"Is virtual cockpit panel texture"

[decapod]

This is probably more a question for Arno, although I think I may be answering it in the asking...

Having written an FSX exporter, I'm hitting a small problem with the VC texture mapping being upside down (or is that the right way up as ImageTool inverts the file)

I have noticed that if you use 24bit (R8G8B8) DDS files as textures the mapping is also upside down.

In the material editor for 3DS and gMax there is an option
"Is virtual cockpit panel texture " and yet there is no corresponding flag in the .X output file.

I think I have come to the conclusion that this is just a flag for the X file creation to not invert the texture mapping.
I'm presuming that the $*** VC texture is also a 24bit format when it is created at runtime.

Unfortunately I can't easily test this theory - can anyone confirm this by exporting a standard model/scenery with this flag set?

[arno]

Hi Paul,

I do not know the answer to this directly, but I'll try to take a look at it later (when my jetlag is gone).

[n4gix]

I believe that you are correct. All textures beginning with the prefix $ are "autogenerated" by FS at runtime in memory. There are no "real" bitmaps required (except for modeling purposes of course).

The "Is virtual cockpit panel texture" flag is not exported to the .X file as you've noticed. I suspect that when ACES coded the exporter module, they decided to use that flag to either replace or supplement the $ flag.

Unless ACES has recoded the VC system, the memory bitmap created is actually dithered 8bit format, if I recall my discussions with ACES some years ago.

[FelixFFDS]

Interesting - when working with FSDS, we have to make the $panel texture do a little rotate dance ....

[decapod]

I eventually got around to changing my exporter program and can confirm it works.
The V part of the UV value is inverted before exporting when I set this flag and the VC displays correctly - as do 24bit non VC textures.

I can finally finish off the true FSX version of my BA Swallow. I have already released two variants for FS9 at www.classicbritishfiles.com