How do I add shine?

TeiscoDelRay

TeiscoDelRay

Life Time CM
I have a plane I installed that is flat and needs some shine, is there a way I can change this in Paint Shop Pro or in the files?
 
OT

TeiscoDelRay said:
...,I used to collect them. Still have a few.
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Cool!

A friend had this very model back in the day (green hollowbody):

n4d014.jpg


I wanted to buy it from him but he would never sell it even though it sat in a closet unused. He later smashed it to bits just for fun. Bummer!
 
You can't add shine or reflections to a repaint. It is the model file which defines the level of shine or reflection.

Cheers,
huub
 
It depends which model is being repainted, if the model allows alpha channels you can add shine.

Steve
 
SteveB said:
It depends which model is being repainted, if the model allows alpha channels you can add shine. Steve
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I'd have thought so...
Matter of interest, what is shine (as opposed to reflectivity), and what does the alpha channel actually provide, as opposed to what's built into the model?
 
Wing_Z said:
I'd have thought so...
Matter of interest, what is shine (as opposed to reflectivity), and what does the alpha channel actually provide, as opposed to what's built into the model?
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Shine...actually specular shine...is built into the MDL file and simulates light reflecting off the surfaces of the plane. With specular shine there is no true reflective qualities...meaning that you will not see the clouds and sky reflected in paint or on the polished metal. The higher the degree of specular shine, the shinier the surface becomes....but the shine is flat, it has no depth to it...kind of like pouring water on your counter top....the water makes the counter top shiny but the shine has no depth to it...kind of hard to explain.

Alpha Channel Reflectivity is also set in the MDL but it is also controlled by the alpha channel in the texture files. The lighter the alpha channel, the less reflective a surface is. The darker the alpha channel, the more reflective a surface is. Now, FS9 does not have true reflective texturing...it is simulated reflections that we see. The envmap.bmp, which is located in the main TEXTURES folder, is a picture...basically a land scape picture, with ground area and sky/cloud areas. FS9 simply maps that image on top of the stuff in the texture files to give the illusion that the polished aluminum is reflecting the clouds over head. To really see just how much of an illusion the reflections are...go to a desert setting and fly a bare metal plane....go to spot view and bank and turn your plane and look at it from various angles. One envmap that I used had a mountain and lake in it...and it was odd flying across the Sahara desert and seeing a cool mountain lake "reflected" in the side of my airplane.

OBIO
 
Thanks...that is pretty clear.
So the envmap file I would imagine acts as a filter to shine and reflectivity - I like Bananabob's version because the planes shine a little more without getting too reflective.
 
Here's another way of looking at it.

If you wanted to depict glossy paint - not super-glossy candy apply, but just normal glossy paint - you'd use specular shine.

If you wanted to depict polished natural metal, you'd use reflectivity.

When I paint a plane in silver paint I use specular shine. When I paint a plane natural metal I use reflectivity.

Note that both shine and reflections must be enabled in the model. You can enable one or the other or both. (Or neither.)

If you enable reflections, you won't be able to use the alpha channel for transparency. The alpha channel can do one or the other, but not both.

Bear this in mind about reflections. Reflective textures look radically different on different computers, depending on what enviro bitmap in installed. If you want to paint a plane and release the paint for others to use, and you want it to look the same to everyone, then don't use reflections unless you really have to. And if you really have to, then accept the fact that your paint will look very different on some other computers.
 
OBIO and Mick are on it.


Here is a simple rule of thumb for repainters.

In FS2004; If there is a _t or _T on the end of a texture name, then that texture has the ability to have reflection in it. This is adjusted with the Alpha channel.


Alpha tuning; Darker is more reflective, bright pure white is 'zero' reflection. Super dark will look like Chrome.


Hope that helps.
 
Weekend optimistic tinkerer with models and paints...
I have Ivan Hsu's MDLC (actually the GUI MDLC_57) and in there are 2 options:
/s = set Visual Model shining and output to (MDS) file
/r = set Visual Model reflective texture to (MDR) file
Can MDLC create shine and reflectivity if not specified in the original model, or only modify them?
 
You can add specular shine and/or reflectivity to some models (not all) that do not have those settings originally. Really old models...forget about it...nothing going to work on them.

I use the Windows Interface to run MDLC through...can't remember the name of the actual thing...but when it is used, you don't have to remember all the DOS type commands to use MDLC....the interface does not cover all the things that MDLC can be used to do...but it does cover adding Specular shine and Reflectivity.

On some models, when MDLC is used to add specular shine, the shine comes out in pinkish hues....this is due to the color assigned to the MDL material setting during the conversion. This can be fixed using Martin Wright's MDLmat program...which is what I use to add or remove specular shine from models manually is it gives more control over the amount of specular shine. I have a tutorial on how to use MDLmat to adjust specular shine nearly done...will have it ready to upload soon.

Using MDLC to add reflectivity to a model is pretty easy....select the MDL file you want to add reflectivity to, select the Reflectivity option, hit convert. The model will either convert successfully or it won't. Some models have converted successfully, but for some odd reason ended up with the texture mapping all messed up.

Now, there is a snag when adding reflectivity to a model using MDLC. MDLC makes everything reflective...and the result is that VC panels and prop blurs come out very funky. These can be fixed using a hex editor. JDTinballs sent me a tutorial on how to do it...very easy...takes just a couple minutes to correct these areas.

Sometimes the glass on the plane becomes an issue when adding reflectivity. If the canopy glass is created using transparency via the alpha channel, after converting the model to reflective, the transparency no longer makes the glass transparent...it makes it shiny. This too can be fixed in the same way as the VC panel and prop blurs.

