Sketchup Window Tranparency and Night Texture for FSX

[mbscjohnp]

In SketchUp, I made a terminal with seating and a coffee shop, etc inside. On the outside and inside of the front wall, I created windows by drawing squares on the outside wall. The window "squares" are blank before "painting", so they should be "default". I "painted" both the inside and outside of the "windows" with translucent_glass_green_dark. I exported the terminal and imported it into Model Converter X. I attempted to locate translucent_glass_green_dark in MCX to set a night texture for this "glass", but I cannot locate it in MCX, nor can I create an _LM for this glass. How do I obtain a copy of this "texture" to create and _LM and why is it not showing up in MCX to be manipulated? If this "translucent" glass cannot be used for FSX with night texture, is there another that I can use?

 

[Pyscen]

Hello,...

When you exported the model to MCX,... Did the Windows appear correctly in MCX? or how did they appear as?

 

[=rk=]

In order to provide a night texture, you have to assign a day texture. "translucent_glass_green_dark" is a color, it is not a texture. It might be beneficial to study the nature of colored polygons and why textures are a preferred method for coloring polygons in many cases. In order to proceed, you might try creating a .jpg file that is green like translucent_glass_green_dark. In MCX you can assign transparency, as well as a night texture. If you are able to create .png files, that format supports transparency that is rendered in the MCX window. At that point you will have to switch to a format that is compatible with FSX, but it is another route and an excellent way to preserve the wonderful transparency of the native SketchUp fence image tiles, for example.

 

[mbscjohnp]

Rick, thanks for the reply. when I previously utilized the default Sketchup "color" (translucent_glass_green_dark) MCX displayed the "windows" without color, but when finally placed into FSX, the windows were greenish and transparent, but, of course, were dark at night.
I created a .png file as you suggested with RGB 62,91,5 which is the "color" reported in SketchUp for translucent_glass_green_dark. I imported that texture into SketchUp and "painted" the 6x4 ft squares, inside and outside, drawn on the terminal front wall. I exported the project and imported it into MCX. I manipulated the .png file into an _LM and placed it into the exported texture folder. In MCX, I selected the texture and set the night texture and, at the top, selected "transparency". MCX reported the acceptance of the night texture, but nothing about "transparency". The view in MCX of the "windows" remained as solid colored green, and not transparent. Exporting the .mdl and placing the textures and obtaining the .bgl and setting the project into FSX resulted in green windows that glow at night, but are not transparent. Apparently I did not understand how to set "transparency" in MCX for the .png file, or any "transparency" was lost when I had to convert the .png file to .bmp to be accepted in FSX. Any further thoughts, or instructions would be appreciated. John

Doug, thanks also and the answer is the windows appeared green, but not transparent. The same as they did after applying Rick's suggestion. I thought about making a window component to attach to the wall, but that did not give a transparent result either. Apparently this can be done and perhaps not in SketchUp. unless I did not follow Rick's instructions about setting transparency correctly.

 

[=rk=]

You want to try the material editor attribute template:

 

[mbscjohnp]

Rick: Sorry if I was not clear enough in my reply to you, above: "In MCX, I selected the texture and set the night texture and, at the top, selected "transparency". MCX reported the acceptance of the night texture, but nothing about "transparency"."

In the MCX Material Editor, the "made" .png texture showed up and I selected it. I selected the attribute "Set Default Transparent" and clicked "Apply". In the listing, I noted that "Alpha Test" settings had changed (Function to "Greater", Level to "128", and Z-test to "TRUE") but nothing happened in the lower "report" section of the Material Editor, so I continued and selected the attribute "Night Texture" and navigated to the location of the _LM that I had created and clicked "Apply" and, in the lower "report" section of the Material Editor it reported acceptance of the night texture and both the original texture and the _LM annotated texture were present as textures. I did not consider if FSX would accept a .png file and I wonder if previously changing it to .bmp, or .dds had an effect on the transparency. I tried it one more time, exporting it with the .png file intact, but I have no clue if FSX accepted the .png files, or reverted to the .bmp versions in the exported folder.

