[Info] Making an Airbase

[[R-DEV]Rhino]

Hey guys,

Going to quickly post down the basic information you need on modelling an airbase in the new system as per this highlight post: http://www.realitymod.com/forum/f196...n-airbase.html

First its important that you read this post fully to understand the advantages of the new airbase system and to see how its used: http://www.realitymod.com/forum/f196...n-airbase.html

Before I go any further, one thing to note is that while I'm using the Falklands runways as for a few examples for this tutorial, they are technically not the new airbase system. This is because the Falklands uses Mesh terrain and because of this, I was able to build the runways directly into the terrain mesh itself, rather than making it a road that sat on top of the terrain. How ever to make the Falklands runways, I still used the same basic textures (although with a few minor format differences etc) and the same basic techniques to make them, but it isn't a "road" that is sitting on top of the terrain like the Camp Bastion Airbase.

Main points for anyone modelling these to remember:

Airbase Layout
When designing your airbase layout, you should try and base your runway layout on a realistic layout, even if your making a fictional map with a functional airbase, just to keep the airbase looking, feeling and behaving realistically. You can do a few things differently if you feel it will help gameplay but its best to keep things as realistic as possible, with the only thing you can't do realistically for the most point is keeping the scale of the real runway, as runways in PR are much smaller due to our map sizes. Simply search on google images/google maps etc for airbases, using terms like RAF and USAF etc and just looking at layouts, perhaps noting down bits of each one or better still, picking one to go off and perhaps making a few alterations, or if your making a map based on a real area, find as much as you can about the airbase in that location and make it.
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en...55747&t=h&z=15

Taxiways
When doing your taxiways its important to ensure they can't be used as "mini runways" as this just looks retarded and brakes immersion and enables jets to get up in the air more quickly than they would otherwise be possible. Instead you should try to think of ways in your airbase design to try and stop the taxiways being used as a runway. Having a short taxiway system is the simplest route, if the taxiway is too short then it can't be used as a runway since the jet can't get enough speed to get into the air. Putting obstacles in the way at the end of the taxiway is also another good method, as jets don't want to slam into a big flood light at the end when taking off, but if the taxiway is long enough the jet can possibly climb over or serve away from this obstacles at the last second. Its important thou not to put too many near the runway in an unrealistic fashion as this could impact jets using the runway correctly in an unrealistic manner. Twists and turns in a long taxiway system also help with braking it up but not a perfect solution either. There is no one solution to this problem, but something you need to keep in mind all the time.
For Camp Bastion luckily there wasn't much of a taxiway system to be used as a runway, so it was pretty simple to ensure it couldn't be used as a runway.
For the Falklands for the Argentinian airbase (BAM Rio Grande) There also wasn't much of a taxiway system, but still just enough to potentially be exploited so I put lots of flood lights up, repair stations, fences and drainage pipes about to ensure that one, the taxiway system had to be used and two, anyone trying to use it as a runway would smash into one of these obstacles.

Runway Length
On runway Length, you should aim for a ~800m runway minimum for fast jets. The longer you can make your runway the better but measure out the area on your map to ensure its going to fit in well, a ~1000m runway is really an ideal length if you have the space and even longer will ensure that even the worse pilots have a good chance at landing on it. Also keep in mind the runway length needs to be in line with the grid size of the concrete blocks. For example you can't have a 750m runway with an 8m grid square without your last grid square not being able to fit fully on the runway and 1/4 of it having to be chopped off the end, looking odd.

Grid Size
Each grid square should be 8x8m, with every texture tile containing 3x3 grid squares, so each texture tile should be 24x24m. While you can technically have a different grid setup, its inadvisable. When UVing the texture to your airbase, its really a simple matter of calculating how many tiles you need. For example if you have a 800m runway, and your working on a 8m grid square, with each texture tile having 3 grids in it, with each tile being 24m, then 800 / 24 = 33.3333 tiles, which basically = 33 tiles and 1 grid block from the 34th tile. Also keep in mind however that the max amount of times you can tile a texture in BF2 is 16 (although technically 32 if you start your tiling at -16, -16 going to +16, +16) so you may need to cut your model up so you can brake the UV tiles at some point, but that isn't really much of a problem if you know how to do that and how to move your UVs correctly.