I will have to dig around on my archive media and find the tute JD sent me and get it uploaded to the library. I know I have it. I found it, copied it off the CD/DVD it is on and onto my D drive...which is the drive that took a hit recently and lost the boot sector.

OBIO
 
Didn't think of the VC problem - I've only ever made models less shiny - like the Gmax C-17 and recently the CAC Boomerang.
I guess if the VC were not shiny already it wouldn't be noticeable.

Going back to some models I know well, I'm really pleased with BananaBob's enviro bmp.
The planes have a gleam to them which is very satisfying.
 
Wing Z,

specular shine doesn't affect the VC, only reflection. Basically, for specular shine, each material in the model has it's own 'shine' properties, so shine is done per model material.

Reflection is somewhat different, it is done per texture bmp, and as far as my experience shows, the _t suffix has NO bearing bar the naming of the texs by the original designer. These suffix relate more to _t (undamaged tex), _d (damaged Tex), (both used in CFS2 and FS9, maybe other previous FS?) and _L ( light maps for night time,used in many versions, FS2000 onwards?). The key for the reflection is in the model file and will work regardless of name or suffix, you can even make reflection work on all suffix variations. The problem being that mdlc is the easiest way to add reflection (not the only) but add's reflection to ALL bmp's, that means it affects the prop and VC entries, this can be fixed manually with the tute I made for Obio unless individual model quirks prevent this,such as prop blur texs sharing a bmp with other parts, you have to set props to non reflection for their transparency to work, if they share a bmp, the other parts will be non-reflective also. This means you might be able to have reflective fuselage, but if the wings share a bmp with the prop blur, they must be non-reflective, looks daft.

Also, if you have ACM, check the model in that first, if the glass causes any anomalies, ie makes parts behind it invisible, the mdl part hierarchy is gonna mean the glass reflections may cause some problems in-sim.

Jamie
 
found the quick and dirty tute...

it is as stated above, the bmps are separate, when I tried to create one doc, the file size became un-uploadable, sorry.

Obio,
here we go....

firstly, you'll need Frhed or another Hex editor, Frhed is free so a no-brainer, if you don't have it and can't find it, gimme a shout.

secondly, texture editing software, I know you got this so enough said.

thirdly, MDLC V1.xx, I use 1.90, never had any problems with it, problems due to models, hell yes!!, MDLC, no.

forthly, enough patience to listen to me rant on about how it's done, but once you know how it's simple as can be :¬)


Part one, adding reflections.
back up original model (you will need it for comparitive purposes), add reflections to original with MDLC (I'll leave you to do this on your own, read it's own manual).

Part one end.

Part Two, fixing VC gauge plane.
First, open the panel.cfg file and in the [VcockpitXX] sections, find the 'texture=$vpanel' (or similar) entries, names will differ and there may be many, one for each VC entry, take note of all the names.

Next, open the original model in Frhed*, then open the new reflective one also. Then click both on the taskbar whilst holding ctrl, right click and select 'tile vertically'. This will help you compare old for new. In the back up, hit the edit menu, and find 'bmp'. Once you get the first one, left click on the 'b' of bmp, this will stop Frhed jumping back to the top when you switch windows (annoying!!), do the same with the new model. If you scroll down a little in each model, you'll notice that the new one now has 2 entries for each bmp, initially comparing both entries, they look identical and I nearly got caught out and gave up. There seemed no difference in the new entry for each bmp, so why add it? But there is a difference, my mistake was I was looking in the right hand window of Frhed, the answer lies in the left.

Now down to the fix, once you've searched for bmp, keep pressing F3 to search for more entries, keep your eye on the scroll bar on the right. You'll find a run of entries near the top, these are the bmp files for the main LOD, suddenly it will jump to near the bottom, these are the VC entries, the ones we are looking for. If the model is Multi-LOD, expect a block for each LOD, you'll have to search a bit more. Once you hit the lower block stop hitting F3, and scroll down instead, in this block you'll find the names you noted down earlier from the panel.cfg, they have no bmp extension, hence the desisting of F3. Once you have located the first $VCpanel entry, move on to the second. You'll notice that in the right window they are separated by lots of '........' and in the left window they appear as '00 00 00 00'. But not all of them!! In the first VC entry if you highlight the $ in the right window the corresponding bit in the left window highlights. Just above that in the left window, you'll see a '01', if you highlight it, you'll see it shows as a '.' in the right window, just like the '00', that is the slight difference I nearly missed. Now the '01' in the first entry is fine, matches the original file. The next entry differs, offset by one bit in the next one is an '02', the '01' is now '00' but imidiatelly right of where it would have been is the '02'. Click on this in the left window and edit it to '00' (Zero zero). Do this for each second entry of the VC files you noted down. Save file and you're good to go, almost.

Part Two end.

Part Three, the prop.

You need to do exactly the same for the prop, easy if the spinning prop has a separate bmp like the ones Kelti makes, more difficult if, as in some cases, it's part of a larger file. Experimentation would be needed here. Fine if the other parts on that bmp don't need reflection, but unfixable if they do. Reflection can only be set per bmp. This will need to be done for the main model, the VC and every LOD (if it has any).

I've included some pics of the areas of importance in frhed, good luck and I hope I was clear enough, let me know otherwise.

Jamie


*it's easier if you set file associations to open mdl files with Frhed, then you can just double click them. A hex editor is one of the very few proggies you can use to open and view mdl files, so no harm should come. If you use other progs, your advanced enough to know what to do ;¬)
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