When placing the revised .bgl into FSX, the windows are not transparent, nor is the night texture applied to the windows. It appears that the .png files had no effect on FSX and the prior .bmp and .dds versions no longer contained transparency.

I repeated this procedure after reading your above reply and, again, nothing occurred when having the "made" texture selected and selecting the "Set Default Transparent" attribute and clicking Apply. So, I think that I followed your suggestion correctly. If not, I sure would appreciate you further assistance.

Otherwise, I am going to texture the inside walls and add night texturing to them and the carpet, to attempt to get some lighting inside the terminal that may, or may not, be seen through the original "colorized" windows. John

 

[Lane Street]

Does your texture for the windows have an Alpha channel?

It needs one and it needs to be anything other than white.

The darker it is, the more transparent the windows will be.

cheers,
Lane

 

[Pyscen]

Hello,...

Having the color green or gray doesn't matter for windows what so ever,... Starting the texture as a .png or .bmp doesn't matter either really. Once you have applied the "transparency" button to the texture you will need to resave it,... and convert it to a .bmp or .DDS format,... Once you have corrected the main texture, you can then work on the "_LM",... taking the corrected ".png" or ".bmp" and add the "_lm" (or "_LM") to a copy of the original.

What I normally do with window textures, they are pre made,... such as the different color of windows, be it gray, a light blue, or even a light green,... they are pre converted in desired ".dds" format (which can be used over and over),... within SketchUp, those textures are pre loaded within as ".png",... which you can use over and over.

 

[=rk=]

In the MCX Material Editor, the "made" .png texture showed up and I selected it. I selected the attribute "Set Default Transparent" and clicked "Apply". In the listing, I noted that "Alpha Test" settings had changed (Function to "Greater", Level to "128", and Z-test to "TRUE") but nothing happened in the lower "report" section of the Material Editor, so I continued and selected the attribute "Night Texture" and navigated to the location of the _LM that I had created and clicked "Apply" and, in the lower "report" section of the Material Editor it reported acceptance of the night texture and both the original texture and the _LM annotated texture were present as textures.

.png is not a format FSX recognizes. At this point in your procedure you should select the textures tab of the material Editor. Confirm that DDS is the preferred format to save to and that the target texture folder is appropriate to your model. Click the down arrow next to the "Save textures" button and check "Ensure size power of two" and "Overwrite existing textures". Save your textures and compile your model, then import your new model and confirm that the texture is transparent and if not make adjustments and repeat the procedure.

Understand that I almost exclusively use color for windows as MCX gives us very precise control over hue and opacity; however using textures allows us to incorporate environment maps for reflection and, as you know, night adjustment. When I use the SU .png fence tiles, MCX renders them transparent and when I save to DDS that transparency is usually passed on without my having to change anything. On the occasions I use the drawcalls tab and the drawcall minimizer, the transparency is lost until I use the trick Arno taught me, the drop-down material template set default transparency, re-save and re-export.
I apologize that I can't be clearer, it was a hard day in the salt mines. You are very close to getting it, so even if our advice is not exactly what you need, you will obtain your goal with only a little more perseverance.

 

[mbscjohnp]

Doug and Rick: I thank both of you for the effort, but this just is not working. In MCX, I noted my texture in .png format. This time I did as suggested and received the following, as MCX is looking for me to supply the "glass_translucent_tinted_blue_S" which I do not have:

 

[=rk=]

You realize, of course, that GLASS_TRANSLUCENT_TINTED_BLUE_1 is visually identical to GLASS_TRANSLUCENT_TINTED_BLUE, correct? BLUE_1 was created by SU when you warped the texture _BLUE by changing it's UV coordinates. Let's use an example texture of a flag that we project onto a model, we'll call it "GLASS_TRANSLUCENT_TINTED_BLUE." The flag texture looks good projected onto our model, except over on the edge it got all scrunched up where the surface of the model turned perpendicular to the projection plane of the texture. Now, when we resize/reorient the flag texture to fit across the surface nicely, SU creates "GLASS_TRANSLUCENT_TINTED_BLUE_1." Cool, SU is very smart, but we are not using a patterned texture, our texture is essentially a color. It could be 64 pixels by 64 pixels and it would still work fine, regardless of which way it is stretched or warped in the UV.
I do not know what GLASS_TRANSLUCENT_TINTED_BLUE_1_S is, to me it looks like you assigned a specular texture. Regardless, I am pretty sure that if you go back into the properties pane of the Material Editor, scroll down to Diffuse Texture, copy the path and name for GLASS_TRANSLUCENT_TINTED_BLUE and then paste that into the Diffuse Texture field for all the other _1's and _1_S's, your model will compile fully textured and you can test/evaluate it.

