posted 12-03- 10:19 AM            

One thing:
In OPS i have export Ju88 Canopy as obj. file and reimport it, and the transparent windows are solid now?!?!?

posted 12-03- 11:17 AM               

Here's an example, taken from the D.520 hood:

4fff 0 3 1 00 0.8707696795 -0.04113602266 0.4899673462 39 40 41
4fff 0 3 1 00 0.9545621872 -0.03536053374 0.2959064841 42 43 44
4fff 0 3 1 10 0.4566588104 -0.03249731660 0.8890481591 45 46 47
4fff 0 3 1 10 0.4466949105 -0.02987757884 0.8941873312 48 49 50
4fff 0 3 1 00 0.9860287309 -0.01555141993 0.1658476591 51 52 53
0070 1 4 10 00 0.9501248598 0.05503354594 0.3069756031 54 55 56 57
0070 1 4 10 00 0.8715173006 0.0000000000 0.4903647900 58 59 60 61
0070 1 4 10 10 0.4471346140 0.0000000000 0.8944666982 62 63 64 65
0070 1 4 10 10 0.1377254575 -0.004220092203 0.9904614687 66 67 68 69

This is the final part of a LOD. Each line describes a polygon (the previous part of the LOD has a line per vertex, but Sv explains this better than me). Notice each line begins with a group of letters and/or numbers, then a space, then a single number. This number is the texture index. The glass polygons are easy to identify because they have no texture at all, so their tex ref is zero. They are the first 5 lines in this example.

The group of letters and numbers at the very beginning of each line sets color, transparency as well as other flags for this polygon (complete description is in the OP specification, may I suggest you print it). All you need to know is 4fff gives a white transparent glass colour. If that's OK, edit manually your LOD and replace all poly flags for the glass polys by this value.

About OPS... This can't work, because OPS' LOD import function is buggy and changes the texture reference values. If you try to import a transparent non-textured LOD in OPS, after import it will be textured and no longer transparent

As a workaround, you can always use Hippie's OL tools. Extract your SM using SMD, replace the LOD manually, and rebuild with OLC.

posted 12-03- 11:47 AM               

I am not as good as others with cockpit glass, our old WWI planes just don't seem to appreciate the need for an enclosed cabin

What I do is not worry about setting the material or anything, I just texture the glass with an alpha texture - just like the prop blur and shadows. Do do this, the general steps are:

1. Create the new texture. Make sure it has an alpha channel that sets the transparancy per pixel. Save as a normal tif file. Photoshop can do this, and I think paint shop pro might be able to as well.

2. Add a new texture to the .sm file - I use Hippie's OL tool to do this. Here is where you need to make sure the flags are correct! Just look at a shadow texture or the prop-blur texture, or the example at my site.

3. Map the texture onto the glass, make sure you use the new texture ID! Also make the polys 2-sided.

That should do it... I imagine the hard part is mapping it... so let me ask a question to anyone who has textured a complex canopy with multiple panes:

Is there a trick for mapping one large texture to a canopy? OR must you map each pane of glass sperately? I could see mapping one texture onto a buble canopy and adding the reflections, but how does one map a texture accurate enough to show the dirt band lining up with the frame?

I want to do some bomber cockpit glass work, thanks

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-Sv =FC=

WWI in SDOE!