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Max Materials; FSX variants... EEEEKS!

lionheart

lionheart

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Hey all,

Well, I have been moving smoothly along in my adaptation to the move to Max until yesterday evening.

I went to create Plexi for the project and found Max 2008 to be so far different in Materials Management and Editing and Setup.

After a long while of trying to find the Opacity slider, then trying to get the Material to be seen in the FSX Tools Material Shader Editor, I still wound up with what appears to be a glowing white orb instead of Plexi in FSX.

The sliders 'tall page' Material Editor page from Gmax is no where in the new Max 2008. In Max 2008, you basically have combined the entire library of your project into the top of the ME (material editor) and the adjustable settings are not in it like in the FSX Materials in Gmax.

Now, when I attached a new Material to a part in the aircraft Scene, it did then appear in the new FSX Tools Shader page. I could then click and add the various Spec's and Lightmaps, etc, that would go in the 'Material stacks' for a single FSX material.

But..........

How does one set all the new various settings for things, like Ambient and Specular sliders and so fourth?

Has someone written a tutorial on this? The tutorial I have in my FSX SDK is for Gmax. Is there a seperate location for Max materials creation for FSX?

Forgive my battery of questions.

I pray this doesnt take a week. All I want is Plexi, Chrome, and normal textures for the plane, lol... I think I may be having to relearn all of this via all new controls and interfaces.


<--- 'hello, is this the International Eyebrow restoration clinic in Switzerland? Yes! Great... I would like to order a 3 years supply of anti-graying Eyebrow ointment, and could you throw in the Eyebrow anti-jettisonning formula also? Yes, 3 years supply. I seem to go through a 1 year supply in about a month lately... Thankyou...'

Bill
 
I have found the Max Materials tutorial.

It appears my Material Editor is not showing the slot flyout 'Flight Simulator Extended Parameters' section.

Has anyone else had this issue? Fr. Bill, have you gotten to this point yet with your ME and found this section also missing? Just curious.



Bill
 
Found it...

Whew...... I was not looking forward to a week of learning to make Plexi happen, lololololol....


One clicks on the 'type of Material' you have, such as Architectural, etc. FSX is in there. Click on that. You will then have the FSX Parameters flyout.

I created a little visual roadmap on setting up this feature for those that may not find it.


Bill
 
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Bill...

Do you see that little icon on the Material Editor on the left side? The one with the "arrow pointing towards a ball?"

Click on that to open the Material Library (nearly identical to the one in GMax)...

From there you can select the "New" option, and create a "New Material" from there, selecting Flightsim X from the options.

materiallibrary01.jpg
 
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lionheart said:
Awesome!

Thanks Bill.

This is indeed one powerful design engine...
Click to expand...

Yes it is. It took me about a week to find the icon to launch the Material Library though! I kept looking among all the toolbars...

...and even looked in the Help file, but of course couldn't find it because now it's called the "Material/Map Browser..." :laughing:
 
FelixFFDS said:
Fr. Bill - do you think he's noticed that Max also has a llittle checkered box?
Click to expand...

It now has several! Though they are now used 'with' other objects and things, dual-composite-evil blue and white checkered button glyphs, as well as the one, single, standard issue blue and white checkered thing.


Here's one for you. This one took me about 10 min's to figure out, which is a very long time if you are in the middle of work.

When you go to relocate/reset/change your Bitmap on a Material, you go to the second page of 'that' material (page 2?) in the Mat. Editor, which is similar to Gmax. But.......... How do you get back!!! lol... They designed that one to be very difficult..


Bill
 
lionheart said:
Here's one for you. This one took me about 10 min's to figure out, which is a very long time if you are in the middle of work.

When you go to relocate/reset/change your Bitmap on a Material, you go to the second page of 'that' material (page 2?) in the Mat. Editor, which is similar to Gmax. But.......... How do you get back!!! lol... They designed that one to be very difficult..


Bill
Click to expand...


Click on the "up" arrow?
 
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