creating scenery with the phoenix rc creator program

Transcription

TUTORIAL 1
CREATING SCENERY WITH THE PHOENIX RC CREATOR PROGRAM
This document is copyrighted to the author and may only be reproduced or copied with the author’s
consent. It is free for distribution on any public forum as long as the author is quoted.
I would like to credit the following people for their contribution to some of the information contained
in this document:
Harald Bendschneider,
http://www.szenerien.de/
His numerous Youtube video’s proved to be indispensable. The tutorial on creating an alpha mask is
effectively how Harald taught me to do it.
The “Master” of scenery in Phoenix RC in my mind; whom I had the privilege of being a student off.
Danke, Harald!
Detlef Jacobi,
http://phoenix-sim-szenerien.de/
His tutorials are what got me started in designing scenery for Phoenix.
His website has invaluable information on getting started and one of the best descriptions on how to
set up the photographic side of a scenery creation.
GIMP is available for free download from
http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
PTgui is available as a trial or payware here:
http://www.ptgui.com/download.html
Pano2VR is available trial and payware from here:
http://gardengnomesoftware.com/pano2vr_download.php
Phoenix RC Creator is available here:
http://www.phoenix-sim.com/downloads.asp
Phoenix RC Simulator is available as demo here:
http://www.phoenix-sim.com/demo.asp
This tutorial will take you through some basic steps in using the Creator program of Phoenix RC
simulator, to create scenery that can be used in the Phoenix RC simulator.
Quick tutorial on the use of Phoenix RC’s Creator by Coenie vd Merwe – March 2013
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This tutorial is part one of three. You should have worked through at least tutorial one with the
option of using two if required. The tutorials cover the following:
TUTORIAL 1:
Creating scenery with the Phoenix RC Creator program
TUTORIAL 2:
Creating a cubemap and cube faces for use in Phoenix RC
TUTORIAL 3:
Creating an alpha mask for use in Phoenix RC scenery design
This document should be read in conjunction with the tutorial that comes with Creator. I do not
want to repeat everything it contains and this document will hopefully serve to better illustrate what
they say and touch on a few points which they missed. So please have that document handy as well.
THE BASICS:
Select “File”, “New” and “Flying site”
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Change “Images” drop box to “+X” (from “-X”)
Click on the “Auto” box and navigate to the folder where you saved your cube faces:
Select the first image and click OK
Creator will take a while to load the image into the screen as a back ground image.
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Zoom out with the mouse wheel to its maximum to get a good view of your area:
Click on “Collision” on the left hand side menu. You will now see a grid appear on the floor of your
scenery:
Note the two icons in the screen on your image. The Distance Helper is used to measure distance
from the fixed point it is currently located. I have not yet figures this out well or it were not well
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designed. You can only move it in two axis and may need to guess a bit when you move it to an off.
Axis object since you will change the values on both as you adjust it.
The other one is “Pano Orientation”. Under no circumstance will I advise you use this. The
movement of it can seriously affect orientation. Leave it as is.
In Creator you will have two main controls to direct scale and orientation. You can use “Shift” to
bring up the controls that direct scale, or “ctrl” to bring up the orientation tool.
The circles will move the object on the axis indicated and the lines with the block will be dragged to
increase or decrease scale of an object.
Shift will bring up size scaling tool
Ctrl will bring up orientation tool
Highlight the appropriate axis by placing the mouse over it till it change colour, then left click it and
drag the squares or move the circles. When pulling on the squares to change size try to pull equally
between red and blue until you can see it. If you place the object off the grid, you may need to also
raise it with the green arrow before it will be visible.
To begin we need to first define a crash plane.
Click on “plane” button in top menu move you mouse to the grid on your design window. You should
see a red cross. Place it where required and press left mouse button to place the first plane. In the
top right you will have the object menu where you can define what the material that plane is made
off.
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You will now also see a third icon that is called “New plane”. I suggest that you give each item you
will place a unique name to ensure that you can always get back to it without a problem.
My sample contains a pano that is not perfect. So my horizon and the crash plane do not match up.
To correct this I need to get the green plane to meet my horizon line. I do this by pressing “ctrl” and
rotating the plane on the desired axis. You do this by moving the mouse to highlight the blue or red
or green line in the icon globe, and then dragging it with the mouse to make it move:
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Note that due to my less than accurate pano image I do not have a straight horizon. If I want to
correct this I will need to add additional planes that each touch the horizon until it is covered all
around.