Runway/Taxiway Markings
All markings on the runway should be modeled into the runway itself, then to have for example a white runway line or a yellow taxiway line, you simply UV thous lines onto that part of your colour texture that is white or yellow.

To make curved markings like taxiway lines, your best off in most cases using the Line Spline tool, and setting it up to render in viewport, in rectangle mode with a width of 0.5m (for a taxiway line, others may need to be different widths) and then its very important to set it up to "Generate Mapping Cords" in "Real-World Map Sizes" as this will really help with UVing later. Then its just a matter of placing down the spline and getting it with nice smooth corners etc but ensuring its low poly at the same time. If you haven't used splines before I suggest looking into tuts on them. Early WIP pic of Bastion's taxiway lines:

Then its a matter of converting them all to editable poly when they are done, deleting all but the top face and welding them all together and to the airbase then when it comes to UVing, UVing all of them to its own part of the colour texture that's yellow or will be yellow, or w/e other colour it needs to be.
Letters/Numbers can be done though the Text Spline tool, and the closest font I could find to the end numbers was "Agency FB Bold" with an Interpolation of 0. But keep in mind that you will need to do quite a lot of fixing up poly wise as the ngons the shape produces will screw up quite badly normally without any love. Its also important these end numbers match the degrees on the map they are placed on, otherwise if pilots try to use them realistically, they won't line up with the runway

For more information on realistic markings, please look though this PDF here which contains lots of information about sizes, distances and placement of markings: http://realitymodfiles.com/rhino/tut..._3_260_05a.pdf

Textures
Here are all the textures you need but they are the property of the Project Reality Mod and are not for use in any other mods/games/titles without my ([R-DEV]Rhino) personal permission.
Download: http://realitymodfiles.com/rhino/tut...s_30-06-12.rar
Instructions: Unzip into your /mods/pr_edit/ folder.

Colour Textures
This is one place where these airbases differ quite considerably from other statics, where I've designed them to have there own, unique colour texture for each one. This is mainly down to being able to paint on some basic dirt onto the airbase so you can get a sense/feel of where the planes are often rolling over, leaving behind a bit of rubber behind making that area of the runway/taxiway darker from the very edges etc where they never/hardly touch. Here is Camp Bastion's Airbase Colour texture:

On its own it probably doesn't make a lot of sense to most people but if we look at the airbase in UV mode you can see how it works:

As many of you will probably see it technically isn't a very optimized UV but this is to ensure no seams in the colour texture. Also note all the bits in the bottom right are the side UVs if your wondering what they are and the UVs onto the yellow in the top left are the Taxiway lines / other yellow markings and the white next to it is the Runway lines / other white markings.
If we look at just the colour texture on from a distance we can see how this works out:

With the detail enabled like ingame its only a very subtile difference that most players probably wont even notice, but it make it look right to the subconscious and without it, the runway would look very, very bland:

This dirt can't effectively be done by the dirt layer so its best to do this dirt via the colour texture, leaving the dirt layer for hard skid marks and oil spills etc.
Basically all you need to do is UV your airbase as effectively as you can onto a sheet and then paint it like the above. Since a map is only going to have one, possibly two airbases in it, each one having its own unique colour texture isn't a massive deal.

Dirt
Roads unfortunately can't have a dirt texture like normal statics can. However it is still possible to do them by exporting them as there own "road", then attaching the dirt as a child object to the airbase road, 0.1m under the runway surface and it will act excatly like a normal bit of dirt would on a static.

The dirt is best used for things like Tyre skid marks, oil spills etc. You should use the standard airbase_dirt.dds for the texture, the airbase_di.dds is for objects using the dirt in the dirt channel, like the Falklands airbase since they are done slightly different, as mentioned above. They are basically the same texture, expect the airbase_dirt.dds dose its dirt though the alpha channel, where the airbase_di.dds dose its dirst though how dark the texture is, with the white bits being transparent.

