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Shiny objects - shiny ships

J

Jaxon

virtually there
Hi all,

I played around with it for some time now, but I want to inform you about this:

Beside Aircrafts, many different other objects can be "shined" - especially aftermarket GMAX models.

Like many original objects, the settings for "Specular" & "Specularity" are just not defined - the entries are already in the models, but they are all set to 0.

That means, the CFS2 engine does not know what to do with light, that hits a surface and thus no reflections are present: The objects appear dead!

With Martin Wrights MdlMat Tool
(Which can be found under graphics / beta here: http://www.mwgfx.co.uk/index.htm )

These objects can be enhanced very simply with a very easy graphical user interface:

attachment.php


In this case, I have changed the settings to 30 30 30 with a specularity of 20 - which I find very suiting for, for example: Ships:

attachment.php


It gives only a slight reflecting effect, but the result is a much more interesting appearance, especially at round shapes and when moving round the object!

Unfortunately my impression is:

75% of all new objects (aircraft/ships/houses etc.) do not use it at all.
20% don`t come with best suiting settings.

So, for the designers out there: Please use this feature on your models - I am pretty sure this can be set somwhere in GMAX
(with different materials and different settings for example dull and shiny parts at a model can be created).

And all others are encouraged to at least try it out on existing models.

Happy flying!!


PS: The ship is the IJN FUSO made by MAS (http://www.geocities.jp/mtyjr101/index.htm)
 

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Great discovery!

Thank you, Jaxon! :wavey: I just saved this page for my unending CFS2 manual.

Every now and then you find something cool, which keeps the interest in our beloved senior sim alive! Thank you very much for this, too! :02.47-tranquillity:

Cheers!
KH :ernaehrung004:
 
As a point of curiosity..........

.........(and having a cat) how do you work MW's gem? Interested in knowing how to identify what needs to be brightened(?), darkened, and identified.
 
In gmax, the specular setting is in the material editor as shown. I usually use 37 to get the best result for aircraft exterior parts.

To clarify, specular is more like sun glare, where glossiness is more like a reflective shininess.
With specular, the sunny side will be brighter while the opposite side will be darker.

If your specular values are low, the glare is a larger, more widespread effect, but less intense..
If your values are higher, the effect is more confined, but is more intense.

Flat surfaces will tend to wash out on specular like a flat piece of glass reflecting the sun in your eyes.
Curved surfaces work great/

In FS9, glossiness reflectivity is controlled through use of the alpha channel when the texture carries an _t.bmp as a suffix. Probably not much call for glossiness in CFS2 warplanes. :)
 
Lights...

Here is one for you Milton...

I'm working on a light house with a rotating light. What would be the best settings as far as gloss and specular goes. Currently specular level is at 300 and the gloss is at 20. Opacity is at 75.
 
Blood_Hawk23 said:
Here is one for you Milton...

I'm working on a light house with a rotating light. What would be the best settings as far as gloss and specular goes. Currently specular level is at 300 and the gloss is at 20. Opacity is at 75.
Click to expand...

For CFS2? I really do not know.

The settings are for what? The lighthouse side textures, the glass, rotating beacon?

If you built in gmax, makemdl ignores the glossy settings on export, although if you change the .mdl file, I am uncertain how FS or CFS would treat it.

Glass opacity varies with whether I decide to use glass_t ( xxx_T.bmp) feature. I normally use around 50-60% opacity but compliment that with using texture alpha gray for easily tweaking the opacity of the glass. Not sure CFS2 allows use of _T textures and alpha. Not using the _T and alpha, 75% may work well.

Not sure where a 300 specular comes in handy; most of my work uses 37-50 depending on the surface curvature. Frankly I have never experimented with any spec value over 100.

EDIT: Are you using mdlcommander? The FS2002 gmax/makemdl had an issue regarding specular values (wrong decimal position or something rendering very low spec values so high ones had to be used). The FS2004 gmax/makemdl fixed that issue. Or, if you use mdlcommander, it has a switch to fix that issue on export.
 
Yes its for the beacon.

I have both FS2k2 and FS2k4 makemdl.

I'm not planning on texturing the beacon. I've run the model through CFS2 and it seems to work fine. The light shows up at about 20 miles out.

What do you use for the glass?

Oh the 300 is for the front of the light. I have the main beam at 200 and the opacity at 50%. Gloss is set the same.

I have to re-texture the the top of the light. It had way to many polys before so I had to remake it.
 
Blood_Hawk23 said:
Yes its for the beacon.

I have both FS2k2 and FS2k4 makemdl.

I'm not planning on texturing the beacon. I've run the model through CFS2 and it seems to work fine. The light shows up at about 20 miles out.

What do you use for the glass?

Oh the 300 is for the front of the light. I have the main beam at 200 and the opacity at 50%. Gloss is set the same.

I have to re-texture the the top of the light. It had way to many polys before so I had to remake it.
Click to expand...

If it looks right, then go with it. For glass I use a small simple gray texture and set opacity around 50%.

Sorry to the OP for the OT comments.
 
Blood_Hawk23 said:
No worries...

So when it comes to the glass, you leave it at the default settings for specular and gloss.
Click to expand...

Sorry I forgot to address that. For glass I use 37-50 depending on if it has a curvature.

As I said earlier I don't think gloss has any effect because of makemdl ignoring it, but I may be wrong. I just leave it at 10. Try it and see.

Do what looks best in your sim.
 
Milton Shupe said:
Sorry I forgot to address that. For glass I use 37-50 depending on if it has a curvature.

As I said earlier I don't think gloss has any effect because of makemdl ignoring it, but I may be wrong. I just leave it at 10. Try it and see.

Do what looks best in your sim.
Click to expand...

I ran a series of documented tests on specular and transparency settings. The two threads are stickys in the Design forum.

Here is the Specular test thread: http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?71817-Specular-Testing-For-FS9-Only

Here is the transparency test thread: http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?71819-Transparency-Tests-for-FS9-Only
 
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