Night Textures

[Travis]

Unbelievable!

I've forgotten how to make night textures for an aircraft!

I currently have textures with the suffix _T.bmp, but I'm not sure if I have the rest correct.  There are DXT3 textures in there that have the suffix _L, which is what I remember as being the right type for night maps.  But when I load up the sim with them, nothing shows.  I have absolutely no night textures, and its driving me up the wall!

As I remember it, the _L alpha channel should control the "lights" as shown through a window or such, right?  So why don't I get anything?  Is there some other issue I'm missing here?

[Katahu]

Convert the light maps to DXT1 [one] format then try it out.

BTW, did you remember to link the light maps to the object under the "self-illumination" option?

[Travis]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

I linked the textures to the self-illumination option, converted to DXT1 (with alpha) and still nothing!  What the heck?!

I think I'm about to give up . . .

[Katahu]

One more dumb question.

Did you remember to click "Has Light Map" in the Makemdl program during export?

PS: The alpha channel should only be applied to the "main" textures while the "only" the main textures are converted to DXT3 [three] with Alpha.

The light maps should be converted to only DXT1 [one] with "no" alpha and are suppose to be linked to the objects with the main textures under the "self-illumination" option while the self-illumination option is checked.

Again, did you check the "Has Light Map" option in the Makemdl program?

[Travis]

"Has Light Map" is checked.

Main textures are DXT3 w/ Alpha.

Light textures are DXT1 w/ no Alpha.

All light textures are mapped as Self-Illumination in Gmax.

Still nothing.

Would it perhaps matter if I have changed the original size of the texture to make the night map smaller?

The original main textures are 1024x1024.  However, I have reduced that to 512x512 for the night textures.  But the 512x512 ARE the ones mapped in Gmax to the self-illumination, so it should recognize them, yes?

[Katahu]

The size could be it. Normally, I make sure that all the files that are linked to the same object are exactly the same size and that their proportions are to the power of two.

[Greg Ebnit EApilot]

LOL!LOL! Sorry Locke I could'nt help but laugh when I first read your post. I know how you feel. And its just like me to laugh at someone elses problem and not be able to offer any help.

[Milton]

Size of the _L map versus original map is not so important.

[Travis]

This is aggravating beyond belief.  To have come this far, and to be stopped by something so simple.  It seems this project is just riddled with trouble from beginning to end.

I still cannot get the nightmaps to work.  I have saved as DXT3, DXT1 w/Alpha, DXT1 w/o Alpha and as regular BMPs.  I have mapped them to the illumination channel and tried sizes ranging from 128x128 to the original 1024x1024.  This isn't working worth spit.

None of it shows up.  That's what I can't comprehend.  I have no clue as to why this is happening, and I am sick of it.  If I can't get this simple little thing to work, I can't release this aircraft on the general public.  If anyone knows of any tutorials on the subject, or would like to lend a hand, please let me know.

If I don't get it figured out, this thing will sit in my storage bin forever.  I very much want to get this released, but with these kinds of issues, I'll never get it done.

[Katahu]

Click here.

At least one of those tutorials should help.

[Travis]

Thanks, Jesse.  Looked through a few of those, but couldn't find anything about night textures.

Is there some way I can just have textures in general in there?  I mean, I'm not really concerned with having any kind of alphas showing, nor anything "special", I just want it to work a little.

I'm running out of steam, here.

[AuMaV]

Hi Mate
I cant help as I build in FSDS,also Id only suggest whats already been suggested
In this situation (we all find ourselves there soemtime) I would grab somebody elses source files (one thats been reliased so I can grab a working copy of the model and textures)
then compare them to what Im doing,to see if anything jumps out at me. 9 out of 10 times its a silly little thing
here a link to a few source files http://www.freeflightdesign.com/gmax.html
maybe Miltons spartin? if nothing else you get to have a first hand look at how the Master's do it
Cheers
Wozza

[microlight]

Dude,

I don't know much about the subject of night textures, but here are a couple of things I notice about one of your previous projects (EB-72) that we've worked together on, that might help.

- the model goes transparent at dusk, and the bmp format nor the alpha channel colour (black or white) make any difference to this.

- from outside, the outer wall of the fuselage nearest the viewer is transparent, but the inner wall on the far side of the fuselage is opaque, so you can't see through the fuselage. BUT

- the passenger door at fuselage front left is the other way round, so that it's opaque from the outside but transparent from the inside, which is right.

I can't see any difference in the textures themselves or their formats, but if you can identify whether there are any texture mapping differences between the passenger door and the rest of the fuselage, might this help? Is it possible to accidentally map the textures to the inside of the model rather than the outside so taht they can't be seen?

Good luck, mate.

[Milton]

My suggestions?:

If you have HasLightMap checked,

1.  Use DXT3 textures with a 210-220 alpha
2.  Textures MUST have _t at the end (if HasLightMap is checked)
3.  Light maps _L are DXT3, black primary (0,0,0 to avoid transparency) and black alpha.

Remember if you are changing texture names to support _t  (or not) that you must also do that in gmax or fsds so it is aware of that texture name change.

[Travis]

Thanks, guys!  Help is much appreciated, but for the next few days I'm out of touch with my computer, so I'll try all this when I get back.