Not sure for doing it in Gmax as a material (haven't made it that far in yet) but I do have a nice way for just about any kind of material in a paint kit texture.

Find a good pic of the kind of metal you want, Photo-bucket has thousands of pics like this, and then place it over the part of the paint kit that has the part you need chromed, and then just play with the alpha channel until it has the reflection you are after.

I did this will the Angel 44 by T. Fitzpatrick, replacing all of the 'painted' metal textured parts with photo-real metal textures. Looks better, and you get the comfort of knowing it actually looks like metal,chrome, rust, etc...


Here is one of his original texture files from the Angel:





And then my version with added textures and details:





I prefer the Painting texture method to the material use in Gmax, because then I'm not stuck with a particular texture that can't be replaced, (at least within the confines of my current abilities.) because someday, you may not want that part to be chrome anymore, and if it's a material, I don't think you can change it without going back into Gmax, but if it's part of the paint kit, then you can change it easily.

One of the Gmax guru's will know a lot more about which is truly easier, faster, & what not. 

Try this texture patch for the chrome, it's one of my favorites, also makes a nice stainless steel/brushed aluminum in a pinch. 

http://media.photobucket.com/image/chrome%20texture/luisherno/Metalbgk.jpg?o=14


The alpha is a tricky one, as it's not going to look quite the same on any two given systems. For this particular patch above, going for a nice bright & shiny chrome look, you'd want it to be just a tad lighter than the darkest shade on this texture, but it will take some playing around with it to get it just how you like it. 

I just downloaded the Jbizz, and I must say, I like how you've got the texture files laid out. That's going to make doing repaints a lot more enjoyable. 

Looking forward to you finishing this to see what I can come up with for it. 

ShaneG wrote on Nov 10^th, 2009 at 5:55am:


Shane, I think you might be just a bit confused by what a "Material" is with respect to Max/GMax/FSDS...

A "Material" defines, among other things, what the texture filenames assigned to any given part are. Additionally, various "parameters" may be set in the "Material" definition that specify such things as Opacity (transparency), Specular color and strength, and -in the case of FSX- over fifty additional properties/parameters that may be required or desired.

It is that one property of a "Material" of defining the filename of the bitmap texture that allows you do "do your magic" with a texture.

The Modeling SDK provides basic "recipies" for different purposes, including "basic," "glass," "chrome," and so forth. But, in the end it is up to the modeler to decide the nearly infinite variety of property settings that may be defined. That is why it is critical for the modeler to either work hand-in-hand with an experienced texture artist, or to be somewhat accomplished at texture creation him/herself... 

One of the unique things about "Materials" is that quite often they are used to define different properties for the same bitmap!  For example, on any given bitmap I might have one "Material" for "basic texturing," another for "glass," another for "chrome" and finally another for "flat, non-reflective" such as tires... 

Now it is true that at its most basic, a "Material" might simply be one color with specific properties, and no bitmap whatever applied. However, with the introduction of FSX such practices are highly discouraged as they lead inevitably to unhappy and inconsistent ends... 

JakesF14 wrote on Nov 10^th, 2009 at 3:10pm:



+1

Thanks for that explanation. Makes a bit more sense now.