Reflectivity

[aerogator]

Hi guys, I've searched the forums and can't find anything on making a part reflective. Also, is there a way to make a certain color reflective, like putting it in a different layer?
I know I've seen this before but I can't find it. Graham even showed me how to do it once but that was years ago. If anyone can help, I would appreciate it.
Oh, and BTW, I use PSP 7 and FSDS 3.5 to make it harder .
Thanks guys,

[MIKE JG]

Oh, and BTW, I use PSP 7 and FSDS 3.5 to make it harder .
Thanks guys,

So do I, so you're in luck.

First question? For an aircraft or scenery? You can actually make scenery reflective through some witchcraft if need be.

If it's for an aircraft, the reflectivity is a setting in FSDS and the use of an alpha layer on the model's texture sheet.

[aerogator]

It's for an aircraft. Yeah I remember something about an alpha layer but have no idea how to make one or apply it. Going to fool around with PSP a bit and see if I can figure it out. In the meantime, I anyone has patience enough to try to explain it to me, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks,

[MIKE JG]

Do you have DXTbmp.exe ?? If not you need to download it. Search the web for it if you need to.

It will allow you to add your alpha layer to your model.

Take your model's texture and make a new layer over top of it in PSP7. Use the flood fill tool to make that new layer 100% white. This is now the start of your alpha layer. With this new white layer, reduce the opacity slider so that you can start to see through it. Find the parts of your model's texture sheet that you want to have the corresponding part be reflective. Say a gear strut for example.

Outline that area with a box, rectangle, etc to match the shape of that texture definition. Make sure that once you have the needed area outlined, that you are working in that new alpha layer in PSP7. Fill that area again using the flood fill with a shade of gray. So your alpha layer should be all white with a small piece that is shaded gray.

For the alpha layer, 100% white=0% reflectivity. 100% black=100% reflectivity which is actually transparent.

Make sure that in FSDS, in that part's texture properties, that the 'has reflective' quality box is checked.

Now comes the trial and error. You will need to use a program like DXT3bmp to combine the regular texture with the alpha layer.

This is an image of the F-16s main texture opened up in DXTBmp:



Note the main texture in the main window and the alpha layer in the smaller window in the upper right.

This is a blown up look at the actual alpha layer itself. Only the parts that I want to be reflective are a color other than white. For this model it is parts of the gear struts, the engine exhaust parts and the canopy. The canopy's texture is reflective and the material we used in FSDS is transparent. So in that case we can have both transparent and reflective in one part.

[MIKE JG]

There is some trial and error involved in the shades of gray that you use for your reflectivity. The darker the shade, the more reflective the part up until it actually starts to become see through the closer to 100% black you get.

The key is matching your alpha channel to your main texture. Again the easiest way to do that is to use your main texture in PSP and create a separate alpha layer on top of the layers stack. Make sure you save the alpha layer as its own .bmp file.

The proggy DXTBmp will combine the two for you, you have to select 'save as' and select DXT3 with alpha in the 'save as' properties of the DXTBmp proggy.

I hope this helps.

[aerogator]

That helps a lot. I never knew how to make an alpha layer. I'm still not sure how to save a layer by itself but I'll play around with it.
Thanks so much Mike, this really helps.

[MIKE JG]

To save a layer by itself, make sure that layer is the active layer and visible, then select "save a copy as" and save the whole PSP file as a .bmp file. It will give you the warning about saving it as a combined image, that's what you want.

So in the white image above, all that is, is the alpha layer displayed by itself. I always make it the top layer in the stack so that it covers everything else.