Cities at night (WIP)
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Nice going there Eghi…
Just an idea here in general…
Maybe it will not need night tiles? or maybe ease the process of creating them.
since those are photoreal tiles. u can get the street network very easily and it will fit like a glove on those tiles.
From auto cad since u have them already (easy to have and do) u can add points on those splines very very easily it has a function to auto insert them and declare the distance between them. U can export those points only for 3ds. Then as we create the lights for airports u can make the lights for a whole city u can have different colors as I believe and also project light on the underneath tile so it will look way natural. different luminance etc…
That way u don’t have to spend hours on working on the tiles.Also another approach… if u have the whole city in one big file and put above on a layer those points (maybe and the lines and use them to just illuminate a bit the streets) u could (maybe? not sure here) to use a photoshop tool (like alpha?) and declare the brightness as u do by hand those wonderful night tiles. that way it will make your effect in a snap and then cut the tiles day and night and u r ready?
Hmmm having that thought for a long time I thought to pop it up in case it’s doable and maybe easier to create the lighted city.
what do you think? stupid or doable?
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Arty
Of course it is possible, you can make 3D points-light as Objectives.
It could be easier and faster, but whether it will be good for Falcon?
You have to remember about FPS, night lighting is not something necessary and better not impose unimportant things on graphics engine.
Easily and faster is not always better. Better to spend more time … in Photoshop (by hand) IMHO. -
Very nice work EGHI. Jaw dropping effect
Greetings
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OMG before I played the video I thought that was either a real picture or not from the Falcon engine! That is INCREDIBLY amazing work!
HEH,HEH……Ohhhh, yessum’ it is and more.
Thanks Arek…we need to explore Materials Global a bit me thinks
Good work. (You beat me to it…LOL!!!)
Now about Mentaled Ray and PhysX…HMMMMM??? Keep it up!demer
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Arty
Of course it is possible, you can make 3D points-light as Objectives.
It could be easier and faster, but whether it will be good for Falcon?
You have to remember about FPS, night lighting is not something necessary and better not impose unimportant things on graphics engine.
Easily and faster is not always better. Better to spend more time … in Photoshop (by hand) IMHO.sure think I was expecting that… ok let’s forget the 3d which actually is not 3d it is just points that just display a light… anyway.
How about using those lines and points to ease up creating the night tiles in photoshop? I believe u can create automatically the mask based on the points and the lines and use this mask to create the lighted points with a general rule (same settings) and the rest let it be dark. Then by hand u can do alterations and enrich the scene but u will be done with the major quantity way quicker then the all by hand approach. Also u could select some of the points and spread different values or colors to add more variation.
Right? -
just a quick awful example I made for Volos city:
as u can see the roads are the real ones and only the streets are illuminated.
and a quick alteration playing with some colors…
Most of the time was spend on actually placing the roads mask ontop the actual roads.
The actual image size was 16384x16384 pixels.
this is the image I used to create the roads mask (click on it to view it):
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In case someone needs a detailed guide how to please let me know and I will create one.
Basic guide:
1. use qgis and openstreetmap plugin for it (all free)
2. Get the area u want and isolate it. The roads only.
3. export -save this area as DXF. This is an autocad format.
4. From Coreldraw u can open the file and have the roads in a size u like… let’s say as the actual size of the pic u have to create the city tiles.
5. Export the file as png with transparency. That way u will have the roads only exported. If u want previously from exporting u can adjust the thickness of the lines.
6. Open your city photo in photoshop and insert a layer on top and import the png u exported previously.
7. Create a mask or alpha channel whichever best suits for u based on the roads layer.
8. Darken the city to the level u want.
9. play with brightness on the mask or alpha channel u made
10. u r done with the roads.if u want light poles effect based on the lines u can auto create points inside autocad. So open the file there create the points after selecting the lines export the points only and do the previous steps to add and a layer for the light poles.
Yeap a realistic night city in just a few hours in case u want to put some variations afterwards by hand…
In case someone has trouble creating the roads file for a city maybe I can help…
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Arty
You are well on the way…
It may be good for acceleration of work but still lose very important things. This method of matching gives you only grid of streets without the glow of street lamps etc… It is too regular IMHO.
