P-47 Progress Thread

[MajorMagee]

Another look at the cockpit, with a little more sunlight on it. (I bumped up the glossiness for some of the textures to 00 00 00 43 to enhance the 3D effect)

 

[Frosty]

That silky gloss on the black part of the throttle quadrant certainly looks yummy! I'll have to see if I can reproduce that with the textures themselves instead of hexediting the files. Right now I am working on some metalness for the unpainted parts. I hope to add those adjusted files to the 'update' I mentioned above (the one that removes that silly web part on the cowling).

 

[MajorMagee]

What's nice about doing in with the glossiness factor in the M3D, instead of hand crafting the lighting effects through the textures, is that it is dynamic as the aircraft moves and turns in space relative to the sun when AnKor's shaders are enabled. Without AnKor's shaders then your only option is to pick a spot on the item in the texture file and place a static highlight on it. Unfortunately the two approaches are somewhat in conflict with one another as the simulated highlights in the texture are often out of place relative to AnKor's lighting effects except when the aircraft is parked on the ground.

Thanks for mentioning that the model is designed for "EnvReflection=5" and "Glossiness=5", as that's an important adjustment when tuning the look to match your design intent. The glossiness factor I mentioned earlier (00 00 00 43) is far too strong if you have the universal value set at "Glossiness=5". (My default is "Glossiness=1")

 

[MajorMagee]

Here's a first pass at the clights. Just let me know of anything you'd like to see changed.

View attachment ACC_P47DQQ_Clight.zip

 

[Frosty]

Hey, that is very impressive, Andy!! You also got the colours right! Thanks very, very much!!

Did you have a source for this or was the 'daylight' version of my textures enough to figure out what colour the dials were? You should also give the decals on the instrument panels this treat, as most were also fluorescent/UV reactive. Colours are indicative, I hope. If not, I can give you those from the blueprints.

Did you know that in real life the cockpit light on right side has a UV filter? If you can lean forward enough in the VC, you might see that I modeled this on the lens (the bezel could be rotated to switch between normal and UV light). Of course it doesn't really work in CFS3 but maybe there's something that can be done in the RMS module...

How d'you get the opaque instrument glass to disappear at night? Did that happen with the addition of the clight file or did you hexedit the model?

BTW, I don't think the fuel cocks were fluorescent (although it makes a lot of sense to do so). I'll look them up and wil let you now if they were not. -> No, the blueprint just mentions cadmium plated numerals etc.

 

[MajorMagee]

Okay I can delete the fuel cocks , and do one for the text.

The glass is simply a matter of too little ambient light for you to see them.

 

[Frosty]

Okay I can delete the fuel cocks , and do one for the text.

The glass is simply a matter of too little ambient light for you to see them.

Thanks for the effort you're putting into this! So your ambient light is set differently then mine?

 

[Frosty]

Here's one for the gmax gurus:

For the past two-three days I have been creating "*_r.dds" texture files to control the reflection/'metalness' of various parts in the cockpit. When I add these to the materials I have created in gmax and export the cockpitmodel, weird things happen in CFS3: Some parts come out as I had intended them, some parts show no reflection at all and some parts show extreme chrome-like reflection. This is weird because the RGB value in the "*_r.dds" file for all these parts is the same and the applied gmax material is the same as well.

I hope the screenie below shows this problem:

Parts 1 (right bolt) & 5 (dome nut) show no reflection at all
Parts 2 (left bolt), 3 (button on LG lever) & 4 (spacers, 4x) show extreme reflection
Parts 6 (large spacer tube), 7 (frame of throttle quadrant) & 8 (frame of throttle quadrant + lower part of throttle) show the effect I expect with the choosen RGB value (the same as for the canopy rail in the top left corner of the screenie)

I have checked the material settings and assignments for all parts involved in gmax and I removed all textures in CFS3 except the one I am working on to exclude the possibility of conflicting textures. The problem still persists, which leads me to believe that gmax or the exporter is the culprit. Has anyone an idea why this happens? Am I overtaxing gmax or the exporter or is one of them just buggy?

 

[MajorMagee]

Progress on the clights with updated attachment.

View attachment ACC_P47DQQ_Clight.zip

You will only see this UV effect if you have these lines in the xdp file, and AnKor's shaders are enabled. Otherwise the normal red cockpit light will be shown.

