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zcolek

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19
Hi all, i'm working on VC for my plane and I found some tips how to, but I'm not going very good with them, so looking for help from you, this is what I need:

1. People saying about creating nodes Exterior and Inetrior and connecting al exterior parts to ext node and same for interior.
I done that, maybe wrog, but just for testing I made saome polys and one plane, plane is named Interior and I linked polys to Interior, with that I made 1 of 5 times to have a tree from Interior, 4 of 5 times I get only interior without polys in list.

2. Whn I export mdl and go to Fs2004 in VC I dont see anything.

3. I added texture for vc but, how to give them a name, where to put them, and how they can be visible in FS, is there a specila bmp conf, maybe to edit them with DXTbmp.

For now I jus want to done this things properly and see VC in fs with texture, can u help?
 
Hello Zcolek

I'll try to answer these as best as I can in order below.

zcolek said:
1. People saying about creating nodes Exterior and Inetrior and connecting al exterior parts to ext node and same for interior.
I done that, maybe wrog, but just for testing I made saome polys and one plane, plane is named Interior and I linked polys to Interior, with that I made 1 of 5 times to have a tree from Interior, 4 of 5 times I get only interior without polys in list.
Click to expand...

When you look and your structure tree (Hierarchy), you should only have two that are 'main' Hierarchy's; interior and exterior. Nothing (nothing) else must be as high as or higher then those two.

Small tip. You can work on just an exterior tree, then clone it all and rename exterior02 as 'interior' and you instantly have your interior model. Then just delete it after you make a test model, continue, and when you need another interior, clone the exterior. This way you make one continuous model and no worrying about keeping them the same as they will be exact clones.


zcolek said:
2. Whn I export mdl and go to Fs2004 in VC I dont see anything.
Click to expand...

* Make sure you exported them. Select parts, select 'Export Selected'.
* In your 'aircraft.cfg' make sure your 'viewpoint' is set up correctly. Your VC might be below, behind, over you.


zcolek said:
3. I added texture for vc but, how to give them a name, where to put them, and how they can be visible in FS, is there a specila bmp conf, maybe to edit them with DXTbmp.
Click to expand...

* In Flight Simulator, your textures must be BMP's and they must be in DXT1, DXT3, or 888-8 format. DXT3 is the standard, 888-8 is 32bit high resolution.
* In FS, the textures must be in sizes 128, 256, 512, and 1024 sizes 'only' (in pixels sizes). If you have a texture that is say 1025 by 1023, it will not be seen in FS. It must be exact.
* In Gmax or FSDS, you can use JPG's or PSD files for graphics.
* In Gmax, you have your Material Editor which will handle and apply your materials to your objects. Name the material in the Material Editor by just typing in the name.
* In Gmax Material Editor, the small blue and white button must be clicked 'on' for materials to show.
* After you 'Apply' a material to a part, you must add a UVW Map to it, then you must add the UVW Unwrap to 'adjust' the mapping to the part. (You'll need to see or find tutorials on this).

zcolek said:
For now I jus want to done this things properly and see VC in fs with texture, can u help?
Click to expand...

Having a texture applied to the parts, the blue and white button on on the Material Editor, and your view point setup properly should help you out on the VC issue.

Also, make sure your plane is centered in the screen scene with the center of gravity being the dead center of the 'scene'.

I hope that helps.


Bill
 
Another tip; Always save, and save in levels, like Spad 01, Spad 22, Spad 230, etc.. Keep saving and moving upwards in numbers. This way, if you mess up the model, you can go back and restore it.

Bill
 
lionheart said:
Always save, and save in levels, like Spad 01, Spad 22, Spad 230, etc.. Keep saving and moving upwards in numbers.
Click to expand...

I'd agree and say learn how gmax can be set up to "Increment and Save" - it's in the Preferences - or use Save As and click on the + button which will increment the name you save under: Spad01 will become Spad02 etc. I have hundreds of saved versions of my current project - a full development history.

But none of this is of much use unless you also have a backup strategy, be it memory stick, CD/DVD writer or external HD. You will lose work, catch a virus or reformat the wrong drive, so plan ahead! :idea:
 
Thx all of this helped a lot, now I see vc with textures, a tested some gauges and worked well, bu I see texture only when I edit VC section in panel.cfg, how can I texture cockipt around withoum using panel.cfg, I will use it only for panel texture and gauges. Thx again
 
lionheart said:
Small tip. You can work on just an exterior tree, then clone it all and rename exterior02 as 'interior' and you instantly have your interior model. Then just delete it after you make a test model, continue, and when you need another interior, clone the exterior. This way you make one continuous model and no worrying about keeping them the same as they will be exact clones.
Click to expand...

Alternatively, if you install MakeModel and ModelCommander, you can simply select the "Autointerior" option when exporting the exterior, and it will automatically clone and create the interior for you... :cool:
 
Roger that Bill. Good point.


zcolek said:
Thx all of this helped a lot, now I see vc with textures, a tested some gauges and worked well, bu I see texture only when I edit VC section in panel.cfg, how can I texture cockipt around withoum using panel.cfg, I will use it only for panel texture and gauges. Thx again
Click to expand...

Zcolek,

I dont think I understand your question.

If you meant, how do you get the gauges into the VC, you will need a tutorial on that. It can be lengthy. Basically you will create a polygon or many, or clone your panel surface, with a bit of space so that it is hovering over the panel surface. On that, you will have a material named something like $pan1.bmp and on that you would put your textures of your gauges, and map those to your parts or model (on the floating polygon structure that will hold your gauges). Then, in the panel.cfg, you map the gauges onto that $pan.bmp texture.

That is the basic explanation, if thats what you meant.

Its good to have 'FSPS' (FlightSim Panel Studio), available at Flight1.com for about $22.00. Awesome program for placing gauges.


Bill
 
Ok I done all what I asked help for, I know maping, I'm trying to do something i 3DS max and to export .3ds and inport it into Gmax, but sometimes Gmax give me error when I want to export model from 3ds, and one more question, I downloaded gmax sdk, all what I have iz makemdl but this list says I need to have with gmax sdk this files (gmax_AttachTool, gmax_Animation, gmax_CloudTool, gmax_Aircraft, gmax_Scenery), maybe I have them, but maybe I dont know where they are. Thx
 
They're on your FSX Deluxe or Gold disks, they're not available as downloads.
 
Zcolek,

Are you making this for FS2004 or FSX?

For both of these, the Gmax package and SDK should be in the Misc folder on the first CD of the Sim you wish to install to.

Bill
 
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