SimCity Aviation Group

[pilotdaryl 25]

Duvad: Ok, once again, thanks for the info.  I'm sure Skyliner will fix his Qantas tail.

skyliner: Turkish Airlines?  All I can say is--that looks perfect!!!  Also, I've been doing some work modifying your Alitalia skin, so as to create a new tail texture from scratch, and modify the fuselage texture.  Now I've been having trouble with the engines: See below

threeswept: So you are going to be working on some automata skins?  Welcome to the team--and good luck.

hawkpride: Yes, American Airlines will most likely be made as it is also one of the largest in the world.

skyliner: lol, so you do not like North American airlines because they have horrible service.  Oh really?  I also don't know how to get the shiny silvery American fuselage.

Amerikaner: Oh lol--yes Skyliner's really working it!

threeswept: So you've made a new Iberia livery--looking nice.  If you send the textures to me, I will be able to remove those black parts on the engine and wing.  And also--about the graphic and writing in backward, the game mirrors the automata textures so the text may appear backwards.  This is a known bug to automata modding.

hawkpride: You're quite right, American is the largest.  And Southwest is growing, despite operating over 50 Boeing 737s.

bourneid: That looks nice!  supla007 already made an Etihad I think but that still looks nice.  If you could make complete wing textures with the flaps--that would be great!  I would create a wing texture sometime only I have almost no idea how.  Thanks!

skyliner: So you replied for me while I was gone for the night huh?

skyliner: LAN?  All I can say is WHOA now that looks niiice!  Good work!  Wow--look at all the airlines you've made!  You really are working fast...

Kumba: Colourful indeed huh?

droopie: Ok, I'll take Austrian Airlines in mind when working on the 777.  This 777 will be part of a jetway lot, although I may make a plain parking lot or lots with planes taxiing and all that.

bokrif: They are available as SimCity models and props on the SimCity4 Devotion site.  I couldn't find them when skyliner asked where they were but I'm sure they're there.

droopie: ^^They are publicly available, but I couldn't find them so I may have to agree with you.

Anyways, I have been working on the Alitalia 777, including redoing the tail and the fuselage textures:

Yes, the overbrightened engine problem is a problem I am currently trying to fix.  However, my concern on the port engine is that the text on it is just screwed up.  It gets inverted or something.  That is a problem I don't know about, so if there is any help, I'll need it.

skyliner: Didn't see you reply there, but the Air Tahiti Nui looks great!

And if anyone knows what airline livery I'm currently working on, its Air France.

EDIT: here is a closeup on the port engine:

I've done what I could.  No matter what I do, the text still appears screwed up.  I don't know what is happening.  Note the brightness problem has been fixed.

[threeswept 12]

pilotdaryl...

Sure, why not try working on some of the automata. It's all very crude at the moment for me, but I'm sure I'll get better with some more time and hopefully a litle faster with it, too. Again, this was my very first try out the door. I guess, it's totally unfortunate about the writing being mirrored. That sucks and I've always wondered why things were always backward in game. 

So, do I understand correctly that there are plans to incorporate lots just for the taxiways and aprons? Would those of us using the LE be able to drop in our choice of planes? Or, would they be fixed to set liveries? In the LE I use the jet "effect" so that the automata planes appear/disappear on the taxiways and apron for more realistic "movement" of planes around the airport. And, I've placed other fixed plane props on lots so that they appear parked or in queue for take-off amongst the appearing/disappearing planes.

Alitalia looks great! For whatever reason, it seems to be one of my favourite...however boring...design graphics.

skyliner22...

Air Tahiti looks fantastic...just incredibly super! I came across some really fantastic looking livery graphics last night that could be awesome, too. Some were concepts and others have been produced...they seemed to be mostly from smaller regional airlines. I don't recall the names now since I'm at work. But, if you'd like the names, I can pass them on to you to take a look at.

