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Author
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Topic: Transparent Canopy
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Tailslide
Pilot
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posted 01-17- 02:35 AM
   
How do I make sections of my canopy semi-transparent? I tried setting the opacity for the material, which looks good in 3dsmax but gets lost when I import to OPStudio. Even exporting and importing the canopy for the existing planes seems to wreck their transparency settings. TS ------------------
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TS Aircombat
IP: Logged |
Sv
Pilot
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posted 01-17- 06:19 AM
Here is how I do it, I'm sure there are other ways:1. You need a texture with an alpha chanel. I use photoshop, but I would guess other programs can do this. In Photoshop you do this by adding a new chanel. Then keep the RGB chanels black, or grey, I have seen dark blue as well - I think this gives a tint to the glass. Now "paint" the transparency in the alpha layer. Black = transparent, white = opaque. Save this as a tif. 2. Use normal polygons to create the canopy and map the new texture to it. 3. Add the new texture to the .asc file. HERE IS THE KEY: change the flags to allow the texture to use the alpha chanel. I think the normal flag is like 802223, now it becomes 802243 or something. Just check a plane with a canopy that works, you will see the flag. Once you are done it is easy to edit the texture file to get the desired results. ------------------
-Sv =FC=
WWI in SDOE! IP: Logged |
Tailslide
Pilot
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posted 01-17- 11:08 AM
Ahh Ok, didn't know a transparency map was necessary for the outside canopy. Thanks. TS IP: Logged |
Sv
Pilot
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posted 01-17- 11:17 AM
Outside canopy? Ahhh! No, all bets off  - you were right - it needs to be glass or something. I have never done this. Not many WWI planes have canopies  Sorry, disregaurd my post heheh.-Sv IP: Logged |
JT
Pilot
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posted 01-17- 03:21 PM
TS,
Using word pad, open the canopy LODs of any of the default SDOE planes (make sure you look at the highest level of detail canopy since the lower levels might be set to be opaque). Use the same numbers you see for the poly color/alpha, the material index, and the poly flag in your canopy LOD.
Check out SV's "Anatomy of a Lod" section at his website, in case you aren't familiar with what's what in the LODs.IP: Logged |
Bryan Russell
Pilot
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posted 01-17- 05:15 PM
The material export from OPS doesn't work but I have used the OBJ import with material without a hitch. below is a section of the OBJ material file, OPS uses the 'd' value for opacity so make sure this is being written correctly. This relates to the Opacity parameter of the Material|basic parameter rollout. The only other problem could be file availiability to OPS. OPS uses the material file defined in the OBJ file so make sure this is right.#
# Multi/Sub Material__35 (2) to come
#
newmtl &metal_00
Ka 0.10000 0.10000 0.10000
Kd 0.50000 0.50000 0.50000
Ks 0.90000 0.90000 0.90000
d 1.00000
Ns 0.50000
illum 2
map_Kd HURRMKI.TIF
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Tailslide
Pilot
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posted 01-17- 06:27 PM
Pete sent me the magic answer.. apply a UVW map! Just setting the opacity of the material is not enough.. works like a charm now. TS
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Bryan Russell
Pilot
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posted 01-17- 08:46 PM
I've never had to do this, I just make a material with the properties I want and it gets exported OK. IP: Logged |
Pete Hawk
Pilot
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posted 01-17- 08:48 PM
Glad it worked TS! IP: Logged |
Tailslide
Pilot
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posted 01-18- 02:59 AM
First I set a basic material with opacity at 10% and it exported solid, then I set a uvw planar map so that it was level with the bottom of the canopy and applied the 10% opacity material and it exported ok. I should really do like SV and keep track of all this stuff.
TS IP: Logged |
Tailslide
Pilot
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posted 01-18- 10:05 AM
Ok next question.. how do I just set some of the faces to be transparent in 3dsmax? It seems to be an all or nothing thing applying materials. Do I need a seperate object for the glass parts?
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Bryan Russell
Pilot
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posted 01-18- 01:26 PM
I've found that you can only apply materials to faces while in 'Editable Mesh'. It doesn't even work in 'Edit Mesh' which is a real pain becuase you have to grab the 'Editable Mesh' from further down (up?) the modifer stack and risk that it will screw up something else. Luckly this hasn't happened yet. BTW when you revert back to the 'Editable Mesh' all of your textures will go to shit. Don't panic, as normally, for me anyway, once you finsih editing the mesh and click off the object to unselect it, the modifier stack goes back to the top and the map comes back. You might screw it a little if you move verts and such but applying materials shouldn't hurt. quote:
I should really do like SV and keep track of all this stuff
Ditto! IP: Logged |
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