<Effect Type="Track" EffectName="cockpit_light_uv" PosX="-0.275" PosZ="-1.33" PosY="0.75" Pitch="100" Heading="20" MinVel="-999999" MaxVel="999999"/>
<Effect Type="Track" EffectName="cockpit_light_uv" PosX="0.275" PosZ="-1.33" PosY="0.75" Pitch="100" Heading="-20" MinVel="-999999" MaxVel="999999"/>

As far as the opaque instrument glass is concerned, it looks opaque in daylight because it is reflecting ambient light back for you to see. At night there is no ambient light to speak of, only the dim UV light when it's switched on. The clights themselves are internally illuminating, so they don't cast light on anythiing else.

 

[rince33]

Wow! this is brilliant. The cockpit detail and lighting is awesome, a real masterpiece. The link has expired but I look forward to flying it when it's completed.

 

[MajorMagee]

I've been looking for an existing reticle that provides the proper oval mask to match the reflector glass shape. This one fits the best.

<Effect Type="Track" EffectName="uk_raf_bob2-_gunsight" PosX="0" PosZ="-0.825" PosY="0.9725" Pitch="90.0" MinVel="-999999" MaxVel="999999"/>

The next best is

<Effect Type="Track" EffectName="us_aaf_l3-_gunsight" PosX="0" PosZ="-0.725" PosY="0.9725" Pitch="90.0" MinVel="-999999" MaxVel="999999"/>

If we want this aircraft to have the K14 reticle (like the static default) I can create a new dds file with a texture mask like the one in BOB2-, but there will have to be a new line added to the effects.xml file, and some people may not care to do the edit required for it to work.

 

[Frosty]

The present reticle is a remnant of the K-14 that I did for later P-47D models and an oversight of me when I uploaded the model. As the D-25 used the Navy Mk8 gunsight (or the British Mk.II) the proper reticle should be one that fits the type. I don't know about the masks of present reticles but I could always create one, if a certain someone doesn't beat me to it...

The Mk.14 only came factory-installed on the D-40 and was retrofitted on earlier models after that.

 

[Frosty]

... The link has expired but I look forward to flying it when it's completed.

Don't worry, you'll get another chance with the update that removes the floating web part on the cowling (can't have that, even for the time being)

 

[rince33]

Thank's for the heads up mate. I'll have to find some P47 missions in the interim. I recently downloaded the ETO package, now would be a good time to install it I think.

 

[MajorMagee]

The existing mk8 reticle (we have 5 mod patterns to choose from) would need an oval mask added as well. I can create the appropriate one you want, and provide the text to add to the effects.xml, and texturemagic.ini files.

Is this the mod version you had in mind?

For the British Mk II Ring and Bead reticle we already have this one.

<Effect Type="Track" EffectName="uk_raf_bob2-_gunsight" PosX="0" PosZ="-0.825" PosY="0.9725" Pitch="90.0" MinVel="-999999" MaxVel="999999"/>

 

[Frosty]

... Is this the mod version you had in mind?

Yep, those two (the Navy and British ones) are the ones I encounter most. Since I textured the sight with a Navy designation, I would go for the one from your piccie.

 

[MajorMagee]

Here is what you'll need.

View attachment ACC_P47DQQ_Mk8_Reticle.zip

Here is full bright for daylight.

and min dim (but not off) to preserve your vision at night.

There are five increments in between so you can adjust it to match the lighting conditions as they change.

 

[Frosty]

Much obliged!!

 

[gecko]

I missed the boat on the first round, but it does look very nice! I'm curious how your work with the materials in the VC will affect things when you start adding specular textures. It may get complicated. I'm not sure how you set it up on the gmax side of things, but when I hex edit an m3d, there are four main parts I adjust:
Transparency
A tag which causes CFS3 to treat it as a reflective part or not, which increases the strength of reflections
Specular strength
Specular sharpness

For ease of working with specular textures, I try to set standard values of specular strength, so that specific shades in the greyscale specular textures produce consistent levels of specular output. If you are using a lot of different values here for different materials in gmax, you might be making more work for yourself, since this will be modified again by the specular texture. The specular sharpness cannot be changed by the specular texture, so this is where I suspect your work with materials will help you achieve the desired results.

 

[Frosty]

... The glass is simply a matter of too little ambient light for you to see them.

I am not sure we are seeing the same in CFS3: Your gauges' glass and canopy perpex in the screenies is transparent while mine is opaque during the night unless I edit it in the .m3d file which gives opposite problems during the day. This is what I see during the night:



Any ideas?