Simviation Forums

Stumped again. Want to apply a texture to a part so that it shows up as illuminated, e.g., to simulate lighting. I am working with FSDS3, textured the part using an RGB 255/255/255 DXT3 bitmap with no tag, _L tag, _LM tag, all with the same results - namely, that the part shows up as basic white, and very dull at that. The part has been given a material name with diffuse/ambient/specular/emissive colours at 255 in every box. I also checked to ensure that the has_lightmap_1 option is enabled in the makemdl compiler. The results look like this:




With the part untextured, and using the same material name applied as above, the part displays properly (in FS9 only), as below:



Of course, any untextured part won't show up in FSX, hence my dilemma here. Any & all hints are welcome.

I found some helpful advice that got it working (thanks to Luka on the Freeeflight forum). Thought it might be helpful to paraphrase his tips as they may help anyone facing a similar problem.

- Make a lighting texture in whatever desired colour, and save it with a "_T" suffix (e.g., PARTNAME_T.bmp). In the FSDS texture selection window, check "Light Map/Alpha [_"L" and alpha channel"). Your applied texture name will then be PARTNAME_T.bmp,A.
- Download a handy utility called MDLMat (freeware by Martin Wright). After having compiled your model, open it up in MDLMat, and edit the emissiveness of the required part(s) (this will take trial & error, so make a backup of your model first).
- Save your changes in MDLMat. Upon reloading FS, your emissive part should be glowing, day or night.

Thanks guys, glad to get it all working now.

Dont know if this help

My bad - one mistake in there, namely, DO NOT include the ,A after the texture. It should be PARTNAME_T.bmp and that's all. Otherwise it won't display at dusk/night/dawn in FSX.