In the texture you have two types of skid marks, you can use them as you please but your best off stretching them a little and on the bottom you've got 8 types of oil stains / dirt marks you can put on the plane stands and other areas you feel can use them
Basically as mentioned above, you need to make them as a separate object so to show you how the dirt looks in max, using the airbase_di.dds so you can see them more clearly, here is the dirt model on its own:

And here it is over the runway (ignore the zfighting):

Material wise you need to set it up with the airbase_dirt.dds in the colour channel, and the null_di.dds texture in the detail channel (with a dummy UV for ch2) and the material can be any name it likes (the folder you export it too will determine how its used).

Model Depth
I would advise on making the airbase have a 1m depth, although it won't be 1m above the surface of the terrain, this 1m depth is just to ensure flexibility in terrain movement around the airfield, with the mapping being able to do dips etc without a hole appearing under the runways foundation. The runway will in fact only be 0.05m (5cm) above the surface, by having an anchor in the code of "ObjectTemplate.anchor 0/-0.05/0", but the foundation is still good and dose no harm to the performance etc.

Collision Meshes
Since this is a 3D model it needs a col mesh, which you make like any other col mesh for any other static and for the most part is a basic clone of the airbase but removing all of the marking polys from it, unless you need to assign a new material to any of them but the entire airbase should be a concrete material and for col0, should look something a bit like this:

col1 and col2 need a ramp round the edge, with on col1 the ramp being still concrete, but on col2 the ramp needs to be stairs_concrete so players can easily climb up/down it. Make sure col1 doesn't have the stair mat otherwise vehicles will behave very strangely on it.

LODs
Encase there is any confusion, these airbases do not need any lods, just lod0 is perfectly fine.

Exporting
The exporting part of this is rather simple, very much like a normal static so if your confused at all about exporting, please read the exporting part of this tutorial here: http://www.realitymod.com/forum/f189...structure.html

Spoiler for Static Export Tut:

Step 6: Exporting

Before you can start this stage you need the BF2 Max Tools installed into 3DsMax9 (needs to be Max9, not 2009, not 2010, Max9, although Max8 (not 2008 ) is ok too but not as good as Max9) I would strongly advise you get the POE2 Max Tools as they are much better than the standard BF2 Max Tools, which I will be using in this tutorial and you can download them from here: PoE2 3DsMax Tools v0.30a

When you have them installed (and 3DsMax restarted) go to BF2 > Export


The Export window will popup and in the top right hand corner of it will be a small button called "Run Setup", click that.


A new window will popup and in it, we need to define a bunch of settings. The output directory is to what modification all your exports get exported to, I would advise you to export to PR_EDIT but export to w/e mod you like, but export to the "bf2" or "pr" mod at your own risk. I have filled out in it: C:/Program Files (x86)/EA GAMES/Battlefield 2/mods/pr_edit/ Thou this will most likley be different on your PC since I'm on a 64bit system, hence the "Program Files (x86)" in the file path and you might have your BF2 installed onto a different hard drive than C: or in a different location. All in all, its best to just browse to the mod folder and select it by clicking the Browse button

In section 2 you need to list all the mods you might be using textures etc out of, so in my list I have:

/rawData/
/mods/bf2/
/mods/poe2/
/mods/pr/
/mods/pr_edit/
/mods/usidev/
/mods/eod_dev/
/mods/bfp2_edit/

Thou you can include as many mods as you like etc. The first 2 lines, /rawData/ and /mods/bf2/ are 100% critical, as well as a bunch of others if you are exporting to pr / pr_edit.

Your settings should look like this by then end:


Now your exporter is setup and everything should be good for exporting and with any luck you wont need to do this again, unless you reinstall etc



We have now reached the stage where are model is almost ready to go ingame but before it can, there is a few little things we need to do.

First, unhide all your lod and cols so you get something like this:


Now select your LOD0 and go to your Hierarchy tab and click on affect pivot only, and then click on the button "Center Pivot to Object". This will show you where the very centre of your object is and for now I would only use that as a reference as I like to keep everything on the grid. As we can see for my shed, its needs to come 1m down and go forward by about 0.5m.


