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MSFS20 Normal textures before and after packaging

arno

arno

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Hi all,

While trying to improve the preview of MSFS models in ModelConverterX I can across something interesting for the normal textures. I want to check if this is also what other developers experience.

The package tool of MSFS does modify the normal texture when it converts it to a DDS file. The images below show the input normal texture (left) and the one that the package tool makes (right). The R and B channels of the normal map are not changes, but the G channel (which normally contains the amount the normal is aligned with the face normal) is discarded and stored as black indeed (in the input image it is nearly white, except for the areas where the normal changes a lot). This makes me think that MSFS has it's own way to render the normal map (just as FSX had) and is not using the "standard" way of normal maps.

Can others confirm this? I think I'll have to make MCX able to render both the input and output state. As you developers can load glTF file before they have been packaged or also the files after they have been packaged.

1642103262997.png
1642103221591.png
 
Yes, I have seen this exact thing and did not understand exactly what the package builder was doing with the texture. It seems to be making the B channel black and just using R & G. I assumed that the sim shaders do not use the Blue channel information, so this is an optimization step perhaps?
1642107474360.png
1642107512918.png
 
Yes, I think it is an optimization as well. Since the B channel is often very near to white, I guess they took the assumption that it is white to save some memory or diskspace.
 
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