Middleman and Commander Question

[Guest]

I installed both programs and could not get it to work. I toolk commander out of the path and middleman works fine. I still do the two groups interior and exterior. How does middleman/commander know what parts are interior or exterior? Do the vc parts need a special prefix? Can you explain with an example?Thanks StevenSeastorm update. Progress this weekeend was good. I worked my way into successfully getting a .bmp in gmax to appear in FS2002. I learned Gmax could only read the 24bit immage and FS counld not. I now have a copy of the image in the FS texture folder of the aircraft saved as a DXT3 format. I works!!! Thanks to Martin Wright!!!I got so confident with that accomplisment I took a stab at the VC panel. Works the same way!! I can now fly the model from the VC environment! It does look all that nice yet. It is only the stock Cessna 208 turbine panel and radio stack but that will have to do for now. BTW is there another special trick to getting the panel visable at night?

[Guest]

>I installed both programs and could not get it to work. I >toolk commander out of the path and middleman works fine. I >still do the two groups interior and exterior. How does >middleman/commander know what parts are interior or >exterior? Do the vc parts need a special prefix? Can you >explain with an example?The "auto interior" will simply take the entire visible model and 'dynamically clone all the parts' at run time. It's a quick and dirty way to generate a VC. But, for the final model, you should develop a separate &l;interior&r; group. If you do that, it will 'see' the &l;interior&r; and skip the 'autobuild.' >BTW is there another >special trick to getting the panel visable at night? Oh, gee... now that's only been discussed here about a hundred or so times... :)Since you already have the VC part figured out, here's the 'trick:'Create a pure black (0,0,0) bitmap, and shade the parts where the gauges need to be illuminated grey. Apply it in GMax to the VC part in the 'Self-Illumination' slot. BTW, make the shaded bitmap and then invert it before using! :) Don't ask why; it's an FS2k2 thing!HINT: Once you've sized the bitmap and are satisfied, you can reduce it to 256x256 to save space...

[Guest]

Thanks for the help Bill, I appreciate your work in setting up this forum and have read and noted all the posts that you and others have made about vc and lighting. I still needed to do quite a bit of guessing to figure out what works. I don't mind that. It's part of the project. What one person says may not always be clear to the readers in the forum because of the difference in their experience level. I also see quite a bit of sarcasim in may postings which I would think can give a reader a negitive picture of the type of people he is dealing with. I thought I would mention this only because of you comment in the reply you gave me here. "Oh, gee... now that's only been discussed here about a hundred or so times... "This doesn't sound very professional. Please take my criticism as a constructive one with no intention to offend. Thanks again for you work and help in this common "hobby" of ours.Steven

[Guest]

>I also see quite a bit of >sarcasim in may postings which I would think can give a >reader a negitive picture of the type of people he is >dealing with. I thought I would mention this only because of >you comment in the reply you gave me here. >> "Oh, gee... now that's only been discussed here >about a hundred or so times... " >>This doesn't sound very professional. Please take my >criticism as a constructive one with no intention to offend. >Thanks again for you work and help in this common "hobby" of >ours. Steven,It was said with a smile and was not intended as sarcasm, but rather a hint that if one took the time to search through the past postings (that's why they're saved!), one would soon have more than enough information to answer their own questions.When I first began the process of learning modeling, I spent a lot of time reading through the archived messages here and at a dozen other fora in an attempt to self-educate myself. When I ask for help - and believe me, I still ask! - everyone may be sure that I've already read every word on the subject that's been written over the last six months or more.Please don't hesitate to ask questions Steven, but at least show us that you've done your 'research' first. Your particular question was answered just last week, complete with screenshots to illustrate the process, so a few minutes of searching would have been more productive... :)