So I'm going to undo that pivot change I just did, select all my lods and cols and then move them 1m down and 0.5m forwards to centre them to the grid like so.


Now with all objects selected, go back to your Hierarchy tab, click on "Affect Pivot Only" and then in your X, Y, Z boxs at the bottom type in 0,0,0 (make sure the offset box isn't checked and your move type is view) and your pivot for all your objects will move to the very centre of your scene.


Now select your LOD0 and rename it to "garden_shed01". Then select that and all your cols and and your LOD0 model you just renamed to "garden_shed01" and with them selected, go to the BF2 > Utilities and a new window will pop up.


In that new window, in the top right hand corner under Wizards will be a button called "StaticMesh", push it and it will setup the basic export structure for your staticmesh


If you push "H" you should now see this (make sure the "Display Subtree" button is checked). This is the basic export structure of a staticmesh, although now we are going to make it a little more complicated


Push the "H" key and select the helper called "lod0" (not the object LOD0_garden_shed01, although you shouldn't have one called that any more).


Clone it as a copy and call it "lod1" (note, not "lod01"), repeat this until you have get to lod5.


Now select your "LOD1_garden_shed01" object and then click the button "Select and Link" button in the top left hand corner, right of the Redo button:


then hit the "H" key, select the "lod1" helper object and click the link button to link your LOD1 mesh to the lod1 helper


Then select the "Select Object" button which its icon is the mouse cursor ("Q" button for short) and press the "H" button and you will now see that your "LOD1_garden_shed01" is now linked to your "lod1" helper like so


Repeat this cycle for all the rest of the lods, linking them to there correct helpers until they are all done like so (note, you need to go back to "select object" mode after linking an object in order to link a new one, and dont do anything other than linking in link object mode).


Now our static is ready for export. With any part of the static selected, go to BF2 > Export


The export window will pop up and there are a few boxes that need to be filled out.

First box called "Objects sub-folder path" is the location you want to export the object to, in the case of this static I want to export it to "\staticobjects\pr\russia\" so I put that in (without the quotes).

Next option is the "Objects Name", which is what the object will be called when we export it. It should already be defined as "garden_shed01" if you have done everything right which it is for me although it if aint, you can change it to that or w/e name you like for a static object it will be fine, for more complicated exports like vehicles etc, the name of the object and the mesh names in the max scene gets a little bit more complicated.

Under that you have a few options, leave them unchecked.

Under that you have a little "StaticMesh" area, with a drop down box and under it a check box called "Custom Lightmap UVs (No Samples)". Leave that box unchecked and the drop down box is all we are concerned about about here. This drop down box basically defines the size of how big the top lightmap is generated at when "Final lightmaps" are crated. The default setting is "Auto" but you really should never put it on Auto as its really bad and you should define the size of the lightmap on the size and complexity of the object itself. For a really large object like an apartment building you will want to use a 1024x1024 lightmap, in very rare cases, possibly also 2048x2048 but that is seriously pushing the limit, for a small prop, 32x32 or even 16x16 might do it. Since this static is pretty much and medium complexity (for its size) I would go with a 128x128 lightmap for this, possibly a 256x256 lightmap but we will first try a 128x128 lightmap and see how we go so select the 128 lightmap size in the drop down box, then the other options are not relevant to us so when your ready, hit the export button and it should only take a few secs to export this and when its done you should have a new "garden_shed01" folder in your \objects\staticobjects\pr\russia\ folder which then should have a .con file in it and a mesh folder, with the mesh folder having a .staticmesh and a .collisionmesh, as well as a bunch of .samp files


Once exported, load up the editor and you should be able to find your static in the place you exported it to


And although the static might look ready it still needs some work yet before its totally finished.

