Military AI Works

When I made my MFI-17, I used a separate texture for the canopy glass. I could have just done that again, but on my current project I wanted to include the glass as a small section within the main texture sheet.

As a result, I've currently got some odd ghosting effects throughout the model. So far I haven't been able to find a comprehensive answer elsewhere online, so I'd be grateful for any general advice from MAIW on texture settings for transparency in Gmax.

Jon G

Jon, Once I've closed this, I am going to extract a canopy from one of my models and e-mail you the part. Merge the part into your Gmax model. It will import the transparency material already applied. Select your canopy and apply my material.

Next change the name of the .bmp in my material from mine to yours (2 entries) and map the canopy to the glass square on your texture sheet (no need for a separate sheet). I'll also include the shade of grey used on both the texture sheet and the alpha as a small sample, but you might need to adjust those. Make sure the glass material has a different number to your solid material.

You have now captured the material and can now delete my canopy part.

You can now scroll through the Material settings to see how they work - they are very complex when transparency and reflection are involved. I can tell you what to adjust if you find the need to.

John

Thankyou very much, John, I'll experiment with that tomorrow.

Jon G

Sorry I assumed this was for FSX. FS9 transparency and reflection is much easier. I've e-mailed you my settings.

John

Thanks John. It's also much easier once the penny drops, as there were a couple of other things I was getting wrong. Never underestimate operator stupidity! Anyway, I'm moving forward now, although there's a way to go. For one thing, it flies like a leaf in a storm..

Jon G

I should have said, the glass and the airframe materials are two separate entities, with their own numbers.

Try my Blackhawk FDE and see if that improves the stability.

Do you have an animated lift working?

John

Thanks John; I'm getting there slowly, it's still early days.Thankyou also for the tip on the FDE, I'll see how that goes.

I have animated lift working, after earlier xml advice from Kevin, although I'm tweaking the heights and angles. At the moment, the tilt looks too quick to me, but I think I've read on here somewhere that timed effects might be influenced by the specified frame rate, I.e. a lower rate might slow/smooth the transition. I need to play with it, so that's all the more reason to make sure the model doesn't bounce around at lower frame rates.

Cheers,

Jon

Thanks to the Blackhawk FDE it's much, much better now, even at 15 fps. So, really it's a Blackhawk in Tiger's clothing, but at least those parms do the job. Thankyou once again.

And with LOD's maybe a much easier job now than they were, I'm encouraged to press on. If there are further progress/problem posts, I'll start a new thread under Eurocopter Tiger, and I'll try to get this one over the line, at least in its initial German version.

Jon G