SOH A-26 Invader, the story continues ...

[gman5250]

Gordon, I see antiglare panels on the engines, but not on the nose? Is this intentional?
Other than that, marvelous job (again)!

Just a check ride for the fuse, wing, engine and tail maps. The cowls were borrowed from Sugarland Express. Still lots of work to do to integrate my skins with the new bumps, lines and rivets from JensOle and Dave.

[gman5250]

Updated: 4K Metal Skins for FSX, FSX SE and P3Dv3/P3Dv4

I'll be updating my bumps and skins to synch with JensOle and Dave's work. That'll take some time, but should be ready as they release their work. Spinners and collars need some attention yet, but I'll get to it. WIP

I'm glad to see this airplane getting renewed interest. I originally did these skins in 2012, and things have come a long way since then with technology, hardware and skill sets. The airplane is updating beautifully and is really looking/flying spek-tack-u-lar.

Latest polished aluminum B model with antiglare. This is a very clean, flying restoration appearance.


Prepar3Dv4

[DaveQ]

This just gets better by the day!! Can I suggest a new dedicated texture file for the hub alone? Chromehub_t or some such?

The K is pretty much finished as far as I'm concerned; it just needs Mark's weapons. Will be moving on to the B/C soon and I reckon there's a great deal more mileage there for painters! Fortunately Bomber_12th did most of the hard work for us some years back so a big thank you, John, for that.

DaveQ

[Josh Patterson]

WOW! Now that is absolutely GLEAMING!!

[roger-wilco-66]

This just gets better by the day!! Can I suggest a new dedicated texture file for the hub alone? Chromehub_t or some such?

The K is pretty much finished as far as I'm concerned; it just needs Mark's weapons. [...]

I'm at it. I got myself utterly confused with the translation from PBR to the diff-alpha and spec maps. Sorry. That's why it's taking a bit longer. The 3d modeling is almost a no-brainer, but to get that aluminum to look right....

But we'll get there....

(Screenshot is already in sim... no render image...)

[DaveQ]

I'm at it. I got myself utterly confused with the translation from PBR to the diff-alpha and spec maps. Sorry. That's why it's taking a bit longer. The 3d modeling is almost a no-brainer, but to get that aluminum to look right....

But we'll get there....

No pressure honestly Mark. We so grateful for all the help we've had with this project, patience we can do in spades..!

DaveQ

[gman5250]

Not sure how you set up your weapons models Mark, but the airplane model as it is set up won't display any global reflection. I checked it with my aluminum skins and got a lovely gray service skin, but no "shine".

One thing I noted with the model is that the reflection scale is set to zero, with global envelope maps enabled. This makes sense because the K model was primarily a full camo variant. I haven't seen any metal variants, except for restoration projects.

With reflection scale set to zero, your diffuse/alpha channels won't produce any reflected image. The bump and specs will still throw light, and the ambient light from the model is high enough to get good light reflection from any skin, but the global envelope map won't produce the metal shine.

For certain model parts i.e. oleos and other metal parts to reflect, the reflection scale should be bumped up to 64 (default) on all metal and glass surfaces, fuse, wings, etc. The soft surfaces like pilots etc. can be left at zero.
The A-26 B/C model reflection scale is set to 100 or full reflectivity, controlled by diffuse/alpha. The K model would be fine at 100, rather than 64 if texture compatibility between all models is a goal.

I went through the entire list of materials for the exterior K model and all textures are consistent at zero, so the weapons will behave according to the model syntax, unless they are compiled separately from the exterior model.

[Milton Shupe]

I'm at it. I got myself utterly confused with the translation from PBR to the diff-alpha and spec maps. Sorry. That's why it's taking a bit longer. The 3d modeling is almost a no-brainer, but to get that aluminum to look right....

But we'll get there....

(Screenshot is already in sim... no render image...)

Mark, those are the best munitions models I have ever seen. Great work!

[roger-wilco-66]

Thanks guys, that's a relief. Gordon, I'm so locked up in my translation issue that I didn't think about the fact that the whole setup is under the parent model. Thanks for the reminder. Maybe I'll make the weapon models just grey and forget about the "metalness" of certain parts.
But on the other hand, the addon parts do have their own textures anf therefore their own reflection regime? Now I'm even more confused. I'll go drink a beer now, which won't help for the process but it'll help keep my sanity :-)


Cheers,
Mark

[gman5250]

Thanks guys, that's a relief. Gordon, I'm so locked up in my translation issue that I didn't think about the fact that the whole setup is under the parent model. Thanks for the reminder. Maybe I'll make the weapon models just grey and forget about the "metalness" of certain parts.
But on the other hand, the addon parts do have their own textures anf therefore their own reflection regime? Now I'm even more confused. I'll go drink a beer now, which won't help for the process but it'll help keep my sanity :-)


Cheers,
Mark

Merging PBR to P3D will drive anyone to drink. lol
With all of the new options in the 64 bit SDK it is becoming more like alchemy. When LM releases the something "akin to" PBR proprietary engine...I'm going to find a good therapist.

BTW...your work in 3DStudio/CS6/Quixel is inspirational Mark.

[mal998]

Therapist? I worked in the field for many years...I'm here for you.

[gman5250]

Therapist? I worked in the field for many years...I'm here for you.

What's your rate?

[roger-wilco-66]

Gordon,

the Quixel team definitely has the PBR translation of the texture mapping to FSX / P3D (or DirectX) wrong. This is causing the struggle. I'm close to figuring out why this is so and will - as announced - open a thread in the P3D forum for a discussion about the matter. The creation of the weapons is a good test bed for this because the 3d modeling and simple mapping is easy and not part of the problem. I just need to find a successful manual workflow to uncover where the culprits are and document it, so we can pass a sound and proven suggestion to the Quixel developers on where to make the changes to the exporter. I am dedicating the upcoming weekend for this and hope to get the weapons done in that process.