The only key differences here is that you don't have any lods other than lod0 and your exporting path, for the main runway itself you need to export it to "\roads\staticsnoblend\pr\airbases\" and for the dirt part you need to export it to "\roads\statics\pr\airbases\". It is critical you export these into the correct folders otherwise they will not work as intended as the shaders are defined by what folder the object is in, not by the mesh itself and these airbases will only work correctly with the correct shaders.
Another key difference I forgot to mention is that when naming your runway object, you need to add a suffix to the lod0 mesh of "__Bundle", so for example for my camp bastion runway mine is "camp_bastion_airbase_pt1__Bundle". Note you don't need to do this for the dirt bits, just the main runway object(s). Your hierarchy should look something like this, note that I have my main runway and helicopter runway as separate objects which is why there are two main runway parts and two dirt parts for Camp Bastion:

Coding
Main things you need to add in the coding is the col meshes materials, which for concrete should be material 78 and for stairs_concrete should be material 34. On top of that you need to add the anchor of, note, X and Z you can change to w/e but Y is important to be -0.05, or something around there so it snaps 0.05m above the terrain when a mapper places it, that keep in mind is assuming the object's pivot is in line with the top surface of the runway:

ObjectTemplate.anchor 0/-0.05/0

Next you need to add the dirt in by simply adding into the tweak file:

rem -------------------------------------
ObjectTemplate.addTemplate *name of the dirt object*
ObjectTemplate.setPosition 0/-0.1/0
rem -------------------------------------

Also you need to add supply objects for jet/helicopter resupply and repair, which is done though coding supply objects, which is fairly simple of just adding in the following code in the .tweak file:

rem -------------------------------------
ObjectTemplate.addTemplate *object name*_SupplyObject_*Type and number*
ObjectTemplate.setPosition *x/y/z*
rem -------------------------------------

ObjectTemplate.create SupplyObject *object name*_SupplyObject_*Type and number*
ObjectTemplate.modifiedByUser "*Your Name*"
ObjectTemplate.createdInEditor 1
ObjectTemplate.floaterMod 0
ObjectTemplate.hasMobilePhysics 0
ObjectTemplate.radius *in meters*
ObjectTemplate.workOnSoldiers 0
ObjectTemplate.workOnVehicles 1
ObjectTemplate.healSpeed 1
ObjectTemplate.refillAmmoSpeed 2
ObjectTemplate.teamFromClosestCP 1
ObjectTemplate.addVehicleType *define number, 2 = Jets, 3 = Choppers, 5 = Jets & Choppers, 0 = Land, 1 = Sea and 4 = All*

You can also add multiple ones of the same type just by adding the same object multiple times in different locations, noting the Camp Bastion Supply object code here, you can see Jets02 is added multiple times in different locations:

Spoiler for Camp Bastion Pt1 .tweak:

ObjectTemplate.addTemplate camp_bastion_airbase_pt1_SupplyObject_Jets01
ObjectTemplate.setPosition -110/1/-300
ObjectTemplate.addTemplate camp_bastion_airbase_pt1_SupplyObject_Jets02
ObjectTemplate.setPosition -112/0/-334
ObjectTemplate.addTemplate camp_bastion_airbase_pt1_SupplyObject_Jets02
ObjectTemplate.setPosition -112/0/-364
ObjectTemplate.addTemplate camp_bastion_airbase_pt1_SupplyObject_Jets02
ObjectTemplate.setPosition -112/0/-394
ObjectTemplate.addTemplate camp_bastion_airbase_pt1_SupplyObject_Jets02
ObjectTemplate.setPosition -112/0/-424
rem -------------------------------------

ObjectTemplate.create SupplyObject camp_bastion_airbase_pt1_SupplyObject_Jets01
ObjectTemplate.modifiedByUser "Edmund Fovargue"
ObjectTemplate.createdInEditor 1
ObjectTemplate.floaterMod 0
ObjectTemplate.hasMobilePhysics 0
ObjectTemplate.radius 20
ObjectTemplate.workOnSoldiers 0
ObjectTemplate.workOnVehicles 1
ObjectTemplate.healSpeed 1
ObjectTemplate.refillAmmoSpeed 2
ObjectTemplate.teamFromClosestCP 1
ObjectTemplate.addVehicleType 2

