gMax animated object invicible at frame 0 ingame - possible?

BorekS

BorekS

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having small question.
is it possible to set a 0 keyframe at CFS3 animated object as invicible ingame?

this is happen in older FS series naturally, if I good remember, but I would need it for CFS3 airplane. now is my mesh object hidden at frame 0 in the fuselage. at frame 1 is it visible pushed behind the tail. its about parachute parts tagged as spoiler (airbrake). from some angles and distance it is flickering outside the fuselage a bit, I noticed.

there is a few ways how to fix it like moving the object(s) a bit there or here, redo the object rotation at frame 0 vs frame 1 to act like inverted normals or maybe to use my favorite wheelwell tag somehow there... but thats not the point what I am asking now ;)
 
You could make the object super small and then use a scale animation to inflate it to normal size. Just dont make the object so small that the vertices collapse and dont apply the scale at frame 0. Other than that , I don't know of a way to make an object invisible at frame 0
 
oh, wait, scale animation does work in MS FS series?

anyway yeah, the 0 frame question is the point ;)
 
Yeah, I would not think that a scale animation would work in CFS3 so I never tried it til today. I have a working test model to show the results if needed.
 
Scale animations don't work in any version of FS or CFS afaik, you'll have to do some object squishing at the vertex level so the squashed parachute can hide inside the aircraft tail.
 
Brilliant! I love this community's ability to make the old girl bend to our will, and do things people never thought possible in CFS3.
 
Yum, the original thread question turned into a pretty nice learn infact, I can really confirm the scale animation made in gmax works in CFS3. Did a few tests. However something works, something not, if just the gmax export to m3d lacks the well known scale warning, you are a winner :)

It opens a few new possibilities for CFS3 usage, thank you sdsbolt :)

As to the chute feature the scale didn't worked, but rescaling a tire or gear doors tests worked well. I can try harder, but the 0 frame animation hiding still would be a perfect solution for me.

I've moved the chute squeezed stuff bit more into the fuselage and the flickering through the surface appears from larger distance then. I've used also the wheelwell tag, which does the 0 frame hide feature infact, but it works when gear is retracted only. One of the simpler solutions is to make the chute same color as skin is, then is it almost unnoticable.
 
Just a wild guess, maybe completely wrong, but since you mention flickering - does the chute have any semi-transparency in the texture or opacity value?

CFS3 renders opaque (DXT1 texture, full opacity) and semi-transparent objects (DXT3/5 or <255 opacity) separately with slightly different z buffer settings, with semi-transparent objects biased as if they were closer to the camera.
This could make the chute pop through the fuselage.

Or it may be just a precision limitation of z-buffer. I have solved precision issues in DX11, but it is not ready.
 
Steve,
Fantastic find...and proving it, well done! :applause:

Now the big question I wonder if it will work in other sims?

And did you do this in Gmax?

Cheers

Shessi
 
AnKor said:
since you mention flickering - does the chute have any semi-transparency in the texture or opacity value? CFS3 renders opaque (DXT1 texture, full opacity) and semi-transparent objects (DXT3/5 or <255 opacity) separately with slightly different z buffer settings, with semi-transparent objects biased as if they were closer to the camera. This could make the chute pop through the fuselage.
Click to expand...

oh yes, you really hit the nail on the head, AnKor ;)
my last hope to me seemed to test some material / texture properities a bit yet. the chute gmax material is solid, but the texture is semitransparent DXT5. I made it DXT1 1bit alpha now and the problem disappeared, thank you to show me the right way!

someone mentioned the CFS3 z-buffer "depth" is tweakable in some config file, so it would be a lot more sexy solution, but as many here know me already, I am aggainst any end-user manual edits for a specific airplane add-on, if such work is not life important. so the Arado chute is a DXT1. it is not so cute look like the original DXT5, but I can live with that. the DXT5 original chute texture can be enpacked as optional file replace in the public release.
 
Shessi said:
And did you do this in Gmax?
Click to expand...
I am interrested wich another way we would be able to make CFS3 m3d files except gMax export. or do you mean some back-engineering conversion tools? or there is some newer FSDS? I am bit frozen in time when it goes about new alternative modder tools.
 
Hi B,
Unfortunately no, you cannot make CFS3 .M3D files from FSDS.

I was asking Steve about the animation and the CFS3 animation call that is modelled, as it may be something I can make in FSDS and therefore use this animation in other sims.

Cheers

Shessi
 
Yeah Mark Gmax only for this test. I do not know if it works on other MS flight sims . I am surprised it works for CFS3. I notice the expanded objects don't cast appropriate sized shadows so maybe there is some other weirdness to be expected??

BTW. when we gonna see some of your excellent models in cfs3?

Steve
 
BorekS, glad it helped :)

sdsbolt said:
I notice the expanded objects don't cast appropriate sized shadows
Click to expand...
Interesting. If it is about DX9 shaders, then I think the renderer should handle scaling. There's one place where I calculate object bounds from vertex positions without applying any scaling transform and this calculation is used to cut off parts of the object not contributing to the shadow (a bit tricky to explain).
But if I understand correctly, vertex positions correspond to 100% scale, so if you shrink the object it should be ok. Going over 100% may indeed cause some missing shadows.

Maybe there's something else, though.
 
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