Looking for Ivan Hsu's "Shine"

[Mick]

I have "Shiny," the adaptation of Ivan Hsu's "Shine" that will make a model glossy, semi-gloss, semi-matte or dead flat. Alas, it doesn't work in Win10pro.

After years of setting gloss levels in MdlMat, an annoyingly tedious and fiddly process, it dawned on me that Win10pro includes Command Prompt, which I guess is a sort of virtual DOS, so I wonder if I could run the original Shine. I thought I could get it here but I couldn't find it in the library.

Does anyone have a copy of Shine that they could share with me, or know where I can find one?

 

[Shessi]

You do realise you can use Mk_MDLC, which allows to do more with sheen, shine, reflection etc, and there;s a 64 bit version which runs in 10.

MK_MDLC and MDLC for 64bit systems.zip

We can now go back to XP and Vista era and convert FS9 aircraft to FS8 or CFS2, Apply dynamic shine to models, Adjust model size ("collision bubble") without setting up emulators or virtual machine. No need for batch files or DOS window commands...

sim-outhouse.org

MdlMat doesn't always work even on a 32 bit system and Shine is pretty basic, no, use Mk_MDLC and you can do it all-in-one, along a lot of other things.

Cheers

Shessi

 

[Klein]

Hello Gents
I use MdlMat, even with Win11, it works pretty well. Don't forget when you make any change on a model to have your sim off, or to select an other plane before saving the Mdlmat changes, or the changes won't be done on the model.

Hope that helps, cheers
Martin

 

[Klein]

Hello again Gents
I would be interested on your opinion on the specularity subject, the problem that let me reticent to use MDLC for it's shine function is that all the materials will be set to the same specularity, if the model designer chose a glossy material for, by example, the metallic parts and a dull one for the camouflage, all will be send to the same value.
I wrote some ideas about it several years ago, but not with any pretention to make a tutorial. It speaks of CFS2, but it's the same for FS2004, and of Gmax, but I believe it works too with FSDS.

What do you think about it ?

Cheers
Martin

 

[Mick]

You do realise you can use Mk_MDLC, which allows to do more with sheen, shine, reflection etc, and there;s a 64 bit version which runs in 10.

MK_MDLC and MDLC for 64bit systems.zip

We can now go back to XP and Vista era and convert FS9 aircraft to FS8 or CFS2, Apply dynamic shine to models, Adjust model size ("collision bubble") without setting up emulators or virtual machine. No need for batch files or DOS window commands...

sim-outhouse.org

MdlMat doesn't always work even on a 32 bit system and Shine is pretty basic, no, use Mk_MDLC and you can do it all-in-one, along a lot of other things.

Cheers

Shessi

Thanks Mark!

This looks promising. I never heard of it and I look forward to trying it.

 

[Mick]

Hello again Gents
I would be interested on your opinion on the specularity subject, the problem that let me reticent to use MDLC for it's shine function is that all the materials will be set to the same specularity, if the model designer chose a glossy material for, by example, the metallic parts and a dull one for the camouflage, all will be send to the same value.
I wrote some ideas about it several years ago, but not with any pretention to make a tutorial. It speaks of CFS2, but it's the same for FS2004, and of Gmax, but I believe it works too with FSDS.

What do you think about it ?

Cheers
Martin

Thanks!

I'll peruse it with interest. I'm sure I'll learn some things from it.

 

[Mick]

Hello Gents
I use MdlMat, even with Win11, it works pretty well. Don't forget when you make any change on a model to have your sim off, or to select an other plane before saving the Mdlmat changes, or the changes won't be done on the model.

Hope that helps, cheers
Martin

I've used MDLmat on our last few projects. I find that in my Win10pro rig it doesn't give me a lot of control of the gloss level. No matter how I set it I get a choice of extremely glossy, dead flat, or something about half way in between, and efforts to fine tune it are fruitless. And it's really annoying to have to test and test and test some more to find out which line in the model material list affects the exterior surfaces. I'll read your not-a-tutorial and try the program Mark posted.

 

[Shessi]

Hi Martin,
Just had a read, very nice, and thank you. Gives a fair incite into what setting do what. Yes, having experimented for yeeeeaaaaarrrrsss with MdlMat and MDLC, it IS down to personal choice and what works for you, and YES after certain values it has no effect.

I think the settings in MDLC are linked to hex values, that's why certain settings have an effect and then no real effect until another hex value is hit etc?. And no, Gmax shine settings don't work in CFS2, that's why you have to use MDLC/MdlMat afterwards to get shine etc., as it doesn't use texture alpha channels, only material values for shine etc.

Without doubt Mick, playing with Mk_MDLC, is the way to go. As Martin talks about in his pdf, you can change the shine etc settings for individual parts (if you want) (eg I did that on the Mile Magister, where some models had a polished eng cowling). Much more customisable.

A couple of hints always keep a virgin copy of the mdl you're working on separate (so if confused you can just copy in a fresh start mdl), and when experimenting write down the settings that work for you, so that you can re-create them, otherwise they get 'lost' ha ha. I also use different settings for CFS2 and Fs9, as the sim engines treat light differently (sometimes shined CFS2 mdls look better than Fs9!! heresy I know ).

Cheers

Shessi

 

[Klein]

Hello Shessi

Many thanks for your answer and your opinion on this subject. Yes, CFS2 looks sometimes better than FS2004, the specularity is on my opinion better rendered in CFS2 that in FS9, and no, I don't have to use MdlMat after a model coming from Gmax, as explained the specularity can be set-up natively in Gmax, you can use later MdlMat to correct some nuances, but model after model, you don't need it any more, the values you gave to a material can be noted and re-used later on an other, the function "glossiness" in Gmax doesn't have anything to see with the specularity, and is not exported, but the glossiness you see on screen is the specular level defined in the material.

I don't know what is the best between Gmax and FSDS, and I don't matter at all about it, I learned to work with Gmax cause in a first time Gmax was free, and now I know a bit more about it I believe it can do a lot, with sometimes need of post production with SCASM for animations not exported by MakeMDL, the tool that exports the Gmax files to the .mdl format, I won't speak of FSDS cause I don't know anything about it, but the most important for me is to have fun to create with the one or the other and to be happy later with the result.

Cheers
Martin

 

[Mick]

Thanks to Shessi and Klein for a very informative discussion!

It'll be a while before I have to finalize the finishes on David and my current project. I can't do that part until all the models are in final form and we're still some ways from there. David sends me the models reflectivity enabled, and when I paint the skins I use reflective textures for natural metal skins and and add an appropriate level of gloss where appropriate to the painted planes. As usual with our projects this one will have multiple models or multiple variants and many skins.