Night texture

[GHD]

I have a 2x2 pixel dxt1 _lm texture with a black alpha but MCX night render mode displays the model (slightly darker). Shouldn't the display be blank?

 

[tgibson]

2 x 2 is probably not big enough, and DXT textures smaller than 32 x 32 can lead to blurry scenery...

 

[GHD]

2 x 2 is probably not big enough, and DXT textures smaller than 32 x 32 can lead to blurry scenery...

Read my post again Tom. The alpha channel is black so the textures shouldn't be seen never mind blurry.

 

[arno]

Hi,

Modelconverterx uses the fsx rendering style, which means that the night alpha channel is not used. Only the day alpha channel is used to determine what is transparent.

I know fs2004 works differently from this.

 

[GHD]

Modelconverterx uses the fsx rendering style, which means that the night alpha channel is not used. Only the day alpha channel is used to determine what is transparent.

FSX doesn't display the model at dawn, dusk or night so it must use the _lm alpha channel.

 

[arno]

Humm, that's interesting. It has been discussed many times before that fsx doesn't do that. And if you look at the shader code the night texture alpha is indeed not used. Do you use the standard shaders or updated ones?

 

[GHD]

I am using the standard shader code in DX9 on XP.

Day:



Dusk:



As I said, the _lm is a 2x2 pixel DXT1 with a black alpha. If I make it the same as the day texture, it displays.

 

[arno]

Ok, let me check. Based on the shader code I wouldn't expect this.

 

[Soarfly Concepts]

Okay, I am not sure why you are wanting your trees/bushes to not be displayed at night
or am I missing something? what is it you are wanting to do?

Anyway... a few things to check when texturing for FSX using alpha channels
1. Make sure that your DXT1 texture is DXT1 With alpha.
2. make sure that your texture is at least 32x32 for best Alpha results.
3. make sure your diffuse (day time) texture is just as big as you LM if not bigger.
4. Make sure that both the diffuse and _lm textures have a correctly set alpha channel for MCX will indeed use the alpha from the diffuse texture.

My advice would be for you to change to DXT3 for both diffuse and LM textures, increase the size of your LM to 32x32 and use the latest development release (477 I believe)
If this doesn't work then may I suggest a hammer? lol

FSX is very picky when it comes to textures.

I hope this helps in some way.

_______________________
Soarfly Concepts

 

[GHD]

I don't want it to display at night, which is why I used DXT1 with a black alpha.

It works perfectly in FSX.

The best result would be to have no display with the smallest texture file which is why I used 2x2.

My original post was to ask why MCX displays it in night render mode when FSX doesn't.

 

[arno]

Hi George,

I understand your question. As I said I'll double check if the modelconverterx behavior is correct.