[xiziz 11]

Originally posted by: pilotdaryl

I've done what I could.  No matter what I do, the text still appears screwed up.  I don't know what is happening.  Note the brightness problem has been fixed.quote>

That looks like a mirroring error, IE, you have used the wrong techniqe to mirror the engine from one side to the other. im supprosed Voltaire didnt fix it.

What you will need to do is delete that engine, and clone & mirror the other one again using the "modifiers->parametric deformers->mirror", not the two other ways. i was having the same problem on my Tu-22m3, but Voltare gave me that fix and it worked for me, so try that out.

That is id the problem is that the texture is messed up, it wont work if its just the UW-map thats misplaced, try setting a checker texture on it and making a testrender, if the checkers come out alright theres some problem with the texture or the UW-maps.

Cheers

[pilotdaryl 25]

threeswept: I have been working on automata (including an A320 automata model) however am not working on any of that as of now to concentrate more on my 777.  The mirrored writing probably cannot be fixed.  That is only one of the known automata bugs.

So--yes, there are plans to incorporate lots to place 777s on taxiways and apron parking spaces.  Well--either I make a bunch of lots for that or make two prop-family lots.  That's why I am still thinking of any taxiway lots, due to menu overcrowding issues.

Xiziz: Thanks for the tip!  Now I know how there can be 3 ways to mirror objects and some of them can cause errors.  Thanks to your tip, the Alitalia 777 is now looking great:

Now I will apply the other skins skyliner made onto the 777s and make other necessary modifications.

[pilotdaryl 25]

Page flip

[xiziz 11]

Originally posted by: pilotdaryl

Xiziz: Thanks for the tip!  Now I know how there can be 3 ways to mirror objects and some of them can cause errors.  Thanks to your tip, the Alitalia 777 is now looking greatquote>

Aye, indeed it is, still want to se some textures on the wings, horizontal stabilzers and i think the engines still need a little darkening.

On the mirroring techniques, id recomend only to use the one i just shwed you in parametric deferomers, the other cause errors, one 100% of the time the other 70% of the time. might work better on square objects, but for shaped objects its simply easier to do it this way.

[Thorin 0]

Alitalia and Air Tahiti are fantastic!

[hawkpride147 1]

skyliner: i didnt demand an AA livery...i asked for it. im sorry if it came across that way.

also, if anyone has modding experience, would it be possible to mod a single jetway to have a certain daily capacity so the airports could actually function?...like a large jetway would have something around 1000-1500 daily capacity. it would greatly enhance the realism and as you need more capacity, you simply add more gates, just like in RL. basically modding the jetway to be a small airport. same with the walkway gates.

[bourneid 13]

I see that skyliner has a going list of textures going.... is that the list he is doing... or is there a master list of planned, requested paints...  where I can carve out my workload.. no sense duplicating work if not needed... 

I will work on tonight, the wings... see if I can get a good fit and send the layers to you...

has anyone else worked on the wing texture... already have the placement right...?

[skyliner22 16]

Oh that list is just of my own doing, so you can do other liveries that are not on there, just doing it so there wont be multiple things like Etihad.

Well i wont work on anymore today, gotta tone down the speed! Pilotdaryl thats a great touch up on Alitalia, cant wait to see the others!

[pilotdaryl 25]

Xiziz: Thanks, and I don't think the engines need any darkening--its supposed to be white.  And for the mirroring technique, thanks for the tip.

Thorin: Thanks.  There will be more of that soon.

hawkpride: Demand an AA livery?  skyliner does have his opinions on some American airlines, but for one he cannot get the shiny, silvery AA fuselage colour.  Most likely, supla007 will be on to that.  And, as for your idea about capacity per jetway, I think the idea is great!  Rather than having some normal airport capacity, why not set a funding slider for the jetway--well--a set capacity would work, but a funding slider would not.  The set capacity would depend on the capacity of the aircraft

bourneid: If you will be working on the wing and elevator textures, that would be great!  Thanks for your help.  I do not know what markings to make on a wing texture.  Just make sure when you make a wing texture to have the background separate, so as to be able to change colour.  You can send me wing textures in the original .PSD format.  Thanks, and good luck.

skyliner: Once again, you replied just before I posted, but thanks for the reply.  I will make necessary modifications to the other liveries you sent me.

