• 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:

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New, with questions.

V

ViperThreat

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us-arizona
Ive been on other forums here and there, but it looks to me that these forums might just be more active than others. From what ive seen, there are alot of knowledgeable peeps around here that are more than willing to share. Hopefully, some of you will let me leech :)

So up until now, ive been using gmax with the fs2004 gamepack, I just recently upgraded to the FSX SDK SP1 gamepack, though im still using gmax. The majority of my problems have revolved around figuring out how exactly the new gamepack operates.

Ive read through all of the documentation, plus tutorials, and i cant seem to figure out how to get the gauges to appear like they used too.With the 2004 sdk, i simply made my squre poly, textured it with my $ texture, and once i added gauges to the panel.cfg, i had gauge-a-palooza in my VC.


Now, to create the $ texture, from what ive read, i do the following:

1. New material -> FlightSimX

2. Diffuse Bitmap ->$Panel_SFL.bmp

3. Self-Illumination ->$Panel_SFL_L.bmp

4. Under the "Framebuffer Blend" area:
- Source Blend set to "SrcAlpha"
- Destination Blend set to "InvSrcAlpha"

5. Under the "Emissive Mode" area:
- Emissive Mode set to "AdditiveUserControled"

5. Under the "Material Alpha Test" area:
- "Z-Test Alpha" Box Checked

6. Under the "Enhanced Parameters" area:
- "No Base Material Specular" Box Checked

7. Under the "Aircraft Material Params" area:
- "Is virtual cockpit panel texture" Box Checked


Exported, the poly is invisible, but no gauges can be seen either. Ive experimented with different settings in the material editor, but to no avail. The only way Ive been able to get a gauge to appear is by creating a standard material, with the $ texture, and exporting it as a fs9 texture.. But that has caused issues as well:

My switchpanel working correctly when lit up:
http://www.mammothchalet.com/Starfire/x80prototype-11.jpg

This is with the fs9 panel:
http://www.mammothchalet.com/Starfire/x80prototypeproblem1.jpg

Since then, ive experimented further, and now, i cant even get a gauge to import with the fs9 method.

Is there a step-by-step tutorial somewhere for this? or am i doing something stupid?

Thanks for your help


-Richard
 
3. Self-Illumination ->$Panel_SFL_L.bmp
Click to expand...

NO! The $ character is a special flag that tells FS to generate a texture in memory, and is reserved for the Diffuse Color slot only. There is no real $xxx.bmp file required in the aircraft's folders.

The Self-Illumination slot's bitmap name requires the _L suffix, which is a special flag telling FS to find an actual bitmap in the aircraft's ..\texture folder(s) and use it to illuminate the $xxx texture.

For convenience, typically the name for the lightmap will be the same as the Diffuse Color slot's name, but with the $ prefix removed and the _L suffix added:

Panel_SFL_L.bmp
 
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