How do you balance up close vs. distance???

[Vraciu]

Title says it all.   When I do things to make my skins look good up close they don't look right from afar.   Vice versa applies.

I am suspecting based on what I see in here that there is a nice balance.   What is it?  More spec, less bump?   It is an art I am a long way from mastering, but I am all ears.   

[Devil 505]

Make it look right from the pilot's seat, and the rest will fall into place.

[Greebo]

Excessive bump mapping can look a bit weird from the pilot's seat in AH2. The highlights and shadows moving around on the top of the wing as the plane manoeuvres do not look realistic so I keep this effect turned down on AH2 aircraft. AH3's normal mapping does a better job in this regard so I make the effect more visible there. GVs don't tend to roll around so much and have much bigger bumps so the bump mapping effect is much more useful there.

Specular mapping is much more useful for planes, particularly bare metal planes like your P-51s. I can't say I have noticed any reason to adjust this effect for distance though, it works the same up close as further away. It is just a question of how dull you make the painted areas and how shiny the metal areas and that varies from skin to skin. You just have to compare your skin to WW2 photos of similar aircraft and ask yourself if it looks the same.

[Vraciu]

Make it look right from the pilot's seat, and the rest will fall into place.

What about the things you can't see from the cockpit, like, say, cowling panels?

[Vraciu]

Excessive bump mapping can look a bit weird from the pilot's seat in AH2. The highlights and shadows moving around on the top of the wing as the plane manoeuvres do not look realistic so I keep this effect turned down on AH2 aircraft. AH3's normal mapping does a better job in this regard so I make the effect more visible there. GVs don't tend to roll around so much and have much bigger bumps so the bump mapping effect is much more useful there.

Specular mapping is much more useful for planes, particularly bare metal planes like your P-51s. I can't say I have noticed any reason to adjust this effect for distance though, it works the same up close as further away. It is just a question of how dull you make the painted areas and how shiny the metal areas and that varies from skin to skin. You just have to compare your skin to WW2 photos of similar aircraft and ask yourself if it looks the same.

I tend to lean toward Spec Mapping as well now.   Esp. for flush panel lines and skin joints.   I guess how it looks to the guy shooting at you isn't quite as important as what it looks like inside the airplane.   The shadow shifting is definitely a nuisance.

[Devil 505]

What about the things you can't see from the cockpit, like, say, cowling panels?

Base everything off the wings. make the wings look correct, use the same settings on the rest of the plane, and presto.

[Vraciu]

Base everything off the wings. make the wings look correct, use the same settings on the rest of the plane, and presto.

If I had stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night I could have figured that out myself.   Duh.  LOL!    Makes perfect sense.   I will give it a shot.

[Vraciu]

I put the aileron fairings on as a bumped item.   Hoping it looks good from the cockpit for those using higher resolution.

Should I be bumping the aileron and elevator trim tabs?   Or perhaps the gaps?   How do you guys deal with these items?

[Devil 505]

Looks good. Just bump map the gap between the trim tab and the aileron.

[Vraciu]

Looks good. Just bump map the gap between the trim tab and the aileron.

Roger.  Thanks as always.

[hunganh3004]

Tks bác nhiều nhiều ạ! E đang cần món này.

[Vraciu]

Tks bác nhiều nhiều ạ! E đang cần món này.

  

[Vraciu]

So now I am in the final stages of this Pony....

On my NMF wings I can somewhat camouflage the hexagonal properties of the wing surface as seen from the cockpit.  Throw some invasion stripes on it and HOLY MOLY it looks so bad....    Just fake and not smooth at *ALL*.

Is this my video setting or just the nature of the beast?

Any tricks to hide this effect?

[Devil 505]

Nature of the beast, I'm afraid.

[Vraciu]

Nature of the beast, I'm afraid.