FSX No Texture on object

[chewbee]

Hello,

I am building a trailer ( to land a chopper ) in Gmax.

some part of this trailer are textured

I Gmax everything looks fine (I checked normal orientation they are upwards which is correct)

I export to MDL (to build a library) clicking all the checks for textures

In FSX .. nada the solid materials shows not the textured parts.
in Arno's model converter at first I had the texture, but I no longer have them !!

So the MDL do not contains the texture information nor the textured vertices (thanks to Arno information)

The only change, I can think about are that I use the attach tool to make those Gmax objects platforms ( as they are the landing surface) thay are now named like "platform_STEEL_MATS_0"

Does anybody have a clue on how to remove this platform feature from those object to see if this is the cause ?

many thanks

Chewbee


EDIT I found stuff ....
starting from an old save before the platform ...
yes they block the texture export ... great one more bug ..

but they are other thing
One of my two textured object is a symetry clone of the first one ...
that was a bad idea because it show Ok in Gmax but not in model converter ...

to have it ok in model converter I have to flip the normal (making it invisible in Gmax !!! )

do anybody experience before (it it probably a polygon description problem), triangles are probably described "backwards" because of the symetry operation in Gmax ?? !!

Any body knows how to fix this ?

EDIT PART II

More ...

I flipped the normal anyway for the object to show, now with double sided material they show Ok in modelconverter .. but not in FSX

in FSX they looked like you see the inside of the textured part ... I made a test exporting with solid materials and of course it was OK ...
My texture is non transparent BMP transformed to DXT1 noalpha nomip with imagetool

So I am still stuck

 

[n4gix]

Stop!

When you cloned your part did you by chance use the Mirror tool on the top toolbar? That's the only thing that would cause normal problems like you've described...

When creating a platform, you need two separate objects, one for the texture and the other for the attachpoint platform.

 

[chewbee]

Stop!

When you cloned your part did you by chance use the Mirror tool on the top toolbar? That's the only thing that would cause normal problems like you've described...

When creating a platform, you need two separate objects, one for the texture and the other for the attachpoint platform.

Hello,

Thank you for answering

Yes I used the mirror tool ... It is very convenient (in theory) the normal are Ok in Gmax, the problem is FS export.

Do I have to remodel the object ?
Or Can I "fix" this problem (beside the workaround that I found)

For the platform, Ok !
So the actual platform object can it be a coplanar (to have a firm contact ) polygon fully transparent ?

Many thanks for your help

Chewbee

 

[arno]

Hi,

Yes I used the mirror tool ... It is very convenient (in theory) the normal are Ok in Gmax, the problem is FS export.

Do I have to remodel the object ?
Or Can I "fix" this problem (beside the workaround that I found)

You can use the mirror function, but not the button for it. The mirror modifier itself works fine. Just NEVER click that button.

Just yesterday I build a function into ModelConverterX to flip back those polygons. You might be able to export to 3DS and import that in GMax again. Although you might loose some information from your model. Apart from rebuilding it that is the only approach I know to fix it.

For the platform, Ok !
So the actual platform object can it be a coplanar (to have a firm contact ) polygon fully transparent ?

For the platform just make a plane at the location where you want the hard surface and run the attachtool script on it. The colour, transparency or material does not matter, since it will not be rendered anyway.

 

[chewbee]

Hi,

Many thanks Arno
and sorry for this ...

After few hours of research I sort this out using the forum.

It is just that nothing is really simple when It touches FSX creation ...

Anyway everything working smooth now many thanks again for you help and your tools ...

Regards

EDIT << TO THANK YOU ALL >>

To thank you all for all the help provided I am posting few pictures of my little scenery, starting with this little trailer

and a view with a broader perspective of the HGRI heliport

Chewbee

 

[chewbee]

One more thing

Hello,

As the pictures above shows the trailer is OK but ....

To make it landable I created two platforms each one is the cloned version of the grey textured part, the extra polygons have been deleted just to keep the top rectangle.
those two were transformaed into platforms using the attachTool.

Perfect its landable

Issue :
The platform seems to be larger than the polygons

In fact if you have a part fo the skid on the platform, you can land (with one skid in the air, or with one skid in the middle of the trailer (where there is no platform)

Is that a normal FS behavior ?

Or Do I missed something else

Many thanks to everybody for your help

regards

Chewbee

 

[FelixFFDS]

In fact if you have a part fo the skid on the platform, you can land (with one skid in the air, or with one skid in the middle of the trailer (where there is no platform)

Is that a normal FS behavior ?

Or Do I missed something else

Many thanks to everybody for your help

regards

Chewbee

If your attachpoint platform is just one polygon that covers both visible platforms (including the space in between), then yes, there is an invisible platform there.

To have no space, you would have to create two smaller platforms, each covering the single visible platform.

Or maybe I did not understand you?

 

[chewbee]

If your attachpoint platform is just one polygon that covers both visible platforms (including the space in between), then yes, there is an invisible platform there.

To have no space, you would have to create two smaller platforms, each covering the single visible platform.

Or maybe I did not understand you?

Hello,

Thanks for your answer but ..
I did as you said I have 2 small platforms the size of the grey area

morover, if you land by the side of the trailer as long as one skid is touching one of the platform .... you are landed on it ...

And believe me, you should off balance

regards

Chewbee

 

[Woutboeing]

hmm interesting topic.

maybe in the same line of question:

is it possible to create an aircraft mdl (flyable) with a landing platform on?
say for instance the aircraft is flown by one pilot (on autopilot, for stability), and a second pilot (in multilplayer that is) is able to land on the platform? would make for a great exercise in fsx skills, not to mention the fun one could have

it would be in the line of an aircraft carrier, but then in the air, instead of on water...

Also, if it works, how would this do in terms of instability? say pilot one is flying at 100kts, and pilot 2 lands on his aircraft. would brakes work? or would a gust of wind just send him falling through the deck?

curious about this one

Greetings,

Wout.

 

[n4gix]

is it possible to create an aircraft mdl (flyable) with a landing platform on?

Not only is it possible, it has already been done some years ago by Bill (Lionheart) Ortis as a fictional "sky platform." I don't recall the exact name of the freeware release, but remember seeing screenshots of it "somewhere..."

 

[Woutboeing]

has already been done some years ago by Bill (Lionheart) Ortis as a fictional "sky platform."

Yes, i know, thats where i got my question from partly. the only difference with what I'm suggesting is that it (lionheart's creation) isn't flyable. it was static scenery (i enjoyed it very much in the days, i remember that). i'd love to see a flyable version of it...

for anyone who is intrested in Bill's version, check out this link:
http://www.lionheartcreations.com/Defense_Platform.html

wouldn't it be awesome to do that in multiplayer?