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FSX Texture Question

D

Dakota

Messages
149
Country
newzealand
Hi everyone,

I am faced with a texture problem converting, an airplane I made in Gmax, from FS9 to FSX. I can get the diffuse, bump and specular maps to work in FSX as desired but am having problems when it comes to transparencies and reflections.

My windows and prop will not become transparent. I have changed the "OPACITY" level of the material and added an ALPHA map to the diffuse map with no success. What am I doing wrong?

Also, when adding reflections to a material for use in FSX the level of reflection is so extreme that the plane is almost like a mirror in FSX. How can I tone down the reflection?

thanx!
 
thanx for your reply.

The explainations in the SDK are great and I have gone through them a thousand times. But they are only useful, regarding my problem, if you are using 3DMAX and not GMAX.
 
Dakota said:
The explainations in the SDK are great and I have gone through them a thousand times. But they are only useful, regarding my problem, if you are using 3DMAX and not GMAX.
Click to expand...

That is absolutely not true. The FSX Materials dialog is precisely the same in both Max and GMax.

For "glass" use the "recipie" in the SDK and you will have success.

1) Click on "Set Default Transparency" button in the FSX Material dialog
2) Set the Opacity Level to somewhere between 40-60% as desired.
3) Use whatever color you wish for the glass in the RGB channels
4) Use RGB:0,0,0 in the Alpha channel for the area of the texture that is "glass."

Also, when adding reflections to a material for use in FSX the level of reflection is so extreme that the plane is almost like a mirror in FSX. How can I tone down the reflection?
Click to expand...

From the SDK:

"If the Diffuse map Alpha is used for Opacity, the Specular Alpha is then used as the Reflection map. The Falloff map function is consequently disabled altogether."

Since you are using the Alpha channel of the Diffuse texture for transparency, you will need to adjust the Alpha channel of the Specular texture to control the level of reflection.
 
Last edited:
Okay, thanx I just noticed that when creating a new material in gmax.

Since I am converting an airplane which I made for FS2004 to be used in FSX, would it then be necessary for all the textures to be "Flightsim" materials before exporting?

Am I correct in asuming this?

If yes is there a way to convert the existing older textures to "Flightsim" material textures rather than having to make new ones and applying them to the model?

help much apreciated! thanx!
 
1) You can simply use the original .bmp textures and make sure to turn OFF the DDS flag when exporting. Of course, you wouldn't have use of all the really cool FSX texture features, but it is a simple, quick and dirty way to get your model exported via X2MDL.exe successfully... :D

2) What I've done is quite simple, actually. I start by creating a New FSX Material, name it something like "FSX-Fuselage_T" and then drag-n-drop the Diffuse Color texture from the Material Navigator's window to the Diffuse Color Slot on the new FSX Material in the Material Editor's window.

I then carefully select all the parts that were assigned to the old, Standard Material, and click the "Apply" button to reassign those selected parts to the new FSX Material.

After all the parts are reassigned to new FSX Materials, I then Save As the project to a new file. I then start a "New" project and "Merge" the file I just saved to "filter out" all the "old, unassigned Standard Materials." This keeps my Material Navigator's list nice and tidy. :cool:

Finally, I will then use the Material Editor to add the additional resources (bump, fresnel ramp, specular, environment, etc. and configure the multitude of new options in the FSX Material's properties page.
 
Dakota said:
thanx! sounds like what I was looking for! I'll give it a go.
Click to expand...

Another major advantage of using the "trick" to "Merge" into an empty project is that it will very quickly let you verify that you have indeed "converted" all the Standard Materials! :coffee:
 
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