Uploaded: tutorial for Martin Wright's MDLmat utility

O

OBIO

Retired SOH Admin
I just uploaded a tutorial that explains how to use Martin Wright's MDLmat utility to change the color, transparency and specular shine of MDL defined materials. This is a very useful utility to know how to use: Tired of flying a plane with a red canopy, it can be changed...in most cases at any rate. Tired of flying a plane with glass so dark you can't see inside, it can be changed..in most cases. Tired of your plane being either way too shiny or totally dull....again, it can be changed..in most cases.

This really is a simple utility to use...just click click click. There is some trial and error involved in finding the material that needs adjusted...that in itself is the hardest part of making adjustments to your planes MDL file.

The file was uploaded to the FS2004 Other section of the library.

NOTE: Some older models can not be adjusted using MDLmat and can not be given specular shine. For those models, there is another utility by Martin Wright: MDLcolour. This utility allows you to work with the older models and make adjustments to the color and transparency of the MDL defined material...it can not add specular shine to these older planes. If you follow the study the MDLmat tutorial, it will also give you the know how to use MDLcolour.

OBIO
 
OBIO said:
I just uploaded a tutorial that explains how to use Martin Wright's MDLmat utility to change the color, transparency and specular shine of MDL defined materials. This is a very useful utility to know how to use: Tired of flying a plane with a red canopy, it can be changed...in most cases at any rate. Tired of flying a plane with glass so dark you can't see inside, it can be changed..in most cases. Tired of your plane being either way too shiny or totally dull....again, it can be changed..in most cases.

This really is a simple utility to use...just click click click. There is some trial and error involved in finding the material that needs adjusted...that in itself is the hardest part of making adjustments to your planes MDL file.

The file was uploaded to the FS2004 Other section of the library.

NOTE: Some older models can not be adjusted using MDLmat and can not be given specular shine. For those models, there is another utility by Martin Wright: MDLcolour. This utility allows you to work with the older models and make adjustments to the color and transparency of the MDL defined material...it can not add specular shine to these older planes. If you follow the study the MDLmat tutorial, it will also give you the know how to use MDLcolour.

OBIO
Click to expand...

Thanks buddy. There are a lot of these programs I'm stumped on, particularly DPED. And I have a lot of planes that have this discoloration, so I'll be checking into all of it.

Tony
 
The Naster Of Gloss

Thanks OBIO!
Your work on TheB24Guys overhauls has me looking forward to this one.
Dave
 
tonybones2112 said:
Thanks buddy. There are a lot of these programs I'm stumped on, particularly DPED. And I have a lot of planes that have this discoloration, so I'll be checking into all of it.
Tony
Click to expand...
It's too bad that there was never an updated version of DPED that would show the model wire frames of newer FSDS and gMax aircraft. I used to enjoy messing around with dp files, until I could no longer see where I was placing guns and hard points. You can use Aircraft Container Manager to get the positional info but it's a drudge to transcribe it into DPED. If anybody's come up with a better process I'd like to know about it.
 
Not necessarily relevant to this CFS2 thread but there is also a new "MDLMatXX" program available.
This is specifically for FSX models (only models created in full FSX format) and gives access to all the many Material properties available. The old MdlMat won`t work with FSX-format mdls so I wrote this version using format information gleaned from the FSDeveloper wiki (useful stuff!)
Again it has no instructions but the general functionality is much the same as MdlColour and MdlMat but with a load more options
 
TARPSBird said:
It's too bad that there was never an updated version of DPED that would show the model wire frames of newer FSDS and gMax aircraft. I used to enjoy messing around with dp files, until I could no longer see where I was placing guns and hard points. You can use Aircraft Container Manager to get the positional info but it's a drudge to transcribe it into DPED. If anybody's come up with a better process I'd like to know about it.
Click to expand...


I can't make heads or tails of it(DPED) Tarps, I can't seem to get a starting point on it, from there I could possibly get the gist of it, but don't have the time. I do have a fighter I converted from FS2002 that has a canopy glass that is way too blue, and with Obio's tutorial and Martin's program, I'll be able to fix that. I did snitch a .dp from a similar aircraft, and I'm settled with that for the moment. I do appreciate all who have made these programs and given them for freeware, perhaps I'll get DPED down sometime.

Bones
 
Would any of these tutorials show how to eliminate this strange shadow in the fuselage of this plane?. It's Payakan's FS9 Koolhoven FK.58 reworked by Peperez.
 
TARPSBird said:
It's too bad that there was never an updated version of DPED that would show the model wire frames of newer FSDS and gMax aircraft. I used to enjoy messing around with dp files, until I could no longer see where I was placing guns and hard points. You can use Aircraft Container Manager to get the positional info but it's a drudge to transcribe it into DPED. If anybody's come up with a better process I'd like to know about it.
Click to expand...

Talk about ****. Until I read this thread, I didn't even know you could use the wire frame to position guns, and, hardpoints, etc. I usually put in positions that I know are way off, then edge them into the right position by the usual "trial and many errors" method (DOH!!!!!). I have now been able to do some fixes in about a tenth of the time that it would normally take me. Thanks for the info, Guys.PomBee.
 
JapLance said:
Would any of these tutorials show how to eliminate this strange shadow in the fuselage of this plane?. It's Payakan's FS9 Koolhoven FK.58 reworked by Peperez.
Click to expand...

JP: It looks like your are about to be blown off the sky!! "The one that gets you is the one you didn´t see"

Cheers, Discus
 
A few days ago, I uploaded a tutorial I wrote up on using Martin Wright's MDLmat to adjust the color, transparency and specular shine of MDL defined materials. Yesterday evening I got a PM from norab sating that he had taken my jpg based tutorial and created a pdf file out of it....made it much easier to scroll through the tutorial and reduced the size as well. I gave him permission to upload it to the library...and he did...it can be found in the FS2004 Other section of the library. He sent me a copy of it...much easier to read through the tutorial in PDF format.

Good thinking norab! Wish I had thought of creating it as a pdf....good to know that there are some intelligent folks left in this world.

OBIO
 
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