• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

    • Tag FS2020 specific questions with the MSFS2020 tag.
    • Questions about making 3D assets can be posted in the 3D asset design forum. Either post them in the subforum of the modelling tool you use or in the general forum if they are general.
    • Questions about aircraft design can be posted in the Aircraft design forum
    • Questions about airport design can be posted in the FS2020 airport design forum. Once airport development tools have been updated for FS2020 you can post tool speciifc questions in the subforums of those tools as well of course.
    • Questions about terrain design can be posted in the FS2020 terrain design forum.
    • Questions about SimConnect can be posted in the SimConnect forum.

    Any other question that is not specific to an aspect of development or tool can be posted in the General chat forum.

    By following these guidelines we make sure that the forums remain easy to read for everybody and also that the right people can find your post to answer it.

FSXA Testures Not Appearing

L

Leovenous

Messages
23
Country
us-michigan
I'm using Max9 with the ACES export dialogue.

What is happening is my models load in FSX and they have surface color, but no textures.

I probably don't understand the lifecycle of a texture.

When I create a material in max, and export the .MDL and that fun stuff, do I still need to manually copy the texture into the FSX textures folder? And if so, is there a relation to the name of the texture and the name of the file?

I've read several articles in FSD and the ACES docs, but it's not coming together for me.
 
I work in FS9, but the procedure is similar.

1. Create a 24 bit BMP or PSD texture that Max9 will read and display on your model. Place it in the same folder as your Max9 file (for simplicity).

2. Export your model to the airplane's MODEL folder.

3. Load the BMP or PSD texture into the image conversion program of your choice, and save it as a DXT BMP or DDS image into the plane's texture folder, but using the same base name as the original texture. The extension can be different, I believe.

Hope this helps,
 
Texture not appear

Hi friends
I have a model with already general textures applied with Unwrap UVW and are working fine in Gmax 1.2 and FSX.
But I tried to apply the texture to the pilot face by the following way:
1) I took a texture from another plane BMP DXT I convert it in normal BMP 24 bit I crop and resized in 256x256 and save.
2) I opened wiyh Photoshop and saved as TGA
3) I opened the TGA by DXTBMP , flipped with alpha and saved as DXT5 DDS
4) I put in the airplane texture folder the TGA AND the DDS
5) In Gmax I have the BITMAP PHAT pointing to this folder
6) Applied the texture tu the head in Gmax with UVW map planar.
7) I see fine the TGA (which is pointed in the (FSX) material path)
Exported to MDL
No way to see the face of the pilot
Help me please because , by this way, I will never be able to apply any other textures as well.
I dont have complicate needings for the moment I am a beginner i know

any other infos available
thank a lot to anyone coul halp me.

Ennio
 
1) I took a texture from another plane BMP DXT I convert it in normal BMP 24 bit I crop and resized in 256x256 and save.

Fine.

2) I opened wiyh Photoshop and saved as TGA

Why? DXTBmp and Gmax will happily work with .psd's. For that matter, there is Plugin for PSD which will save as dds ...

3) I opened the TGA by DXTBMP , flipped with alpha and saved as DXT5 DDS

Do you need an alpha for a pilot? If not, might as well save as dds dxt1 (just a suggestion).

Are you sure the flipping did register in DxtBmp? Better always hit Reload after Edit, just to make sure. Also, perhaps Reload the .dds in DxtBmp just to see if it was actually flipped.

4) I put in the airplane texture folder the TGA AND the DDS

Not a good idea, better keep the image files for gmax and PSD in a separate folder. Getting confused by similar file names is THE major source of error.

5) In Gmax I have the BITMAP PHAT pointing to this folder

Huh? What is a PHAT? Anyway, see note on 4)

6) Applied the texture tu the head in Gmax with UVW map planar.

7) I see fine the TGA (which is pointed in the (FSX) material path)
Exported to MDL No way to see the face of the pilot

Are you using proper FSX material settings?

Did you remember to update the model in the model folder?

What DO you see?

Make sure the "filename" sections in your <filename>.tga and <filename>.dds are identical.
 
Thank for your quick replay, really I am getting crazy ... anyway ...

2) I opened wiyh Photoshop and saved as TGA

Why? DXTBmp and Gmax will happily work with .psd's. For that matter, there is Plugin for PSD which will save as dds ...
I did not Know it ... thank ... I will tray ...

3) I opened the TGA by DXTBMP , flipped with alpha and saved as DXT5 DDS
Do you need an alpha for a pilot? If not, might as well save as dds dxt1 (just a suggestion).
Ok I made it "just in case" but I will tray it ...
Are you sure the flipping did register in DxtBmp? Better always hit Reload after Edit, just to make sure. Also, perhaps Reload the .dds in DxtBmp just to see if it was actually flipped.
yes checked and OK

4) I put in the airplane texture folder the TGA AND the DDS
Not a good idea, better keep the image files for gmax and PSD in a separate folder. Getting confused by similar file names is THE major source of error.
OK I did it but no changes ...

