FSX Lighted windows

[bobbyjack]

I'm looking for a way to make my Sketchup buildings look like there are lights on at night. Doesn't have to be fancy

Bob

 

[robystar]

Hi Bob,

Depending on what you want exactly and using MCX, just add a night texture to your building, i.e. use the day (diffuse) texture and darken it and/or put a light in it (with Gimp or Paintnet or whatever).

 

[bobbyjack]

I see where MCX will show me a night texture. How do I extract that to paint a few windows. Thanks, Roby

Bob

 

[robystar]

Suppose you have a semi transparent texture just for your window. In that case you take the dds or bmp, darken it or make a light in it, rename it as ccc_LM.dds or xxx_LM.bmp and fill in the name of this texture in the night texture entry in MCX.
In case you have a whole wall with a window in it, all as one texture, use that texture, darken it but apply some say bright yellow to your window. Then just continue as said before.
Somewhere in the wiki there is an example of how to do that, by the way.
Will send some examples in the morning.

 

[robystar]

As promised:
The easiest way would be to apply a color to your window in GSU.
Now make a texture (bmp or dds) and in MCX replace the color by that texture of the same color. I.e. you fill in the name of the texture in the diffuse texture field and also in the night texture field. Export your mdl and that is it.
More complicated but a better result gives the method described in the Wiki under texturing/ night texture creation.
You do need a program like DXTBMP that makes your textures suitable for use in FSX.
Example of window during daytime: Pic 1
Example of the same at night: Pic 2

 

[Pyscen]

As promised:
The easiest way would be to apply a color to your window in GSU.
Now make a texture (bmp or dds) and in MCX replace the color by that texture of the same color. I.e. you fill in the name of the texture in the diffuse texture field and also in the night texture field. Export your mdl and that is it.
More complicated but a better result gives the method described in the Wiki under texturing/ night texture creation.
You do need a program like DXTBMP that makes your textures suitable for use in FSX.
Example of window during daytime: Pic 1
Example of the same at night: Pic 2

Roby,... Please get some sleep,... LOL! Your seeing things!

 

[robystar]

As soon as my Ceuta scenery is finished, you will love to fly around town in a heli and admire all those lit windows at night.

 

[bobbyjack]

Thanks, Roby.

Finally found the diffuse texture field, but no night texture field. Found a nightmap field, but I got an error(unhandled exception) if the name of my LM dds was in both fields. I know about Dxtbmp and image tool, and a bit of Gimp.

Bob

 

[robystar]

Bob,

The idea is to have one texture (without LM) in the diffuse texture and another one with suffix _LM.dds in the nightmap texture. That second one can just be a copy of the first one but you can also make a different texture for it like in the example I attached earlier on.

 

[bobbyjack]

I should be able to see my night windows in the night view, in MCX.
Bob

 

[bobbyjack]

For this test, I'm using a metal texture for the window.
New things always make me feel so stupid.

Bob

 

[Pyscen]

I should be able to see my night windows in the night view, in MCX.
Bob

Yes you should be able to see them in MCX --- another example:

 

[bobbyjack]

I do not see them. Gotta go to play rehersal. Later I'll post a step by step so you can see what I'm doing wrong. I'm sure it's some little thing I'm missing.

Bob

 

[bobbyjack]

Might I need another path set. I've reset three from default. I use FSX only. I have set paths for XtoMDL, FSX, Image tool.
No matter what image I put in the defuse and nightmap boxes, or what I label them, my model doesn't change in night view.

I have been able to make buildings, convert them and get them into FS just fine.

Bob

 

[robystar]

Probably some obvious and superfluouos questions but just to make sure:
- have you downloaded the latest development release;
- are your textures dds or bmp and do they have the right size (64x64, 128x128, etc.)
- you cannot see the night texture where? in MCX? can you see the day texture? have you set your texture path to the right folder? have you clicked on render night?
- when you export your mdl, what does the event log say?
- if you use an image, have you set your texture dimension in GSU to the right size?

 

[bobbyjack]

Thanks, Roby

As you well know there are no obvious questions. It's the little things that get you.

-I have MCX 1.2
-Textures are still .jpg, right from Scetchup. Shouldn't I be able to work with them that way? Then convert them to dds for use in FSX?
-I can't see my lighted windows in night view in MCX. I see my building in day view just fine. I see it in night view also, just no lighted windows.
-I haven't gotten as far as exporting working with my windows. I have exported and placed this building in FSX(without lighted windows) just fine.
-What is GSU?