In my spare time I will write here how I do it (an old proven method in FSX) -
hmm well u must mean this glow of street lamps:
and a detail:
Eghi once u have the road network in vector u can do miracles. In a vector program (Corel) u can convert the line to dots and declare the space between them so u have your light poles in a snap, now just duplicate it and u have the two sides of the pole lights on the road, move then so that the street line stays in the middle or just increase the size of the one and decrease the size of the other and you will have a better result. Then in photoshop u just have to feather the mask and have the effect the light poles create. In some GIS data they even have the light poles accurate data… but that’s too much IMO.
As u can see my result is crappy but with some love on lighting and hue saturation maybe some HDR you can have a way realistic result then me.Oh just remembered on those last pics I redone the road network in super high detail… so that makes it 2 night cities in one day? Now if u spend maybe half the time u spend for your miracle on night lighting I believe the outcome will be superb.
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And an one hour video how to do it from scratch.
U need:
1. QGIS (Free)
2. Data for the country for the roads. (Free. Do a Google search like: “OSM data for Greece”, or u can download from OSM the 41GB for the whole planet)
3. Bing map developer account (free, if you have hotmail u just activate the bing account)
4. Unity (3d program like 3ds max, u don’t need it if u have already the tiles)
5. Terrain Composer (unity plugin, u don’t need it if u have already the tiles)
6. World Composer (unity plugin, u don’t need it if u have already the tiles)
7. Corel Draw or autocad if u know how. Corel is easier.
8. Photopaint or PhotoshopU can play around with:
1. Corel to create areas of the city (group of road lines) so to apply different variations of effects.
2. Photoshop and the mask and the light effects to make it more realistic.In case u don’t have the city in one picture u can do it also piece by piece. Just u will have to align the streets on every piece. So better once align the city tiles in one big picture do your magic and then cut it back.
Sorry for some delays in the video but I forgot how to get the roads in QGIS, I had ready long ago a file of Greece… also a delay in Unity where the damn thing didn’t let me select the area for the tiles.
Edit: Now that I think of it more in photoshop u can invert the mask like selecting the buildings area and be even more playful on the effect.
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Arty
Too complicates using too much software IMHO.I’ll give you a small example of one tile from FSX.
This is the original one (day- summer) tile - 038b2su1Here’s the Night
I did my similar technique (as developers FSX scenery) nightly tile for Falcon
It is not perfect, I spent about 5 minutes. (For example)
As you can see, this tile is different from the original, is darker … Why? Because too bright doesn’t looks good in Falcon.Here you have an PSD sample of this tile
http://www.mediafire.com/download/d834dpt1aseg4ju/sample.psd
In this example the last thing what I do is:
-flatten image
-Navigate to - (top bar)Image…Adjustments- Brightness/Contrast … and do it:This is just an example, the base. Similarly as with one tile 1024x1024 you can do with the larger set of tiles …
You only need one software-PS, little patience… and I believe that You will be more happy with the result…Falcon has one small(big!) advantage - you don’t have to do all seasons tiles as in FSX. :bowd:8)
Cheers,
Eghi -
Well looks good but 5 minutes for 2sq km. Make it 8min if u want to give more love. For a city that is 20sq kms or more u need 50 to 80 minutes one by one.
In my video the total time is less. My pc is slow and in the first 20 minutes of it I spent time to figure the actual way.
Also if u already have the tiles that is 20 minutes less.
Last u can create the dxf file for many cities at once and reduce time even more.
Now that I see your approach better one could use:
1. The continuous line just to make the road a bit more illuminated then full dark.
2. A dashed line for the roads and have your variated illuminations and not a continuous same illumination road.
3. A dots line for the roads and have your variated illuminations and not a continuous same illumination road.That way in a single step u create triple variation on the road it’s self.
Steps 2 and 3 can be done for light poles.
Hmmm.
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Come on mate … stop counting the time. What matters is quality not quantity.
And it’s not the same … Automatic vs handjobRegards,
Eghi -
u r very true. What I’m saying is quickly get rid of the typical effects and then spend those 5 minutes to make it even better.
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Very interesting post. Thank you very much for instructions. Indeed what should be illuminated and the streets are not building blocks.
I want to correct POH night textures to achieve an effect as described here.
POH have night textures, but I can improve it.
Thank you for inspiring me.