6) Applied the texture tu the head in Gmax with UVW map planar.
7) I see fine the TGA (which is pointed in the (FSX) material path)
Exported to MDL No way to see the face of the pilot
Sorry I made a Spherical on the UVWmap
Are you using proper FSX material settings?
To be sure I made a new material (FSX) I select a diffuse color and applied texture mapped with UVWmap fitting (no changes) and stretching (no changes)

Did you remember to update the model in the model folder?
Yes, anytime I modified something I exported a new MDL overwriting the previous one present in the model folder.

What DO you see?
only the base diffuse color of the object

Make sure the "filename" sections in your <filename>.tga and <filename>.dds are identical.
Checked , they have exactely the same name with a different extension

In addition I would say that the head is already animated (with some children) by customized mouvement with rudder percent key.
Could be this the problem ?
Aniway I tried to cancel the animation , but nothing change...

Help me please, I think that the problem could be in the texture caracteristics ?
but I dont know what means DXT (too many choises available) and so on ...

Thanks .. dear friend ...
 
Don't worry, we'll get this sorted one way or another.

Animation shouldn't cause any texture issues.

Say, you are not by any chance have FSX running in the background at the same time? Even if you reload the aircraft FSX may well decide to reuse the old texture it already has in memory. To be on the safe side, shut FSX down and restart it after exchanging textures.

This Pilot - he is part of the interior or the exterior model? Or both?

You say you can see "only the base diffuse color" - is that the part color, no texture color at all? So what happens if you take one of the working dds textures in the plane's texture folder, make a copy of it, and rename it to your filename. Does THAT show? If not, something's evidently wrong with your material settings, and you should post a screenshot of them here.

You could also attach your dds file here for inspection, and we can try loading it in FSX.
 
Say, you are not by any chance have FSX running in the background at the same time? Even if you reload the aircraft FSX may well decide to reuse the old texture it already has in memory. To be on the safe side, shut FSX down and restart it after exchanging textures.

I usually work on Gmax and export model ... put the MDL in the folder of the aircraft and rename it then I start FSX to see the result ... Not both running at all ...

This Pilot - he is part of the interior or the exterior model? Or both?
I did not start yet with the interior ... is only part of the exterior model ...

You say you can see "only the base diffuse color" - is that the part color, no texture color at all? So what happens if you take one of the working dds textures in the plane's texture folder, make a copy of it, and rename it to your filename. Does THAT show? If not, something's evidently wrong with your material settings, and you should post a screenshot of them here.
Correction what I see is a grey color no diffuse color of the material witch is a pale color.

The original model have already applied only one big (4096 x 4096 pixel) image for texture covering the whole model ..... (the FSX texture maximum size are set to 4096) I will tray to apply to the pilot face anyway ... (I will see what append)
Image from Gmax and FSX

Ennio
 

Attachments

  • EL-2011-oct-26-005.jpg
    EL-2011-oct-26-005.jpg
    54.3 KB · Views: 647
  • EL-2011-oct-26-006.jpg
    EL-2011-oct-26-006.jpg
    72.6 KB · Views: 637
Material settings
screenshots
 

Attachments

  • EL-2011-oct-26-007.jpg
    EL-2011-oct-26-007.jpg
    67.3 KB · Views: 709
  • Immagine2.jpg
    Immagine2.jpg
    40.5 KB · Views: 950
  • Immagine1.jpg
    Immagine1.jpg
    75 KB · Views: 634
  • Immagine.jpg
    Immagine.jpg
    64.6 KB · Views: 666
OK now,

First, there's nothing wrong with your texture, it displays perfectly okay in my FSX (SP2), even though I wouldn't use a blank space in the file name.

Can it be that another (perhaps hidden) part is covering the pilot's face? Do you export all or export selected? Perhaps unhide all geometry and all mesh and try to export some selected parts only?

Edit: Yes I'm pretty certain, comparing your FSX screenshot with the Gmax, that there is something covering the pilot's face. Looks to me as if what you can see of the neck is textured alright already.

BTW we shouldn't have hijacked this thread, noticed this too late. Hope the original poster doesn't mind.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
yes , that's right ... I used this thread because seems to me tha the argument was the samw and to avoid to proliferate of threads....
anyway I hope too that the original poster does not mind...

So I exported all the model complete not only parts .. in the list of parts there's no suspicious parts...
If you see fine in your FSX ...
I wil tray to export only some parts ...
I'll check again any part (the neck is sngle part no connections and it has its own colored material , no texture).
I'll tray to find if something is covering but I always exported after "unhide all"
I'll tray to find a hidden mesh which I never considered as a possibility.

Could be something wrong in my FSX configuration ?