Bear in mind that the tilt you give the crash plane on any axis will affect the scale of the plane in
Phoenix RC. With the plane tilted way up (i.e. above the horizon) you will have a model that appears
to be driving uphill into your scenery. With it tilted down, the model will appear to be going downhill
and reduce in size way too soon.
Once of the first tests to do is to run a plane on the ground in your scenery and see if it reduce in size
realistically as you drive away from yourself. Keep it on the ground since the slope of the crash plane
will have no effect on any plane in the sky.
In order to export this to Phoenix you will have to do the following as a bare minimum:
Create start positions: You do this by clicking on the left strip menu on “Positions”, then “New”
button on the top menu. Now click in your scenery where you want to have the plane start.
A new icon will appear. Now at the top, change the name in the middle window to read “default 1”,
then select “Fixed wing” from the drop down menu next to it. Check that the new icon that you
created in the scenery now also is called “default 1” “Fixed wing”
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It is important to name these positions “default 1” etc. Note the space after default as the scenery
will not compile without it. You can add more positions by calling them default 2 etc. For you other
positions you can select “Helicopter” etc., retaining the naming format described.
Add lighting by clicking on “Lighting” on the left menu. If you look down in your scenery (drag down
with mouse), you will see a silver ball. This ball does not affect any of the lighting settings. It is used
purely to show the effect of the position of the sun and the hue that you select it to cast.
You can drag it to where the plane will be in the start position if you want.
Now drag upward in the pano view and you will find the “sun” icon. You move this by pushing on the
blue and red arrows. You will also see that in moving these you can cause the sun to appear to move
away or closer. Play around with this for effect. The most important thing is to place the sun position
where the sun is in your photograph. This will ensure that the shadows appear realistic.
You are ready to start testing your crash plane. Select “File” and Save and call it a unique name.
Now click “File” and “Export”. Input the name you want in the blocks with a description if required:
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Press export. If everything to this point were done correctly, it should export scenery and come back
to the top screen of Creator.
You can now open Phoenix RC and select your scenery from the “Flying Site” menu. Your cubemap
will still cause the display window of the scenery to be just white or black as we still need to adjust
the cubemap once we are all done.
Test the distance of the aircraft on the ground driving away in all directions. Once satisfied you can
proceed to the adding of scenery, if not, you need to go back to Creator and adjust the plane or add
more until the display in Phoenix RC is realistic.
ADDING CRASH OBJECTS:
In Creator you can add various crash objects:
Plane: the defining crash plane. This is in effect the ground under your feet that you define in terms
of height, slope and material through the plane object
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Sphere: this is a round (sphere) object that you can use to place against objects casting a roundish
silhouette, like a tree against the horizon:
You will use these in various sizes to cover up the object where you need to define crash objects.
Here is a sample of the same scenery when it was done, showing the use of spheres to create a crash
surface on the tree above:
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To place a sphere, click on the sphere button at the top and then click within your grid on the
ground. I find it much easier to create my objects in the grid and then move them out as you can
easily place an object miles away in Creator if you aim outside the grid.
Once the object is placed, rename it.
Now hold down “shift” and move you mouse to highlight the blue or red leg with the block on it:
As you start to pull on the red or blue block the object will start to increase in size. Since a sphere
will be equal in size on the X and Z axis, you can use either. On something like a cube, you will see
that the object can be shaped to show depth or not by alternating between the two axis.
Once you have some size on it, release “shift” and pull it up by the green arrow, making sure that
your mouse highlight the green line before clicking it. This is an important habit to get into since you
will need it when you work on multiple items all overlapping each other and you need to be sure you
change the correct item.
IMPORTANT: it is important to note at this time that Creator do not have an undo function. If you
mess up you need to fix it and if you cannot fix it you will need to start over. One way of getting
around this is to use the “Create restore point” function under the “Tools” menu at the top. At least
then you can return to the restore point if you cannot fix any errors.
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SECOND IMPORTANT ISSUE: Do not start to place any crash objects until you are 100% satisfied that
your “plane” crash field is done. Any item placed at the desired distance will be moved the moment
you tilt your “plane” in any way. So make sure the plane is set and realistic in Phoenix RC before you
proceed with adding items.
Drag the green arrow up to raise the sphere:
You are now ready to place it at the distance it is required. You can use Google Earth to measure the
distance from viewer to the objects. In my image it translates to roughly 120m. By moving the
distance helper to the position and looking at the axis, I have moved it to a point roughly 120m
away.
Now we need to exit this view since it is the most misleading view when it comes to distance. You
can switch views by pressing space bar. Always switch your view to the overview view when you
need to place something at distance. A good habit would be to zoom into the area where the item
need to go as you will be able to see the pano view in the small window at the top. Orientate
yourself then in the overview view and making adjustments to have the item covering the picture
part in the pano as well.
