Object textures making

[misha.physics]

 

[misha.physics]

I tried to create MIP maps for the solar panel texture:



I tried all these five filters when saving the DDS:



But the texture flickers a lot in all cases. I tried 2048 and 1024 texture resolutions. The size of the solar panel is 200x200 meters, but I don't think it's important:



Either this texture has too many lines and I should take another one or MIP maps don't work, I don't know...

 

[misha.physics]

 

[misha.physics]

Hi

What texture maps does Orbiter support for now? I mean like: Base color, Height, Metallic, AO, Normal, Roughness, Emissive... Is there a list of the supported maps by Orbiter 2016? Was anything new added to OpenOrbiter? I saw an addon with textures which have "_norm", "_spec", "_refl" prefixes after the main texture name. Can I find it in documentation?

Do the four material parameters like diffuse, ambient, specular, emissive colors located in a MSH file affect only on the main texture, or all the others (like "_norm", "_spec", "_refl") too? Can we use some other parameters except these four (in a MSH file)?

Could aircraft/spacecraft/building look pretty good in Orbiter if the only main (diffuse/base color) texture is used?

Detailed advice and examples are also very welcome. Sorry for the stupid questions, I'm just starting to dive into it.

 

[Buck Rogers]

I saw an addon with textures which have "_norm", "_spec", "_refl" prefixes after the main texture name. Can I find it in documentation?

Check the included D3D9 docs.

Do the four material parameters like diffuse, ambient, specular, emissive colors located in a MSH file affect only on the main texture, or all the others (like "_norm", "_spec", "_refl") too? Can we use some other parameters except these four (in a MSH file)?

The additional textures override the basic settings, there's a diagram in the doc showing render order.
To make things more interesting/confusing there are also D3D9 cfg settings which also override the others and has additional parameters such as "metalness".

Could aircraft/spacecraft/building look pretty good in Orbiter if the only main (diffuse/base color) texture is used?

Do you mean material or material+texture? Materials are single colour and look cartoony, but with emmisive make great beacons etc.
I would always reccomend using a texture, this is where most of the detail goes in, the fine art of skinning. The additional files add extra detail, finer control over reflectivity etc. (also will only work with D3D9+).

 

[misha.physics]

Thanks.

there's a diagram in the doc showing render order

Do you mean this or something else?:

To make things more interesting/confusing

there are also D3D9 cfg settings which also override the others and has additional parameters such as "metalness"

Where can I see that parameter? (It's not presented in the "D3D9Client.cfg" file.)

Do you mean material or material+texture?

I meant the material + base texture (without any additional ones).

 

[Buck Rogers]

Do you mean this or something else?:

Actually I meant this one:

There's another doc in the OrbiterSDK folder

Where can I see that parameter? (It's not presented in the "D3D9Client.cfg" file.)

They're accessable through Function/D3D9 debug controls (see D3D9Client.pdf).

I meant the material + base texture (without any additional ones).

Consider the rest as extra fx, a lot can be done with good skinning skills but some fx like metal, translucency can only be done with add. maps/settings.
And I like normal maps, if well done one can add so much extra "3D" detail to a simple mesh.

 

[misha.physics]

Thanks!

a lot can be done with good skinning skills

Does that mean that they can be done without additional maps/setting? How, for example? Using only the material and base texture?

 

[Buck Rogers]

Does that mean that they can be done without additional maps/setting?

Things like a realistic metal effect (reflections are only done in D3D9+) can't be done with just a normal texture, you can make it shiny (spec) but not reflective (same with translucency etc.)

additional parameters such as "metalness".

Just to note: the Deepstar addon uses this and "calls" a shader, I'm unclear how this works though?

 

[N_Molson]

Thanks!

Does that mean that they can be done without additional maps/setting? How, for example? Using only the material and base texture?

No, you'll have to get into texturing if you want your models to look real good. It isn't as daunting as it sounds, and as said above, good normal maps can save a lot of polys.

 

[Buck Rogers]

It isn't as daunting as is sounds

First of all you always need a good base texture, the rest you can experiment with bit by bit later.
And normal maps are actually quite simple, they're just coverted bump maps which are just grey scale height maps, so black=bottom, white=top, the rest grey. Paint over your texture with the heights you want and (you have photoshop, there's a Nvidea normal map filter plugin) convert and save as .dds.

 

[N_Molson]

"you have photoshop, there's a Nvidea normal map filter plugin"

And if you don't, know that there's a free GIMP plugin that allows to do it, the whole for $0. Now I don't really recommend GIMP, the interface is actually worse than Blender. But if you have no other choice, it is as powerful as Photoshop.

 

[misha.physics]

Can we use the R8G8B8 format in Orbiter having a texture in the DDS format?:

 

[misha.physics]

Does anyone know if it's possible to make night textures for a mesh? I know that the pre-defined objects (like BLOCK) uses the night texture if it has "_n" in the end of the "day" texture.

Well, now I understand that we can use the "_emis" texture map for this purpose.

 

[LadyCroussette]

Well, now I understand that we can use the "_emis" texture map for this purpose.

WHAT


what the shit??? it works on 2016 too?? that changes everything!
help mind broken

@jacquesmomo Tu vois ça??!! Je savais pas moi

 

[N_Molson]

Well, '_emis' stands for 'emissive' which is close from 'émission' in French ? Been a feature of the the D3D9 client for years, if I'm correct... It looks very cool inside active rocket nozzles, too!

 

[N_Molson]

Can we use the R8G8B8 format in Orbiter having a texture in the DDS format?:

View attachment 39994

I think yes. You'll end with bigger textures though, which takes video memory.

 

[misha.physics]

 

[misha.physics]

Default HANGAR and HANGAR2:



HANGAR3 doesn't work correctly with textures and crashes to desktop.

 

[Buck Rogers]

the pre-defined objects (like BLOCK) uses the night texture if it has "_n"

I've been looking through my tex. folder and noticed the wall tex from the wideawake base (good example of tex use) has *_n.dds files for custom meshes?

HANGAR3 doesn't work correctly with textures and crashes to desktop.

The manual does say that Hangar3 doesn't support textures, but maybe a good time to note that for OO development.