posted 11-25- 06:12 PM               

Can someone explain what needs to be done to the part so that it displays the texture? I think it's something that needs changing in the LOD(after exporting as a LOD) but I don't know.

Thanks Guys

~Nat~

posted 11-25- 09:35 PM               

In AC3D, the texture index is assigned via the "shininess" number in the properties of the colors that you "paint" the parts with. The texture itself must be listed in the list of textures in OPS, (and also in the .sm itself) and MATCH the texture assigned to the part (or surface, if you have multiple textures on a single part, as in the cockpit) in order for it to appear in the sim.

Manually editing the texture index can be a bit tricky, especially if you're ADDING a "new" texture. You must study the .sm file (or .ol file, if you're using Hippie's tools) to determine where to insert the lines for the new texture, and the index number. It's not easy to explain, but if you do a search for all the references to a specific texture in one of the models, you'll see how tricky it is. Nothing you can't do, but easy to mess up.

The other thing that can fool you is using OPS, and assuming your texture is "bad." Your model will undoubtedly "borrow" some textures from another, such as the "spar" texture from the P-38, or the "tire" texture from the P-51. These textures are referenced in the MODEL as "/media/aircraft/p38/textures/spar.tif" for example. However, now that we have all these nifty planepacks, there IS no "media/aircraft/p38/textures/spar.tif" because all that stuff is "hidden" in a parfile somewhere. The SIM knows where to look for the textures, but OPS doesn't! So you get a bunch of error messages in the OPS window and some "blank" areas on the aircraft in OPS. Those textures will probably look fine in the sim, but you won't see them in OPS unless you actually untiff them and make copies to put in the texture folder of your new model, and then change the references to point to those textures.

One of SV's tutorial shows the exact area you need to change if you want to manually edit a .sm or .lod file, although it's a bit easier to work with the .ol file format IMO. There is no way to add a texture in OPS itself, but you can "replace" an existing texture with a new one by changing the name, and then changing the index on the part to match the index in OPS.

Presumably, you're using a "placeholder" aircraft to start from. One way to proceed would be to "find" each texture .tif referenced in the model, and see whether you actually "need" that texture. If not, you have a ready-made "slot" for a new texture. Lots easier than "inserting" one into the .sm file.