Sorry that I hijacked the A26 weapons (not intended, I hasten to add) for this endeavor, but I think it's for a greater good :-)


Cheers,
Mark

[sp762]

Those weapons look truly awesome. I can only imagine how good the end product will be.

[Mach3DS]

I'm at it. I got myself utterly confused with the translation from PBR to the diff-alpha and spec maps. Sorry. That's why it's taking a bit longer. The 3d modeling is almost a no-brainer, but to get that aluminum to look right....

But we'll get there....

(Screenshot is already in sim... no render image...)

Wow...this is what I'm talking about....Those textures are incredible!

[gman5250]

You learn something new every day.

I spent the day re-mapping my rivet patterns for diffuse and bumps on the B and C models to match the new K model. I used my existing "shiny" alpha skins for the new K bird, which is not set up to reflect global envelope maps.

Here's the interesting bit. In P3Dv4 I enabled Dynamic Reflections, and the skin reflected the live environment at a level appropriate to the diffuse/alpha channels. This opens up a new area to explore DR without using GlobalEnvMap.

Didn't know the sim would do that. lol

So...Mark...check you weapons reflections with the existing K model, DR enabled and see if you get shiny metal bits. You may need to adjust alpha.

[Milton Shupe]

You learn something new every day.

I spent the day re-mapping my rivet patterns for diffuse and bumps on the B and C models to match the new K model. I used my existing "shiny" alpha skins for the new K bird, which is not set up to reflect global envelope maps.

Here's the interesting bit. In P3Dv4 I enabled Dynamic Reflections, and the skin reflected the live environment at a level appropriate to the diffuse/alpha channels. This opens up a new area to explore DR without using GlobalEnvMap.

Didn't know the sim would do that. lol

So...Mark...check you weapons reflections with the existing K model, DR enabled and see if you get shiny metal bits. You may need to adjust alpha.

You would think that when turning on DR, it would automatically disable the GlobalEnvMap. ???

[gman5250]

You would think that when turning on DR, it would automatically disable the GlobalEnvMap. ???

That would seem logical Milton, but in many models with GlobalEnvMap enabled and the reflection scale between 64 and 100, the models tend to be very contrasty and washed out with DR enabled. I overcame that in the F7F and Abrams P-1 using an entirely different curve.

This K model has GlobalEnvMap enabled, but a reflection scale of zero. I re-set the reflection scale in MCX to 0.60000002384185791. In the sim, with DR enabled there is a perfect reflection of environment, ground, clouds, terrain...all live, which is exactly what you would expect. With this setup, the contrast/wash out is non existent. It is a perfect, natural looking reflection.

That seems to tell me that DR, with GlobalEnvMap and reflection scale both enabled has an anomalous, cumulative effect of certain attributes of the GlobalEnvMap. What those attributes are, I don't know, but I've never experimented with this setup.

Screen Cap
This is a direct copy and paste of the polished metal skin from the C model, into the K. I reworked my rivet patterns and bumps to match Jens Ole and Dave's new work.
This diffuse/alpha skin is very shiny on the C, as shown in the pics I posted above. The same skin on the K, with reflection scale at zero, DR enabled yields this natural looking service skin. Interesting...indeed.

[roger-wilco-66]

[...]

So...Mark...check you weapons reflections with the existing K model, DR enabled and see if you get shiny metal bits. You may need to adjust alpha.

Been there, done it. I have two versions now, one shiny and one flat. The reflective one is not accurate, IMHO. The suu14 was not polished, to me it looks like natural aluminum which has flat look, the only thing that might shine there are fresh scratches. The mapping also interferes somehow with the bump map, which is a bit too softened for my taste and intention.

The dull version looks good, but it does not feel like aluminum, it looks painted. Also, the mapping puts a deep shadow on it, too much. I think I'll make a third version that is in between those two, maybe I hit a sweet spot there. I also have to fix the stenceling, since it is only on the diffuse map and gets overlayed by the diff-alpha and the spec map.

I don't bother with globelenv or cube mapping at this stage, since I don't go for a mirror like reflection on the assets.

Thanks for the input, Gordon! If anything is inspiring, it is your work!


Cheers,
Mark



Dull:

[DaveQ]

Thank you guys so much for the time and energy you're putting in to making this such a worthwhile project. The results look stunning!

DaveQ

[Daveroo]

ave any of you watched Kermit weeks 2 part youtube video of his A-26 from October 2017?..its been at aero trader for 25 years he said,carl schull told him it will be running in about 4 months and be totally done for Oshkosh 2018.i learned alot about the plane from those two short vids.little things like how the rear turrets work,and he climbs into the gunner position and shows it all on cam.and they give a full but short discussion on how the bomb racks work,weeks usually sounds as though he is a total aircraft authority,but when he was talking to tony and carl ( nope i dont know them,but seems i cant spell their last names soooo) he almost seemed to be an amiture...meaning those two men know what theyre doing..truly..

[mal998]

What's your rate?

ah, a couple of beers, maybe?

[roger-wilco-66]

I'll be your first customer under these cirumstances, Mal :-)


Cheers (I always write this, but here it's truly literally),

Mark

[DaveQ]

I now have the Mk. 82 model from Mark and this is the initial loadout - as common for the Nimrods, three finned BLU-27's on the inners plus a Mk 82 on the outers. The BLU's are for demo purposes only; they will be replaced by Mark's when ready.



Lots of progress with the K though the VC still requires attention.

DaveQ

[MZee1960]

Looking very nice, Dave ! Can't wait !