on the map, just roll with ...

    I’ve already started templates from some English airfields. Tangmere, Westhampnett, Hawkinge, North Weald and Northolt. They’re not finished yet, but they’re moving on...


    I’ll post some screens to the forum soon.

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    Re: Customized airfields

    Hi,

    I hope we can get rid of the totally wrong hangars at Hawkinge and add in Belfast Truss.

    I am going to offer my services and draw up Belfast hangers if someone can then add them in and remove the things that are spoiling the RAF airfields.
    I cannot believe IL2 didnt even look to see whats there and invent something.

    I also have full data on the E pens which also need sorting out bigtime.

    Basic BoB appearance stuff, which they didnt get right.

    BOBC

    Quote Originally Posted by Fred901 View Post
    Hello BOBC,

    Unfortunately, we can not move the buildings already present on the map, just roll with ...

    I’ve already started templates from some English airfields. Tangmere, Westhampnett, Hawkinge, North Weald and Northolt. They’re not finished yet, but they’re moving on...


    I’ll post some screens to the forum soon.

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    Re: Customized airfields

    Hi Fred901,
    how are the corrected RAF airfields progressing ?

    Do we need someone to CAD model the Belfast Truss hangars such as seen at Hawkinge, Duxford etc, the omission of which is not right at all.

    I am keen to help on them if they can be added to the buildings and replace those works of imagination that are where they should be.
    Would need a skinner to skin them.

    Ditto the E pens, which I have studied in depth.

    Both a fundamental sight on a BoB airfield.

    BOBC

    Quote Originally Posted by BOBC View Post
    Hi,

    I hope we can get rid of the totally wrong hangars at Hawkinge and add in Belfast Truss.

    I am going to offer my services and draw up Belfast hangers if someone can then add them in and remove the things that are spoiling the RAF airfields.
    I cannot believe IL2 didnt even look to see whats there and invent something.

    I also have full data on the E pens which also need sorting out bigtime.

    Basic BoB appearance stuff, which they didnt get right.

    BOBC

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