FSXA Reflections / Specular and 2nd texture sheet possible

[Pyscen]

Hello Arno,...

My custom model appears with reflections of a custom environment texture on my windows (what it was meant to do), but it also appears that the environment texture is also appearing where a specular texture is used also. I doubled check and my texture (with specular),.. is loading the specular texture without the envirorment texture clicked also already. Wondering if a bug, maybe?

I was also wanting to know, is it possible to have a 2nd minimized texture sheet (from the minimized drawcalls command) capability,... I have 4 textures that are 1024 x 256 and others that are smaller. I was unable to cut the size of the larger ones because they become to distorted. So, using common sense,.. after minimizing once, would it minimize a 2nd texture sheet for me,.. lol,.. and of course the answer is,.. no.

 

[arno]

Hi,

I am a little bit lost, I don't understand what you are trying to say. When you use a custom environment map, you would have both a secular and reflection (environment) map in your model. Is that what you are seeing?

About the drawcall minimizer, I have plans to add a feature to check for the optimal texture size. But at the moment only one size can be used.

 

[Pyscen]

Sorry,...

What I'm trying to say is,... I have 2 materials or textures: one being a window in which is transparent and is reflective,.. which works like its suppose too,.. the 2nd texture is metal like and is completely different from the window (not part of the first texture).

the 2nd texture (metal-like) is reflecting the environment map (GlobalEnvTest.dds and custom environment map),... and I didn't toggle "true" on the environment map to be used on the metal-like texture, only the window textures.

So,... should the 2nd texture be reflective with the environment map (GlobalEnvTest.dds) when I haven't toggled "true" for it to be used on this texture?

 

[arno]

Hi,

It's hard to say without seeing the material settings. I would expect that somehow some specular is activated on it.

 

[Pyscen]

the 2nd texture does have a specular map,.. but should it reflect the environment when its not used on this texture?

 

[arno]

What do you mean has a specular map? Is that map assigned in the material as well?

 

[Pyscen]

no, the 2nd Texture mentioned before is the only one with a specular map and doesn't have a environment map assigned to it, yet its reflecting the environment map on it

 

[Pyscen]

the 2nd texture, the metal-like texture, has a specular map, but doesn't have the environment map (GlobalEnvTest.dds) assigned to it...

The only texture with the Environment map (GlobalEnvTest.dds) toggled on is the window like texture. No Specular map on this one at all. I created a custom Environment map (cube map) and placed it in only (the Window-like texture) Reflection map slot,... Where Custom made cube maps go.

 

[Pyscen]

Pictures of ....

The first 3 pictures showing the reflection scale at 100 on the Window_gray texture. As you can see the fsx_trm (trim) is affected by the other's texture settings, (which is still set at 1 ,... even though the custom environment (cube map) is only on the window_gray texture.







The next 3 pictures are showing the reflection scale at 1 on the Window_gray texture (showing this for comparsion).







I hope this helps in what's going on,... One texture settings shouldn't affect another's in this matter, should it?

 

[Pyscen]

Just to add,...

Changing reflection scale on the tsx_trm doesn't affect the Window_gray texture in the same way. Sorry,.. both have different specular maps but not the same and only the window_gray texture has the Environment map (cube map).

 

[arno]

Hi,

I would expect that your second texture would not show reflection, although it has a specular map. Since no option to blend or use the global environment map is selected. I think the scale option does nothing in that case.

 

[Tejal Bernardo]

In any case you have to work with alpha channels in these textures, this thing I think happen to me once, I worked this out using only the enviroment texture only.
this Thread have somethign to do, take a look if could be of help http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=260222

 

[Pyscen]

Hello Arno,

Hi,

I would expect that your second texture would not show reflection, although it has a specular map. Since no option to blend or use the global environment map is selected. I think the scale option does nothing in that case.

You would think the scale option wouldn't,... but it is, in this case. The fsx_trm is not connected to the window_gray at all, but using the Reflection scale within the window_gray texture is affecting both.

If the cube map/environment map is being used on one texture only, how can it affect another?

