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FSXA Help needed to make reflective textures

D

dreamaero

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77
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india
Hi all,
I want to make reflective textures for my buildings in FSX can anyone of you could provide me a tutorial on the same or if there are no tutorials available then please tell me how to make them (Reflective Textures) in brief. Also let me know what are fresnel & speculiar textures and where are they used in FSX. I have seen it in MCX, so I think they are used somewhere in FSX.
I make & assign normal textures & night textures (by adding "_LM" as suffex to the texture name) but if I make reflective textures where & how will I assign it to my model (say a window of a Building or so). I want to know the procedure in short as to how to make reflective textures, if there exist any tutorials on this then its GREAT.... :-)
Any help on making Reflective, Fresnel & speculiar Textures will be highly appreciated
I use the following tools..... I will make reflective textures using these tools only:
1)Model Converter X
2)Gimp
3)DXT BMP
4)Google Sketchup


Thanks and regards,
DREAMAERO
 
The activex pages in the FSX SDK explain the texture slots and material settings nicely.

Incidentally, _LM suffix does not assign a night texture by default in FSX, although MCX may convert these automatically.
 
Look for "reflections" and environment map" here in the forum and take a look in the Sdk "Fsx materials" have a good tutorial about this.
 
Thanks for the reply Tejal,
I came across a few topics on reflective textures and found them of immense help. But, I still have certain queries...as below:

1) What is Environment Map, Specular Map, Global Environment Map, Bump Map & Cube Map?

2)How to make above maps, do I have to save the above maps as .dds.

3)Can I use Model Converter X to make above maps or Gmax & Gimp.

4)What is a diffuse map, Diffuse alpha, specular alpha, Fresnel Ramp & Z-Write Alpha?

Regards,
dreamaero
 
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All of these questions are covered with activeX animated examples in the SDK help document

Have you looked at that part of the FSX SDK?

dreamaero said:
4)What is a diffuse map, Diffuse alpha, specular alpha, Fresnel Ramp & Z-Write Alpha?
Click to expand...
diffuse map = basic source of colour texture on your model
diffuse alpha is the alpha channel within the diffuse texture (ie RGBA, usually compressed into a dds file)
Similarly specular alpha is the alpha contained within the specular colour texture file
Fresnel ramp is a way of modulating various textures depending on the angle with which they are being viewed. The form of this texture and examples are in the SDK! (you can use this on the any combination of the three checkboxes underneath it)
All references to Z relate to treatment of alpha values (diffuse texture) that are used to calculate rendering for overlapping texture.
Z-write instructs the engine to write alpha values into the Z-buffer to use them to calculate transparency againt other objects.

dreamaero said:
1) What is Environment Map, Specular Map, Global Environment Map, Bump Map & Cube Map?
Click to expand...
These are more advanced settings.
The Global environment map us a cube map used to calculate and display on reflective surfaces
If you are wanting to make your own reflection map, this will need to be in the form of a "cube' map, made with the DirectX SDK (a separate toolset), using the dxtex tool.
A bump map is used for to modulate surface reflection and specular textures. Also called a normal map. It has a specific form in FSX (in terms of the colour channels: green and Alpha)

dreamaero said:
2)How to make above maps, do I have to save the above maps as .dds.
Click to expand...
Yes

dreamaero said:
3)Can I use Model Converter X to make above maps or Gmax & Gimp.
Click to expand...
No. ModelconverterX will make some simple (diffuse, and I think self-illuminating textures)

You really do need to study and digest the material properties section in the FSX SDK, which is where this information is documented.
 
environment map and global environment is the same, you can use the default from the sdk materials, or make your own (a cube map), you have to learn how to make one, don't know if Gimp have a plugin for this.
Fresnel ramp, this apply reflexion in a particular way, according to the point of view. there is a default bitmap for this from the fsx material too.
Bump map add relief (or the illusion) to the textures Gimp can have a plugin for this too.
What you have to learn is what every material is for. please take a look at the Fsx materials activex document.http://blackiceair.net/SDK/Environment%20Kit/Modeling%20SDK/FSXMaterial.html
 
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Thanks friends...will revert back soon

Thanks for the reply friends,
I was unable to refer to the fsx sdk, I only saw the "reflection" topics by searching the keyword here on fsdeveloper, I will refer to fsx sdk and revert back soon.....
In the mean time I had one more problem on my custom airport that is currently under development, its relating to the fuel truck, I have posted the problem on this forum under "Living world & AI" category, and got a very satisfactory reply from one of our friend jvile I am sure it will help you as well in your future airport design. You can have a look at it right here at the below link.....

Link to My Fuel Truck Problem: http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=425586

I hope it will be of help to you as well....:)
Thanks once again,
Dreamaero
 
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