Why am I getting __Auto Textures in Sketchup?

[=rk=]

I observe texture names "material_11lm" and "material_7lm." While any names will work, the normal convention for those files would be "material_11_lm" and "material_7_lm," consistent with you statement here:

No matter what I do, MCX will not accept "__Auto_18_0_lm" as a night texture. I've tried renaming the main textures by removing the double underscore but they simply reappear. Does anyone know why this is happening?

Also in your screen capture, the textures 17N_FBO_material_5_LM.jpg, 17N_FBO_material_5LM.jpg and 17N_FBO_material_5lm.jpg fail to load. Note that MCX even makes a case distinction between two of the files. The similarity of the file names can't be discounted and to this observer appear to be concatenations of the file name material_5_LM.jpg, that would be contained within the 17N_FBO directory. Also note that the full path would be 17N_FBO\material_5_LM.jpg, which is one character transposed from the missing file name 17N_FBO_material_5_LM.jpg.

I strongly endorse everyone including myself to be very careful about file names and to avoid appearing as if I have any sort of problem with them, which I don't, I won't draw conclusions as to how this file renaming might have occurred - if that is indeed what has happened.

 

[falcon409]

Rick, you are correct that the night texture names show several variations in how the "LM" is added. To be honest that screenshot shows my previous attempts to get MCX to accept something/anything in the way of a night texture. It made no real difference whether the "lm" was lower case/upper case or was preceded by an underscore. . .even though you can see that the textures and the necessary night textures are both contained in the same folder, MCX will load the main textures but then is unable to find the night textures regardless of how I name them. Arno mentions that MCX should load those textures automatically, but instead it acts as though it is unable to find them.

 

[=rk=]

To be clear: MCX will automatically detect "_LM" suffixed textures if you have already assigned them to a texture slot. MCX will not open a model, scan a folder contents and automatically assign a "xyz_LM.jpg" to the night slot of any "xyz.jpg" texture, unless you use the drop down material attribute template and select "make night texture" for the xyz.jpg texture slot. If you perform this procedure and compile the model and xyz_LM.jpg is in the same folder or adjoining folder to the model, then MCX will detect and load that texture upon import.

 

[falcon409]

Thanks to Rick and Arno and Gary for their viewpoints and suggestions. . .unfortunately I think the discussion has reach a point of negative returns, lol. I think we are close but I think my explanation has been poorly presented, otherwise this should have been resolved by now. I have performed this process literally hundreds of times over the years and never had as much trouble with a simple process as I am with this one stupid set of textures.

I am going to step back, take a deep breath and try to come up with a "start to finish" workflow explanation that everyone understands. . .I think there are things being lost in the translation because as they say. . ."this ain't rocket science". I'll be back when I feel I have something that is as comprehensive as I can possibly make it.

Thanks Again!

 

[falcon409]

Ok, Here is my workflow for both Sketchup and MCX:

Sketchup Workflow
************************
1) Open Sketchup
2) Using dimension gleaned from Google Earth I begin the build of the FBO.
3) Once the building is complete I load the various textures I plan to use (roof, siding, windows and doors, signs and so on)
4) I apply the textures, position them correctly on the building surface and save the entire work as an "skp" file for future adjustments or changes.
5) I export the FBO as a ".dae/collada file" and send it to the 3D folder I have setup for the entire project
This process saves the .dae file and builds a texture folder that houses the textures as they were positioned in Sketchup (with names generated by Sketchup).
6) I go into that texture folder and send those textures that require a night texture over to Paint Shop Pro for processing. I save each one and add the _LM to the texture name and save them back to the same texture folder (now everything is in the texture folder that MCX "should" access when loading the .dae file for compiling).

MCX Workflow
***************
1) Open ModelConverterX
2) I load the file "17N_FBO" into MCX and all daytime textures load correctly.
3) I change the desktop in MCX to Night time.
4) I bring up the Material Editor
5) I scroll down to the first texture that requires a night texture and highlight it and the "Properties Menu" displays to the right.
6) I scroll to the "textures section" which shows the diffused texture as "17N_FBO\material_10.bmp"
7) I click on "Night Texture" and using the browse button I double click the texture folder (17N_FBO) which shows the contents and I select the Night Texture which is "material_10_LM.bmp", I double click that texture and it shows "material_10_LM.bmp" (notice it doesn't include the sub folder name as the other one does).
8) The message at the bottom of the MCX display says "Failed to load texture: material_10_lm.bmp".

Now, if I do the initial steps of getting the objects loaded into MCX, load the Material Editor, click on "Properties" and at the top select "Add Night Textures" and then "Apply". . .it gives the appearance of processing something but it actually does nothing.

