Ground and Building textures Mod thread

Ok, since almost everyone is busy in creating more and more and more and more Aircrafts and flyable mods:unsure: (which imho is getting boring real quick since we got so many Aircrafts allready), I decided to work on some stuff since DCS Caucasus is kinda "dead", not much going on on the ground, Airbases still look very lifeless, and many textures look in my opinion very veryyy old. No One is really working on new Ground objects, or a mod to make them look way better then before.

All standard Airbases got worse in my opinion in DCS 2.5, we only got one texture for a whole Airfield including taxi rollout and runway. Anyway I'll be always thankfull what ED did with 2.5

Enough Talk, I'll post some before and after screens so you can see what i've done so far, i'll update this thread so we don't need a new one for each texture or finished building. I've used some edm models from 1.5 that I'm using for DCS 2.5, otherwise it would be impossible.

Lets go..:mobile:

Old Tech Shelter

New Tech Shelter...

There are a few excellent mods out there that you can use to enhance existing airfields and towns, coupled with the facility to remove structures, objects and trees, you can virtually replace a whole airfield and start again if you are prepared to do the work, it is very time consuming.

I have changed 6 of what I consider the best airfields on the new Caucasus Map to suit what I want from the game, the rest I have just blocked to stop them being used as diversions etc.

I recommend the VP Buildings and Airfield Mod, that is the best there is out there and worth every minute of the time he put into making it. You can also add on numerous vehicles and other stuff.

Here are three of my NATO airfields, not real, not meant to be anything other than what they are, an invention.

I created these using existing buildings from DCS 1.5, my own textures, and all those other wonderful Mods out there, some of which I have changed to suit my own purpose and keep the mods in my game down to small manageable sizes, so I am never going to release this as a mod, its not allowed.

One word of caution, the more stuff you add the longer it takes to load up, my completed map is a VERY slow loader, even on my top end machine, but its fun to fly on.

Hi there does your building mod work perfectly with the latest version of DCS ??

Will you be uploading these files for sharing ?

Where in south west England are you based ?

Sorry so many questions

Yes, perfectly

No (Not allowed)

On the western edge of Dartmoor National Park.

When I say not allowed what I mean is its made up from just about every other Mod out there and I would need permission from all of the owners to use their models and skins, many of which I have butchered to suit my own needs.

One of the owners is dead and another two have made it clear that their work is not to be reissued, its for private use only. I have to respect that.

What I am showing you is what can be done with the latest Caucasus Map if you gather all the Mods around you that are out there, use the new facilities the game has to remove things, and add on your own stuff to create what you want.

You can get the old edm files for the buildings from an old 1.5 version of the game, its all in the bazar folder, which you can modify to your hearts content.

PS: I did issue a large collection of buildings Mod when 2.1 came out but there was no interest in that at the time and lots of it stopped working after 2.5, so I deleted that and started again about 8 months ago. What you see is 8 months work, and I am always trying out new Mods etc, its all part of the fun of the game for me.

Beautiful hangars Eddie!

Yes Eddie, i got all the packs, Rangers, Virpil VPC.. created my own textures for old 1.5 models, using trigger zones to erase Objects and so on.. building some crazy Airbases right now. I don't worry bout loading time at all, nothing got more Objects then Las Vegas..

More News: New Western style Military Staff and New Military office building, also as you can see i'm working on new Road textures..the Crossroad is still the old texture. Try to figure out how to change the main Taxiway texture a lil bit also, it's all located in crackmask.zip...anyway enjoy

The runway and Taxi way textures are inside the Caucasus maps files in the in game Mods folder (not in the Saved Games Mods). Somewhere in vfstextures I think.

I have tried altering some of those files but I end up with a black texture every time, no idea why that is happening yet. I think my software is not up to the job, its a very old version of PhotoImpact.

You are on the right track there mate, just keep experimenting with the skins and you can make any building into something else, its great fun.

Are there links to any of these mods specifically the mods that re-texture existing buildings?

I'm working on it @M0ltar, all work in progress. Found a way to edit the "Standard Airbases" Taxi, rollout and runway, sadly there're only 2 main layers, and then 3 layers on top of it, the 2 mainlayers decide how the main texture will look. Sadly, 1 main layer covers the complete taxiway and runway... the other is for rollout, and the ground where Vehicles are parked.

You need to stay in DXT5, mipmaps on if you edit those tif files. Crackmask.zip, fabric.zip, dirtmask.zip is where the files are located, in fabric.zip fabric.afb_concrete02.tif.dds is the main layer for "Standard Airbases".

I'm really looking forward to this pack being released. I'm watching this closely

Damn dude incredibly well done textures, Looking forward for the release with impatience

@ED : maybe you could set this texture pack to be default in dcs.

(If modder will agree of course)

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

(Standard) Airbase and Taxiway Texture update, Western style

Thanks for all your support, I would like to encourage everybody to post textures or ideas in here, hope hawkeye will see this, he wanted to create a pack with Taxiway signs, since they're only available on Civil Airports like Batumi etc..

It will take a while but i'm slowly gettin' there. Thing is, the trees I use are from old DCS 1.5, new textures are only for summer right now. The Buildings models, (not many) are also from DCS 1.5, so ED need to grand me sone rights if I (we) could release this as an official Mod. Need your help guys..

More News, with only 2 layers of main textures to cover the whole Airfield, thats the best I can do..Western style....I hope ED will create more textures (like back in DCS 1.5) :photo::yay:

Thanks for all your support, I would like to encourage everybody to post textures or ideas in here, hope hawkeye will see this, he wanted to create a pack with Taxiway signs, since they're only available on Civil Airports like Batumi etc..

I HAVE seen this and do apologize for not finishing this mod for you.

Life happens.......

This has been corrected.

New post, and link, here,

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=3550782#post3550782

I'm working on it @M0ltar, all work in progress. Found a way to edit the "Standard Airbases" Taxi, rollout and runway, sadly there're only 2 main layers, and then 3 layers on top of it, the 2 mainlayers decide how the main texture will look. Sadly, 1 main layer covers the complete taxiway and runway... the other is for rollout, and the ground where Vehicles are parked.

 

 

You need to stay in DXT5, mipmaps on if you edit those tif files. Crackmask.zip, fabric.zip, dirtmask.zip is where the files are located, in fabric.zip fabric.afb_concrete02.tif.dds is the main layer for "Standard Airbases".

Im ready for it! Cant wait!

Which terrain textures are you using?

cant' wait for this mod to be completd.

May I suggest that OP and Mustang join together for a great 2.5 mod???????

+1

Is there any way to extend the tarmac on the airports, to add additional taxiways?

You could theoretically create a runway texture file and place it on a map but it would have to be placed on a completely flat section of map, and those areas are as rare as hens teeth on the current maps.

So while possible, I doubt you could make it useable for a taxiway, the aircraft would probably explode, or the wheels collapse, or it would stick in the mud because it did not recognise that bit of map as being a taxiway

That has been my experience of trying to do that.

A flatten function like in other sims would be great. I want to build my own airport layout.

Ghost is it possible to change the texture of the 4by helipad to desert terrain

A flatten function like in other sims would be great. I want to build my own airport layout.

I feel you want payerne.

I do :)

@hawkeye60 thanks, when you got time we could change a few things, not much.. but it's good to have you around, you're the only one i know so far who can create 3D models.

@mustang afiak i got your terrain installed.

@muehlema noway, i wish but ED would need to give us the code which is impossible. Remember there's grass everywhere, you cannot erase grass. I retextured the Basketball field from 1.5 and put this into the building mod folder, from air it looks good, but real close there's grass everywhere on the field which means that Grass will not exist or "grow" on allready placed objects on the map, every object that we place inside the ME will have grass underneath it. So it's not possible to create new taxiways and airfields, plus you would need to write a code about the new taxiways so every Aircraft need to know where it can go and so and and so on.

I will post a little update tommorow. And a list what my goal is. I hope ED will grant me the right to use some of there old models from 1.5.. cause without it will be a very small mod. If someone can create 3D buildings please hit me up.. Thanks, lets make it happen.

How about writing an how to if you can’t upload the file that way your able to pass it on.

What I would like to see is way to yarn water I. To land or build level man made island then be able to place static and ground vehicles to it.

@BlacleyCole sorry, if you can find the helipad texture inside the vfxtextures folder inside the Caucasus folder then yes it's possible to change it into a desert texture. You wanne build an island?? I guess then you need to join a big team who develope new maps with completely new scenerys. Like I sayed what i do right here is try to make a few more objects available inside the ME and create and change some textures to make it all look a bit more western style, and better quality overall.

I'm bored of flyable mods and more and more planes coming out.. even with the planes available right now I'm overhelmed. I just hope that more guys will work on ground objects, scenerys.