Yet Another Spec and Bump Thread...

[Chango !]

Hi all, im new to skinning FSX and i seem to be having some "problems" that i cant figure out...
It feels a little uncomfortable to ask about this since there are another four threads about it just in the first page... but this seems to be giving >headhaches?< to everyone...
Now, to it...
A few days ago i downloaded a IA-63 "Pampa" originally for FS2004, wich i decided to reskin and "improve" (as you can see it has no spec, bump or shine)



I've been useless trying to add spec, shine and bump to it, downloaded tools, readed the SDK info... no results
All i could do is adding an alpha channel but instead of generating a shine it gives me a semi transparency... (the test was made with a 50% black alpha channel)
I readed somewhere around here in a tutorial or link that i can`t seem to find again, a line that called my attention "don't forget to mark specularity"...
This leaded me to assume that the model never was ment to have specularity, shine or bump mapping, since it was first modeled, and this is the reason why i'm not having results.
The further i've got is to MDLMat... but i don't understand how to define the spec and shine there...
Also, i supose all the info that FS uses to know what to load is IN the model, at least that i understood reading the SDK docs... and since i have'nt found in any .cfg file a list of the textures it should load, (apart from the basics included in the "Aircraft.cfg" file)
Then, i conclude that the only solution would be sending the model to gmax and redefine the materials and properties... would that be right ? < please tell me i'm wrong !!!
And if i'm right... is there any utility, plugin or anything that would let me open the .mdl with gmax ?

Thanks in advance...

[adlabs6]

Hi, there are several threads about this. I found them using the search link at the top of the page, the Google search of this site to be exact. I got two pages of results.

Give this a shot and see if the information you are looking for is there.

I've never upgraded to FSX, so I don't know much about this.

[Chango !]

Hi adlabs, i did searched and checked the other threads, but all of them seem to be about models that are already prepared to use spec and bump, that's why i decided to post...

[AGNT_Matt]

yeah the bump and spec maps used in FSX are in fact parts of the initial texture mapping, as a result they cannot be added afterwards. a lot of developers now are including bump and spec maps into their aircraft, so watch for those, FS2004 planes imported into FSX you can't B&S as i call it (Bump and spec) as fs2004 never allowed for much else other than alpha and alpha opacity/Transparency. hope this helps.

[Chango !]

Hi Matt, i've got an anwer from a MS developer, it's impossible, i'll have to remodel the plane from scratch...