Window terture problem

[Guest Pil]

Hi,I am currently building an aircraft in GMAX for use with FS2004. Everything worked out fine so far exept for the windows. I have blueish windows with a transparancy applied as an alpha chanel in the texture. When loading the aircraft in FS2004 I can see inside the aircraft but all the parts that have an animation applied do not appear when looking through the windows. For example I can see the cabin, seats etc., but no doors, pilot, moving switches in the cockpit. THIS ONLY HAPPENS WHEN I LOOK THROUGH THE WINDOOWS. As soon as I open the door and look inside the cabin everything is there.Anybody have any idea what I am doing wrong? I have played around with converting the textures around as DXF1, DXT3, DXT5 etc.. but nothing happens.help greatly appreciatedChuck

[nickpike 0]

This is to do with the postion of the glass in a parts list. Sorry, not familiar with Gmax, but in FSDS2 you can produce a parts list. Any parts after the glass (and these would be parts you need to see through the glass) do not show. I look for the last part that would be seen through the glass, and then postion the glass part after that. Then I import the part list back into FSDS2. Another way (in FSDS2) is to select the glass, cut it (saves and deletes) and then paste it and it appears at the end of the list. I break my models into relevant sections. I would, for example, have a seperate section for the cockpit, and make sure the glass is the last part. Then I know everything will show through the glass. Can a Gmax guru confirm (or otherwise) that this is the same in Gmax.nick

[Guest Pil]

thanx nick! I'll give it a try!

[n4gix 4,947]

You cannot "order the parts list" in GMax.

[Guest Pil]

any ideas anyone?

[Guest Firestriker]

Instead of using the texture for transparancy, make the material transparent. Use the alpha channel for reflectivity and the base color for the diffuse color (DXT3 format with _t). Besure you set both the Diffuse Map and the Specular Color Map in the Material Editor. Makemdl will place any polys that have a material with transparancy in a special place at the end of the ASM file called Alpha (my, how clever...LOL) so the sorting is done for you.Also, this does not mean you don't still have to have a proper heirarchy.Lou

[Guest Pil]

Thanx Lou! It worked!By the way, why is a heirarchy important?

[n4gix 4,947]

>Thanx Lou! It worked!>>By the way, why is a heirarchy important?The "minimum heirarchy" for a GMax model is:exterior.....outside partsinterior.....inside partsThe two node names are used to create the exterior and interior models, so MakeMDL.exe can compile the spot view model and the virtual model.Other heirarchical nodes that are critical would be things like:rudderl_aileronr_aileronl_flapetc.In short, any part that is animated MUST be the parent node for all parts that will MOVE with that parent part... ;)As an example, if you have a window in the a/c's door, that window will "move" when the door is opened, hence it must be LINKED to the part named door_passenger, so it will "inherit" the animation from the parent part (or nodename).