Reflective Aluminum Textures

aerogator · Post by **aerogator** » 10 Jul 2008, 12:05

Hey guys, I was hoping someone would tell me how to get reflective textures for natural aluminum skins using PSP. I know theres some alpha channel witchcraft involved and I haven't been able to get my head around it

Thanks

RipPipPip · Post by **RipPipPip** » 10 Jul 2008, 12:34

You have to:

1. TEXTURE
You should have nice multi-gray aluminium area (you can find this somewhere).
Somewhere is here: http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/syb2. ... uminum.zip

2. ALPHA
Your texture should have ALPHA channel, it should be darker "underneath" the above area than the rest of BMP.
You may use this for an answer for "how"?:
http://members.chello.pl/r.winawer/Tuto ... ummies.pdf

3. COMPILING
==================================================
MakeMdl.cfg (just where makemdl.exe is ...):

[Settings]
LastDir=....FSDS_V3.5.1

[Options]
HasReflectMap=1
HasLightMap=1

aerogator · Post by **aerogator** » 10 Jul 2008, 16:24

Hey Rip, Thanks for the help.

However, I ran into a snag right off the bat. When I open the texture in DXTBMP, it does not show an alpha channel ( the box is blank), and when I double click and open this in PSP, I get a blank image also. Was I supposed to have created an alpha channel before I started and if so, how do I do it?

Maybe you need to write another tutorial entitled: Alpha for extreme dummies.

nickblack423 · Post by **nickblack423** » 10 Jul 2008, 18:01

Jake,

I cant speak for PSP as Im a photoshop user, but you have to create the alpha channel on the paintkit. There should be a way to view the channels, Red, Blue, Green etc. and you should be able to add another channel which will be your alpha.

Nick

RipPipPip · Post by **RipPipPip** » 10 Jul 2008, 18:14

aerogator wrote:...When I open the texture in DXTBMP, it does not show an alpha channel ( the box is blank), and when I double click and open this in PSP, I get a blank image also. Was I supposed to have created an alpha channel before I started and if so, how do I do it? ...

Jake, alpha should be created (saved from the mask) before you can see it (in DXTBmp, which I never use, or in Imagetool, which I use always).
The tutorial above says how, if you use PSP.

PS. Our repainters should describe it even more clear.

Graham King · Post by **Graham King** » 10 Jul 2008, 21:18

From PSP save the alpha channel as a bmp. In DXTBmp after you have opened the main texture use menu Alpha|Import Alpha Channel and find the alpha bmp you have just saved from PSP. It should now show in the Alpha pane.

In DXTBmp save the texture as DXT3 and you should now have reflective metal on your aircraft. If it is too shiny lighten the colour in the alpha channel and if it is not shiny enough darken the colour.

You only need grey/black in the alpha channel on the aluminium, leave the rest of the alpha channel white otherwise everything goes shiny, unless you regularily paint your wheel sidewall

If you want to see what I mean open one of my F-16 repaints in DXTBmp. If you look at the Alpha Channel there are a couple of dark patches that coinicide with the chrome on the undercarriage legs and the outlet to the APU on the aft lower left fuselage.

Victory103 · Post by **Victory103** » 10 Jul 2008, 22:45

To go with this post, and it might of have been asked before, I have some non-AI birds being used (Hovercontrol UH-60's), can I change the textures to DXT3 format and/or remove the Alpha to save on FPS?

aerogator · Post by **aerogator** » 11 Jul 2008, 13:48

Thanks for all of your help guys.

I'm still having problems but I'll just continue to try. Still can't get my head around this alpha business

. In the meantime, I'll leave the painting to the experts.

Mirage4FS · Post by **Mirage4FS** » 07 Aug 2008, 08:14

One potential snag you may run into is that the underlying part of the particular aircraft you are working with may not have been tagged to handle Alpha channels in a reflective way. Alpha channels in textures can do one of two things. They can affect the reflectivity of the object or they can affect the transparency.

For example if you used a pure black Alpha channel (RGB:0,0,0) it will either make chrome or it will make the part covered by the texture completely disappear.

Always fun to find out which.

nickblack423 · Post by **nickblack423** » 07 Aug 2008, 09:08

Yes indeed Frank, in order to make it reflective Jake, you need to tell FSDS that it is refective in the Manage Textures tab. It will put a ,R at the end of your texture path, but wont affect the actual name of the texture.

Nick

Superbuggz · Post by **Superbuggz** » 07 Aug 2008, 12:08

Does anyone know if anything like a manual exists on this for Photoshop?

Can reflective textures be created from a BMP, using Photoshop and DXTBmp, or does that have to be pre-defined from FSDS or GMAX?

nickblack423 · Post by **nickblack423** » 07 Aug 2008, 12:26

Reflective textures can be produced from Photoshop easily, but the model has to be setup to be able to have Reflective textures otherwise like Frank said, when you add an alpha channel in your model will disappear. If you want an example on how this works download my F-14 Tomcat model and paintkit from flightsim.com and have a look at the differences between the 2 paintkit templates..One is setup for reflective surfaces the other isnt.

Nick

MACC · Post by **MACC** » 07 Aug 2008, 12:31

It can also be useful for removing tanks from Aircraft that only has one loadout...like the FMAI Tornado F3 or F4

Superbuggz · Post by **Superbuggz** » 07 Aug 2008, 14:08

MACC wrote:It can also be useful for removing tanks from Aircraft that only has one loadout...like the FMAI Tornado F3 or F4

Ah, so basically you make them invisible...., nice trick, but how can you tell whether or not a model is setup for reflective textures?
Does that show in any cfg file or is that just a trial and error thing?

nickblack423 · Post by **nickblack423** » 07 Aug 2008, 14:15

Its a trial and error thing mate Im afraid...I can tell you that most of the early AI aircraft are NOT. All of my models since the A-4 and F-14 have been set so that they can be reflective.

Nick

Superbuggz · Post by **Superbuggz** » 07 Aug 2008, 19:24

Thanks.., only been repainting for about half a year or so and learning every second I'm busy with it.... (and I love it !)