P3D v4 RESOLVED: Two textures added to model, but only one appears in "properties"

[manschy]

Again,

reading a book, learning to swim or watching TV sometimes would be a better option to me, but no - I have to waste my time with....well, some people call it "scenery design"...

Okay, yesterday I tried first steps in adding reflecting textures to some of my buildings, and yes, you suppose right, I failed.

To get reflecting windows on the buildings, I add a diffuse color (all buildings textures) and a specular color (for my reflecting windows) into gmax. So usually, in MCX inside material editor's "properties" there now should be two textures. But don't...
When I click into the "textures" section beneath, both textures appear. So what did I wrong, or better, how is it possible to add this texture to my "properties" window?
My intention: Getting this texture into "properties", I will be able to adjust all needed settings inside the "special functionality" section.
Each hint - as always - is much appreciated...

 

[arno]

Hi,

If both textures appear on the texture tab, they must somehow be in the material already. Could it be you have two versions of the material, one with and one without a specular map?

 

[tgibson]

Hi,

Could you post images of both pages in your Material Editor?

 

[manschy]

Thank you for answers. For sure, here are my shots:

First shot, you see only the texture basically applied to the buildings:


Second shot, you see both textures correctly listed as they are applied to the buildings in Gmax. I have to say, due to the limited options in Gmax, I chose "specular colour" for my reflection intention....


So my question is, is it possible at all to add the texture for my window reflections to the buildings like adding night textures? I know that this was possible in FS9/FSX and the night texture appeared in the material editor properties window without problems.
I ask this just because I don't want to rebuild all window sections of each building - just would be glad to use as few textures as possible for the main set of objects....

 

[toprob]

I think it should work ok the way you've done it, except that you need to understand that you should apply one material only, but with both a diffuse and a specular map. So you won't see, or need to see, more than one material.
So you should have one material as it is, but with 'blend environment by specular map alpha' ticked.
In your case you could get away without using the specular texture, just add the reflection masking to your diffuse alpha, and then tick 'blend environment by inversion of diffuse alpha'.

 

[RED COOL]

no it is all right in the properties window you see only the materials not the textures

 

[arno]

If you click on the material in the properties window and scroll down in the attributes I expect you see both textures listed indeed.

 

[tgibson]

I agree - it appears you have one material with two textures - a diffuse texture and a specular texture. A material can contain up to around 8 different textures. As Arno says, click on your material, then scroll down the listing on the right side to see all the textures assigned to this material.

 

[Deleted member 1281]

This conversation is tagged P3D V4, so are you using MCX to export to V4.4+ using PBR materials, or is it a mix of PBR and FSX, or is it just checking how your gmax-generated FSX materials show up in MCX's Material Editor?

Notice that there are significant differences regarding texture names and material parameters depending on whether you do FSX or PBR materials.

One thing, in FSX materials you wouldn't use the specular texture (your _s.BMP texture) to create reflectivity. Reflectivity usually comes from the alpha channel of the diffuse (black=mirror effect). Specularity is shine, a different thing altogether, its diffuse color should rarely be stark white (spec is additive!), and its alpha is used to govern the spread of the highlights (white alpha=small highlights, black=spread-out highlights). In both cases you would have to use 32-bit (RGBA) textures, and the preferred format would be DDS dxt5, not BMP (terribly costly in file size with no noticeable quality boost). Better re-check the SDK under FSX naterials.

PBR is a wholly different kettle of fish...

 

[manschy]

Thank you all very much!
Yes, indeed, Arno - I found both textures, and the ***_s.bmp texture is automatically added into the "textures options" section. But only the diffuse texture appears in the properties section. That means, I am only able to change my needed settings inside the "special functionality" section for just the diffuse texture, not my specular texture I would like to edit.
@arno and Tom:
Yes, I have two textures added to my buildings object.
So if I understand you right, I should have to add two materials to my buildings to get both needed textures inside the "properties" section, right? That's heavy just because of this, I have to rework my buildings to add the needed reflection textures to my windows. But is it possible to just create a reflection with to added textures? Sorry if I cause a misunderstanding...
@toprob:
I got excited to read your lines, that sounds fantastic. I ticked all options like your suggestion, but unfortunately nothing happened. My specular texture is set to alphachannel with pure black in the background, only the windows appear. Format is DXT1.
Here are my shots of my settings, maybe I miss some defining setting:

Upper side:


Lower side:


@mjahn: No, I am currently far away to be able to work with PBR ....no skills so far. It's P3Dv4.2 I am using for my accidents

 

[manschy]

@ all: YOU MADE MY DAY!!!!

I simply missed to change "use global environment map as reflection" and it works now!
I would particulary like to thank Toprob for your hint with the special ticking options. Without all your genuises around here I never would be able to create anything. Thank you!
BTW: Is there any option to get the real simulator environment instead of the global one? That would be Christmas to me already in summer....

 

[toprob]

Glad you got it sorted. Prepar3d v4 should show 'real' reflections, but you would need to make sure that 'dynamic reflections' in P3D settings are turned on.

 

[manschy]

Learning never stops....Thank you, Rob. Will test it this afternoon and keep you informed.

 

[manschy]

Okay, using "dynamic reflections" in P3D don't show needable results so far. Look very strange so I went back to global environment (no dynamic reflections ticked...), but increase "specular map power scale" a lot (up to 150), so the effect fits nice into the building now. Not sure how to handle this with the users though...

 

[manschy]

Just one more question:
When I move along the buildings which I added the reflections to, all windows are flickering very much. Is there a parametre I can change that this flickering can be reduced? I tried to minimize "reflection scale" down to 0.2 and it seems to get better, but the flickering stays.
Oh, flickering means there are many vertical stripes when moving from the left to the right of a building like bars. Most of them to the bottom reflections, the upper ones (for example windows in second floors or higher) look fine, probably because of the simulated global sky environment...

 

[tgibson]

If these windows are polygons applied to the surface of the building, you may be able to set the z-bias of the window material so it has priority over the building polygons.

 

[manschy]

Thank you, Tom. No, the windows are just an alpha texture - white for the windows, black for the transparency.

 

[arno]

So the window and the wall around it are part of the same polygon and the same texture? Then it's weird that they flicker.

 

[RED COOL]

maybe when he exported, there were a hidden model that he hid it
this happens to me sometimes when i hide a model as a backup and then export it

 

[manschy]

Oh, flickering means there are many vertical stripes when moving from the left to the right of a building like bars. Most of them to the bottom reflections, the upper ones (for example windows in second floors or higher) look fine, probably because of the simulated global sky environment...

Just let me explain a bit more detailed what I call "flickering". It's not the same like ground poly flickering or when two planes are too close to each other. The flickering in this case is like in my quote. It is definitely a wrong added setting to my opinion.

@arno: I have a model (for example a building) which has added three maps, one is the normal texture, one is the night texture and one is the Alpha texture for the reflections - night texture and reflection are added via MCX and it's working fine.

I think I have to fiddle around a bit more with the settings - there is really a lot to affect....Thank you so far. Will keep you informed of my results...