Transparent textures

[Guest BenAlf]

Hi guys, its Ben Alfoldi here.Iv been workin on a model for monthes now, the extrior model is finally nearly complete, currently im workin on a full virtual cabin, but iv just ran into a problem.Iv tried cutting all the windows in the vcabin but then had to face the fact that i lost around 25000 polys even when the windows were 4 sided.So i was lookin at the forums, and saw a pic of the wilco 737-700, and if im not mistaking they solved this porbem by not cutting the windows, but instead applying textures that had transparent parts at the window area.So my question is, how do you create textures like that, and how do you save em so they work right?Thanks, all help is appreaciated :)Ben Alfoldi

[Guest luhiss]

If you don't apply dynamic reflections to that part of your virtual cabin, using an alpha channel in your texture will create transparancy instead of dynamic reflections...On the Alpha Channel, White (255,255,255) is opaque, and Black (0,0,0) is fully transparent. Shades of gray will create different grades of opacity.Make sure you save your texture with Imagetool in a format that supports alpha channels.. preferably 32 Bit, 444, or DXT3.Luhiss

[Guest BenAlf]

Yeah, that should work, thanks alotBen

[Guest BenAlf]

ok, that seemed to work ok, except for one big problem.when i look out the window and look at the wing only around 1 part of it shows, like only the winglets show nothin else, when i move a bit more to the side, pass the window i can see the whole wing normally.Any ideas?thanksBen

[John_Cillis 2,406]

There's been several threads on this issue, but I'll sum them up since the info is sometimes hard to find or found among several different posts....With transparent parts, the order they appear in the model is very important... Any parts which are transparent should appear last in the parts list, and even the type of part is important.... I get best results when my parts are sorted in this fashion, in these four groupings:___________________________________________Non-Transparent parts-- 1st groupingTransparent parts--interior (such as the interior walls of a cabin)--2nd GroupingTransparent parts--exterior -- 3rd groupingTransparent animated parts (such as a prop) -- 4th groupingIOTW, any animated props that rely on transparent textures are the last items in my parts list.How do you order parts? The easiest way for me, is once a project is almost finished, I first select and "cut" the interior transparent parts, then paste them back into the model. I then do the same thing with the exterior transparent parts, then the animated transparent parts. I do this for both the virtual cockpit, and the exterior model.When you build the model, do not check autosort....I had suggested in another post placing all the transparent parts in their own model. This helped me in the beginning, and helped someone here recently who had no luck using the method I discuss above. Still, if you understand my somewhat dry attempt at explaining this, I'd try what I discuss above first....One more thing...when building a virtual cabin, let's say you have two parts--an interior fuse and an "exterior" fuse, both with transparent textures. I suggest leaving out the exterior fuse--it can cause display issues. You normally can't see the exterior portions of a fuse while you're inside it anyway :)-John

[Guest BenAlf]

thanks John, it looks like the solution, but what do you mean by "When you build the model, do not check autosort...." call me stupid but im not sure where to turn it off.that might fully fix my problem since now nothing shows out of the wing, altough i got the non transparent parts grouped first then the walls with the transparency..thanks for the help so farBen

[John_Cillis 2,406]

First, I can't recall whether you're using GMAX, or FSDS 2. The Autosort checkbox appears when you compile the .mdl under FSDS 2, which is my means of creating aircraft. I don't know if GMAX handles the issue differently, but I believe the sort order issue is general to the way MSFS handles .mdl files with transparent parts....As for nothing showing out of the wing, a small screenshot might help. Are you referring to the view from inside the V/C? If so, what parts are included as part of your V/C?-John

[Guest BenAlf]

someone...help!!

[John_Cillis 2,406]

I have to apologize for not responding myself.... I was hoping someone familiar with GMAX could come along and relate what I was saying regarding FSDS 2 to GMAX.... Sounds almost certain that it's your issue....-John

[Guest BenAlf]

you dont have to apologise John, id like to thank you for trying to help me! unfortunately your method doesnt seem to work in gmax, but yes i think its something about ordering the parts, just wish id knew how.So once again, thanks for trying to help :)Benany gmax designers have any idea? :)

[Guest]

>you dont have to apologise John, id like to thank you for >trying to help me! unfortunately your method doesnt seem to >work in gmax, but yes i think its something about ordering >the parts, just wish id knew how. >So once again, thanks for trying to help :) >Ben >>any gmax designers have any idea? :) You can create a transparent part in GMax without using any textures whatever. Simply choose the part, and use the Material Editor to set the color and degree of opacity you wish.This technique will completely eliminate the issue you've described. Set your specular highlighting there also, and if you export via the MiddleMan & MDLCommander modules, you can have dynamic "shine" applied as well.

[Guest BenAlf]

yes, but than id have to cut the windows, which goes back to my first problem :( since im trying to avoid them, or is there any way to specify what area of the texture i want transparent in gmax?Ben

[Guest]

>yes, but than id have to cut the windows, which goes back to >my first problem :( since im trying to avoid them, or is >there any way to specify what area of the texture i want >transparent in gmax? You could use the multi-material technique to map individual polygons to specific colors/textures, but that would force you to make the polys boundaries match the window edges......in which case you may as well simply detach those window polys to begin with! :)There aren't really any good options other than using boolean cut and refine to make the windows.

[Guest]

Bill/other experts on the forum:I think Ben's question got lost somewhere in the last few posts. The question is how to adjust the order of parts in gMax to make transparencies work correctly. I know this has been discussed here before, so Ben, you should probably just do a forum search if no one gives a clearer answer in this thread.Matt

[Guest]

>Bill/other experts on the forum: >>I think Ben's question got lost somewhere in the last few >posts. The question is how to adjust the order of parts in >gMax to make transparencies work correctly. I know this has >been discussed here before, so Ben, you should probably just >do a forum search if no one gives a clearer answer in this >thread. No, the question wasn't lost, Matt... as far as I'm aware there isn't a way to specify a particular order for 'parts' to be processed, but I could be wrong... :)