"Materials" are not "textures." Coloring polygons is adding a number, 000000 being pure black. Textures are another file entirely and each polygon of every model has to have 3 coordinates, UVW, that describe to any software encountering this model, what the texture is, where the texture is, what part of it goes onto each polygon, etc.
It has been a long, long time since I used Gmax. I know that it will export colored polygons, it likely will export textured polygons, but why you would need to export the same textures you had to import to texture those polygons is not clear. Simply point your model to the same textures it is already using! Gmax does not create textures, nor does it modify textures, so there would be no reason to export them either.
You know MCX will do all this work for us as well correct? Import your model into MCX, navigate to the texture file, assign it and if you already mapped the texture in Gmax, that mapping is stored in the model. If you import your texture into MCX that has a model loaded that you textured in Gmax, the texture in MCX will conform to the Gmax mapping and you can resolve your path issues from there.
Hi Rick,
I don't think you understand what I'm trying to do. I guess the best way to explain all of this is to attach images that show the steps I'm doing in Gmax. So let me explain the steps in more detail. To begin with, here's an example of the model at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport:
This is an MDL file but since Gamx will not import the MDL, I converted it to 3DS in MCX.
Here's a close up view of the C Concourse:
Where it says C32, C31, C30, and C29 are wrong. It should be C39, C37, C36 and C35. But there are many more parking spots that are wrong. I believe these parking numbers are layered over the model, and that's where I'm having problems. I cannot get them to show after I export them from Gmax. In order to make these changes, I use the texture that's used for this scenery:
The background portion of the texture is transparent but for some reason after it's imported into Gmax, it's opaqe. It's as though the alpha channel was removed. The only portion that is not transparent are the letters, numbers, and the lines. The format I used is PNG, and that should make the background transparent since the original file is transparent.
Here's an image after I first import the model file into Gmax:
Notice at the top left, which is the Top viewport, this will be the viewport I will use to mark the location of the parking spot. But first, I need to map the model that is in the Perspective View, which is now set to Top view. I first click the Material Editor icon and click New. In the New Materials box that pops up, I click FlightSimX and click OK. Remember, I'm using the FSX Gmax gamepack. I usually set the Specular to black. In the Material Editor, I click Maps. Next to Diffuse Color, I click None. The Material Navigator pops up. I double click the bitmap icon and select the 4 textures that will make up the ground images in the Perspective Viewport. Here's what it looks like now:
In both the Top and Perspective Viewports in the image below, I now have the parking area zoomed in, which is gate C32.
In the Perspective Viewport, the textures do not show up but if I select the portion of the model where the letters and the numbers go and raise them 1 meter in the Z axes, they show up. When it's set it to 0 meters, the textures will not show up. I'm not sure if I'm doing this correctly but this is the only way I know. For the time being, I'm going to leave the selected portion at 1 meter above the ground so that you can see what's happening. As I've said, if I set it to 0 meters, you will not be able to see the ground textures.
Now I need to import the ground marking texture. I open the Material Editor and open the transparent texture shown above so that they show up in the Perspective Viewport:
Notice in the Perspective View, you can now see gate C32 and C31 on the ground. Now using the Modify Tab, I select the Polygon icon, hold the Ctrl key and click on the 3 squares that are shown in the Top Viewport at the top left. They are now highlighted in red.
I select the polygon icon and after clicking the 3 boxes highlighted in red, I go to the Modifyer List and click Unwrap UVW. I then click on the Edit button and a Edit UVW window pops up with 3 small white squares, representing what letters and numbers that are placed into those 3 red boxes. When I first click on the Edit Button, the white squares are placed at C32. By highlighting the verticies, I place the squares over the letter, or number that you want.
In the image below, I now placed the white box over the number 9 and now if you look at the Perspective Viewport, it show C39:
I then collapse the changes and repeat for the other ground textures. I then export the changes from Gmax as an MDL file. When I import the mdl file into MCX, the ground shows up but the letters and numbers for the parking spots do not show up, and that's the problem I've having. One thing I want to know is that are the ground markings that show the gate parking spot embedded into the model or are these layered over the model? Apparently, I'm not doing this correctly.
Ken.