Hi everyone,Is there a way to assign double sided property in GMAX? I want to save the poly count and I am trying to use the same outside geometry for the cockpit to also be visible inside the cockpit. So for instance, when you are in the TRACK view looking at the cockpit, the inside wall of the cockpit is invisible until you turn around and face te same wall from the outside. The normal way to do this would be to copy the cockpit part and flip the normals, but that's the double poly count for the same geometry.So - is there a way to make the same have double-sided property? I know that the polygons are rendered depending on which way (clockwise or counter-clocwise) the vertices are ordered, so there would have to be some kind of a flag in the geometry that would indicate to the graphics engine to "render the poly in any case"...Any takers?

There is a way in GMax, but it won't work in FS...You can however specify that a Material be rendered "double sided" in the sim, but that also means that the same textures used on the exterior would be rendered on the interior, which would look really, really stupid...If you prepend your Material Name in GMax with DS_ it is a flag telling FS to render all polys with that Material Name double sided.

Thanks for the answer, Bill! You're right, that would look stupid, but at least there is a way.Misho

You might want to fake it using 5 poly's... Just create a box and shape the interior close to the actual hull. I used to do this with FSDS and semi transparent cabin windows for the exterior model. It was merely a textured box with the side poly's being transparent.Good luck!

The way that I accomplish two-sided objects in FSDS is simple and effective(and you won't see the same texture on both sides.Take a door for instance. I make an exact copy of the door and paste it right where it sits. Then for the copied door I flip all the polygons so that they face the other way. Then select BOTH doors and join them as one part. Viola!!! A two sided door. You can now assign unique textures to both sides of the door.I don't know if that works in Gmax or not, but I would imagine that it should.Warning: To keep poly counts low, do this only for visible polygons on a part. Remember the more polys, the lower the FPS.Hope this helps.Foo

>There is a way in GMax, but it won't work in FS...>>You can however specify that a Material be rendered "double>sided" in the sim, but that also means that the same textures>used on the exterior would be rendered on the interior, which>would look really, really stupid...>>If you prepend your Material Name in GMax with DS_ it is a>flag telling FS to render all polys with that Material Name>double sided.Bill, will you marry me? ;)It may seem like it might look stupid, but it actually solves a problem I had perfectly (and was nearly identical to the original posters problem). Thank you!CheersShad

>I don't know if that works in Gmax or not, but I would imagine>that it should.Of course it works. But the OP was asking if there was a way to use ONE polygon and have both sides visible in the sim.The ONLY way that can be done is the use the DS_ prefix "trick" I mentioned.However, that said, FS with actually "autogenerate" a new polygon for the opposite side, so I'm not entirely certain that you've actually gained much via this "trick..." :-eek

>>If you prepend your Material Name in GMax with DS_ it is a>>flag telling FS to render all polys with that Material Name>>double sided.>>Bill, will you marry me? ;)>>It may seem like it might look stupid, but it actually solves>a problem I had perfectly (and was nearly identical to the>original posters problem). Thank you!Hmmm... aren't you married already? ;) Even so, I could only be the husband... :-sword The DS_ "trick" works splendidly for certain parts for which it would be pointless to have twice the polys, such as a "tire" on a high LOD model, where you can have both sides of a "circle" textured.