Hello all how does one apply a "two sided texture" to something as simple as a polygon in other words do I do it by makeing the material double sided and apending the bitmap name with double sided(_ds) as well or is it done with just one of the above?. Like I saidit's been a long time. BTW I you might have guessed the above is for a fence. Thanks!! Dan Martin Team Flight Ontario

I think in GMax you have to clone the polygon then reverse its normals after which you can texture the clone.

Thanks "MGH" I will try that But does the above method create more poly's than needed? Dan Martin Team Flight Ontario

Hi Dan,First a welcome back. Good to see you around again.Giving your material name the prefix ds_ should create a double sided polygon. But the cloning-flipping option does also work.That last option does not create more polygons then needed. You are asking for that extra side to be drawn aren't you? The only difference is that extra vertices are defined. When you use the ds_ prefix the same vertices are used. But the positive side of that is that you can now give the inside a different texture mapping if you want.

Thanks Arno! to clear things up is it the material or is it the texture(I.E. the bit-map that gets appeneded with the ds_?)And do I enable(force) two sided in gmax under the material editor?.Sorry for all the questions I've been spending a lot of time in other apps(Maya,Lightwave etc). Oops one more question If one clones does not one get co-located vertices? as I thought that was a no-no in most real time rendering engines. A greatfull Dan martin

Hi Dan,It is the name of the material in the material editor that gets this prefix. So not the texture itself.I do indeed think you should get co-located vertices, but I never had trouble with it in GMax/FS. If you want a different texture mapping on the inside it is your only option actually :).

So then in short I simply re-name the material in gmax with the apended name I.E. fence_ds or is it fence ds_. Again sorry for all the newbie type questions but like I said it's been a long time. And I of course no longer remember where the exporter goes(make mdl etc) as my install is from the disks that I got from MS at the end of the last beta(FS9). So of course any pointers would be helpfull as I can't seem to get the exporter to work DUH! Thanks Dan Martin.

Hi Dan,It is ds_fence for the material name.If you plan to use the Fs2004 gamepack, then simply download the GMax SDK from MS. If you point that installer to your GMax folder the gamepack will be put in the correct folder for you. After that all you have to do is to start GMax with the shortcut you find in the gamepacksfs2004 folder.

Hi there Arno no luck on getting a material to display two sided in the sim dispite calling the material ds_fence so I would guess I am missing something real simple here. I would like use poly's for something other than a simple fence so that's why I want to try the double sided texture option should "two sided" be on or off in gmaxor does it matter. A confused Dan Martin

Dan,Arno, as usual has great insight. My limited experience has told me that, in the GMAX material editor, you select the texture file, then name it in the material editor, this is where you use the DS_xxxx notation. One small important detail is there is a check box for double sided. It is, unfortunately, somewhat obscure. Find that and you should be good to go. I find that there are a myriad of small details to keep track of for the casual designer in GMAX.

Hi there Mike thanks for getting back to me I have tried that and I still don't get my simple poly fence to show up double sided I do know my way around 3DSMax and by extention gmax although it's been a while since I've used gmax I make my living in 3D I will keep trying though and will of course keep looking here for answers from all of you!!. Dan BTW please do keep giving me your collective wisdom

Hi Dan,That checkbox does not matter, that is only for inside GMax. It would have been too easy if MakeMDL made use of that option as well :D.Just to be sure I tried it myself again in GMax (I could not find any objects where I had actually used it). See the image below, that shows how my material looks (and is named):http://home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen/pics/dsMat.jpg

Gee even pictures!! I've done that so why does it not work for me DUH . Sorry I feel somewhat dumb like my good bud Homer Simpson since I make my living in 3d(although not in the gamming end of things) And I can't seem to get something as simple as this to work. It might be the dumbed down version of the Material editor that take some getting used to!. As I work a lot with Maya Unlimited in my other life and that has things like true fluid dynamics that are for more complex to work with than anything in gmax so go figure. Anyway like one of the above posts talked aboutyou have always been one of our great resourses! Dan Marin

Thanks for getting visual with me. My problem was simply that gmax seems to add a second material(multi sub object type) under the main material even though I did not create one(simple material with one .bmp in the diffuse color channel as no other materials or bit maps are needed on such a simple object. And since that other material did not have the _ds flag set the object would only display as one sided. So in short simply re-apply the "main" ie first texture under material navigator to your object and vola it works.I now have a fence that has only 18 poly's(Triangles)consisting of 9 bends from an extruded spline. Also many people seem to think that an editable polly has fewer poly's than a editable mesh but sice most direct 3d renderers will tessalate every thing into a triangular mesh you do not save on poly's by using Editable Poly as a way to create an object, but you will give the rendering engine more work to to by haveing to tessalate your editable poly into a mesh and that can slow down things. Anyway thanks for all your help!! A now less confused (I might add) Dan martin.