Here's another update:

Once again, the original livery was made by skyliner.  It didn't take that long to modify this livery.  If anyone wants to know, changes include: New tail, relocated the word "Malaysia" and Malaysian flag, added "Visit Malaysia Year 2007" on the fuselage, applied correct colours to the wing, elevator, center tank, and engines.

More to come

[xiziz 11]

sorry to bust the idea on the functional jetway, but unless you want to have a road up to the front of every jetway, its not possible, and the fact that the game cannot have more than 20(i belive this is the correct number) airports in one city tile, having more will cause the problems, though lots with functionality are under works by AC, basicly im just waiting for some models and a weekend to sit and mod them.

Sorry to be the bringer of bad news

[bourneid 13]

Alright, did some testing with the wing texture....  one issue is how it is set up... with the stabs, engines, and wings... these objects are mirrored of each other...  

this causes a problem when texturing them... the scrambled issue I belive others are having... the best way to go about is it rather then sharing the textures... you have each of these have their own texture ID... ie a new material or such...

leftwing= 773leftwing.psd   rightwing= 773rightwing.psd  and so on...

gmax is trying to mirror the texture for one wing, one engine onto the other side and it causes it to scramble...  as in this picture:

if there is a way to make separate maps for the parts it would make it alot easier to texture them....

here is the wing texture I made....

[pilotdaryl 25]

Xiziz: Not glad to hear that--looks like we'll have to think of another way to get functional airports.

bourneid: The wing texture is looking somewhat good, although the mirror problem can be fixed.

Anyways, as for another update for today, this livery will be one of the best in the lineup.  Coming from the creator's homeplace, presentiiiiiiiiing--

(DRUMROLL)

Straight out of the factory line--

(FANFARE!)

IIIIIITS PHILIPPINE AIRLINES!!!  Among the first of the Philippine Airline planes presented on Simtropolis, the livery was originally made by skyliner22.  The changes I made were: slightly modifying the world "Philippines" on the fuselage, and creating a new tail texture.  Yes, thats it!  I had played around with the colours to make the aircraft slightly bluish to appear more uniform.  And the tail texture was somewhat more complex so it was a bit harder.  I ended up changing it back, deciding it was more uniform this way.

More modifications on Skyliner's skins to come!  Then a preview of my Air France.

Comments and feedback are welcome.

[threeswept 12]

Wow...these are looking fantastic! It's really awesome to see such great talent and progress.

I, however, am still tooling around and should've worked on this more in the dark rather than a sunny evening. Aside from the obvious colour line between the fore area and the main cabin, I couldn't really see due to sunlight and didn't match the colouring for the rear cabin and completely oversized the rear exit. All of the above can be easily fixed later.

Pilotdaryl...The dark tips that appear on the wings, the tail and the engines...is this due to me not placing colour further out??? Before I send on the textures, I thought I'd tidy it up as much as possible.

EDITED: To save bandwidth.

[Amerikaner 42]

AIR FRANCE YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY im in love LOLOL i cant wait to see it my friend...good job on those other airplanes too...yall are like on crack whipping out all these wonderful liverys

[jimmy92233 0]

Cool Planes!

[skyliner22 16]

Hmm i may take a crack at American but it most likely will end up grey. Also i was thinking of doing United's old livery as i see it way more than the new one at SFO! Great job on the touch ups, PAL and Malaysia look phenomenol. Also what special thing is going on in Malaysia this year? Asia games??

[bourneid 13]

the same has to be done to the engines...  here are some test shots....just to give an idea how I am working this out...

here is the lineup test texture.... 


here are the results of that texture on the engines...



