Textures assigned to panels, etc.

[brettt777]

If I use an MDL editor/compiler/viewer to look at .mdl files, will I be able to see what texture is assigned where? I'm not really wanting to edit any mdl's; from what I've been told, that is WAY over my head and you're better off starting from scratch and making a new .mdl. I just want to see what texture is suppose to be where, like in a VC.

[Brett_Henderson]

If you open a Gmax file within Gmax.. the materials list shows which parts they're applied to... and if the materials are currently in a format that Gmax can "see".. the texturing will show up on the part in the viewport; albeit a very VERY low resolution (almost unuseable.. barely enough to confirm for you that it has been applied)... proper alignment is more a geometry/math problem that you solve before application.

If you just want to sort out a VC texture.. Open and convert it to an editbale format.. add a layer that includes a semi-transparent, color-coded grid.. convert it back to DDS (or whatever it was)... and run the sim..

[brettt777]

[quote]If you open a Gmax file within Gmax.. the materials list shows which parts they're applied to... and if the materials are currently in a format that Gmax can "see".. the texturing will show up on the part in the viewport; albeit a very VERY low resolution (almost unuseable.. barely enough to confirm for you that it has been applied)... proper alignment is more a geometry/math problem that you solve before application.

If you just want to sort out a VC texture.. Open and convert it to an editbale format.. add a layer that includes a semi-transparent, color-coded grid.. convert it back to DDS (or whatever it was)... and run the sim..

[Brett_Henderson]

First open a DDS file with DxtBmp and you can get a pretty good idea of where the texture is mapped.. and to further narrow it down, you apply a grid layer:




Now, obviously that's a quick and dirty grid.. you'd have to take you're time and make one that is more useable.. more detailed and more color coded.. perhaps semi-transparent areas of complete color (as opposed to lines.. or even color-coded dots on specific areas,, whatever it takes to refine your hunt..

Then run the sim and start sorting it out

[brettt777]

So a model surface is assigned a texture when it is constructed, right? I have played with Gmax a bit and done that. When the texture is assigned and then run in a game, does said surface look for the entire texture name including the extention as in textureA.bmp or textureA.dds? Or does it just look for the name and not the extention... like just textureA? Also, can a gauge file be assigned to any kind of texture file like .bmp or .dds? Sorry for all the questions.

[Brett_Henderson]

So a model surface is assigned a texture when it is constructed, right? I have played with Gmax a bit and done that. When the texture is assigned and then run in a game, does said surface look for the entire texture name including the extention as in textureA.bmp or textureA.dds? Or does it just look for the name and not the extention... like just textureA? Also, can a gauge file be assigned to any kind of texture file like .bmp or .dds? Sorry for all the questions.

Yeah.. let's keep the terminolgy straight, though, or it gets confusing in a hurry.

Materials are what get assigned to a part in Gmax..

A "material" is created with the material editor.. It will consist of at least one bitmap (diffuse), or as many as three (diffuse, spec, bump). It can also have an 'effect' bitmap assigned (fresnel and reflection). Then are also several settings to adjust.. Material editing is a course study unto itself.. but for now, it's just important to know what it is. And to know that the diffuse bitmap is like the "master" name.. It's the one FSX looks for when when rendering the model. The associated bitmaps can have any name, but it's easiest to name them similar to the diffuse.. (i.e.. C185_T

[Fr. Bill]

So a model surface is assigned a texture when it is constructed, right? I have played with Gmax a bit and done that. When the texture is assigned and then run in a game, does said surface look for the entire texture name including the extention as in textureA.bmp or textureA.dds? Or does it just look for the name and not the extention... like just textureA? Also, can a gauge file be assigned to any kind of texture file like .bmp or .dds? Sorry for all the questions.

[color=#000000]
FSX looks for a specific filename, but has a set priority order when it searches for texture extensions:

1. DDS
2. BMP

Also, there's a specific folder order search:

1. livery's folder ..\aircraftname\texture.n
2. root folder of a/c ..\aircraftname\texture
3. default FSX folder ..\FSX\Texture

Gauges in a virtual cockpit are displayed on "dynamicaly created textures." If you look in the panel.cfg file at the VCockpitnn entries, you'll see that they use textures who's names have a $ prefix (such as $VC_01 or such).

In order to use the 'grid overlay trick' with the actual gauge projections, you would need to create a 24bit .bmp file, place it in the ..\panel folder, and edit the panel.cfg file to add an entry to each VCockpit entry like this, and comment out (//) the actual gauge definitions so they won't cover up the 24bit overlay:

Code: Select all

//--------------------------------------------------------
[Vcockpit01]
file_1024=CII_VC_01.bmp // 24bit .bmp file in the ../panel.nn folder
size_mm=1024,1024
visible=0
pixel_size=1024,1024
texture=$CII_VC_01

//gauge00=escitII_variables!escxvariavles,

[Fr. Bill]

[color=#000000]That's an interesting work flow, Brett.

[Brett_Henderson]

Yeah.. lol  My way might be more clumsy.. but it's like a strict routine.. keeps me from messing things up (like fighting to find a chrome recipe, and realizing that FSX has not been using each tweak I add, because I got lazy in the re-naming regiment..

[brettt777]

So a model surface is assigned a texture when it is constructed, right? I have played with Gmax a bit and done that. When the texture is assigned and then run in a game, does said surface look for the entire texture name including the extention as in textureA.bmp or textureA.dds? Or does it just look for the name and not the extention... like just textureA? Also, can a gauge file be assigned to any kind of texture file like .bmp or .dds? Sorry for all the questions.

[color=#000000]
FSX looks for a specific filename, but has a set priority order when it searches for texture extensions:

1. DDS
2. BMP

Also, there's a specific folder order search:

1. livery's folder ..\aircraftname\texture.n
2. root folder of a/c ..\aircraftname\texture
3. default FSX folder ..\FSX\Texture

Gauges in a virtual cockpit are displayed on "dynamicaly created textures." If you look in the panel.cfg file at the VCockpitnn entries, you'll see that they use textures who's names have a $ prefix (such as $VC_01 or such).

In order to use the 'grid overlay trick' with the actual gauge projections, you would need to create a 24bit .bmp file, place it in the ..\panel folder, and edit the panel.cfg file to add an entry to each VCockpit entry like this, and comment out (//) the actual gauge definitions so they won't cover up the 24bit overlay:

Code: Select all

//--------------------------------------------------------
[Vcockpit01]
file_1024=CII_VC_01.bmp // 24bit .bmp file in the ../panel.nn folder
size_mm=1024,1024
visible=0
pixel_size=1024,1024
texture=$CII_VC_01

//gauge00=escitII_variables!escxvariavles,

[brettt777]

So a model surface is assigned a texture when it is constructed, right? I have played with Gmax a bit and done that. When the texture is assigned and then run in a game, does said surface look for the entire texture name including the extention as in textureA.bmp or textureA.dds? Or does it just look for the name and not the extention... like just textureA? Also, can a gauge file be assigned to any kind of texture file like .bmp or .dds? Sorry for all the questions.

[color=#000000]
FSX looks for a specific filename, but has a set priority order when it searches for texture extensions:

1. DDS
2. BMP

Also, there's a specific folder order search:

1. livery's folder ..\aircraftname\texture.n
2. root folder of a/c ..\aircraftname\texture
3. default FSX folder ..\FSX\Texture

Gauges in a virtual cockpit are displayed on "dynamicaly created textures." If you look in the panel.cfg file at the VCockpitnn entries, you'll see that they use textures who's names have a $ prefix (such as $VC_01 or such).

In order to use the 'grid overlay trick' with the actual gauge projections, you would need to create a 24bit .bmp file, place it in the ..\panel folder, and edit the panel.cfg file to add an entry to each VCockpit entry like this, and comment out (//) the actual gauge definitions so they won't cover up the 24bit overlay:

Code: Select all

//--------------------------------------------------------
[Vcockpit01]
file_1024=CII_VC_01.bmp // 24bit .bmp file in the ../panel.nn folder
size_mm=1024,1024
visible=0
pixel_size=1024,1024
texture=$CII_VC_01

//gauge00=escitII_variables!escxvariavles,

[Brett_Henderson]

On the file name thing, if it doesn't really care about the extention then I could theoretically replace a .dds file with a .bmp of the same name and it should use it instead or does it have to have the .dds file? What is the difference of using a .dds file for a material as opposed to a .bmp?

Which "it" do you mean ?
 Gmax cant see DDS files or extended bitmaps..  you cant add them to a material, nor see them while modeling.

FSX can't see regular bitmaps  (FS9 could see 8bit ones if I remember right).. they have to be extended bitmaps, or DDS files for use in FSX.

The extensions  ARE important in regards to file type.. (FSX sees DDS and realizes it doesn't have to "flip" it (DDS files need to be pre-flipped (ImagrTool does that for you).

[brettt777]

So which file type of "material" is it that gauges can be attatched to? I see .bmp's used but can .dds files be used as well? I see some that all the textures in the texture folder are.dds files, but then the files listed in the panel.cfg are all .bmp. So that's the only ones that be assigned gauges? And if it is, what kind of .bmp's are they...16 bit, 24 bit or some other special thing?

[Brett_Henderson]

Ok.. now you're going off on a tangent.. Lemme 'splain

[brettt777]

All of the "textures" (they're textures after the model is compiled)(materials in Gmax), in the Texture folder are for the 3D model.

The bitmaps in the panel folder are 2D images for the 2D panel.. they have nothing to do with the VC . The VC is as much a model as the plane itself. It's 3-dimensional and needs to be textured.

So does that mean that the VC will only look at bmp's or dds's in the texture folder and never look at the panel folder at all?