All $VC FSX Material settings should be:Framebuffer Blend: "Set Default Transparent"Source Blend: "SrcAlpha"Destination Blend: "InvSrcAlpha"and"is virtual cockpit panel texture"

Hi Bill;Yes I have those all set, reconfirmed, also went over the Laird tutorial and matched up selections, but still no luck...Thanks for the help, but I'll just leave it as a future bug to be fixed...

Well...I have time to work on this issueWould someone send me the 2 correctly created files to replace mine, so I can see if that is an issue.The 2 files I need are to replace my $Pan1.bmp and $Pan1_L.bmp, which are 256 x 256.You could place them out on www.imageshack.com (or something like that) or PM me and I will send you my email.Thanks

Those $pan files are generated automatically by FSX when the a/c is loaded. There are no real "bitmaps" at all to send!You create the display polygons in GMax on which FSX can "project" the configured gauges you specify in the panel.cfg file's [VCockpitnn] entries...None of the above will have any effect at all on whether your a/c will display with DX10 Preview enabled however!

Well that thew me :( In Gmax I was assigning a texture of $pan1.bmp through $pan4.bmp to each of my 4 polygons I created for where my various VC gauges would go. My $pan1.bmp file is all black with an alpha channel of white, 256 x 256, 8 bit. I then just copied to $pan2,3,4.bmp. Since the visuals only had the odd overlay under Win 7 Preview Direct X10 at night, I was thinking my $pan1.bmp texture was not correctly created ? My VC windows then use the same short name in the texture= entry.[Vcockpit01]file=robinson_r22_background.bmp Background_color=0,0,0 size_mm=512,512visible=1pixel_size=512,512texture=$pan1

Bill;Are you thinking my textures ($pan1.bmp) is okay, but my Gmax material is not correct ?

I have gone back and verifed the files I was using for textures. $pan1.bmp was 8 bit (no alpha channel), so I changed that to 24 bit and tried exporting the model. The $pan1.bmp image color is black with red lettering of $p1 (and the $pan1_l.bmp is all white with red lettering) to make sure I see it okay in Gmax, but still no luck.I went over the "recipe" for the FSX material and that was as described (All $VC FSX Material settings should be: Framebuffer Blend: "Set Default Transparent", Source Blend: "SrcAlpha", Destination Blend: "InvSrcAlpha" and "is virtual cockpit panel texture").I'm out of ideas on my end.Any help would be appreciated.

Bill;Are you thinking my textures ($pan1.bmp) is okay, but my Gmax material is not correct ?

They ONLY reason why you need a "real bitmap" in Max, GMax or FSDS for that matter, is that's the only way to get a "filename" into the FSX Material's Diffuse Color slot...

ok - so it's down to the FSX material and/or SDK build. I'll go back over everything and let you know.Thanks

Exactally! You could have used a picture of Mickey Mouse for your VC texture as long as the filename was prefixed with a dollar sign ($)...$MickeyMouse.bmp

Were there any patches to either FSX or the SDK, beyond the boxed version of FSX Deluxe with Acceleration ? My fsx.exe file is dated 09/26/2007, and the SDK modeldef.xml is dated 09/14/2007, and the FSToolsMenu.ms is dated 08/27/2007.

No, there has been nothing since Acceleration released.

Then that only leaves the FSX material that is somehow adding in this overlay in Win 7 with Preview of Direct X10 at night. Can you see anything wrong with my material in these four images ?

For some reason your first image isn't displaying completely, so I can't see your filenames, but be sure you do NOT use the $ prefix for the _L.bmp file! The dollar sign ($) is a special flag telling FSX to auto-generate a texture. Since you have a "real bitmap" for the _L.bmp image, you must NOT use the $ prefix...

Diffuse Color: $pan1.bmpSelf-Illumination: pan1_L.bmp

If you do have a $ prefix on your _L.bmp filename, that would account for the "missing texture replacement by the FSX Splash Screen..." :( Also, when using an _L.bmp, you need to change the Emissive Mode to "MultiplyBlend" or "MultiplyBlendUserControlled..."

Understood, so I renamed all $panx_l.bmp to panx_l.bmp and verified that they showed as such in the Material Navigator of Gmax. Exported. Didn't help. I also thought maybe I'll just uncheck the self-illumination file, that way there is only one file, the Diffuse file. Exported. Didn't help.Is there something extra that maybe I haven't added ? (I'm not going for emmissve night lighting, just basic night lighting like I see in Win XP in the image at the start of the thread)Here is the first part of the Material Editor for this issue before I changed what I said above: