Night textures for aircraft?

[flyboyhunt05]

Hi everyone. I just got done with a few repaints and released them. Today I got an email for someone who found that at night and with the lights on, the aircraft becomes somewhat transparent . I narrowed it down to the alpha channels as the problem (The aircraft have a glossy look to them that need the alpha) Now, I know about night textures, but my question is, can you add night textures to an aircraft that doesn't have them? The aircraft in question is the Aerial Foundry Hornet. I know (or have read) that the textures with the T have to have the t replaced in with a 'L' for them to work as night textures. But does the same thing work it the original texture doesn't have the 'T' in it?

Thanks for any help and advice
Flyboyhunt05

[OBIO]

I do not have the Aerial Foundry Hornet...so can not check it out...but I am guessing that the model is not set up fully for night textures. I discovered the same thing happened with the freeware FSD T-38 Talon....when the lights were turned on, the plane went semi-transparent. I was able to fix this by using Ivan Hsu's MDLC Version 170 to add reflective texture coding to all of the MDL materials, then using a hex editor to remove the reflective coding from the VC panel. This modification then left the VC interior rather reflective using the stock skins...but on the new skins I did for the package I was able to fix this by applying a solid white (256,256,256) alpha to the VC interior areas.

And the freeware FSD T-38 came with the L night textures. When I contacted FSD to obtain permission to upload the tweaked package, I was informed that they knew about the night transparency issue but were unable to fix it.

OBIO

[Milton Shupe]

It depends how the model was exported, with or without the light mapping.

That will dictate how the _t textures are handled, transparency or reflective in FS9, and whether or not the _L texture will correct the issue.

I am attaching an _L texture. Rename it to match the fuse or wing parts and try it out. If you still have transparency, then light maps will not correct the situation.

[aeromed202]

I'm interested in this because I have the AF Hornets. They always looked silvery and washed out besides glossy to me. I thought they should be grayer and more matted. Is this what you are talking about?

[flyboyhunt05]

I will try that out tonight Milton.


I'm interested in this because I have the AF Hornets. They always looked silvery and washed out besides glossy to me. I thought they should be grayer and more matted. Is this what you are talking about?
This is the model. If you download the Spanish Photoreal textures by Pablo Diaz (should be on Avsim), he includes some instructions on how to get the aircraft to look flat. What I was referring to was the paint scheme itself. The paint that I did is a glossed aircraft.

[flyboyhunt05]

That seemed to have fixed the problem Milton. Thanks for the help. Now I just have to release an update.

[Milton Shupe]

I'm interested in this because I have the AF Hornets. They always looked silvery and washed out besides glossy to me. I thought they should be grayer and more matted. Is this what you are talking about?

To get rid of the gloss, simply change the alpha channels to white for the fuse, wings, etc.

[Milton Shupe]

That seemed to have fixed the problem Milton. Thanks for the help. Now I just have to release an update.

That is great! Glad to help. :jump: