Useful Colors for Glass and Machine Parts in GMAX

[Guest]

I wondered what colors to use for glass and other transparent materials since I started using GMAX. I needed glass for my first GMAX project, the Cape May Lighthouse (you can find it on avsim file library).I learned that glass is generally represented by a slight blue green tint in most cases, but there are other kinds of glass and stuff like plexiglas, etc. so other colors may be used as well.These colors are only for GMAX and imply that you will be setting a great deal of transparency for them, 60 to 90% (I need to look up the light transmissibility percentage for normal glass to know the exact figure), which should never be 100% in theory at least (otherwise, I've got a perpetual motion machine to sell you!).I've seen three types of "glass" or transparent materials used on aircraft.Aqua or Blue GreenGlass tends to have an aqua color. The Beechcraft Baron I think has this greenish blue appearance to its windows. It may have an anti-reflective coating or this is just modeling normal glass."Clear"Plexiglas, such as for bubble cockpits is a light transparent gray. Also use this color landing light covers as a "clear" looking material, light gray.Smoked"Smoked glass" or anti-reflective glass like that I have seen in some models of bush aircraft is light transparent brownish color.I don't have my HSL color triplets handy and do not want to risk a crash by opening GMAX, so will return and post them. I may have to experiment some on that smoked glass color before posting a value. I welcome your suggestions.For MACHINE parts I do not want to apply a texture toAnti-rust blue 45 51 176 (168 190 176 HSL)Such as seen as factory paint on shock absorbers and engine blocks.Titanium orange 177 88 26 (17 218 177 HSL)Gives a nice powdered on to metal or titanium appearance.These colors can really shine almost as much as reflective textures when on a smoothed surface.Well, that's about picked my brain clean for tonight,Steve

[Guest]

Nice tip. thanks!

[Guest]

I havn't the time to look those colors yet, but I did see a photo of a Beech that does have a distinct blue green tint to the windows.

[Guest jlwoodward]

I tried to find a color for glass so what I finally did was to look through all the aircraft texture files for some windows, and then use Paint Shop to identify the color. I ended up with:Red=0Green=206Blue=214and opacity=8 which is the default FSDS value for transperency (changing it seemed to have no effect).Now a question- does anyone have some numbers for the olive drab color used on ww2 aircraft? I ask because I have difficulty seeing colors and I usually let my wife pick them out.Thanks,John Woodward

[Guest]

Good idea.I finally have the figures for the colors.RGB 182 255 237HSL 117 73 255Transparency 25-30% opacityfor the aqua Beech style anti-reflective windows.RGB 9 9 8HSL 43 28 9Trans 25% opacityfor tinted glass, although I think this is a bit grayish and light, perhaps a little more brown would help.Steve