 

[mbscjohnp]

Rick: Nope, the two variations of "Blue" are caused by tinting both the windows and a separate model with windows already tinted by the original author and placed inside the terminal. I simply gave up with this process and just night textured everything inside the terminal (walls, floors, ceiling, etc). Works great. Sorry that I just was not able to accomplish this with all of the effort you all put into this. I am a pilot and not a scenery type. I am finished with my rendition of Gitmo, the whole airport looks great with palm trees and buildings using Google Earth as a model, and I can land my F-35 there just fine. Thanks for your efforts.

 

[=rk=]

Ah well see, if I had realized that was your goal, I might have advised you to do exactly what you did, because it is my and I think a very common solution to representing night illumination within a model. Looks nice.
If you like jetting around in your Lightning, you should run a search of my name at Avsim. I have uploaded LHD-2 Essex and a large number of land-able or target-able ships, Rybachi submarine base in Kamchatka and a small Philippine Island in the disputed region of the South China Sea, along with a few other sceneries.

By the way, are you going to upload yours? If it is an edit of existing work, you can contact the original author and ask..

 

[mbscjohnp]

Rick: Well, see, I just was following the suggestions of another friendly scenery type, who was trying to wean me from SketchUp and teach me FSDS, and who was trying to help in the same manner as you. I guess pilot folks should not mess with stuff they don't comprehend. Thanks again for your concern and effort on my behalf and thanks for the invite which I will peruse.

At 75, I guess my brain just does not follow well anymore and my friendly flight physician just will not pass my physical. I offered him several steak dinners, to no avail.

As to NAS Guantanamo Bay, this is all my original work, using FSX hangars and a couple of buildings where I felt that I had no need to model a complicated building, but using SketchUp to make those buildings that I needed to place where measurements from Google Earth did not fit any FSX buildings size. Of course the military and one civilian aircraft, observable with Google Earth, are downloads and which I repainted to match those in current use by both Navy and Marines. The vehicles and ships and buoys depicted are all available downloads, or FSX stock. The only other thing not mine is the front door model on the terminal (from which the dual window texture matter arose) and, in time, I can certainly learn to make something similar.

I got the idea from an uploaded version of Gitmo that simply did not do the airport justice, and since there are no photographs available of Gitmo online, so I opened the FSX stock with Jon's ADE and went from there. I am certain a good scenery person could do a lot better, but my wife is impressed with what I have done and that is exactly what I needed to hear. <grin> Besides, it looks GREAT to me and that counts for something also.

I had no plans of uploading it, since I have no clue as to how to assemble the "pieces" for shipment and there are numerous textures and .bgl's, since I had to make 12 separate building types and the terminal and fire station.

As I said, I am simply a retired pilot, who now flies the sim skies and who learned how to "create" buildings in Sketchup and redo with ADE what those poor Microsoft folks did, they not having the luxury of using FAA charts and Google Earth to "create" more accurate airports (of course FSX is only a "game" - a lot Microsoft knows about real pilots and persnickety scenery folks). John

 

[=rk=]

Well just so you know, I do all my modeling in SU and I use MCX to convert the parts to FSDS format for animation only. Then everything gets mashed together in MCX, style up a night texture, adjust specular for shine and pop out a scenery object or even a drivable vehicle. My Essex upload includes a flyable RQ-9c Fire Scout; completely done with SU, FSDS and MCX. So if you enjoy making FSX stuff, you are on the right track.