ObjectTemplate.create SupplyObject camp_bastion_airbase_pt1_SupplyObject_Jets02
ObjectTemplate.modifiedByUser "Edmund Fovargue"
ObjectTemplate.createdInEditor 1
ObjectTemplate.floaterMod 0
ObjectTemplate.hasMobilePhysics 0
ObjectTemplate.radius 15
ObjectTemplate.workOnSoldiers 0
ObjectTemplate.workOnVehicles 1
ObjectTemplate.healSpeed 1
ObjectTemplate.refillAmmoSpeed 2
ObjectTemplate.teamFromClosestCP 1
ObjectTemplate.addVehicleType 2

You should also mark out the supply locations and post it publicly with your map info post so everyone can see where they can reload, as well as putting your supply objects in sensible, realistic locations where planes/choppers would reload in r/l and not "vbf2 style in the middle of the runway".

Shaders
Providing you have exported the objects into the correct paths as above and have used the correct textures as stated in this topic, the shaders should do the rest. However the shaders in the current v0.973 release of PR are not the correct shaders for these airbases to work properly. However in the next major PR update they will be in and they should work perfectly fine. Until then, they might look a bit odd ingame and won't show up to the full View Distance (VD) like they do in my screenshot examples.

Mapper Notes
Mappers using these runways in there map should note that when you come to save your "Complied Colour/Detail Textures", you should delete/hide the airbases from your map otherwise they will be baked into the surface of your map's colour texture, which isn't needed once the new shaders are in and working but until then, its best you bake them in so you can see the runway at a distance, but not for the final release of the map.



I hope this helps, any questions please post below.

[Grober]

Can u upload textures?

[[R-DEV]Rhino]

They are uploaded and link/info is in the Textures bit, about 1/4 the way down.

[Grober]

I cannot download them.

[lucky.BOY]

Thanks for the info, its much appreciated

[[R-DEV]Rhino]

Originally Posted by Grober

I cannot download them.

I think the RMF server is down right now, try again later.

[[R-DEV]Rhino]

Originally Posted by Stemplus

Hello Rhino,

I really like the Camp Bastion airbase system, and I would like to add it to my map. The problem is that in the tutorial about it there are many parts about making colision meshes and other wierd things, that I don't understand since I am not a modeler. So, if it's possible, could you upload a file that would be the finished airbase that I could add onto my map just like every other static? I would be really thankful since normal airbases are quite.. boring

Anyone looking into getting this new airbase system into there maps who can't model should then quickly design a layout in paint or w/e and then look into recruiting a modeller to make the airbase for them.

@Stemplus, the only airbase model that has been made so far is the Camp Bastion airbase and that's only for maps in Southern Afghanistan, with Camp Bastion in it (ie, Sangin).

In time hopefully someone will make a generic airbase model that can be used on multiple maps but right now and for the foreseeable future, I'm far too busy to do it myself.

[Stemplus]

@Rhino

My map is located near the Afghanistan-Iran border, so it is South-west afghanistan So, can I get it or should I ask my fellow modeller to model it for me?

[[R-DEV]Rhino]

Originally Posted by Stemplus

@Rhino

My map is located near the Afghanistan-Iran border, so it is South-west afghanistan So, can I get it or should I ask my fellow modeller to model it for me?

Your map desc says your map is located near Herat, which is NW Afghanistan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herat

Also Bastion is quite far away from the Iran border, Helmand Province isn't even on its border.
Google Maps

As such I can't see any reason why it should be in your map

Your best off making a concept for an airbase (or two) then getting someone to model them for you, as per this tut.

Also the airfield design you have on your concept: http://i45.tinypic.com/xm1tn5.jpg

I would scrap that design. Having two runways isn't needed for a start and isn't realistic (as in having two pointing in the same direction). You also have loads of taxiways with that concept that could be used for taking off / landing etc. I would really look into re-designing your concept before getting anyone to model it, with keeping the notes in this tut on the runway length, layout etc in mind when doing so.

[Outlawz7]

Also keep in mind however that the max amount of times you can tile a texture in BF2 is 16

Really? Because we have objects in PR that have UV tiling over 2000 *cough*