A hard work is espected ....
I'll report the results ...
Thanks
ciao
Ennio
 
If you see fine in your FSX ...
I wil tray to export only some parts ...
I'll check again any part (the neck is sngle part no connections and it has its own colored material , no texture).
I'll tray to find if something is covering but I always exported after "unhide all"
I'll tray to find a hidden mesh which I never considered as a possibility.

Everything made ....

Problem solved...

So ..
first I realized that cancelling the neck the face appear ,also if no connection was from head to neck.
I learn that when a secondary object interfere with the textured one il looks bad may be because the renderer tray to texture the object added and going inside the textured one.
Anyway cancelling the object "neck" and creating the neck streching the head object , then modifiing the mapping of the texture, the problem have been solved. Now I will see if the same problem will come with other textures I will apply to compenetrating objects.
The only alternative may is to usa the Unwrapping system but I will study it.

Thanks a lot because if you did not suggest me to check the interferences I would be still at the starting point.
Thanks again dear
ciao
Ennio
 
here the result ....

Do you know way I cannot meke a completely opaque material ?

Do you know how to do it ?

ciao
Ennio
 

Attachments

  • Immagine.jpg
    Immagine.jpg
    66.8 KB · Views: 596
Sorry for my poor english...
I am specking about the material of the pilot flight gear.
As you see in the attached picture I applied to materials one appear opaque the other are shining.
I need all as the first one.
I tryed to apply the opaque one to the other parts but changing the diffuse color ... and they appear anyway shining.
If I dont change the color it appear fine and opaque ....
It's a little complicate to explain ...
So the question is ...
Whats the way to set FSX materials completely opaque ?
because I tryed to change parameters and so on but still appear shining.

I hope you can understand what I mean and help me ...
please be patient ...

Ennio
 

Attachments

  • Immagine.jpg
    Immagine.jpg
    91.8 KB · Views: 710
It's okay. Note terms opaque (no see through) - transparent (see-through, as in glass), and based on that: 10 percent opacity = 90 percent transparency = very slight see-through. Etc.etc.

What you are referring to now is shininess - nothing to do with opacity/transparency. The relevant opposition is shiny vs matte (no shine), (I think ... there is also "gloss", but I won't go into that.... Reflection comes in next ...)

Anyway, in FSX degree of shininess is regulated by the Specular dial-in Button in Gmax, by Specular Color, by a separate Specular texture sheet, by the alpha channel in the specular texture, and by a Specular Power slider further down in the FSX material list. You'll have to test the interplay of these parameters for yourself, see SDK, especially "New Aircraft Procedures", and yes I agree it is all very confusing.

What I can see in your pics is that in one material Specular color is white (much shine) and in the other it is black (little shine). And the one that has Specular black produces no shine, correct?

BTW, to get an identical copy of a material hit the Copy button in the Material Editor, rename it (having the Material Navigator open at the same time, else Gmax will crash), and then simply exchange the name of the diffuse texture file.

Normally, the Blinn settings have little effect on what you get in the sim, it's all a question of alpha channels, specular color values, and FSX material settings.

You might consider analyzing the texture settings of a model you want to emulate by using either MdlMat by Martin Wright or Arno's ModelconverterX.
 
Roger
That's right
Opaque means ... MATT
Shining means .... GLOSSY

Woooowwww .... PROBLEM SOLVED ...

The black color in the specular is the solution to make MATT materials ....
Nice....

Thanks a lot a will study the rest as you suggest anyway to learn and learn ..

Thanks a lot ...
I think a will need more help ... but next time I'll open a new thread ...
please dear friend check it please next time ... I appreciate your help so much ...
Thanks again

Ennio
 
Not quite right. "Opacity" has absolutely nothing to do with either matte or shine. It only refers to transparency. Period. More to the point though, the "Opacity" setting in the Blinn section of the FSX Material has no effect whatever in the sim. It is used only in Max/GMax's viewport.

By the way, the quickest way to achive a truly matte (flat) appearance, enable the "Use No Base Material Specular" option way down towards the bottom of the FSX Material's dialog.
 
Hi
your obviously right , when I wrongly speack about "opacity" I mean "flat or matt" anyway I understood that "opacity" is related to the transparency and not to reflection o specularity or glossiness that's have each a different settings with different results..
On these argument I 'll study and experiment later , when I'll handle the mechanical parts of the landing gear .
I attempted texturing the seat belt with UVWmap and I realized that only by Unwrapping It is possible to apply texture which follow the object mouving it on the space end streching it.

Thanks ... for the direction ... I reach the result by a wrong way ... I 'll do again by enabling "Use No Base Material Specular".
More to the point though, the "Opacity" setting in the Blinn section of the FSX Material has no effect whatever in the sim. It is used only in Max/GMax's viewport.
Very interesting to know it .. I'll save a lot of trials and time

Thankyou again

Ennio
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top