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FSXA Strange Texture problems...

Flying Officer Jevans

Flying Officer Jevans

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unitedkingdom
Hi guys,

Thanks for helping me out with all the silly questions I've had so far this last week, so here's another one: Having got the textures mapped and what have you, there seems to be some very bizarre things going on with the shading. I think the attached photos explain it better:

The first one shows what I think it should look like, according to Max9, and the other 3 are from FSX: as you can see, when facing into the light, the textures whiteout completely, and when facing away, the go very dark. This results in a very obvious line across the top of all the parts - despite them being the same part, not separate.

I've spent hours playing with the materials settings, and I'm at my wits end with this. Do any of the experts here have any ideas? Other than telling me to stick to the gauges...:D
 

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There are (at least) two things that can cause weird shading issues. I'll mention them both, but I'm fairly certain that your issue is from #2...

1. If you have a "bump" texture specified in the FSX Material's slot, but haven't yet created the "bump" (normal) bitmap, you will see inverted shading.

2. If you have any mesh that has been touched by the upper toobar's "Mirror" function, you will see inverted shading, as well as inverted normals (objects appear to be "inside out").

The main reason I suspect #2 is because of the way the fuselage is so neatly divided down the seam.

You can "fix this" by carefully Detach(ing) the right half of the fuselage, then re-applying the Mirror tool, followed by adding a "Mirror Modifier" to the stack. Collapse the stack back to E-Poly (or E-Mesh), export and check in the sim.

If the right half now displays properly, re-Attach the right half to the left half, then select and Weld the seam's vertices again.

Repeat this process for each of the affected bits of mesh.

This nasty result can occur when converting from one modeling program to another, so it's probably "not your fault," but you do have to make the needed corrections... :D
 
Not the first issue, as I've got all the bump maps already there, but sounds like the second issue could well be the culprit. Thanks Bill, I'll have a go at that.
 
Hmmm...

Does it matter which side you do this to? You said to do it to the right- I didn't see that bit and did it to the left - no change in the sim...
 
Thanks Bill - I didn't realize he posted this all ready - there's another duplicate post on our issue under graphics. My bad....:o.

John Thuot II
Archangel Productions
Team Lead/Founder/Texture Artist
 
I've completely dehydrated drooling away at the screenies and the thought of having a Beech Starship in FSX...thank you. :mad: :D



(Seriously, keep up the work! At all costs!)
 
Thanks Bjorn, we appreciate the compliments.....

In the words of Galaxy Quest "Never Give Up, Never Surrender...."

John Thuot II
Archangel Productions
Team Lead/Founder/Texture Artist
 
FOJ, since my machine looks a bit different then yours, did you want to send it over and I can try it?

John Thuot II
Archangel Productions
Team Lead/Founder/Texture Artist
 
Flying Officer Jevans said:
Hmmm...

Does it matter which side you do this to? You said to do it to the right- I didn't see that bit and did it to the left - no change in the sim...
Click to expand...

It absolutely does make a difference. You want to keep the half with the correct normal orientation.

The issue arises because the sum of all the normal vectors should always be +1. Mesh that is cloned and "mirrored" via Max/GMax's "Mirror Tool" have their normal vectors inverted such that their sum is -1 (which is what an actual physical mirror would do!).

The technique I described usually works, but sometimes not.

In that case, try selecting the right half (after Detaching!) and select all Polys, then add a "mirror modifier" to the stack. Collapse the stack and check in sim. If successful, it will be shaded properly.

If not, select the object and use the Mirror Tool to invert the action of the original negative normal vector sum.

If all else fails, simply Clone the left half of the fuselage, add a "mirror modifier" to the stack, Collapse back to e-poly (or e-mesh) and then plug up the pax door...
 
This gets more idiotic by the second... Bill, that worked, sort of. I detached the right half, used the mirror tool, selected all the polys, mirrored them using the modifier, collapsed the stack( and I had to move it back into position, obviously.)

Trouble is, when I export that to FSX, all the normals on the right hand side of the fuselage are flipped. :confused: So, I flipped them in max( which means the scene in max now looks like an utter mess) and it displays with continuous shading, like the picture. But it still looks odd... why does it alternate between too dark and too light depending on the light angle? Something to do with the Fresnel ramp?

Surely there's something fundamentally wrong with the whole thing here, or what I'm doing, instead of having to apply all these fixes?
 

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Honestly, I'm out of ideas myself. You may have to bite the bullet and use my last suggestion... :o
 
could it be that one side is mirrored in another way?

I.e. the side was originally mirrored left to right, was it also mirrored inside to outside?
 
So how did we solve it? Or how did Bill solve it, anyway?:)

Turned out Bill's first suggestion was more accurate, and my idea of a bump map was what most people's idea of a mess is. Once Bill had converted and cleaned up the map for me, it all suddenly worked. However, there were still a few parts that required the second technique applied - but that worked perfectly.

You can see the results in the photo. A promotion to honorary genius for Bill, I think!:wizard:
 

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