VC Panel Lighting not practical?

[Guest iholrf]

Bill and others,I have been using the techniques described in the vc lighting tutorial and have gotten to the point where I have the _L.bmp in place to hide the ugly black when the light is out.I have run into a significant problem that may result in the scrapping of the entire project if my suspicions are correct. My panel is not square. At my current level of understanding it looks like the the gauge planar will either be partly outside the cockpit edges or I will have large empty spaces in the panel due to the need for square textures. See screen below. Obviously if it is outside and black this is not gonna look good at all.Is there a way to fix this? The image shows the background overlay as light blue, the "lights on" ugly black of the _l.bmp in the left top corner (a area of 0,0,0 on the background bmp) and the normal planar outside the vc as originally built by the model creator.TIAShadhttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/122335.jpg

[n4gix 4,947]

>I have run into a significant problem that may result in the>scrapping of the entire project if my suspicions are correct.>My panel is not square. At my current level of understanding>it looks like the the gauge planar will either be partly>outside the cockpit edges or I will have large empty spaces in>the panel due to the need for square textures. See screen>below. Obviously if it is outside and black this is not gonna>look good at all.>>Is there a way to fix this? Of course. The solution is quite simple, and I made a point of emphasizing that in my tutorial.While it is true that the TEXTURE must be "square," there is absolutely NOTHING that says the gauge polygon(s) have to be "square!" ;)In fact, you can have a collection of "gauge shaped polygons" and simply texture them with one, single texture...Here's an example of what I'm talking about, Shad. This is from the Eaglesoft CJ1's VC. Note how I've created a "bunch of gauge shaped polygons" for a bunch of subpanels that're scattered around. I've "attached" all the polys to create a single object, then applied one 1024x1024 bitmap to the entire group.I used the UVW Editor to "suffle the poly maps around" and sized them to make use of nearly 100% of the available pixels on the texture sheet!BTW, one of the major advantages of this method is that if you have the same gauge that is used more than once on the VC, you need only stack both "polygon maps" to the same area of the texture... Therefore, you need only ONE gauge entry in the panel.cfg but you can display it as many times as you like...For example, the "floodlights" on the texture sheet are used for the overhead cabin lights 12 times in the actual model, but I only need one "gauge entry" in the panel.cfg! ;)http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/122359.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/122362.jpghttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/122363.jpg

[Guest iholrf]

*Blush*I realized a bit later that I had jumped the gun a little and figured that it was unlikely I was the first to encounter this problem. I began looking around other models and quickly realized that others had the same problem well worked out. I then discovered that Milton Shupe has recently released a Model G18S!!! Typical Milton; its stunning. *Sigh* Kinda blew the wind out of my sails. His light maps are in color.. COLOR!. Milton and his teammates have set the bar far higher than I can reach. Anything I produce will be third rate at best compared to their G18S. The only thing I got is better sounding radials and landing lights that work LOL.As always your solution is elegant and creative Bill. A work of art if I may say so (but then again, from what I have seen so are your models). You have provided me the solution with out giving it away, which I both respect and appreciate (and boy there are times when a picture is worth a thousand words).Thanks once again,CheersShad

[n4gix 4,947]

No problem, Shad. I'm happy to share the concept. Don't beat yourself up though! If you were to search through the forum's posts back far enough, you'll see quickly that I went through the exact same process!In fact, your initial post is a nearly verbatim clone of my initial post on this same subject! :+ Someone was kind enough to provide me some "hints" via email, but it remained for me to sus out the precise details. Often times, simply knowing that something is possible is enough incentive for me to pursue the solution.Also, please do not permit admiration for someone else's work prevent you from sharing what you have created. If everyone felt that way, there would be a slow death of new models being created and released. Everyone has something of value to offer, and it is only through public release and the feedback received (taking the inevitable lumps as gracefully as possible!) that one's skills are improved... ;)

[Guest iholrf]

Thanks Bill, I appreciate your support. :)I also just discovered why Lou's name was nagging at me... I felt sure I'd heard of him. Now I know where from. I am duely humbled by the high powered assistance I have been recieving.RegardsShad