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FS2004 GMAX Trees.

darren s

darren s

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unitedkingdom
Hey all, I have started to add trees to my EGBG scenery, only to have came across a problem.

First attempt I created a a very thin box, deleted the edges and added my tree texture, I then clonded what I had and rotated the clone so it shows as a cross +. with alpha channel aswell...if I looked at a tree for a tree behind it, I wouldnt see it.

I then created 2 sided planes, same again for the clone and rotate for the +...then from certain angles they completely dissapear??

Any help would be great
 
I beleive that for FS2004, double sided planes/objects are not the best.

The technique I've heard is to create and texture two planes, placed at a cross, then clone and flip the two. You end up with four planes.
 
I think the best looking trees are just a single textured plane tweaked to rotate to user, with unified normals, and shadow removed using mdl tweaker. In Gmax you have to rotate the plane so it faces away from you in the "FRONT" viewport or else you'll always be looking at the backside of it in the sim and therefore will never see it.

Jim
 
JRobinson said:
I think the best looking trees are just a single textured plane tweaked to rotate to user, with unified normals, and shadow removed using mdl tweaker. In Gmax you have to rotate the plane so it faces away from you in the "FRONT" viewport or else you'll always be looking at the backside of it in the sim and therefore will never see it.

Jim
Click to expand...

Ok, so how do I get them to rotate upon my view in fs?
 
MDL Tweaker, you process the model through it after you've exported from gmax, but before you compile it into an object library. You can add the rotate to user condition, unify the normals, and remove the shadow all in one fell swoop.

Jim
 
JRobinson said:
I think the best looking trees are just a single textured plane tweaked to rotate to user, with unified normals, and shadow removed using mdl tweaker. In Gmax you have to rotate the plane so it faces away from you in the "FRONT" viewport or else you'll always be looking at the backside of it in the sim and therefore will never see it.

Jim
Click to expand...

(or, forget about modelling in the "FRONT" view and model in the "BACK" viewport which is really the "front" of the model.)
 
FelixFFDS said:
(or, forget about modelling in the "FRONT" view and model in the "BACK" viewport which is really the "front" of the model.)
Click to expand...

The simpler "Mantra"

Front View: I am looking TOWARDS the front!

Back View: I am looking TOWARDS the back!
 
JRobinson said:
MDL Tweaker, you process the model through it after you've exported from gmax, but before you compile it into an object library. You can add the rotate to user condition, unify the normals, and remove the shadow all in one fell swoop.

Jim
Click to expand...

Ok so how do I do that?
"Rotate to user condition" isn't on the MakeMDL options box neither the .XML
"Unify the normals" - same as above....
 
darren s said:
Ok so how do I do that?
"Rotate to user condition" isn't on the MakeMDL options box neither the .XML
"Unify the normals" - same as above....
Click to expand...

MDL Tweaker tool - see the tools board for more information. It is not makemdl.exe
 
Hi Darren, here's what I did, don't know if this is considered correct, but the end result was what I was looking for.

In MDL Tweaker click Tools > Options and in the Unify normals direction boxes put 0.00 in 'nx:' and 'nz:' and 1.00 in 'ny:'. Open your exported .mdl file and click the Display vertex list button (the V with dots around it), click Select a texture (and choose your texture) then click Select by texture which should highlight the entire list. Click Unify normals and you should see the ny column turn to 1.00s all the way down. Now Update, and your normals should be unified.

(Incidentally you do this so your tree no longer has a sunny side and a shady side. ny 1.00 means the normals are pointing up and the lighting on your tree will stay the same whether the "sun" is shining on it or behind it.)

Click Add object condition and then New condition. In condition type choose Rotate to user and then click Apply to object.

Click the Remove shadow button and save your .mdl



Jim
 
Last edited:
JRobinson said:
Hi Darren, here's what I did, don't know if this is considered correct, but the end result was what I was looking for.

In MDL Tweaker click Tools > Options and in the Unify normals direction boxes put 0.00 in 'nx:' and 'nz:' and 1.00 in 'ny:'. Open your exported .mdl file and click the Display vertex list button (the V with dots around it), click Select a texture (and choose your texture) then click Select by texture which should highlight the entire list. Click Unify normals and you should see the ny column turn to 1.00s all the way down. Now Update, and your normals should be unified.

(Incidentally you do this so your tree no longer has a sunny side and a shady side. ny 1.00 means the normals are pointing up and the lighting on your tree will stay the same whether the "sun" is shining on it or behind it.)

Click Add object condition and then New condition. In condition type choose Rotate to user and then click Apply to object.

Click the Remove shadow button and save your .mdl



Jim
Click to expand...


Ahh, thanks to you I can now do this ! :D will use the rotate upon user method for a few things (Vegetation). Also you helped me to get Shadows on my main background photo image! but one problem...one of my runway layers are transparent, after using this tweak to get shoadows on my ground, the transparency dissapears so now my runway just looks like a big ugly grey rectangle with no centerline etc...any work around?
 
I don't understand Darren, How did I help you get shadows on your background image? That shouldn't be a problem if you're exporting with the FS2002 gamepack and doing the .asm tweaks as outlined in the sticky "Groundpoly tutorial" thread at the top of the page. There's an autogen tweak that's not part of the tutorial, but I don't know of any shadow tweak besides what Bill Womack explains in the tut. Are you saying you somehow used MDL Tweaker on your groundpoly?

Jim
 
JRobinson said:
I don't understand Darren, How did I help you get shadows on your background image? That shouldn't be a problem if you're exporting with the FS2002 gamepack and doing the .asm tweaks as outlined in the sticky "Groundpoly tutorial" thread at the top of the page. There's an autogen tweak that's not part of the tutorial, but I don't know of any shadow tweak besides what Bill Womack explains in the tut. Are you saying you somehow used MDL Tweaker on your groundpoly?

Jim
Click to expand...


No, basically...I opened all my ground .MDL in MDL tweaker, and had a play around with what you said, I then managed to make it so my ground wouldnt create shadows so I could see the shadows of my aircraft on my custom ground...but! there removes my polygon transparencys on the runways.
 
You shouldn't have a ground .mdl, you should have a ground .bgl. Are you exporting your groundpolys with the FS2004 gamepack? If so, you need to get yourself a copy of the FS2002 gamepack and start exporting your groundpolys in accordance with Mr. Womack's tutorial. The whole point of the FS2002 groundpoly is about shadows displaying correctly on the ground. (well maybe not the whole point, but most of the point anyway :) ).

Jim
 
Hi,

You can also have a look at the latest ModelConverterX version. It has a wizard to convert MDL files into FS2002 ground polygon BGL files.
 
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