Since sometime around the release of SU11 I haven’t been able to export
aircraft windshield materials properly. The package builder claims I have the
textures (I am using the stock Asobo textures for the dirt, fingerprints and
so on) in the wrong slots and won’t load the textures. I eventually figured
out what slots the builder wants them in but they are obviously the wrong
slots and they make the windshield almost completely opaque. Icing and water
drop effects still display correctly. I can get the windshield transparent by
painting all vertices red, but that just makes it completely transparent and
no scratches, dirt, etc. are dispalyed. Is this a known problem, is there a
workaround? Previously my windshield displayed correctly.
What version of blender are you using and what version of the exporter? Legacy
or ASOBO exporter? I am using Blender 3.2 and the legacy exporter. My MSFS
Material values. Note the alpha multiplier of
0.01
Do you have alpha in the MSFS material properties albedo color set to 0.01 ? I
guess that sould do the trick for you.
The alpha is set correctly. I am using the Asobo exporter and Blender 3.1.2.
Thanks for the help – that looks a lot better.
The total opaque result is caused by having transparency in the albedo,
usually best to use base color and alpha on windshield material at 0.010. If
you must, like myself, use an albedo, make sure it is opaque, will work
guaranteed, albeit, the remaining settings are correct. PS: Metallic is not
yourfriend with windishields, you’ll notice drawing artifacts, specifically
with heavy fog, windshield will be visible through it. Each section of glass I
utilize windshields on, are 4 layers, two windshields, in/out, two
standard/opacity inverse in/out (it works) where I put the detail, and thicken
it up to give it some volume. Works a charm!
I’ll continue looking into this – what I have now looks OK but it’s very
different to what I had before SU11 because I’ve left out one of the principal
textures as explained in the SDK… Really Asobo needs to sort out the slots so
it’s not some kind of guessing game as to where to put the textures and also
so the builder will not reject textures that may in fact be in the correct
slot.