Gmax texture (Drawing priority)

[Guest]

Hello to everybody,This time I try to make my parking texture with Gmax and everything is ok but when I put it in FS the textures appears and desappears flashing.I knew that in EOD there was an option therefor called Drawing priority (Zbias) Can somebody tell me what's the equivalence in Gmax. Or a middle to have the same result. (stop flashing)Thanks a lotMichel

[arno 1]

You can use zbias_ as part name to add a zbias (see the MakeMDL SDK for more details about this).But I am not sure that this will solve the entire problem. The source code GMax makes is for 3D objects and therefore not optimal for flat ground polygons. You can make some changes to the source to remove these problems. I have placed them on my site and also FsRegen can do it for you.Arno

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Member Netherlands 2000 Scenery Team[a href=http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen]http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen/banner.jpg[/a]

[Guest Firestriker]

Zbias is handled via your MATERIAL name. Zbias_01 has priority over standard materials. Zbias_02 has priority over Zbias_01 and so on. The part name can be anything. For your own information you can have more than one Zbias_01 by making it something like Zbias_01_xxxx.

[n4gix 4,947]

>You can use zbias_ as part name to add a zbias (see the>MakeMDL SDK for more details about this).The stupid SDK only tells you that there IS such a thing as "ZBias," but says nothing at all about what the heck it MEANS... :(Now that I've read this (and another), I know that it affects the drawing order of the materials used on the parts... :)

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

Incredible, Bill! You have gone pretty far back in time to find the sense of this.A z-bias refers to translation in the z-axis (referring, of course, to the Cartesian co-ordinate x,y,z system.)Using z-bias should eliminate the shimmering due to the graphics engine not knowing the order in which to paint texture layers.Please note that if one texture is covering another, perhaps it is worth considering eliminating the lower texture altogether.Also, the new terrain methods of creating ground textures may give better performance.Best regards.Luis

[n4gix 4,947]

>Using z-bias should eliminate the shimmering due to the>graphics engine not knowing the order in which to paint>texture layers.>>Please note that if one texture is covering another, perhaps>it is worth considering eliminating the lower texture>altogether.Thanks for the expanded and cogent explanation for z-bias. I've often wondered how Louis Sinclair provided a method for "ordering parts drawing" in FSDS2. Now it is apparent that he's simply taking advantage of the z-bias, but makes it transparent to the designer by providing a nice GUI for the process. After all, there's no real need for the modeler to know HOW something happens, only that it does... :)Since I'm primarily an a/c modeler, I'm more concerned with the effect of draw order when it involves separate parts that are very close, but not precisely co-located, and the 'shimmering' that sometimes occurs where edges overlap slightly: e.g., a control panel with various sub-panel doo-dads hanging below the lower edge... :)It's nice to know that all that is needed is to apply the prefix of z-bias_01_ to the panel to give it priority.