FSX port over glass too shiny in P3D?

Tako_Kichi

Tako_Kichi

Administrator
Staff member
I moved over my Lionheart Creations Quest Kodiak to P3D v4.5 and everything moved over fine apart from the cockpit/fuselage glass was very shiny in outside view. After a bit of research and poking around I solved the issue and it now looks fine. If anyone has similar issues with this or other aircraft then you need to edit the relevant cockpit glass texture (Perspex_T.dds in the case of the Kodiak) which is located in the common 'Texture' folder for that aircraft. Open up the file in your photo editor of choice (PS, PSP, Gimp, etc.) and edit the alpha channel. The Kodiak has an alpha value of 255, 255, 255, or pure white. I changed this to 75, 75, 75, which is a mid to dark grey and the excessive shine went away.

Hope that helps.
:ernaehrung004:
 
Thank you for that tip. I have owned the Kodiak Quest since it was released and flown it in a long while. I will put your tip in my archive if i decided again to fly it in P3D V4.5
 
I want to make the Kodiak windows much darker in v. 4.5. Normally you make the alpha whiter or pure white but this doesn't seem to help.
 
On the inside glass or outside? The alpha changes the shine in the case of the Kodiak glass not the opacity. Try changing the grey levels of the diffuse colour rather than it's alpha channel.

It may be that the opacity is controlled by the material properties in the model in which case there is nothing you can do with a texture file to make it darker. You would have to de-compile the model, change the glass recipe and then re-compile it again.
 
Thanks - I made it a little darker but lost all reflection - so you are right about the alpha.
How do I isolate the diffuse color with dxt.bmp?
 
It's been a while since I used DXTBMP (I import DDS files directly into Photoshop using the Nvidia tool) but I think it's just a case of picking 'Image - Send to Editor' from the top menu bar (assuming that you have designated your editor of choice under 'Preferences'). With DXTBMP you have to choose to send either the diffuse or the alpha to the editor.

You might want to investigate 'Plexi_Spec.dds' too in case that is the culprit (make a back-up first in case you mess it up!....BTDT! :mad: )
 
I just played around with multiple settings in multiple glass files for the Kodiak and I can't get the glass to darken at all (remove shine yes, darken no). I guess the opacity is written into the glass recipe in the modeling program so there is nothing that can be done short of changing the source. I'm not even sure if MCX can do anything with it.

This is what I get, the same clear glass no matter what I do! :rolleyes:

Kodiak_Test.jpg
 
It may be heresy but when I got P3Dv4.5 (2018 maybe??) and tried a WBS Mustang I had the same problem. Apparently you can turn off dynamic reflections and that might help, or you can do what I did and use MCX to convert the glass to PBR. You'll need to create a metallic file as well. If you're not able to do that, the BAC TSR2 we posted in August has one you could use; it's in the 'texture' folder and it's called 'glass_s.dds'. You may have to alter the alpha on your glass to get a good depth of colour, other than that it should work.

DaveQ
 
I really must learn how to use the actual 'features' of MCX! I have had it for years but as a modeller and a re-painter all I ever did was load up a model and then check animations or the paint 'fit' on the model or look at a texture on a downloaded model to see if I was going to keep it or not. I must learn about PBR too as that is something I never had to deal with when developing models for FSX. So many things to learn, so little time! :oops:
 
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