• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
    • Questions about aircraft design can be posted in the Aircraft design forum
    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
    • Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
    • Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.

    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

FSX texture tutorial

tsgucci

tsgucci

Messages
482
Country
hungary
Hi!


I'm wondering if anybody knows about a step-by-step screenshot tutorial how to create transparent and shiny texture for FSX in gmax. I was looking everywhere but I do not find any good tutorial. E.g. How to create a trees with transparent texture in one poly like in FS2004 with alpha channel. Or how to create a wired fence from one poly with the same method but really for FSX!

I've found some thing to use the material editor, but it is very difficult if I do not see where to push the buttons, from texts I do not understand :confused:

Do you know such well pictured (or video) tutorial?
 
I see nobody has one.

I promise if I find out how to do it, I'll do a video training manual how to do it for similar guys like me who understands only from pictures.


I've seen that the textures (layers) should be added in the material editor, but which option for which texture layers belong, I mean transparency for Ambient? shining to diffuse? if somebody could tell me this would be very helpfull. Or give me a link where there is an overview about that.

Than other question, if I add the layers in material editor, how shall I save my textures? Or it is automaticaly added by export??

Sorry for FSX I completaly stupid...
 
Hi,

tsgucci said:
I've seen that the textures (layers) should be added in the material editor, but which option for which texture layers belong, I mean transparency for Ambient? shining to diffuse? if somebody could tell me this would be very helpfull. Or give me a link where there is an overview about that.
Click to expand...

The normal texture goes in the diffuse slot. If this texture has transparency (alpha channel) no special slots are used for that. The night texture goes into the self-illumination slot. Bump textures into the bump slot and reflection ones in the reflection slot.

The SDK contains great documentation on the FlightSimX material, did you check that already? It has loads of examples.

tsgucci said:
Than other question, if I add the layers in material editor, how shall I save my textures? Or it is automaticaly added by export?
Click to expand...

Within GMax you can not use the compressed formats FS is using. So either use a 24/32 bit BMP or a PSD file. You will manually have to compress these textures into the DDS/DXT formats that FS prefers. Don't forgot to add mipmaps as well then.
 
Hi Arno!

Thanks for your help!

I'll try it.


One more question: You say:
If this texture has transparency (alpha channel) no special slots are used for that.
Click to expand...

Than how do you do it? Because I've tried the old FS2004 way of alpha channel, but the transparency is wrong. The object is transparent but only the background is visible, the objects behind not.

Arno! Is it helpfull to use your ModelConverterX tool?
 
Last edited:
tsgucci said:
Than how do you do it? Because I've tried the old FS2004 way of alpha channel, but the transparency is wrong. The object is transparent but only the background is visible, the objects behind not.
Click to expand...

Not sure if I understand completely. But to the alpha channel in the texture nothing has changed. In the FlightSimX material you need to press the "Set Default Transparent" button to enable the display of the transparency, else the alpha channel is ignored. If you have display order problems after that, you might need to change some of the settings like Z-Write.

tsgucci said:
Arno! Is it helpfull to use your ModelConverterX tool?
Click to expand...

I am not sure how ModelConverterX could help with making your GMax materials :). So I think not, unless you are converting some object.
 
It sounds as though you are setting up a Standard Material, otherwise transparency would not have worked without the proper settings.

You must use a "FltSimX Material" for ALL materials in FSX. If you then use the "Set Default" transparent buttons most things will work.

Semitransparent textures and trees are a different case - and will usually require Z-test to be set (Trees, usually Greater, around 128 -- experiment a bit for best results)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top