Suggestion on Billboards

[ahanix1989]

This always annoyed me, because it seems to take away the realism...

I get bothered when people release billboard mods, and it's just a dead center, bright red, wrongly scaled "COCA COLA".

Just a couple suggestions

1) Scale it properly. The logo for a product doesn't normally stretch to all four edges of the billboard in real life

2) Billboards are, generally, an outdoor-type item... so make them look outdoor. Bright red isn't appropriate. A subdued red with some brown is more appropriate, because it makes it look more like it's being exposed to the elements.

I dunno, just my two cents.

[Slayer]

Yeah, those billboard texture mods are mostly made by noobs who have found a guide how to use TXD worskhop and then scale images in MS Paint. If you want a good billboard mod, you should make one yourself.

See, billboards are extremely easy to mod, it's just a flat image. So many noobs want to say that they've made a mod and go for it, but forget they don't know how to edit simple images. On the other hand, all a bit experienced texturers won't even bother modding something that easy. If they do, it's only for special and private purposes, like when making videos or such.

[Chris]

Yeah, you have the right idea. Billboards are the easiest thing to modify in a GTA game, all you have to do is replace a texture. Often, little or no thought is put into how it fits in with the game, so websites like this one end up with crappy mods submitted to them. (I assume you were referring to some you've found here anyway).

Do you make mods yourself?

[Yellowcard]

When I started modding, the billboard was the first thing I practiced on... So respect the billboards and make a good use of them, noobs!

[ahanix1989]

I occasionally try to make mods, but I don't have any design skills, so I can never figure out what to make...

I used to find a lot of glaring billboards at codenamegta*, but after playing San Andreas, I came here and noticed some more billboards. If I find a proper way to make them look more 'outdoor', I'll try making a Photoshop guide.

Sec, creating a quick example

(Hmm, mappers aren't Vista-compatible, this may take a little longer)

Edited December 31, 2006 by ahanix1989

[ahanix1989]

Ok, done. Turns out it was modifying the LV billboards.

Here's some PNG images (to preserve quality), demonstrating that simply adding a little 'dirt' can make the billboards look more realistic, as well as not taking a 4:3 image and scaling it to 2:1

Since these are PNG, they are quite large... and 1280x768 is the only widescreen resolution my monitor supports.

An improperly scaled, stock image (686KB)

Scale it better, add some 'dirt' (807KB)

Same, but closer up (1411KB)