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DC-3 Metallic Textures?

Postby Husky Dynamics » Thu Oct 22, 2020 3:49 am

Does anyone know a way to create metallic finishes for the textures for the DC-3? I'm starting work on an Alaska Airlines livery for it, and as can be seen, the majority of the aircraft has a natural metal finish. However, so far the only result I've been able to get is a flat gray (I also accidentally made the fuselage disappear while trying to figure out the reflectivity shader, the less said about that the better). Any suggestions as to how to either make the metallic effect directly on the texture file (or even better, a link to an existing blank bare-metal livery)? My only other idea at the moment is to take one of the existing "metallic" liveries (such as the USCG one, for example) and take whatever parts I need and... somehow make it work?

Help would be much appreciated!

Image
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Re: DC-3 Metallic Textures?

Postby Johan G » Thu Oct 22, 2020 5:20 am

Best tip is to look up how other aircraft with bare metal surfaces have done. First that comes mind is the P-51D.
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Re: DC-3 Metallic Textures?

Postby Husky Dynamics » Thu Oct 22, 2020 6:57 am

P-51 and most others appear to mainly use normalmaps/bumpmaps/similar (with the exception of a few which use generic reflect effects from the root directory), but the issue is that either of these solutions affect all of the liveries. Problem is, I only need this to happen with this particular livery..

The Citation II, for example, uses mapping to achieve the nice glossy effect, but each livery XML file requires code telling it whether or not to load those effects. That's fine for the Citation, but the DC-3 has so many liveries that doing this would be kind of absurd. Plus, people would have to download all the livery XML files to get the updated code, not just the files for the Alaska Airlines livery.

At least, I think that's how it all works (?)

So I guess what I'm asking is, is there a way to apply an effect map or something to only one livery and not have to edit any other livery code files to tell them not to use it, or does that not work?
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Re: DC-3 Metallic Textures?

Postby erik » Thu Oct 22, 2020 8:02 am

I've set up thee Ercoupe the way you want. Most liveries are with paint but one is shiny metal.

If you look at the liveries they specify the shininess and fresnel parameter on a per aircraft basis.

Update:
This means you can set up a default settings in the aircraft -set.xml file and only define the parameters in the shiny liveries.

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Re: DC-3 Metallic Textures?

Postby Husky Dynamics » Thu Oct 22, 2020 8:37 am

Thanks! I'll have a look at that.

EDIT: I copied the appropriate code and files over to the DC-3's stuff (including changing filepaths and stuff) but it doesn't appear to be working. I have it set up the same way as the Ercoupe, with the code in all the appropriate files, but no luck. Still just getting a flat gray.

I'm wondering if it's something with the DC-3 itself rather than my (admittedly lacking) XML knowledge/skills/whatever, because I also tried implementing a couple of different default shaders (such as the one on the B-29) and those didn't work either.
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Re: DC-3 Metallic Textures?

Postby Husky Dynamics » Thu Oct 22, 2020 10:43 pm

I'll try a few other tricks, but assuming the normal mapping / shininess stuff doesn't end up working for whatever reason, is there a way to make a somewhat convincing metallic look directly on the livery file (painting technique, etc)?
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Re: DC-3 Metallic Textures?

Postby wkitty42 » Fri Oct 23, 2020 12:41 am

IINM there's a chrome like texture floating around... i see it on engine cowlings on many commercial jets...
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Re: DC-3 Metallic Textures?

Postby Thorsten » Fri Oct 23, 2020 7:34 am

is there a way to make a somewhat convincing metallic look directly on the livery file (painting technique, etc)?


No, because the very thing why something appears metallic is that it reflects light in a particular way - take that away and all you get to define is a color.
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Re: DC-3 Metallic Textures?

Postby erik » Fri Oct 23, 2020 7:43 am

Husky Dynamics wrote in Thu Oct 22, 2020 8:37 am:I'm wondering if it's something with the DC-3 itself rather than my (admittedly lacking) XML knowledge/skills/whatever, because I also tried implementing a couple of different default shaders (such as the one on the B-29) and those didn't work either.

Be sure to follow these guidelines and that ALS is turned on:
http://wiki.flightgear.org/ALS_technica ... y_surfaces

Oh and did you also define the effect in de animation configuration file?
Something like:
Code: Select all
  <effect>
    <inherits-from>Aircraft/ercoupe/Models/Effects/bumpspec-fuselage</inherits-from>
    <object-name>Fuselage</object-name>
  </effect>


Where can the DC-3 be found, is it in FGAddon or a private repository?

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Re: DC-3 Metallic Textures?

Postby erik » Fri Oct 23, 2020 10:09 am

Image

If you wish I could commit the changes to FGAddon so you can work from that.

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Re: DC-3 Metallic Textures?

Postby Husky Dynamics » Fri Oct 23, 2020 6:22 pm

Looks great,and I would really appreciate that. Thanks for the help!
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Re: DC-3 Metallic Textures?

Postby Johan G » Fri Oct 23, 2020 6:43 pm

Adding a bump map with buckling panels would add a lot to the look:

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Re: DC-3 Metallic Textures?  

Postby erik » Sat Oct 24, 2020 9:06 am

The changes are pushed to FGAddon.
Johan G wrote in Fri Oct 23, 2020 6:43 pm:Adding a bump map with buckling panels would add a lot to the loo

Actually it already had the normal map applied but it was too subtle (and was using lines instead of rivet). I've now updated the normal map with the help of the grid rendering filter in The Gimp:
Image

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Re: DC-3 Metallic Textures?

Postby Husky Dynamics » Sat Oct 24, 2020 4:53 pm

Thanks! The only issue I found is that the rivets on the normal map cause some pretty noticeable speckling on the wingtips and rear fuselage, but I'll see if I can come up with a fix for that. Looks great and I appreciate the help!
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Re: DC-3 Metallic Textures?

Postby erik » Sat Oct 24, 2020 9:40 pm

I would just remove those rivets. There is a texture.xcf.gz which has all the layers in there along with the outline of the aircraft layer which could help.
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