In any case you have to work with alpha channels in these textures, this thing I think happen to me once, I worked this out using only the enviroment texture only.
this Thread have somethign to do, take a look if could be of help http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=260222

Hello Tejal,...

Unfortunately, this doesn't help in this case,.. since the fsx_trm isn't a part of the material that has the environment map/cube map, and yet acting as if it does (the reason I asked, if it is a bug?). Though it doesn't make sense why one texture would affect another in this way considering were talking 2 different textures.

 

[Pyscen]

Ok,.. additional thought,...

If I remove the specular map on the fsx_trm, it is not affected by the cube map, even though it isn't or wasn't attached/assigned to it.

So question: Even though a environment map or cube map isn't attached or assigned to a texture,.. that texture can't have a specular map either? Otherwise, it will be be affected by the cube map? That's what is happening in my case.

 

[Tejal Bernardo]

especular and environment usually are the same, you can add the two , or one of them ... I think (sorry I'm not an expert in this matter), by the way, what is Fsx_trm ?

 

[Pyscen]

especular and environment usually are the same, you can add the two , or one of them ... I think (sorry I'm not an expert in this matter), by the way, what is Fsx_trm ?

no the specular and the cube map or environment maps aren't the same,... they are to different "maps" for a single texture... one handles the shinyness (specular) and the other is more for reflection use (cube map or environment map).

The fsx_trm is the name of the texture edging my building in the front of the model. The other texture name is fsx_window_gray, which has the environment map or cube map. 2 independant textures, the one with the cube map or environment map is affecting the other, even though the one being affected doesn't have any of the slots to activate the environment or cube map.

 

[Pyscen]

Follow Up:

Here are more Pictures to clarify what I'm discussing and the areas in which I'm having the trouble with:





The Red arrows are pointing out the reflection of the environment map on the texture named fsx_trm. Again, the fsx_trm doesn't have the environment map /cube map activated:



The Yellow arrows are pointing out the reflection of the environment map on the texture named fsx_window_gray. The environment map is activated on this texture only,.. this is correct and working fine.

 

[Tejal Bernardo]

As said before I think a had a similar problem, for this this there are the alpha channels. apply black or white where you want the reflection or especualr work. sorry but I am talking from what I can remember, very bad memeory. but I think that is the way. anyway this issue was a little confusing indeed.

 

[Pyscen]

Mystery found!

As said before I think a had a similar problem, for this this there are the alpha channels. apply black or white where you want the reflection or especualr work. sorry but I am talking from what I can remember, very bad memeory. but I think that is the way. anyway this issue was a little confusing indeed.

Hello Tejal,...

Your problem if I remember right, involved windows with trim in the same texture,.. and in my case they are 2 separate textures.

Arno,....

I noticed that when loading default scenery (non-aircraft even) into MCX, the GlobalEnvTest.dds is loading also, only does it if the model has a specular map.

With that,... if any model has a specular map (like mine) it loads up the GlobalEnvTest.dds (default cube map) also, whether its toggled on or not under "Use Global Environment Map as Reflective" and the corresponding Speciality Functionality in MCX.

This appears to be the reason why my fsx_trm was connected to my fsx_window_gray textures by way of reflection. Also, I noticed that when a custom cube map was being loaded, it was either combined with the default or ignored.

I found a work around to this, at least within MCX (not sure what happens in FSX as of yet), but if I leave all texture maps as is, meaning the slots filled as before ,... and I change the 2 settings within the Speciality Functionality from "Blend Diffuse by inverse Specular Alpha" to "Blend Diffuse by Diffuse Alpha" and the other setting from "Blend environment by Specular Alpha" to "Blend environment by inverse Diffuse Alpha" it seems to disconnect the 2 textures.

Thats what I have found out,.. and the reason for the confusion on why one texture was affecting the other,... the GlobalEnvTest.dds (default cube map) is being loaded when a specular map was being used and loaded even though it wasn't activated or not.

 

[arno]

Hi,

Modelconverterx will indeed load the default environment map when it encounters a specular map. But how it is used in the preview depends on the other material settings as well. It could be there are still a few bugs left in my shader, I'll have a look at that.

More important would be to check what fsx does with it.