Overview looks like this once you have right clicked in it and dragged it around a bit. You can zoom
out by mouse roller. You will note that we are some distance away from the distance helper,
indicating that we need to move that sphere.
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You move the sphere by grabbing the arrows and moving it in that direction, switching between
arrows to make it move in the desired direction. Once it is at the distance helper, check its size as
the distance would have now reduced it. Increase it with the “Shift” key if required. Move it UP with
the green arrow if required. It needs to be over the distance helper and cover the part of the tree it
was intended for:
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In the sphere menu at the right, you can select if the object need to be Drawn or Visible. “Draw” will
draw it as an object in Phoenix RC that will block out the model and it will cast the objects flying over
its shadow onto it. Unchecking it will remove the shadow effect and it will be see through. It will
remain crashable if flown into. Visible will remove the red sphere in the design screen if it is maybe
in the way of something you design behind or in front of it and the colour is obstructive.
You can also change the “Material”. I still need to explore this but it would appear that all of these
crash to pieces. You cannot have a model just sticking into an object without going to shreds. There
do appear to be a difference between concrete and foliage though as you crash more sever against
concrete than foliage.
Once the object is in place, save your work and export again. Test fly it in Phoenix seeking to have
the plane crash into the object realistically. You need to check for scale in distance and in where the
debris fall. Once you crash into it, check if your debris actually ends UP on the ground directly
underneath the object. Remember that the “plane” object would influence this as well. Once
crashing realistically you can proceed to place additional objects on that tree at the same distance to
cover all crash areas. Once done it looks like above.
It is critical to get the distance on the first object right as this will aid placing all the other objects.
You can create a cube or a cylinder in this way as well:
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Note that on the pole and cube you can also use the green block with “shift” depressed. This will
increase its height.
A habit to get into is to always switch to the overview look to check distance. You do this by pressing
“spacebar”. This puts you directly over the area like this:
Now right click and drag in the screen to activate the navigation function. At the same time, start to
zoom out with the mouse wheel. Rotate the view by pressing the right mouse button until you have
a good view of what is it that you need to look at:
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Also note how you can retain normal view in the small window at the top left. When working on an
area it is good practice to first move to the are you are going to work on in the normal pano view,
and then to switch to the overview view with spacebar. This way you can also look at the real time
placement of the object. Most of the time, because we create the items close by, the item will
decrease in size as we move it away. Sometimes even requiring that you increase its elevation again
with the green arrow. So always try and work in the two windows to ensure you can save some time
by not having to go back and correct after you switch views again.
A common problem you will have later on is to work with lots of objects together. This can
sometimes be a challenge to try and pick the exact object you need to work on. Here is a sample of
what it can look like:
If this is your only view option you need to be able to pick the right thing first time. Remember there
is no undo function. So if you move the wrong thing you will need to move it back to exactly the right
place. So you just doubled your time required to complete your scenery. To make sure you grab the
right thing, move your mouse over the area where you need to work. You will note that there are
circles that get highlighted as you move across the items:
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Notice the light circle that I outlined with the green dots above. That tells me that if I now left click,
the object selected will be that one. As you click it you can check to the right in the object
description box to see if the name matches the object you are looking for. Another reason to start
naming the objects uniquely from the start to ensure easy identification later on. If you lost track
here for instance you can create a lot of problems for yourself:
But always remember to also zoom out and move around as sometimes a view like this can create a
lot more perspective of what you need to do:
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Where an object’s colour in the screen is detracting from detail, you can switch off. It displaying its
shape in the window by unchecking the “visible” button on the object description box at the right:
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Skyline objects as described earlier are used to usually outline far off horizon silhouettes:
The limitations of these are that you cannot add points to trace an object like the tree that bulges
after starting on a slim trunk:
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You can only apply a skyline to an object like the one above by cover the main part of it, thus
extending past the slim part of it, or covering the slim part and having the main part not covered.
Since the planes are fixed to the bottom not even twisting them will work. So the best is to build a
tree like this from spheres and cylinders and then put a skyline over it if you want to add alpha mask.
Here is what you can do to make it reasonably realistic without alpha mask:
To start a skyline, move the view to the area where you want to add the skyline. Make sure you start
at the left end of the area as you will not be able to add to or move the starting point without
affecting all the other points. If you want to start the skyline to the left of the left most tree, do not
start tracing to the right of the tree thinking that you will come back and just move it.
