Simviation Forums

Has anyone figured out how to make wings translucent?  Nothing compares to sunshine coming through a canvas wing, but translucent is not the same as transparent.  I'm not even sure it can be done in FS9, but I'd like to be proven wrong.

Gryshnak

I'm pretty sure my Flexwings and Microlights have translucent wings covered with Draclon.....
The light certainly shows through them, but not the scenery...in the Sim...!

Paul...Flexing his wings... ...!

P.S. Can you download one of the Microlights and have a peek at the wing material charactistics in Paint Shop Pro...?

The Thruster T-600N has translucent wings... ...!

Can you download one of the Microlights and have a peek at the wing material charactistics in Paint Shop Pro...?

The Thruster T-600N has translucent wings... ...!

downloading it and getting th authors name and email might help, but not looking at it in paint shop pro, all because transparency/translucent properties are set by thematerial settings in the design program

i work with FSDS mainly, but i know that Max can generate a sort of translucent material...look for the stealth hurricane or something, a moel with all the interior pars\ts done and the skin is alsmot invisible, its available here at home....however, i am not sure if gmax can do this material trick, and im almost certain FSDS cant.

good luck!

Downloading the Thruster now...

Edit: They don't look translucent to me.

Downloading the Thruster now...

Edit: They don't look translucent to me.  Nice dynamic shine, but totally opaque.

Edit again: The flying surfaces on the Skyseeker are translucent, but only from underneath.  If you roll inverted it doesn't work.  But inverting a Skyseeker for more than a few seconds is cruel anyway.

Gryshnak

Try the Cosmos Ultralight Trike... ...!

Paul... ..!

Maybe if you paint them to be slightly translucent, using the black as transparent intead of shine, and giving it a dark tone?

I had a look at the Skyseeker, the alpha channel for the wing is completely white so it's not a matter of transparency.  I've emailed the designer and asked how it was done, we'll see if I get a response.

The effect I'm trying to achieve is something like this:
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1070125/L/

Gryshnak

Hi
There are 2 ways of doing it material or textures each has their own pros and cons
with material you need to build all the spars and cross sections in the wing and its always going to be transperent,also there is a lot more work involved where if you use transperent textures you can get away with minimal internal structure (you can paint in the spars ect and make them solid in the texture)if the end user wants to they can change the transperency to suit different models,paint jobs,coverings ect but you cant use the alpha channel for reflections.Rick Pipers Slingsby T21 Glider I think used the transperent texture for the wings ect give it a looksy as its pretty damn good
Cheers
Wozza
 

Okay, got a reply from Fern Marques who made the Skyseeker.  Apparently the wings look that way because they have a two-sided texture applied, and all double-sided materials in Gmax are slightly translucent.

Looks like I'll have to go back to Gmax for this one...

Gryshnak

Okay, got a reply from Fern Marques who made the Skyseeker.  Apparently the wings look that way because they have a two-sided texture applied, and all double-sided materials in Gmax are slightly translucent.

Looks like I'll have to go back to Gmax for this one...

Gryshnak

Why You can do the same thing in FSDS3
call the material DS_whatever,when compiled it will draw the pollys double sided check the makemdl.doc file for more info
Wozza

check the makemdl.doc file for more info

Where?  I printed the whole document out so I could read it thoroughly, and the only bit on textures I can find is near the end called "The Texture Folder" where it talks about mipmaps.  I can't find any reference to "ds_" any more than I could find mention of "_t" a month or two back.  Do I have a different version of makemdl or something?

Gryshnak

Hi Mate
here is the sections whilst small they are in the makemdl.doc file
LINE_      Lines are drawn instead of triangles.
ZBIAS_      A default z-bias is added to the polygons.
ZBIAS_##      A z-bias of ## is added to the polygons.
DS_      Polygons are drawn double sided.
BRIGHT_      The material is bright (emits light).
LIGHT_BEACON      A beacon point light is drawn, and the diffuse color is the light color.
LIGHT_STROBE      A strobe point light is drawn, and the diffuse color is the light color
LIGHT_RECO      A recognition point light is drawn, and the diffuse color is the light color
LIGHT_WING      A wing point light is drawn, and the diffuse color is the light color.
LIGHT_LOGO      A logo point light is drawn, and the diffuse color is the light color.
LIGHT_NAV      A navigation point light is drawn, and the diffuse color is the light color.
LIGHT_TAXI      A taxi spotlight is drawn, and the diffuse color is the light color.
LIGHT_LAND      A landing spotlight is drawn, and the diffuse color is the light color.
Animate_VCRainMoving_16_20_
     The physical geometry under the airspeed_effects_windshield node need a material name of animate_VCRainMoving_16_20_ and must mapped to texture VCRainMoving0000.bmp.  The material needs to be at 0 percent opacity.  See the Gmax_aircraft SDK for more details.
Animate_VCRainStopped_16_20_      The physical geometry under the airspeed_effects_windshield node need a material name of animate_VCRainStopped_16_20_ and must mapped to texture VCRainStopped0000.bmp.  The material needs to be at 0 percent opacity.  See the Gmax_aircraft SDK for more details.
Animate_ChainSegment_16_100_      The physical geometry under the engine0_turning node needs a material name of Animate_ChainSegment_16_100_ and must mapped to texture ChainSegment0000.bmp. See the Gmax_aircraft SDK for more details.
Texture Names
MakeMDL makes the following assumptions about texture names:

Doh!  I've been looking in the Aircraft Container System documentation!  Right, looks like I've got a bit more reading to do...

Thanks Wozza!

Gryshnak

I don't know, maybe I'm getting a bit slow in my old age...

I created a texture (a 1024x1024 bitmap with "This is a test" written all over it), named it ds_test.bmp and saved it.

Then I created a simple polygon in FSDSv3, and assigned the ds_test.bmp texture to it.

Then I exported it to FS9, to find it was only visible from the top.  From underneath there's nothing there.  It's not double sided.  I tried it again with a tube and got the same result, the texture was only visible from the outside.

This was so simple, any suggestions what's gone wrong this time?  ::)

Gryshnak

No no no
you need to name the MATERIAL for the wing DS_wingcover
this will make the polys for the wing double side when compiled.So you make the wing brake away the polys for the transperent covering goto the material function in fsds3,add a material give it an alpha of say 200 and name it DS_wingcove.Apply the texture normally to the wing and when compiled makemdl will mirror all the pollys with DS_wingcover material applied to them ...In theroy
Wozza


edit just had a quick play and it works as advitised
here is a VERY bad example fsc
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~au_mav/test.zip