Specular shine

[RobH]

Can specular shine, or any shine at all, be added to a FS9 model being used in FSX without the source model? I have tried Mdlmat and ModelconverterX, with no luck at all. I am trying to add a little shine to Stuarts Green Fokker Dvii. Thanks.

 

[Tako_Kichi]

Specular shine from a texture can only be added if it is part of the 'material' specs in the model and FS9 didn't have that feature so you can't do it on a FS9 port-over. The model would have to be recompiled using the FSX SDK tools, materials and all the animations would have to be re-done too.

You can add a regular shine to a FS9 model by adjusting the alpha layer on the FS9 textures. The alpha is a grey-scale image and pure white is no shine while black makes it look like it is glass coated but it also depends on how the FS9 material was set up as a second option is to make black transparent.

Try playing with the alpha layer on the diffuse textures and paint the areas you want to have shiny with a 5% or 10% grey and see what that looks like. Increase the grey percentage to get more shine.

 

[n4gix]

You can add a regular shine to a FS9 model by adjusting the alpha layer on the FS9 textures. The alpha is a grey-scale image and pure white is no shine while black makes it look like it is glass coated but it also depends on how the FS9 material was set up as a second option is to make black transparent.

Larry, it's easy to identify the bitmaps who's Alpha is configured to control transparency. There will be a _t in the filename, e.g. fuselage_t.bmp.

 

[Tako_Kichi]

Larry, it's easy to identify the bitmaps who's Alpha is configured to control transparency. There will be a _t in the filename, e.g. fuselage_t.bmp.

Ahh thanks for that Bill. It's been so long since I last repainted an FS9 aircraft that I had forgotten about that '_T' suffix.

 

[RobH]

Thanks guys! I have tried changing the alpha channel, but it just creates transparency, not shine. I was hoping there was some way to bring a little shine to this aircraft in FSX.

 

[OBIO]

ROb

Where can I grab Stuart's Fokker. I will see what I can do to give it some specular shine.

___

The _T and _L extensions on texture names....trust me, those really don't mean a thing. Those are part of the FSDS way of naming texture sheets. Just because a file has the _T on it does not mean that the plane has reflective texturing...it all depends on the material specifications assigned to the underlying mesh material.

OBIO

 

[RobH]

Thanks Obio,

You can get the FS9 original plane here: http://homepages.domicilium.com/peve...nes/Fokker.htm

You can get the updated files for use in FSX here: http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...catid=3&id=365

 

[Milton Shupe]

Seems to be some confusion here regarding FS9 specular lighting (sun glare), and reflective (glossiness) textures.

You can have specular lighting (sun glare) regardless of how the bmps are named (with or without the _T). However, it should normally be specified in the material properties for the texture bmp. OBIO (or anyone) can add that to the model by changing the material properties for the texture in the model file if it does not have it.

Reflectivity (glossiness) requires that the model is exported with "Has Reflect Map" ticked, and that the bmp have the _T, and that the alpha channel is darker than white 255,255,255. Usually for normal glossiness, values around 220,220,220 works well. Chrome requires near black 0,0,0.

EDIT: Attached is an S2Turbo Civilian model (not yet released) that was setup for specular (you can see it at the top) and reflectivity (glossiness or chrome) at the bottom. I did this for FS9 but this shot was taken in FSX.

 

[RobH]

Reflectivity (glossiness) requires that the model is exported with "Has Reflect Map" ticked, and that the bmp have the _T, and that the alpha channel is darker than white 255,255,255. Usually for normal glossiness, values around 220,220,220 works well. Chrome requires near black 0,0,0.

Thanks Milton. What do I need to export the model?

 

[Milton Shupe]

Thanks Milton. What do I need to export the model?

OBIO I believe is doing this for you as indicated above. He is an expert at mdl conversions so I would let him do his magic.
If you are interested, he would happily give you pointers as to how, or where to go read the docs.

 

[RobH]

Ok thanks

 

[n4gix]

Seems to be some confusion here regarding FS9 specular lighting (sun glare), and reflective (glossiness) textures.

You can have specular lighting (sun glare) regardless of how the bmps are named (with or without the _T). However, it should normally be specified in the material properties for the texture bmp. OBIO (or anyone) can add that to the model by changing the material properties for the texture in the model file if it does not have it.

Reflectivity (glossiness) requires that the model is exported with "Has Reflect Map" ticked, and that the bmp have the _T, and that the alpha channel is darker than white 255,255,255. Usually for normal glossiness, values around 220,220,220 works well. Chrome requires near black 0,0,0.

Hmm... Milton, what you just wrote is 180º out of phase with what you wrote last December, 2011: http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforu...Transparency-versus-Reflectivity-issue-in-FS9

I know that I've read somewhere in a Microsoft sourced statement somewhere that the _T suffix should be used to set transparency via the Diffuse bitmap's Alpha channel. I also know from experience that simply removing the _T suffix in an FSX model's Diffuse bitmap name changed the behavior of the Alpha channel from transparent control to reflectivity control... :isadizzy:

 

[Milton Shupe]

Hmm... Milton, what you just wrote is 180º out of phase with what you wrote last December, 2011: http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforu...Transparency-versus-Reflectivity-issue-in-FS9

I know that I've read somewhere in a Microsoft sourced statement somewhere that the _T suffix should be used to set transparency via the Diffuse bitmap's Alpha channel. I also know from experience that simply removing the _T suffix in an FSX model's Diffuse bitmap name changed the behavior of the Alpha channel from transparent control to reflectivity control... :isadizzy:

LOL Bill and so true it is. Both, depending.

The _T is explained in the makemdl doc as a base texture suffix that would indicate a corresponding light map, night map, or damage map is expected of the same name. Without the _T, these others are not processed, so it would seem.

With or without the _T, actions taken seem also to be controlled by the makemdl export options such as "HasLightMap", "HasReflectMap", "HasNightMap", and "HasDamageMap".

I used to run exports with "HasLightMap" and the results are different than now. I quit using "HasLightMap" some time ago as it destroys chrome look at Dusk. You can still use light maps without the option checked.

Also with the option unchecked, the _T is required with a darkened alpha to get reflectivity. Without the _T, you get transparency. This is what works for me as posted above and demonstrated in the screenshot I attached above.

I help this further confuses all of us. It drives me bonkers.

EDIT: And let me just add that I am referring to FS9 here (which BTW changed from FS8). I am unsure of the differences in FSX.

 

[Roger]

I wish there was a tutorial for MDLMAT XX. I've been trying to get some shine on the glass canopy of the Alphasim Yak-52 without success.