Now select “skyline” at the top and place the first left mouse click in the direction of the start point
but in the grid. This is to make sure the image display when in the pano view. Now release the
mouse button and move the mouse UP to start drawing a straight line UP:
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This is the left edge of your skyline. The next move is to click the second position on the ground
plane again and at exactly the same distance as the first one. This will draw a red line from top to
bottom. Now move the mouse UP again after releasing left button and the first square will appear:
This is the basic movement for creating the plane. Now since the horizon is not a straight line, we
will move our tops to follow it like this:
Remember that this is not placed at the right distance yet. As mentioned, it helps when you already
placed a crash object that you have confirmed the distance of. If I knew that this skyline was where
the crash object was placed, I just need to ensure that this is placed in line with it. To do this you will
need to work out what works for you. For me it works well to do the following:
-
Start the basic shape with one or two points.
Switch to the overview view
While watching you actions in the small window at the top left, start to drag the first point
back to the point where you think it should be.
Come back for the second point and do the same
Now switch back to pano view and select each top point. When highlighted, drag it to the
desired height
Once the first two points are where you think they should be, export it to Phoenix and fly
towards it to check distance.
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-
If distance is realistic (you can also measure it with the distance helper), continue from the
right to add the other points
From the above you can see how I am taking each point that is too close by and dragging it back.
Make sure you select the bottom point before dragging. Also note that things will look quite messed
UP in the small window. This should give you an idea why we place skyline with the overview view
and not the pano view. You lose distance scale completely in the pano view. Once you have all the
bottom points back to the distance, the picture will reappear and you can then just reduce o
increase the top points to make it follow the contour again:
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Only try to move a point if it is highlighted by moving the mouse over it. If you click anywhere else
you will create the next point at the right where you ended and a red line will jump at you. If this
happen just click “delete” on the keyboard to delete the last point added.
If you do move any point in the pano view mode, ALWAYS go back to the overview view and check if
it is still correct. A change like this may look placed correctly, but look like this in overview:
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Corrected is should display not twisted like above but all in one line. This is easily messed UP if you
only view in pano view and move skyline objects.
Now test it again in Phoenix to check distance.
You can use other objects like cylinders to create poles and tree trunks. Cubes can be used for walls
or crates or the like. I have not yet used “area” or “material” option.
“skyline”, “h-map” and “marker” are used for something else and we will get to them later.
A height map (h-map button) is used to create uneven ground effect with rolling hills or valleys. This
is apparently a rather tricky thing to do and I have to date luckily only worked on flat areas where I
could get away with planes only. After defining the height map plane, you use the mouse to raise the
floor. Pressing shift will move the floor down if you mouse over it. Harald has an excellent video on
Youtube demonstrating the use of height maps very well. Just search Youtube for “harald phoenix
rc” to reach his excellent video tutorials.
Skyline is used to define the objects against the horizon. You can use it to create a crash “wall” when
you hit the horizon object and also to occlude the model when you fly behind it. The skyline will also
form the “canvas” that you will paint your alpha map against when you apply such.
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ACCURATELY USING THE DISTANCE HELPER:
The distance helper work in two axis only in terms of movement and reporting distance. The
distance scale of the distance helper is given in centimeters.
Here you can see how the Red arrow reports a distance of 23677cm (or 236.77m) and the blue
arrow 8711cm (or 87.11m). The plus and minus is not too important as we will use the distance
irrespective of a negative or positive value.
Taking the Red and Blue value to zero we can see that we end up in the middle of the grid which also
constitute the eye level point in our scenery. So when you measure any distance in Google Earth
(GE), make sure to select the point from where you photo were taken as the start point.
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I am now going to explain how you can check the distance of any object that you placed. I will use
the sphere we placed already. I mentioned that a GE measurement showed the distance to be
roughly 120m. For the ease of showing the effect I am leaving the distance helper slightly to the side
to show the explanation:
We see here that we have a distance of 8757 and 8133.
If we were to plot these distances on a graph with an X and Y axis we can say that it should look
something like this:
So we need to determine if a straight line from the blue point to our position (0,0) covers the
distance required (120m).
For this you use simple Pythagorean trigonometry which states that the square of the X axis plus the
square of the Y axis would be our line distance squared. Mathematically we are saying:
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http://www.mathsisfun.com/pythagoras.html
So we can see that the length of C will give us our answer:
Substituting this into our formula gives us:
87*87 + 81*81 = 7569 + 6561
=14130
Square root of 14130 gives us 119
So we are in a straight line 119m away from it, which mean that if we corrected for the slight off to
the side position we have above, it is pretty much 120m away. All fine on this one!
You can use this to test any object on your design.
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creating scenery with the phoenix rc creator program

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