gorlosky

Yes that was it also, so here is the recap.At night, Self-Illumination under Preview X10, requires a valid .bmp file, else the FSX splash screen will be used.For experimental aircraft that should not be flying at night, using a black image, with black alpha channel in the .bmp, allows the panel light to light the gauges dimly, reminding one they should not be flying at night.Thanks for the help

Understood, so I renamed all $panx_l.bmp to panx_l.bmp and verified that they showed as such in the Material Navigator of Gmax. Exported. Didn't help. I also thought maybe I'll just uncheck the self-illumination file, that way there is only one file, the Diffuse file. Exported. Didn't help.Is there something extra that maybe I haven't added ? (I'm not going for emmissve night lighting, just basic night lighting like I see in Win XP in the image at the start of the thread)Here is the first part of the Material Editor for this issue before I changed what I said above:

Then that only leaves the FSX material that is somehow adding in this overlay in Win 7 with Preview of Direct X10 at night. Can you see anything wrong with my material in these four images ?

Were there any patches to either FSX or the SDK, beyond the boxed version of FSX Deluxe with Acceleration ? My fsx.exe file is dated 09/26/2007, and the SDK modeldef.xml is dated 09/14/2007, and the FSToolsMenu.ms is dated 08/27/2007.

ok - so it's down to the FSX material and/or SDK build. I'll go back over everything and let you know.Thanks

I have gone back and verifed the files I was using for textures. $pan1.bmp was 8 bit (no alpha channel), so I changed that to 24 bit and tried exporting the model. The $pan1.bmp image color is black with red lettering of $p1 (and the $pan1_l.bmp is all white with red lettering) to make sure I see it okay in Gmax, but still no luck.I went over the "recipe" for the FSX material and that was as described (All $VC FSX Material settings should be: Framebuffer Blend: "Set Default Transparent", Source Blend: "SrcAlpha", Destination Blend: "InvSrcAlpha" and "is virtual cockpit panel texture").I'm out of ideas on my end.Any help would be appreciated.

Bill;Are you thinking my textures ($pan1.bmp) is okay, but my Gmax material is not correct ?

Well that thew me :( In Gmax I was assigning a texture of $pan1.bmp through $pan4.bmp to each of my 4 polygons I created for where my various VC gauges would go. My $pan1.bmp file is all black with an alpha channel of white, 256 x 256, 8 bit. I then just copied to $pan2,3,4.bmp. Since the visuals only had the odd overlay under Win 7 Preview Direct X10 at night, I was thinking my $pan1.bmp texture was not correctly created ? My VC windows then use the same short name in the texture= entry.[Vcockpit01]file=robinson_r22_background.bmp Background_color=0,0,0 size_mm=512,512visible=1pixel_size=512,512texture=$pan1

Well...I have time to work on this issueWould someone send me the 2 correctly created files to replace mine, so I can see if that is an issue.The 2 files I need are to replace my $Pan1.bmp and $Pan1_L.bmp, which are 256 x 256.You could place them out on www.imageshack.com (or something like that) or PM me and I will send you my email.Thanks

Hi Bill;Yes I have those all set, reconfirmed, also went over the Laird tutorial and matched up selections, but still no luck...Thanks for the help, but I'll just leave it as a future bug to be fixed...

Hi Bill;Yes - Did you use FSX Materials Yes - and follow the SDK's "recipies" for the different types of usage? Gmax - What modeling program? Max? GMax? FSDS v3.x?Having no knowledge of previously how to do things, I used the multiple tutorials on FSX modeling.I'm going to go back and I'm going to guess that something having to do with the $pan texture, which was copied from $pan1 for $pan2 through $pan4, just because of the way that the "splash screen" seems to be sized.I'll try and find how a $pan texture should be configured.

I just built this model this year and I have only had FSX SP2/Acceleration SDK ?

BINGO....Thanks Bill... It was having the Preview DirectX 10 checked that caused the problem....But but but, now what...you mean that super new feature is not useable ??? Is there someway around my situation ?Thanks

Hi Bill;Tried that under the "Compatability" tab,...no luck. Additionally tried those settings under the "Change settings for all users", apply > OK,....no luck. Tried also checking "Run this program in compatiblity mode" > Windows XP (Service Pack 3),....no luck.Any other ideas ???

Thanks. I'll check into that transparency issue you spoke of in Win7 / Vista. Since the panels consist of a single texture (which is visible) and a single $pan, for each (total of 3 textures - 3 $pan) of the 3 panels, I was hoping to temporarily eliminate the problem by deleting the splash screen, which then would allow the analysis of the situation, and maybe uncover the final resolve. ....moments later......I see that this system does not have Aero active, so no transparencies are in play......still pondering......Ok so what is unique about Night time in FSX ? As you can see I have not added any other textures, in fact I don't have a *_night.bmp at all in the VCockpit section. By the way the 2D panels look fine at night.