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Dumb Question of the week

pks1414

pks1414

Messages
406
Even though I still work with Gmax I am determinednot to let FSDS V.3 beat me. I have just created a glider and canopy, all well,,,to a point. I am at the stage where I want to apply the transparent texture to the canopy. I have created the alpha channel in Photoshop (made it a sort of Dark Grey) converted it to DXT3 format with image tool and applied it to the canopy.

This where I have my tantrum...I am sure I have seen examples of canopies/cockpits using FSDS and the transparency shows up, rather than having to go through the placement in FS9


Am I being dumb.go on say it, if I'm not..what the b**$$^y hell am I doing wrong :banghead:
 
What is exactly your problem? Can you not get the transparant texture to work, or ... ???
 
Hmmm..that would help :D I haven't actually exported to FS9 yet, however I have applied what I thought was a transparent texture on to my glider canopy, thinking it would show as transparent in FSDS (as per some of the screenshots I have seen)..it doesn't so I am wondering whether the transparency has worked or whether I have to view it in FS9 to confirm
 
It is a long time ago that I use FSDS, but I don't think it shows textures as transparant. Could it be that the screenshots you saw used a transparant material instead of a texture?
 
pks1414

I got this tut from a guy who is trying to teach me FSDS v3 and He seems to be doing a good job. I now can work comfortablely with it. here is a piece of text that he sent me with some pictures if I can get them to upload.

" Alpha channels are used anytime you want to see through something. For example, when I make a wagon wheel I just make it out of a flat tube then I take a picture of a real wagon wheel. I use that picture to make an alfa channel coloring all the space between the spokes black so they are transparent and around the outside of the rim. Then when I do the alpha channel I paint all the area I want to see (the wheel and spokes) white and that's all you see. Then I texture both sides of the wheel with that texture and I can see through the spokes from both sides. All the trees you see in FS are done with an alpha channel. They normally use a green background instead of black but it has the same effect. Here's a couple of pictures that show how I use the alfa on wagon wheels. The first is how the wagon I made looks in the FSDS Perspective view. The second shows in the simulator what a wagon wheel with an alpha texture looks. " the two picture show what you will see in FSDS and then what you will see in FS9

hope this helps
woody

" message from George"








from George.
 

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Wow! you have a great wagon wheel..but those are complete black alpha cutouts..Here is the prob concerning FSDS..Ok..there is a version before FSDSV3 called FSDSV2 (And it) had an option to make different leveled transparent textures -that is -to make windshields,canopies or just plain store windows..all you had to do was pick a texture (made in 256 color bitmap) and just move the slider in FSDSv2 to set the level of transparency..then save/overwrite the texture...set it to about 60 and you will see a ghostly image of (any) 256 texture ..set it to 20 and you will see nothing at all..set it to 100 and the full texture will appear on your part..unfortunatly this option has been excluded fron FSDSV3 for no other reason but you must go back and buy FSDSV2 to get it..that is the only way for using FSDS to do it..but it is easy to do.if you have fsds V2..also You must fire up fs9 to see any changes..the view in FSDS will not show that a texture is transparent..you have to set it/load fs9 and look at it..return to fsds..make more edits..fire up fs9 again/lOOk..over and over and over..back and forth/back and forth..ect
 
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Why would you want to do your transparancies in FSDS like that? If you just define the alpha channel in the program you use to create the texture it is much easier. And you also then also apply the transparancy only to parts of the texture.

Besides that using 256 color texture is not the Fs2004 way of doing textures. Most textures are in the DXT format now, which is 16 bit. So I can very well understand that they removed a feature like that.
 
Hi arno..I just wanted to get in on the Dumb question of the week was all.. :D
So..is there a way with DXTbmp to set levels of transparency? or another proG..I really didnt like having to use 256 color bitmap cause it really degraded your pic..but it didnt make any difference once it was made into a half transparent window ect.
 
Hi,

I always use ImageTool to create my DXT textures. And it can load BMP and PSD textures that already have an alpha channel added to them. So that way you can draw the alpha channel (level of transparancy) in your paint program where you design the texture. Have a look at this tutorial as well, it explains the steps I take.

Once the transparancy is in the texture, you don't have to do anything in the tool you use to design the object. As it is included in the texture, not in the object. So just apply your texture and view the result in FS.
 
Thanks..sounds great..I just made a boat using the old method..I will check this out..as for some reason some parts do not appear behind the transparent windows and some do..mayby this will fiX that :wave: :yikes:
 
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