Alright.... did some more testing... the problem discused in another poat about the words no being able to be read on both the inside and the outside of the engine....  I changed the orintation of the template and the size...in photoshop.... here is how it turned out





so right now.... for the wing and engine on the right side of the aircraft I have everything fitting as it should...  the other side will have to be changed as I said earlier...


I should have templates done by tommarrow night for both parts...


EDIT:

alright.. have a layer wing template ready... just need to know where to send the .psd file



the black outline is for refrence... you turn that off when you save...

[pilotdaryl 25]

threeswept: The actual problem with the black outlines is due to the lack of an alpha map.  If you send your textures to me I'll be able to create an alpha map and realign any textures if necessary.

Amerikaner: I am busy with skyliner's other liveries, but I will try to squeeze in some time to work further on the AIr France.  And thanks!

jimmy92233: Thanks!

skyliner: Uh huh--well, I don't think there's anything special going on in Malaysia--but the pictures I've seen have their 'slogan' printed in the rear area of the fuselage.

bourneid: Yes, the backwards text problem on the engine persists on engines with any wording, such as the Alitalia (although the letters are so small you can hardly tell the difference).  The textures will have to be changed somehow.  I'll probably remake the textures so that they are applied on the engines in a manner similar to the fuselage textures.  And the wing is looking great!

Coming up next: Turkish Airlines

Update soon!

[bourneid 13]

I have already changed the template so that it will line up right in the engine... displaying the wording as it should be...... as you can see in the thumbnail renders... 

I will get a template made up tonight for that...   

also.. I sent you the link to the wing tempate by PM.

[sEAhAwk fAn121 0]

yes i would love an AA! my dad used to fly the 777 for them and it would be cool to see the airline sc4

[bourneid 13]

@ Seahawk:
I dont know if anyone else has started on one, but I am messing around with trying to create a good brushed aluminum texture ... and as you can see... I have the logo ready.

though.. to be honest, I kinda have a cheat going on there,... I have a brush set    custum shapes file that has a bunch of airline logos... I will try and package them up.. and post a link for download.

[hyped_up_boy 15]

hey this is looking great! if it's not too much more of a burden upon you guys, would it be possible to include an Air Canada livery? they do use the 777s in their fleet. keep up the good work!

[threeswept 12]

Got it, pilotdaryl...when I have enough free time (maybe at the weekend), I'll tidy up the couple I posted and finish a couple of others I started and send on the textures for you to take a look at.

[pilotdaryl 25]

bourneid: Oh ok--

seahawkfan: I didn't know your that piloted American 777s before.  Thanks!

bourneid: So you are working to create that good aluminum texture?  Nice!  lol--a custom shapes file with a bunch of airline logos--now I would like that

hyped_up_boy: I already made an Air Canada 777 back on page 6.  Well--it was one of the first textures supla007 sent me, so--

threeswept: Ok, I guess that sounds good.  When I have time, I'll release yours and skyliner's automata textures in the third Jets of the Sky pack as a pre-release to the Boeing 777, possibly including a bonus preview on the 777.

Sorry if I wasn't able to work on modifying any liveries yesterday, mainly due to RL.  I'll see what I can do for today--

[hyped_up_boy 15]

oops my bad i've been away for a week and i didn't bother to check a couple of pages back >< can't wait to see how the wings will look when they're finished

[skyliner22 16]

Logos of abunch of Airlines!? I would love those too, im tired of copying and pasting off of wikipedia! =/

[siso43 13]

looks great

[pilotdaryl 25]

hyped_up_boy: Can't wait?  No need to wait anymore because...

skyliner22: Lol--I sometimes copied and pasted logos off Wikipedia too

siso43: Thanks!

After modifying the base colour of the wing texture, I applied it on the 773ER to see if it was compatible.  Here is how it looks:

Not too bright, not too dark.  Anyways--its not the most compatible--but I am still deciding whether to have bourneid make a different texture for the 777-300ER.  What do you think?

Meanwhile--I'm going to start modifying that Turkish Airlines--

EDIT: