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FSXA Dimmable night lighting

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407
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ca-britishcolumbia
Naruto-kun, sent you a PM.

Model ConverterX shows the radar poly with the correct $texture as the nightmap texture, so it seems to be compiling correctly. I really don't know what else could be the problem at this point.
 
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Milton_Shupe

Resource contributor
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331
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us-newmexico
Michael, unless I am misunderstanding you here, there is no texture that will display if the name is preceded by a $. (FS does not display $textures.) Rename your texture to not use the $ and place that name in the slot, and try again.
 
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407
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ca-britishcolumbia
Milton, I think you are misunderstanding me. Using $ in front of the texture name invokes a 2D gauge defined by an XML file. The 2D gauge can use vector graphics and/or use bmp textures to display whatever the developer desires. The radar itself uses a $texture successfully to display terrain. What I want to do is use a $texture for the emissive map as well as described in this thread above. Whether that emissive map uses vector graphics or bmps or custom draw images is beside the point. The emissive map, if I could get it to work, could then be used to dim the radar (although I could do that in other ways) or be used more creatively to create the bright sweep across the radar screen that is characteristic of the radar I am modelling. Using a regular non "$" texture for the emissive map, which I have working without any problem, will only provide a static illumination.
 
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407
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ca-britishcolumbia
Evidently, it can be done. But for some reason I have no illumination when I do it. Yet the same gauge will display when used in the diffuse slot.
 

JB3DG

Resource contributor
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1,325
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southafrica
What's your material setting for self illum? Needs to be Additive. If it is one of the NightOnly or UserControlled or blend settings it won't show unless at night.
 
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407
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ca-britishcolumbia
It's set to additive. Believe me, I have checked and double checked every setting that I can think of that would affect it displaying, but I guess there must be something I am overlooking.
 

n4gix

Resource contributor
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11,674
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unitedstates
Okay, we seem to be not getting enough information to even begin to come to a resolution. Can you post a screenshot of the exact FSX Material you are attempting to use?

I might note that it is impossible to use a $VC_d in the diffuse slot and another $VC_l in the Self-Illumination slot.

What you can do is to have two separate polygons: one for the radar display using $VC_radar and another directly on top overlaying the radar for the $VC_l XML 'gauge' display. This would require a transparent (RGB:0,0,0) bitmap in the Diffuse slot, and your $VC_l dynamic bitmap in the Self-Illumination slot.
 
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407
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ca-britishcolumbia
This would require a transparent (RGB:0,0,0) bitmap in the Diffuse slot, and your $VC_l dynamic bitmap in the Self-Illumination slot.

Could you elaborate on the transparent bitmap? Is the material to be opaque or transparent? Should the material be marked as a virtual cockpit panel texture even though the diffuse is a conventional texture? The bitmap is to be an all black .bmp file? Does making it black give the transparency? I wasn't aware I could use anything but dds files for diffuse textures. Does the all black bmp go in the aircraft's main texture folder.

Sorry to have so many questions, but I am a bit at sea here...
 

tgibson

Resource contributor
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11,327
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us-california
Hi,

DDS textures are also called bitmaps, so you can use a DDS texture if you like. In FSX at least you can use DXT3 and DXT5 BMP files as well as DDS for diffuse (and other) textures.

And yes, he is talking about an all black bitmap file. I didn't realize this would be transparent in a VC texture either (it is in a gauge texture, I know). For regular aircraft textures a black alpha channel will make it transparent, unless the texture/material is set up to create reflections instead.
 

n4gix

Resource contributor
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11,674
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unitedstates
Should the material be marked as a virtual cockpit panel texture even though the diffuse is a conventional texture? The bitmap is to be an all black .bmp file?
The FSX Material must be flagged "virtual cockpit panel" because of the $VC_l defined in the Self-Illumination slot. The Diffuse should be full-black .dds (can be any size such as 64x64 pix).
 
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407
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ca-britishcolumbia
Thanks. I started trying to implement this yesterday and couldn't get anywhere for hours, because the sim simply didn't like the name of my $texture. As far as I can tell it had too many characters.

Still not getting anywhere. If I give the extra poly a transparent material, it disappears completely. If I make it opaque, it is fully opaque regardless of what the gauge is telling it to be. I am using an all black dds in the aircraft's main texture folder in the diffuse slot.
 
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Messages
407
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ca-britishcolumbia
Finally got it working. To get partial transparency in the overlying poly, I set its material to opaque, but with source blend set to one and destination blend set to zero. Now I can set about animating the sweep.
 

Heretic

Resource contributor
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6,830
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germany
Ooooo, that's what you wanted! I use "one/one" for animated rain on the windshield and it works well.
 

JB3DG

Resource contributor
Messages
1,325
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southafrica
The FSX Material must be flagged "virtual cockpit panel" because of the $VC_l defined in the Self-Illumination slot. The Diffuse should be full-black .dds (can be any size such as 64x64 pix).

You can get away without flagging the virtual cockpit panel in the material, and you would still be able to reference the $VC texture in the self illumination slot and render to it, but then you would have to flip your rendered display vertically like all other textures. Flagging the virtual cockpit panel in the material allows you to get away without inverting.
 
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ecuador
Finally got it working

Hi everybody

I work with Blender2FSX. My diffuse texture is a totally transparent black, and I have my texture $ VC_l in the "Self-illumination" slot (In Blender : Shading - Emit = flag).

I understood that the texture used in the xml gauge of enlightenment had to be white! The system seems to work but even the black parts of my gauge also become a little white "milky".

I would like to know exactly how Michael2 managed to create this system with Blender2FSX ... !!!
 
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407
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ca-britishcolumbia
Evidently you have it working so you are most of the way there. The illuminating texture can be any colour. Try something less bright than pure white.

What I was doing was a little different because my gauge uses a $vc for the diffuse texture. So I needed another overlying polygon for the animated bright sweep. It was nothing to do with night lighting.
 
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230
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ecuador
Hello Michael2, and thank you for answering me.

I found a solution with Blender:
1. My basic texture, the one to be illuminated, must have an Emissive Properties set to "AdditiveNightOnlyUserControlled";
2. The dimmable texture has a diffuse black texture and a totally white "Shading Emit" texture;
3. The "Framebuffer Blend" must be "InvSrcAlpha" (SourceBlend), and "SrcColor" (DestBlend);
4. The polygon of the dimmable texture must be visible only when using light, and only at night; It is necessary to work on the degree of transparency according to the darkness.

The result is a black texture that becomes transparent and gradually reveals the texture "AdditiveNightOnlyUserControlled" from below!

It works for me!:D
 
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