Simviation Forums

Can one of you guys point me in the right direction for getting started on this?

It's looking good, go with your instincts (and BACK UP)!!!

Thanks Felix,  after some more tinkering, I came up with this, which seems about on par with late FS98 or FS2k.  

There's an interesting thing I don't really understand though.  I figured out how to make a transparent texture, but I had to apply it to the areas I had intended to be opaque.  Once I did that, the rest of the canopy became transparent.  Why would that happen?

Also, am I right in assuming I'll need to split the front and back pieces off?

Yes - My approach tends to be to create the canopy, taking into consideration the framing required.

If I create the full canopy as one piece( instead of a front and rear bubble), once I'm satisfied with the final shape, I'll split off the frame(s) from the "glass".  I'll set the glass material appropriately, then texture - or not - as appropriate.  Since I've set the glass material to be transparent, I'll only worry about the alpha channel in texturing the "glass" part if I want some sheen or reflectivity, since the transparency is in the material, not the texture.

Felix, what happened here?  It was clear in FSDS, but when I compiled it into FS9, it turned opaque.  ???

Wow! Its been a while but its looking great! Awesome!  :o

Thanks Fooly, it still has a LONG way to go...

Is it going to have a VC?

Well, the idea is to use this as a kind of a test bed to teach myself how to do this.  One month ago, I had never even touched FSDS.  The plan is that it may not be the most accurate plane ever, but it will have everything that I need to learn on it.  So it may have some lind of a rudimentary VC, but don't expect it to be jawdropping.  :)

Okay, well good luck.  :)