night texture problem

  • I´m just beginning to learn how to create 3D models and add them to Aerofly. I´m still an absolute newbie and have to learn everything from scratch, so progress is very slow. At least I managed to create a model in Blender, texture it and export it as a collada file, which I then converted and placed with Model Converter X and exported it to the aerofly format. After some trial and error it finally showed up correctly in the simulator. Now I wanted to add a night texture to the model, whuch I made with Photoshop using a similar method as shown in ZoSoChile´s tutorial video. Then I added it with MCX "add night texture" option in the material editor and exported it again. Unfortunately, the night texture doesn´t work as expected. Here are some pictures to illustrate the problem:

    This is the "day texture" I´m using:

    Hi.

    and this is the night texture:

    In the game it looks like this (please don´t judge the model, it´s my first try and I know it doesn´t look that great, also the screenshot is taken from pretty far away):

    And at night like this:

    As you can see, the night texture shows up much brighter than it should (the upper floor part which doesn´t have a night texture shows up dark as expected), and the night texture also shows up during daytime (the windows shouldn´t be white in daytime). It seems like the two textures are just projected over each other all the time instead of fading into each other at night. Does anybody know how I can resolve this? I have the feeling that maybe MCX doesn´t convert the night texture correctly, but when I try to convert it with the aerofly content converter I only get an error message.

    Cheers and Best regards,

    Fabian

    • Official Post

    Hi Fabian,

    The night textures should only contain the additional light, not the color of the wall.

    It is not a replacement texture that gets loaded in, it is a light map that is always loaded but has greater effects in dark areas. When they are too bright reduce the strength of the light in the texture. White is like the brightest window that you can imaging I think, so it would be visible at day.

    Regards,

    Jan

  • Add Night Texture option in MCX is not the correct way to create night textures. Simply rename desired daytime textures in MCX with '_color', right click 'remove alpha' , export model in obj format. Once exported to folder, edit desired '_color' texture into night texture, when finished create a copy and rename it with '_light'. You should now have two BMP texture files. 'Example_color' and 'Example_light'. Hope this helps.

  • Hi Fabian,

    The night textures should only contain the additional light, not the color of the wall.

    It is not a replacement texture that gets loaded in, it is a light map that is always loaded but has greater effects in dark areas. When they are too bright reduce the strength of the light in the texture. White is like the brightest window that you can imaging I think, so it would be visible at day.

    So you mean the texture should be completely black except for the small areas around the lit windows? Should it be a grayscale texture like a normal or specular map or may it contain colors, too?

    Add Night Texture option in MCX is not the correct way to create night textures. Simply rename desired daytime textures in MCX with '_color', right click 'remove alpha' , export model in obj format. Once exported to folder, edit desired '_color' texture into night texture, when finished create a copy and rename it with '_light'. You should now have two BMP texture files. 'Example_color' and 'Example_light'. Hope this helps.

    I understand what you mean, but the problem is how do I convert the textures to ttx format without MCX? In your tutorial video you just pulled the texture to the content converter executable, but when I do that I just get an error message that some config file couldn't be loaded.

    Thanks for your help, guys!

  • So you mean the texture should be completely black except for the small areas around the lit windows? Should it be a grayscale texture like a normal or specular map or may it contain colors, too?

    May I answer for Jan? Yes, everything else should be completly black. It's a normal RGB Bitmap. I have even once used a photo for a drive in cinema. At day you see the empty screen and at night the movie :S

    Kai

  • As you have already found out, allowing some of the day texture to be present in your night map is a great way to add security lights that shine down a wall for example, places where you do not need the light to fall should be black as Kai suggested. Try to blend the light in a gradient fashion so its brighter near the source of the light. Even works with neon lighting if you add the extra bright colours

    Steve

  • Thanks to all of you for your help. I'll try your suggestions next time I get to work on my model. One of the reasons Aerofly has become my favorite simulator is the extremely helpful and welcoming community it has. No arrogance or my-sim-is-better-than-yours attitude like sadly often found on other forums.

    Best regards, Fabian

  • I understand what you mean, but the problem is how do I convert the textures to ttx format without MCX? In your tutorial video you just pulled the texture to the content converter executable, but when I do that I just get an error message that some config file couldn't be loaded.

    You need to assign your .BMP texture names in MCX because that's how and what your '.OBJ' file reads and understands which textures it needs.

    To convert 'textures only' with Content Converter is to make sure you do not have an '.OBJ' file in the conversion folder. The Content Converter will send out an error message because the .BMP textures are not assigned to the .OBJ file.

    In short: To Convert Textures only, make sure there is no '.OBJ' file in the Content Converter Folder. Otherwise unassigned texture names will cause the Content Converter to send an error message.