Simviation Forum - Specular material won't work

Feb 18^th, 2004 at 5:31pm

f104g Offline
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Hi,

I am using a specular material in the model below (instead of a reflective texture) to simulate a shiny surface on the model.

The image shows the reflection extending down the side of the model, but the reflection stops exactly at the rear fuselage part. The forward fuselage components, and the rear fuselage use the same texture bit map, and are set to use exactly the same specular material.

I can't work out what the problem is..

Can anyone please help.

thanks

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Reply #1 - Feb 18^th, 2004 at 8:27pm

Felix/FFDS Offline
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Which modelling program?

Felix/FFDS

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Reply #2 - Feb 18^th, 2004 at 10:23pm

f104g Offline
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I'm using FSDS v2.24

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Reply #3 - Feb 19^th, 2004 at 6:09am

RIC_BARKER Offline
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Go into part mode, select your rear fuselage part, and go into polygon mode.

Select all the polygons in the part (so they are yellow) and press F2. Here you can select your material, and add smoothing groups as you see fit.

Then re-compile your model! Cheesy

P.S

This sometimes happens when you assign a material in polygon mode, but only have a few polys selected. I think that's what you have done here, as my the wing/fuse join, I can see 2 polys that have specular shine (level with the trailing edge of the wing). Always try to make sure you gave all the polys selected in a part when assigning a material.

Hope that helps,

Ric B.

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Reply #4 - Feb 19^th, 2004 at 5:39pm

f104g Offline
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I've had a try at your suggestions Ric... this has'nt resolved the problem.

I've done a little bit more investigation of the problem.

I've tried removing the textures from the fuselage and then re-compiling the model. The polys of all the major fuselage components are specular and look reflective.

When I re-apply the textures, and the problem re-appears..... The forward fuselage is specular and has a shine, the air brake is as well, but the rear fuselage is'nt

I also realised that the wings (which using a different texture bmp, but the same specular material) are also not reflective.

I thought that a specular material used in a component could simulate a reflective surface regardless of the overlying texture bmp properties

This indicates to me that the problem maybe with the textures. I don't really know. I use dtxbmp to convert the texture bitmaps to 16 bit 565 textures to use in fs2002.

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Reply #5 - Feb 20^th, 2004 at 12:30am

RIC_BARKER Offline
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Hmm, the plot thickens then huh?

According to the MDL SDK, FS applies the specular shine (specular highlight value, and specular colour) to the material regardless of what type of texture is used.

Are you certain you have used the same material for both parts? Are you sure you have the specular colour set the same in both parts? (ie, does the part with no shine have a specular value, but the specular colour has a 0,0,0 RGB value?)

Make sure you are making the distinction between "reflective" textures, and "Specular reflection".

If you want to zip the fuselage parts up and sent them to me at "HappymulletUK@Yahoo.co.uk", I'll glady take a closer look for you, but it's up to you, I understand if you don't want to "distribute" the source file.

Ric B.

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Reply #6 - Feb 21^st, 2004 at 3:29am

f104g Offline
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yes I'm pretty sure that I have the material properties of the components set to the same value.. I've checked it a few times as part of my investigation of the issue.

As in my previous post, without textures applied, all of the the components seem to have specular properties when the compiled model is viewed in FS2002.

I have emailed of the source files to you today. Many thanks for your offer of help with this Ric.

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Reply #7 - Feb 21^st, 2004 at 7:04pm

RIC_BARKER Offline
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Quote:

yes I'm pretty sure that I have the material properties of the components set to the same value.. I've checked it a few times as part of my investigation of the issue.

As in my previous post, without textures applied, all of the the components seem to have specular properties when the compiled model is viewed in FS2002.

I have emailed of the source files to you today. Many thanks for your offer of help with this Ric.

Just to let you know, I haven't recieved anything yet.
Try emailing my address in my profile, or add me to your MSN messenger list and we'll sort something out.

Ric.

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Reply #8 - Feb 25^th, 2004 at 10:02pm

f104g Offline
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Assigning the same materials to the separate fuselage components did not seem to help.

This issue was eventually resolved by re-joining the mid and rear fuselage components of the model into a single component.

thanks to Ric for his assistance with this.

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