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Guest simagic3d

Exporting from Gmax so textures show up on MDLs

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Guest simagic3d

What is the proper way to reference bitmap textures in Gmaxsuch that they are seen by FS when a plane is exported as an MDL?I have a nicely imported, UV mapped OBJ format plane made inLightwave to which the texture maps have been reapplied in Gmaxand show up just fine in the viewports (except for the fact thatI can't get the imported model to stop being faceted), but can'tbe "found" by FS when the .bmps are copied to the aircraft/planename/texture folder. That is, the model is the default white (and faceted).I'm using standard names specified by the makeMDL sdk ("name_t.bmp"for base diffuse color maps converted from tga's with DXTbmp.exe).Please advise.

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Guest odog

aint this fun! make sure the textures are square (1024x1024,512x512) and are in the proper format. 8,32 bit dxt1 dxt3 so on now make sure you have the same names in the Material Editor as you do on you textures. Just renaming them for FS wont work, they need to match the name they are applied in gmax. you should use Image Tool until you know what's happening. Image Tool will puke out any undesirable textures.i bet your names dont match.joe

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Guest simagic3d

> make sure the textures are square (1024x1024,512x512)Yep.> and are in the proper format. 8,32 bit dxt1 dxt3 so onYep.> now make sure you have the same names in the Material Editor> as you do on you textures.Elaborate. I'm totally new to gmax but have 10 yrs in LW, soif I understand, the material name has to be the same as theimage name that is selected as a diffuse map? What aboutdouble sided materials... the sdk says to prefix somethingwith "DS_". I've named the material, surface, whateveras "DS_happy wings" and FS indeed renders them double sidedsans texture map. So what you're saying I need to do is nameit "DS_main_t" since the image name is "main_t.bmp" right?

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Guest odog

the MDL is going to look for a texture, it is told what to look for in gmax. If the name in gmax doesnt match (EXACTLY) the name in the texture folder, it will look grey.if your 24bit gmax texture is DS_ilovegmax.bmp then your bitmap in the FS texture folder must be DS_ilovegmax.bmp.regardless of the SDK prefix addition, it must match perfectly.simple, but easy to miss this one. open up the MEditor and PICK the texture, look at the map in the diffuse slot, does it match your FS texture?hard to explain, easy to showgood luckjoe

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Guest simagic3d

> open up the MEditor and PICK the texture, look at the> map in the diffuse slot, does it match your FS texture?OK... let's see.In the Material Editor I see the sample sphere and under itthe name of the material. Can THIS field have any name?Next, in the Maps rollout, I have "Map#1 (main_t.bmp)" as thelabel/name in the diffuse slot/button. When I click on thatname/button, the field below the smaple sphere changes to"Map#1" Is THIS the name that needs to be changed to thename of the image?

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Guest simagic3d

> open up the MEditor and PICK the texture, look at the> map in the diffuse slot, does it match your FS texture?OK... let's see.In the Material Editor I see the sample sphere and under itthe name of the material. Can THIS field have any name?Next, in the Maps rollout, I have "Map#1 (main_t.bmp)" as thelabel/name in the diffuse slot/button. When I click on thatname/button, the field below the smaple sphere changes to"Map#1" Is THIS the name that needs to be changed to thename of the image?Does the filename EXTENSION also have to be included in thenaming of whatever field?

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Guest simagic3d

> open up the MEditor and PICK the texture, look at the> map in the diffuse slot, does it match your FS texture?OK... let's see.In the Material Editor I see the sample sphere and under itthe name of the material. Can THIS field have any name?Next, in the Maps rollout, I have "Map#1 (main_t.bmp)" as thelabel/name in the diffuse slot/button. When I click on thatname/button, the field below the smaple sphere changes to"Map#1" Is THIS the name that needs to be changed to thename of the image?Does the filename EXTENSION also have to be included in thenaming of whatever field?

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Guest Firestriker

Dean,Material NAMES are critical under certain conditions. These are described in the MakeMdlSDK that you can get at the Microsoft Web Site.http://www.microsoft.com/games/flightsimul...wnloads_sdk.aspMax CAN NOT read most of the file formats that are used in the sim. It is therefore necessary to keep 2 sets of texture files. I usually keep one set in a sub-directory of the aircrafts texture directory and name it gmax. In this directory I keep my 8 or 24 bit bmp images and use them for mapping in Max. The file names in this directory are IDENTICLE to the names of the files used in the sim and that are stored in the main aircraft texture directory which can be of 8, 16 bit extended, DXT or 32 bit bmp files. The 8 bit 256 palleted format is a format that can be used in both and is a good place to start out with till you become more familliar with the differences. I would suggest getting DXTbmp as the help file gives a really good explanition of the formats that are supported by the different MS flght sims. You can get it here: http://www.mnwright.btinternet.co.uk/index.htmClick on the image link below for an example of my directory structure.Hope this helps,Lou

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Guest simagic3d

> open up the MEditor and PICK the texture, look at the> map in the diffuse slot, does it match your FS texture?OK... let's see.In the Material Editor I see the sample sphere and under itthe name of the material. Can THIS field have any name?Next, in the Maps rollout, I have "Map#1 (main_t.bmp)" as thelabel/name in the diffuse slot/button. When I click on thatname/button, the field below the smaple sphere changes to"Map#1" Is THIS the name that needs to be changed to thename of the image?Does the filename extension (bmp) also have to be included in thenaming of whatever field? And what about the actual folderwhere you are selecting them from... do the images have toreside in the same directory as the gmax file or the mdlfile? That is, should everything associated with the projectbe referencing the same folder? I'm not too familiar withthe content directory structure of gmax. It defaulted toscenes where I put the images, then saved to meshes for thegmax file, where I'm opening it from, tweeking, and resaving.

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Guest simagic3d

Sheesh!My appologies for the quadruple posts! Wow... I wasn't getting anyresponse from the server at the end last night, so I tried resendinga few times and then again this morning.Anyway, it looks like it doesn't matter what the material ormap name is, just that the image selected in the mapping slot/button is the same as that going to be used in FS and that Ineed to be working from within the aircraft folder (gmax filein the model folder and images in the texture folder, etc),correct?That is, I can name the base material under the sample sphere"DS_wings" so that makemdl will make the surface double sided,click on a map button slot for a channel, load an image perabove location, and leave the default name of this item underthe sample sphere as "Map #12" or whatever, right?

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Guest simagic3d

Well, Joe, nothing I do is making the images show up on the FSmodel.I've followed your tips and the sdk, double checked all names,moved the gmax file to the aircraft/planename/model folder,opened it up from there in gmax, and reapplied all texture mapimages from the texture folder. Nothing is working.If someone could just explain where the gmax file has to be inrelation to the images and confirm which field has to bethe same name as the image, then maybe it'll work .Right now the sdk says the material name can be any name with theprovision of special prefixes (like DS_) which I am using on threeof the materials. The map name isn't specially addressed, but I'vetried changing the default "Map #x" to the name of the image, withand without the .bmp ext.I'm applying the images directly exported from DXTbmp as 24 bitnon-alpha channeled bmps in the texture folder so I don't seehow the name can be anything other than that of the filename.

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Guest simagic3d

I'm going back over past msgs to post summaries and outcomes for future navigators that happen thru the forums, like me, looking for answers before posting questions that may have already been answered.RESOLUTION:FS does NOT recognize 24-bit images, only 32-bit or 8-bit extended bmps. I was reading some tutorials saying how alpha channels are used for this and that, but I didn't want this and that, so I didn't create any alpha channels, not knowing that FS needs such even if it's just "blank" (full white), etc.

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