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For this tutorial I will be working in FEET.
For this tutorial I am assuming that you already know how to texture objects, and I am not going into detail on how to do this....ok not this time.
The textures are the most important part of this project so I am going to spend a little more time on them.
For this tutorial I also assume that you already know how to compile and save your work, and Install it into the game for viewing.
Ok let’s get started.
You can down load all the files needed for this tutorial
Here
You will notice that there are several texture included in the zip, you may not need them all right away but install them in the texture folder of you test airport.
If you open the FSC file I included you will see I have made a simple hanger with one window for us to work with.
You can make your own but I will write this assuming you are using mine.
The part that I have called "Glass" is just a cube with the unneeded polygons deleted.
This is the most important part of making glass.
With this part selected, right click and open "Part Properties".
Next click "Material", then "Add", and then type "trans" in the "Material Name" window.
Then click OK.
Next we need to select the new material we just made and then click "OK".
You should now see the Material set to "trans" you can now click "OK".
Next we need to apply the texture that will make this part look like glass.
Right click and select "Texture", Select "Left" and then "Add".
Number three is not needed unless you want to use night texture. I think they are worth the effort.
Just a note here if you check the box for night texture you must make sure that you have a night texture included in your game texture folder or your object will not display properly in the game. I have included the necessary textures in the zip.
Lastly click Browse.
Now navigate to your texture folder and select Farfy_Glass.bmp.
You should see a Farfy_Glass_lm.bmp. This is the night texture. You do not need to do anything with it. FSX will get it when it needs it.
Next just click "OK".
Now select "Farfy_Glass.bmp" in the Texture list and click "Ok".
Just click "OK" here.
Ok that's the outer side of the glass done.
Now let's do the inside part of the glass.
It's the same thing all over just select "Right" this time.
Navigate back to your texture folder, but this time select Farfy_Glass_Inside.bmp.
And again select "Farfy_Glass_Inside.bmp" from the "Texture List" and click "OK".
This looks good so now just click OK.
Ok looks good in FSDS so now lets go look at it in FSX.
You have two options here. You can make an MDL and use ADE or similar to install it in the game or just make a BGL with the default coordinates and go to KSEA to look at it. This is what I will do.
Ok so here is the glass from the outside in the day.
And here is the inside daytime.
And I have made my night texture for the outside glass with yellow colour to look like the lights are on inside the building.
My night texture for the inside glass is just a darker blue as I do not think the yellow looks correct on the inside.
Just a little note here. You may have noticed that my Farfy_Glass.bmp and Farfy_Glass_Inside.bmp are the same texture except I changed the name. The reason for this was so that I could use two different night textures.
So that’s it for basic glass next I will add a reflection.
So now let's go back to FSDS and make glass with a reflection.
The first thing we need to do is clear the texture we currently have on the left side of our window.
We could use Farfy_Glass.bmp for this, but in the end we will be better off using a different texture.
So let's put a new texture on the left side.
This is the same as earlier click "Select", then "Add" and then "Night" and "Browse".
Now once again navigate to the texture folder of your test airport and select Farfy_glass_BC_01.bmp.
You will notice that I have also made a new night texture to go with Farfy_Glass_BC_01.bmp.
This looks good so now click "OK".
That's the only change we need to make so now we can compile our hanger.
This time however we need an MDL file not a BGL.
Ok so now we open Dave’s FSDSxTweak Tool.
If you don’t have this yet you really need to get it. Look here
http://www.aerodynamika.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?board=FSDSTweak
If this your first time using the Tweak tool and are having trouble Dave runs a good forum at the link above, But please read though a page or two at the forum before posting and you will likely find the answer.
Once you have FSDSxTweak open you need click "Browse" and navigate to the MDL we just made.
Navigate your MDL file and click open.
We now have our MDL file loaded so now we need to edit the KFG file.
Ok so this is the edit page of FSDSxTweak.
Now from the file drop list select save as.
You can name your KFG what ever you like but lately I have been using the date each time I update this file so that I can go back to an older file if I need to.
You can save this file anywhere just make sure you know where it is.
Now you can close this window.
Click "Browse" and navigate to and select the KFG file you just made.
Then click "Build Exterior", do not do anything with the interior.
Install the new MDL file in the game to view.
And there you are a nice reflection in your window.
