Hi Folks!
In the past few days, I was able to get all my PBR texture problems solved, mainly because of trying and failing on my own, collecting snippets of very less information available and micro hints spreaded over various internet sources, since there was no detailed step by step manual or guide I could find.
Like I wrote a manual for conversion of FSX aircraft models for use in MSFS, I will also create a detailed manual for conversion of scenery objects to the MSFS glTF format, including main topics:
- reflection / shine / metallic / glass / transparent texture areas
- texture creation including the alpha thing
- settings in MCX
- conversion to glTF format using MCX
- implementing objects in MSFS
Once I had found out, how everything must be set up, it seemed very easy to me to convert scenery models for MSFS.
At FSDeveloper, I was directed to program Materialize for creating PBR material.
Results of my setup and testing with thrilling new options of PBR and glTF:
The following
Image A depicts 3 versions of my tower building sample;
no COMP file was used here, all shine and metallic effects have been achieved just by settings in MCX. The left tower building does not have shine or reflection (Roughness 1), shine was added to the middle tower building (Smoothness 1), and the right tower building got shine and metallic (Smoothness 1 + Metallic 1). "Is PBR Material" always set to true:
The following
Image B depicts 3 versions of my tower building sample;
a COMP file was used here, all shine and metallic effects have been achieved by settings in MCX. The left tower building does not have shine or reflection while the connector is displayed weird (Roughness 1 + Metallic 1), shine was added to the middle tower building plus the connector appears in metallic, reflecting runway markings (Smoothness 1 + Metallic 1), and the right tower building got shine, while metallic was turned off for the metallic part of the COMP texture here (Smoothness 1 + Metallic 0). The 'Tower' signs cast shadows. "Is PBR Material" always set to true:
Albedo texture COMP =
AO Map (R): slightly adjusted default settings of program Materialize
Smoothness Map (G): slightly adjusted default settings of program Materialize
Metallic Map (B): blank white color picked for connector part of the texture only; rest of texture is black
alpha channel: white
Albedo texture COMP used for glass parts of the model and the 'Tower' sign =
RGB: each blank white
in MCX: Smoothness 1 + Metallic 0.5
transparency: controlled by a gray alpha + "Set Default Transparent" in MCX + "Is PBR Material" true
Settings and textures for all glass parts and the 'Tower' sign are the same for all 3 depicted versions of my tower building sample;
Image C shortly before sunset:
And
Image D after sunset; the transparent glass walls reflect the horizon still colored in orange, while lighted windows reflect on both the tower building samples with shine added:
Conclusion:
If possible, I would waive using a COMP, except for glass parts of a scenery, where it seems to be necessary to have a COMP, if reflections like the setting sun are desired. Also, when it is unavoidable to have metallic and nonmetallic parts for example on 1 single texture, a COMP would be necessary. Selecting metallic parts of a texture for creating a COMP in Materialize program might result in quality reductions, visible at zooming in. My future workaround for scenery creation would be to separate model parts shiny / metallic / dull / glass from each other as far as possible, assigning a separate texture to each type of surface. Good to have different options now ...
Btw 1: The Location of the pictures is ANYN Nauru Island.
Btw 2: The tower building sample is part of my never released high detailed scenery for Hamburg Airport, my home base. There is not even a tower in default MSFS scenery at Hamburg. So it will really be useful ...
