Simviation Forum - Black canopy?

Jan 6^th, 2006 at 8:12am

gryshnak Offline
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I'm not exactly up to speed on alpha channels yet - is there a way to make the canopy on the default Extra 300 black, instead of transparent? I've repainted the Extra many times but never the canopy, in fact I don't think I've ever seen it!

TIA

Gryshnak

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Reply #1 - Jan 6^th, 2006 at 10:19am

Felix/FFDS Offline
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No. In this case, the canopy is transparent because of the "material" applied to the part when modelling, not because of a transparency applied to a texture.

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Reply #2 - Jan 6^th, 2006 at 12:42pm

wji Offline
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One would presume if the alpha channel was white where the windows are located they would be rendered solid black. Having said that, I don't repaint default FS9 aircraft and can't make head-nor-tail out of the EX300 paintkit:

Try using a white Alpha Channel and see what happens. Black? Geez, man . . . try something!

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Reply #3 - Jan 6^th, 2006 at 1:40pm

Felix/FFDS Offline
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wji - you make a good point, but let me explain further:

I make a part in my modelling program.

In that program I assign a material to it. that is to say, I define a certain surface property to that part. that base color will be opaque or transparent. At that point, if I'm making a glass part, I'll assign a transparency to that part through an alpha channel number - say alpha =128. this makes and sets that part as transparent.

Once compiled that means that a part with a transparency will be transparent, no matter what you do with the alpha channel in the texture!

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Reply #4 - Jan 6^th, 2006 at 7:17pm

bbstackerf Offline
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Which explains why when you paint the fuselage of some texture files of some aircraft that don't show window positions an opaque color, in the sim the windows still appear clear. Is that right?

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Reply #5 - Jan 6^th, 2006 at 8:20pm

Felix/FFDS Offline
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Quote:

Which explains why when you paint the fuselage of some texture files of some aircraft that don't show window positions an opaque color, in the sim the windows still appear clear. Is that right?

Keni Wink

Yes - in that case, of course, the windows were cut out from the body part(s) and stand alone. If there's any texture applied to the clear windows, it's probably to give the parts a "sheen"

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Reply #6 - Jan 7^th, 2006 at 12:57pm

wji Offline
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Thank you for drawing this to our attention, Felix. You are correct.

I was hoping Gryshnak would try it (he did start this thread) and get back to us but I tried it myself and as noted the alpha channel (nor RBG paintkit) has any effect upon the Extra 300 canopy.

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Reply #7 - Jan 7^th, 2006 at 1:02pm

Hagar Offline
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Quote:

Thank you for drawing this to our attention, Felix. You are correct.

I was hoping Gryshnak would try it (he did start this thread) and get back to us but I tried it myself and as noted the alpha channel (nor RBG paintkit) has any effect upon the Extra 300 canopy.

There's two basic methods of creating a transparent canopy as on the Extra. You can either use a transparent part or apply a transparent texture to an opaque part. From the main texture you posted you can see there's nothing resembling a canopy so it would seem the canopy itself is transparent & not textured.

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Reply #8 - Jan 7^th, 2006 at 4:38pm

gryshnak Offline
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Yep, it looks like the canopy on the Extra (and a number of other default aircraft) are permanently transparent, they don't even show in the texture bitmap. Ah well, thanks everyone for your comments (particularly Felix), I think I'm not the only one who has learned something from this. It'll all come in very handy when I learn a bit more Gmax and start designing my own planes (laughs maniacally).

Gryshnak

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