This tweak will not affect your night textures so you still get them to show properly.
The inside glass at night.
Now here is something to watch out for, depending on the location of the sun in the sky it may wash out your reflection.
That it for a default reflections, so now lets put a custom reflection in your window.
Ok so lets go back to FSDS, we don’t have to do anything here this time so just go straight to FSDSxTweak.
When you reopen FSDSxTweak it should be still set to the last MDL you worked on, but I think it’s a good idea to check then click "Edit".
We only need to make a few small changes.
Next navigate to your texture folder and select Farfy_ENV_Numbers .dds.
Once it is set just click OK.
Do not change anything else.
Once again you need to save the changes you have made.
If you change to name of your file make sure you update it here to and then click Build Exterior.
Before you go and install the new MDL in the game lets talk about this texture Farfy_ENV_Numbers .dds. It is the texture that will be the reflection.
It's made with a program called CubeMapGen. I will explain the CubeMapGen better shortly.
It makes a six-sided texture. I have made one for you with six colours and numbers so you can figure out which side to use on your window.
Ok let's install the MDL and go have a look, and I will explain more.
You will see I have two colours showing, you may have two or three colours showing depending on the heading of your hanger.
When I get closer I see it's side number two.
And number five.
If I go back to ADE and turn the hanger to the opposite direction I then see two other sides to the cube, Number one.
And side number six.
The thing to notice here is that you can turn your object but the cube texture stays fixed.
Ok so I have turned my hanger back to the heading that I want it at my scenery.
Oh one more thing to note the numbers are backwards because this is a reflection.
I have included a texture that I am using for a reflection but I will show you how to make your own.
To make our texture what we would like to do is take a screen shot of the area in front of our window that we will use to make the reflection texture.
I am working in slew mode and I put my helo in the center of the window looking out.
This screen shot is taken in top down mode.
Looking forward at the helo play ground at the H_Squad BC Base.
Looking left making a mental note of the objects to the left.
And doing the same to the right.
Next save the flight and set it to be default to make it easy to get back here.
Then I go to ADE and put a helper marker in the location of my hanger so I can relocate the hanger here later and then temporally remove the hanger.
Then I restart the game, zooming out all the way and then back up slowly until I see the objects that are to the left and right, I then take a screen shot.
Next I open my screen shot in my graphics program and trim it slightly.
Its size was about 1900x900, I resize it to 2000x1000 and save it.
It doesn’t matter were you save it I just made a working folder for this project.
I have called mine BC_Base screen Shot.jpg.
If you recall when I had the Farfy_ENV_Numbers .dds texture in my hanger I had number two and five showing so I will only need two parts to make up my texture you may need three.
So next I crop half of my texture and save it with a new name.
Once again I save it to my working folder.
Next I reopen the whole screen shot and crop out the other half, and save it as part B
Ok so now lets talk about CubeMapGen you can down load it for free from here.
http://developer.amd.com/archive/gpu/cubemapgen/pages/default.aspx
Once you have it installed and open we need to load our screen shots in to make the texture cube.
Click on "Select Cube Face" to select the side of the cube you wish to apply a texture, I need side number two.
Next click on "Load CubeMap Face", and navigate to the screen shot you wish to apply mine is BC_Base_A
Now select the next face to put a texture on, in my case it is side five.
And again click "Load CubeMap Face" and navigate to the texture you want I select BC_Base_B.
This is just a shot of my working folder.
I now have my two screen shots loaded. You may need three or more. Just repeat the last two step if so.
Next I want to set the output size of the cube 512 works ok for me.
Then click Filter CubeMap.
And lastly click Save CubeMap (.dds).
It doesn’t matter what you name this texture or where you save this, but you will need to move it to your texture folder for your test airport.
You can close CubeMap now.
Next we go back to FSDS and straight to FSDSxTweak I make sure it is still set to my MDL file and click edit.
Once again click on Farfy_Glass_BC_01.bmp, then Edit, then button three.
Then navigate to your texture folder and the new texture we just made with CubeMapGen.
Resave the KFG file again.
Update the KFG if you change the name and click Build Exterior.
Install the newly made MDL and go have a peak.
Well that's it for this tutorial, I hope it was some help to you
Thank You Scott Hendrix ( H_Farfy )
I would like to thank Robert Lacy ( jyarddog ) for proof reading my tutorials.