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P3D v4 P3D V4 Plexi 'Heavy Tint' issue

lionheart

lionheart

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Hey all,

How on Earth do you lower 'Opacity' on plexi in P3D V4 with textures/Alpha? I cannot seem to figure a way to do it.

Some of the people that have this plane have tinted side windows, (clear front plexi perspex). I cannot seem to make a Alpha or layer 'low' in visibility. I have a blackish tint (dark gray) and I have tried everything I know. I dug out the DC3 texture hoping to find a setting in there. Nada....

Anyone know of a way?

I also created a Plexi_Opacity texture which works in Max, white being full block and black is crystal clear. Nada in V4. Totally clear. That should have worked fine.

Have tried many settings in the texture settings. Anyone have one that is actually working in V4?

V4 is different then FSX. My Learjet usually works with back windows tinted, but in V4, it also shows clear. No tint visible.

I would be grateful for any advice or help.


Bill
 
n4gix

n4gix

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Bill, try using a standard P3DMaterial with One and SrcAlpha as the Framebuffer Blend mode:

CXvU1.png
 
Deano1973

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n4gix said:
Bill, try using a standard P3DMaterial with One and SrcAlpha as the Framebuffer Blend mode:
Click to expand...

You beat me to it Bill, - these are the settings I use for P3D and they work pretty well. It's also advisable to use a Fresnel Lens texture assigned to the material, so that P3D v4's dynamic reflections don't turn the canopy glass blue all the time.
 
lionheart

lionheart

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Many thanks guys.

Deano1973, I havent heard of the 'Fresnal Lens' texture. Where might that be located? Is it in a stock plane?
 
lionheart

lionheart

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Dang... That worked. Many thanks, Bill!

Now to figure out how to get reflections back.

Tried quite a few tricks. The sim really likes using the Alpha on Diffuse for reflections. I made a fake Fresnal_Ramp material, duplicating what Microsoft Aces used in the DC3, added Specular and Reflections assignments to that, but it didnt work. Still bland, as shown below. If I can just get that super nice reflection going.. I would have to jump up on the desk and do the Happy Dance!
 

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Deano1973

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The Fresnel Lens from my Northrop Reporter is attached. It governs how reflections appear based on line of sight - either face on as per a window, or down the length of a material which may appear matt face on, but peering down its length with give a mirror effect. To choose one way or the other, just flip the texture - simples :)

Not sure where your reflections have gone, but you seem to be doing everything right. MCX settings for my tinted camera windows in the Reporter in the image, Framebuffer Blend for those was Destination: Src Color and Source: InvSRC Color respectively. You might need to flip the Fresnel if the reflections don't look quite right though.
 

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lionheart

lionheart

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Thanks Deano. Will check this out. Thanks for the Fresnal. Where are they usually stored in FSX/P3D?
 
Deano1973

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I don't recall where it was originally, but probably in Global>Texture or similar. A lot of airplanes have their own version, renamed, and if you make your own with full colour variations instead of grey scale then you can get some really funky rainbow / iridium hues out of glass textures and other things too, depending on what angle you end up looking at them from. Handy for those gold-tinted canopies on some military recon' aircraft, designed to protect the crews from radiation.
 
lionheart

lionheart

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Deano1973 said:
I don't recall where it was originally, but probably in Global>Texture or similar. A lot of airplanes have their own version, renamed, and if you make your own with full colour variations instead of grey scale then you can get some really funky rainbow / iridium hues out of glass textures and other things too, depending on what angle you end up looking at them from. Handy for those gold-tinted canopies on some military recon' aircraft, designed to protect the crews from radiation.
Click to expand...

Dang...! That is good knowledge. A thousand thanks, Deano.
 
lionheart

lionheart

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Another day spent trying to get this to work. Went back to the original. I can live without my blackened side windows. :) Not a problem. MY GOODNESS!!! Nothing worked.

I am guessing it might be the new SDK since V2. Thats about when I lost opacity adjustment.


Thanks guys for your help. Wish it had worked.
 
lionheart

lionheart

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So yesterday evening, going through the FSX SDK Materials and their effects page, which continues to bongle my mind via its complexity, I happened at one point to pass my cursor over the above 'Chrome' material JPG, and.... it... lights up with green rectangles and 'notes' (yes... NOTES>>>>) on how each section of the Material operates in the sim.

sigh...

If only.. in the past 16 to 20 years, I had known that that was there.

I had accidentally adjusted my Chrome to be invisible (backwards polygons showing just by a glitch setting messed up in Chrome) and by studying the SDK, I found this neat feature for seeing how things work...

So... 'environment' means 'reflections'... I had begun to formulate that that was what 'environment' meant, 'reflections'... But wasnt rock solid on that till I found the help hover zones on the Chrome Material sample, and sure enough, environment is indeed reflections.

So much learned, so much still yet to learn. Sad so much time was lost.

I still think the materials are radically complicated. But at least we have some nice tools for tapping the surface of their capabilities.
 
lionheart

lionheart

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I noticed also that 'temperature' is added to the Materials slider settings, under reflections. This must be a PBR feature? But its in the standard P3D material section.
 
Deano1973

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It does seem to me also that with flightsim development it's often two steps forward, one step back: glad that you solved the problem though. Not sure what temperature does in reflections, but I know I've encountered if before for some reason - something to do with intensity perhaps? Who knows... o_O
 
lionheart

lionheart

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Deano1973 said:
It does seem to me also that with flightsim development it's often two steps forward, one step back: glad that you solved the problem though. Not sure what temperature does in reflections, but I know I've encountered if before for some reason - something to do with intensity perhaps? Who knows... o_O
Click to expand...

I didnt get it working.. I was able to restore it back to where it was. Perhaps someday I'll get it working. For now, it went overbudget. Going to pass on this option.

Yep, I like that. Two steps forward, one step backwards. Sometimes, like the past many days, its like 2 steps forward and 4 steps back. The more I tried to fix this (get this new feature working), the worse it became... lolol..
 
n4gix

n4gix

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lionheart said:
I noticed also that 'temperature' is added to the Materials slider settings, under reflections. This must be a PBR feature? But its in the standard P3D material section.
Click to expand...
Nope! That is a standard P3D Material option.

The PBRMaterial options are much less complicated... :rotfl:
 
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