 

[tgibson]

Some FS utility programs do not allow folder names to begin with numbers, only letters. I can't imagine that's your problem, but it's best to stay away from that.

 

[=rk=]

I save each one and add the _LM to the texture name and save them back to the same texture folder (now everything is in the texture folder that MCX "should" access when loading the .dae file for compiling). I believe this is a mistaken assumption. Collada does not have a night texture attribute, so when MCX imports a .dae, it does so using a Collada translator. Once in the MCX work space, you'd want to conform to regular MSFS rules and have your textures in either: the same folder as the model MCX imports, or a folder adjacent to the model labeled "textures." Other folder arrangements might work, these two definitely do.

Now, if I do the initial steps of getting the objects loaded into MCX, load the Material Editor, click on "Properties" and at the top select "Add Night Textures" and then "Apply". . .it gives the appearance of processing something but it actually does nothing.

Great, you're not finished, something was done, the model mappings were edited. Now compile the model and import it to see the new night texture mapping.

 

[falcon409]

lol, well, the final process was convoluted but it worked. I changed the name of the folder holding the textures from 17N_FBO to "textures". When I loaded the "dae" file it didn't find any of the textures so in the Materials Editor they all appeared as checkerboards. So I went texture by texture loading them from the renamed texture folder and did the same (while I was at it) with the night textures. Everything displays properly now. I'll have to wait til I have the next group of models ready to import into MCX to see if I retained all this.

Thanks Rick for hanging in there and I apologize for being a "butt" at times. Your help was greatly appreciated.

 

[=rk=]

It's all good sir, glad to help. I know this aspect of developing can get a bit tedious at times and I can also tell you're not a quitter, so it is just a matter of patiently working out the communication. Ages ago you released a version of Ahmed Al Jabar AB that I modified for my own use. To get it right I edited some of the files and until I replace those with my own, or unedited work, I can't upload it, but I can share images and my gratitude for your contribution.

This last one might be of Ali Al Salam AB.

 

[falcon409]

Wow, yea I remember that project and the deployment we did there. I always wonder if anyone actually uses the things I upload. I know they get downloaded, but I also know they can get dumped just as easily if a person doesn't like what they see. That was a big base given the location. I think it took us about an hour by Bus from the Airport in Kuwait and as you can tell, it's mostly sand and scrub vegetation. When you finish it I'd be interested in downloading it for sure. Nice job!

 

[falcon409]

Here are some shots of the project that caused the standstill for night textures. You can see the FBO in the bottom foreground and also how I've sectioned off the various areas of the airport. Upper right area is a Skydiving School. A second shot shows the limited night texturing but it finally worked. I loaded the project in MCX, loaded the Material Editor, clicked on the "properties" tab which brings up the properties menu on the right side. At the top of the Material Editor I made sure "Add Night Texture" was selected and then I just went down through the textures on the left selecting each one that required a night texture. . .go to the top right and select "Apply" and bingo, loaded. I did that for each texture that had a night texture.Took all of about 2 minutes, lol.

I think a big part of my problem was that at one time I was producing a custom airport scenery once every week or two and I was doing night textures constantly. . .it became something I did as a normal routine. Then I quit and haven't done anything for 4 or 5 months now. That repetition and the process of loading night textures wasn't second nature any more. . .I simply forgot the process and it took banging around in the dark and your help to get the light bulb to come back on in my head. Thanks again.

 

[=rk=]

Thanks for the feedback, currently working on 3 islands in the South China Sea, with AI helo's and J-11's on patrol. It became a little overwhelming and I've taken a break (hopefully).
Your scenery look great, it looks like there is an old stage up area in the foreground attached to the runway. Your night textures look awesome, maybe a flood light for the fuel stand? Just offering an idea.
Also, I have a fleet of open source autos without headlights lit, to use for parking models, you can use those for freeware, I'll make an uploaded link, or I can show you how to edit the default cars to remove them - unless of course you like them, which is totally fine. Among those vehicles I have numerous military ones as well, Hummers, Hemtts, launchers, radars, etc. If you look in my Trimble Warehouse, you can see an idea of what I collect and work on.

 

[falcon409]

Apparently there is an intermittent gremlin because I can do two buildings in a group of 5 and have all night textures drop in like clockwork and then get to another building and have two textures that refuse to load, lol. All coming from the same texture folder, all named correctly all loaded in exactly the same way. I have even opened the texture folder and just stared at the textures trying to figure out what is different about those two. . .same general file size, same format (bmp), etc. . .I got nothing, lol. I just let it go, lol, figure I'm winning more than losing so I'm good. . .Just weird.