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FSXA 3ds Max Transparency (Round 2)

mmann

mmann

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Awhile back I had posted about having my transparencies not show up properly in FSX. I thought I would take another stab at it. First I created a simple cube in 3ds Max. Next I created a simple texture sheet in Photoshop with some outside walls that included multipane windows and a door. I created the alpha channel and used this texture in both 3ds Max for a material texture and as the source for a DDS 3 image for FSX.

Looking at the object in FSX all the panes of glass are semi-transparent and the rest of the walls and doors when view from the outside are all showing correctly. The problem is when looking at the inside walls from the outside. On one side I can see no inside walls, on the next side I can see only one inside wall, on the next I can see two inside walls and finally on the fourth side looking in I can see all three inside walls.

Am I expecting too much to be able to achieve proper transparency with only a simple box and a single material?:confused:

Regards, Mike Mann
 
What material settings have you used?

FSX SP2/Accel transparency is all material settings.

By DDS 3, are you referring to DXT3 compression in your dds texture?

(DXT5 is a better choice - largely due to better alpha channel "resolution", but this is probably not the problem here)
 
Your right, I should have said DXT3. The material settings are the ones recommended by yourself and others in previous threads. If I place myself in the centre of the cube in FSX all four inside walls and windows show as they should. I now realize that it is a drawing order problem that can't be easily solved when using a single object (the cube) with only a single bitmap with alpha.

I should have realized it would not be an easy thing to accomplish as hardly anyone is doing their buildings with transparent windows (including payware such as Orbx, who just texture them to make them appear as if they were transparent). I have seen others do it with control towers but they usually make the windows without walls and I can often see other parts of the model disappear at certain angles.

Regards, Mike Mann
 
It can be done,

You then have the issue of what to put inside the buildings.

If you model the insides in a detailed way, you then have a large number of (possibly) redundant polygons ... hidden away inside. For this reason, most buildings have opaque windows, perhaps with reflection on them.

In terms of semi-transparency, the issue seems to be of finding an appropriate Z-test level that will reduce artefact, and produce the desired effect.

Generally this means a lower Z-test level.
 
Mainly the idea was that if I could get the semi-transparent windows to work on the cube I would change the alpha and move to DXT3 or DXT5 for my lighthouse project, which at the moment uses DXT1 and fully transparent windows.

I don't feel so bad though as Microsoft didn't go with semi-transparency in their lighthouse windows either, they went with fully transparent. This doesn't look as nice during the daytime, but solves the drawing order problem!

Regards, Mike Mann
 
I played around with the Z-test level but found (as others here have posted) that at one setting of the slider the windows have the proper semi-transparent look but the walls disappear from certain views. At the very next smallest setting of the slider (is there a way to change the value directly other than with the slider) the walls all appear but the windows go from semi-transparent to fully transparent.

Has anyone found the magic formula (i.e. a certain shade of gray in the alpha with a certain Z-test slider level) that will surmount this problem?

Regards, Mike Mann
 
Try as I might a simple solution to the problem was beyond my somewhat exhaustive testing. The only solution (that I could find) was to create two cubes. First a cube with a DXT1 material (with alpha for the window cutouts) applied.

Next create a second cube with a separate DXT5 material (with alpha) for the glass. Using this method the object(s) showed perfectly in FSX with no hidden walls! Using two cubes with their own material took care of the drawing order problem inherent with a single object only approach.

Regards, Mike Mann
 
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