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P3D v4 PBR Translucent Textures Error: Objects behind it are seen through opaque faces

Apoorv Pal

Apoorv Pal

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22
Country
india
Hey,

I was working on SODE Jetways fro my scenery project and I was able to export the .x and .xanim from 3DS Max and everything works except the texturing. When I enable PBR textures with Render Mode "Translucent", I seem to get some glitches/see-through opaque faces.

2020-8-15_18-47-28-246.jpg
2020-8-15_18-47-31-734.jpg


The staircase and railings on the other side of the jetway are visible through the opaque faces of the jetway. It's all well and good in the Opaque Render Mode, I might be missing something in the PBR settings.
Opaque Render Mode:
2020-8-15_18-47-52-371.jpg
2020-8-15_18-47-57-671.jpg

Here are the settings I used:
materialsettings.png

I also experimented with a few other settings that I found on various threads on this forum but it didn't seem to resolve this issue.
Here are some of the settings I tried:

Alpha Test Function: GreaterEqual
Alpha Test Level: 128
Z-Test Alpha: True

Allow Bloom: False

Z-Write Alpha: False

Destination Blend: Zero
Source Blend: One

Emissive Mode: AdditiveNightOnly
Is PBR Material: True
Render Mode: Translucent

Z-Bias: Zero

I would really appreciate help with this issue in Translucent PBR Materials. I am using Prepar3D v4.5 and its corresponding SDK with the 01-08-2020 build of ModelConverterX

Warm Regards,
Apoorv
 
Hello...

What does the Albedo texture look like? Including the alpha channel within the Albedo map? With the Render Mode set to Translucent, that means any color of gray within the alpha channel would have some form of transparency. You might have better luck making the Render Mode to "Mask". Meaning anything that is to be solid or opaque should have within the alpha channel "white". Anything that is not opaque should be Black... In this case, any grayscale is your enemy.
 
Well, the alpha seems to be opaque at the right places and grey for the windows. I guess grey is required for the partial translucency of the windows as opposed to complete white or black.
 

Attachments

I will look at it tomorrow morning, Sunday. Since you mentioned the rails and stairs, i assumed incorrectly.

In the meantime, What dxt format was used? It should be dxt5 since greyscale is required for the windows.
 
Hello

The area in transparent blue (lower left corner). am I correct, that is the glass and the area causing problems? The white within this area is not pure white in the alpha channel.
 
Thanks a lot Doug for your help.

EDIT: I just read your reply again. The entire object seems to allow some objects to be seen through them. And it isn't transparent, the opacity is accurate when the background contains the ground polygon or the terminal buildings etc. Some parts of the same model that are supposed to be hidden behind other opaque faces of the same model seem to be shown through the opaque faces for some reason. I have marked a few of these glitches in the screenshots below.

2020-8-15_18-47-31-734_2.jpg
2020-8-15_18-47-28-246-2.jpg


Not just the glass, even the opaque walls and sides of the jetway give way to see objects on the other side such as the air conditioning unit and stairs through them. they are supposed to be hidden behind the opaque walls. I got something similar to what I intended by turning off PBR, and using the Z-Test Alpha settings. But I need PBR on this model so would love to know where I went wrong with the Translucent settings.
Below are some shots with PBR disabled and Z-Test Alpha enabled. This is similar to what I intend to make, but with PBR enabled.
2020-8-16_14-52-48-199.jpg
2020-8-16_14-51-20-40.jpg
2020-8-16_14-50-34-499.jpg
 
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You said that you used MCX to create the textures in dxt5, is that correct? Are the textures in question, the glass area, and the rotunda area, originally in PSD? If so, that could be the reason for the partial transparency. MCX doesn't convert PSD files with an alpha channel correctly. This is because of the proprietary nature of “.psd” file types, MCX reads the data as a single layer that is combined or merged; therefore they may not convert properly. It might be best to either convert it to a different file format (such as “.png” or “.tga”) or going through either the PS or GIMP plugins. ImageTool has the same problem with such files also.
 
All textures were made in GIMP and exported to PNG. No PSDs involved. On inspecting the resulting DDS, the alpha channel seems to be as intended with the right opacity at the right areas. Could there be some setting in the material parameters that is causing this? Is there a reference for translucent PBR material parameter settings that you could provide?
 
In all of the samples or examples, within P3D v4.5, all glass is not apart of the PBR textures. Only in P3D v5 (with the Blue channel). If you wish to use PBR textures in P3D v4.5 you will need to have the glass not part of the PBR texture.
 
So are you suggesting I separate out the glass, make that a regular Blend texture and use PBR (with the Opaque Render Mode) for the rest of the model? If yes, that would actually be quite tough as the glass parts aren't separate faces or objects, it was completely based on the texturing. I can remodel it but would keep it as a last resort. Actually, most places that I read about the Translucent render mode in Prepar3D PBR, the example it talked about was specifically glass. If the translucent parts need to use the old materials, then I don't see why a translucent render mode would even be present. I must be missing something. Here is the entire list of the current material parameters that I have set:

materialsettings1.png
materialsettings2.png
materialsettings3.png


Also, I seem to have missed the examples. Is there someplace I can download examples? It would be amazing to have a reference.
 
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Yes, that is correct. For an example: Look at the F-16 (..\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\SimObjects\Airplanes\F-16 Base). If there is a PBR sample or example within P3D v4.5 for glass, LM didn't do so. They, LM, used the old-style use of, like FSX for glass.

The texture in the above image of yours (MCX image settings), you have it as a PBR material, but the only thing that comes close to is the diffuse/albedo. There isn't a metallic map, etc.
 
I didn't get you, would you like me to send the metallic map as well? I have it in the texture folder, just didn't think it would affect the transparency issue. Interesting to know this, will reassign a different material to the glass as a standard FSX material and the rest will be PBR Opaque. This raises a question in my mind, what would the Translucent Mode be used for then?
 
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The translucent mode is use on textures that are to be translucent or have transparency. Such as the window or glass alone. Just like the Mask mode can be used for a fence or tree.

I doubt the metallic map has anything to do with it. Unless, maybe it, wasn't done correctly. But it wasn't in your picture above ( MCX ). I can only go by what you tell me and or show.
 
Hey Doug, In the pictures of MCX, I do have the jetways_metallic.dds as the Metallic Texture. Is there something else I need to do? If you mean the first post of this thread, yes, I worked on the normal and metallic textures later, wanted to sort out the transparency issues first.
 
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Update: I did what @Pyscen mentioned and separated out the glass part and set it to FSX/Legacy Translucent material using Blend values. The rest of the model uses PBR in the Opaque render mode and this achieved the desired result.

2020-8-16_23-46-44-233.jpg
 
Very good!! I'm glad that it worked out! Unfortunately, P3D v4.5 doesn't have a PBR recipe for glass.
 
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