I have a jpg to use for the day texture, and a different one( just a white square) to use for the night texture.

Bob

 

[Pyscen]

Thanks, Roby

As you well know there are no obvious questions. It's the little things that get you.

-I have MCX 1.2

I assume you have the development release of MCX, if not get it.

-Textures are still .jpg, right from Scetchup. Shouldn't I be able to work with them that way? Then convert them to dds for use in FSX?

Yes you can,...Take the jpg you wish to make a night texture from and copy and paste it(ex texture9.jpg and then rename it to texture9_lm.jpg). Then take the texture9_lm.jpg, load it into your photo editor and darken it, then save. After you have done that, load up MCX. Go into the material editor. Place the corresponding texture (texture9_lm) into the Nightmap texture.

Since your looking for lighted windows,... you will want to copy or duplicate the the corresponding texture to be lighted, for example, texture9.jpg and copy/rename to texture9_lm.jpg without going into your photo editor. Then place that texture into the nightmap texture in MCX. In other words, the texture is the same whether its daytime or nighttime.

-I can't see my lighted windows in night view in MCX. I see my building in day view just fine. I see it in night view also, just no lighted windows.
-I haven't gotten as far as exporting working with my windows. I have exported and placed this building in FSX(without lighted windows) just fine.

Oh, one thing you might need to add in GSU (Google SketchUp), with in your building, the interior will need some color other then default gray or you can rename it (placing a texture name in the diffuse texture slot in the material editor, for example)

-What is GSU?

See above: Google SketchUp

Hope this helps

 

[robystar]

All of which makes it very clear that the real challenge is not so much knowing how to do it but explaining it to other people.
So Bob, you probably have almost everything right except that we do not manage to explain well what should be done.
The latest development build from Arno is from July 6th. I haven't the faintest whether this is 1.2 or not because I do not know where to look for the build no..
I am glad Doug hops in to help us out (although he thinks I suffer from a lack of sleep), but we are both saying the same thing but in other words. Maybe Doug manages to explain better than I can.
I was not referring to obvious questions, Bob, I was referring to all of those most common mistakes I made myself (and still do once in a while and then I have to look for my own thread on common mistakes to check what I did wrong this time).
So I give it another try in explaining:
You made a Google Sketchup building and you made a rectangle where the window should come. Then you added a texture to that window. You then saved your work and exported it as a dae file.
You then opened ModelconverterX, went to the material editor and found your texture for the window as xxxxxxx.jpg.
Now use a paint program like Gimp or paint or paintnet and open the xxxxxx.jpg. Darken your texture or paint it yellow (and some parts black) and save it once again but this time as xxxxxxx_LM.jpg in your GSU object folder where all your other GSU object textures are found.
Go to MCX once again and make sure your texture path is set to the folder where you keep your GSU textures (if you had another texture path you would have to close and reload MCX).
Find your window.jpg, click on it and add your window_LM.jpg or whatever you called it) to the night texture map.
You should now be able to see your night texture if you click on "render night".
Your day and night textures still could have the name "texture.x.jpg" and "texture.x_LM.jpg" but you might want to change that into something you know exactly what it is, like window1.jpg and window1_LM.jpg.
Now that you have done that, and I sure hope that you now do see your night texture, you use the mass converter and change the texture file format to dds or bmp. It will make your model go untextured again if you do not enter the new file name plus its new extension in the material editor 'diffuse texture; and 'night map texture'.
The only things you have to do afterwards are to
1. export your model
2. copy your .dds or .bmp files to the texture folder of your model.
Gee, the more you try to explain something simple, once you understand it yourself, the harder it gets to convey it simply.

I need a drink! Cheers and take one yourself, it might come in handy to fight off your frustration.

Roby

PS: No, wait with that drink, it is too early for you, it is almost 7PM here but rather early for where you live.

 

[bobbyjack]

Thanks, guys. Probably be tomorrow before I can try this.

Doug, did I read that you have me loading two things into nightmap?

Bob

 

[Pyscen]

Thanks, guys. Probably be tomorrow before I can try this.

Doug, did I read that you have me loading two things into nightmap?

Bob

No, one or the other. Either one of the 2,... Basically, whatever is best for your building. Sorry for the confusion.