Custom Billboards / Sings / Video Screens without any additional tool!

In this guide I will show you how to place custom images and image sequences inside NL2 without using any additional tool.

But in the meanwhile there is some probably much easier way with some very small additional tool: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1997124141

Introduction

In this guide I will show you how you can place any picture / graphics of common file formats (jpg, png) inside NL2 without using any additional software like 3d modeling / texturing tools inside your park.


There are basically four steps and one additional hint that are required and through which I will guide you with detailed pictured instructions to achieve this:

1. Prepare your park directory just to keep things tidied up
   (takes under one minute)
   
2. Create a custom NL2 material using the material editor with the correct settings to display the image file as a texture on an included NL2 model.
   (takes approximately 3 to 5 minutes to do).
   
3. Set up a Scene Object File to use the new material.
   (takes approximately 1 to 3 minutes to do).
   
4. Scale the object to match the image proportions and optionally save the matching
   (takes about 1 minute)

• Finally I have a hint how to reuse your first object to create the next billboards in just 1 minute on all future billboards!

Prepare your Park directory

• First of all you should insert a new directory with a meaningful name inside your park for the billboard pictures and additional files.
  
  
• Then copy the images that you want to use into that directory.
  

Create a Material that uses the image as a texture

• Open the Material Editor
• Create a new material
• Choose the same directory where you put your graphics in as the saving location with a meaningful name
• Switch to the textures tab and select the desired billboard image
• You have to do some additional setups that it works, you don't have to have a clue what this means to make it work, just copy the settings and figures you see in the pictures (take notice of the active tab at the top of the NL2MAT window!)
• Save the changes

Prepare a NL2 Scene Object File that uses the Material

• Open the NL2 SCO Editor
• Browse to the simple target file inside the Libaray under the category demo objects and open it
• Copy the content of the text field 3d model
• Select New to create a new NL2 SCO file and save it with a meaningful name in the same directory as the billboard image and the material
  
• Paste the copied value into the 3d model text field
• Switch to the material tab and press the add button to assign the material we have created in the last section by following the steps that can be seen in the pictures
  
• In the scale tab choose a small z value
• optionally select the billboard image as the preview image for the scene object
  
• Save the changes

Place the object in NL2

• Now place the file inside the Editor:
  
• Figure out a matching x and y scale by trying some values until it fits or calculate them using the image dimension, double click on the object to bring up the window to edit these values!

Optional Improvements for easier scaling in the Editor

• You can also set the scale for the x and y on each object inside the NL2 SCO Editor when you calculated them for example, this simplifies using different scales of the same object in the Editor drastically for example
  
• Press reload while the object is selected in the Editor to apply the changes, you will have to reset the scale of the object to 1, 1, 1 again to make it look correctly again:
  
• Now you can scale the object by just using the same number of x, y and z in the individual object properties inside the Editor

Don't repeat all the steps for the next billboards!

• When you want to use more than one billboard with new images you can just open the old material, all you have to do there is just using another picture and Saving it using a new name.
  
  
• The same holds for the scene object, just open an older one, replace with the new material and optionally set the new scales and preview image before saving it using a new name!

Changes to make it play images sequences (for videos or special effects)

Instead of using a single 2d animation picture you can also add a series of images for video playback or special effects. The only change that is needed is to select the "2D Animation" option when adding you textures and entering the playback speed below:

For turning your object into a simple screen effect that also is bright at night, select a constant color mode (choose a grey value to dim the brightness):

[Popcornrat]

THANK YOU I NEEDED THIS

[RobbinBob]

finally something that i can use as a tv screen this is the best and i dont have to code anything

[Zalixz]

helpfull