Textured Transparency Mystery

[mrbisonm]

I have been trying hard to understand and get behind the secrets of making something transparent with a light texture in gmax taht somehow reflects the lightness of a sunny sky, and I can't just figure out how to go about it. A tutorial that I have doesn't seem to work, but makes the model simply a greyish transparent no matter what texture I use. Is there a way to make the texture lighter in gmax?

So.........I am at the point to ask for help again before I pull out the rest of my hairs.

I would like for someone to explain me an easy step-by-step how to texture and make things transparent, because there seems to be many different ways of making something "see-through", at least I have three different tutorials.

I am talking about the small roofglass on the side that covers the growth only, not the glasshouse as a whole.....On the picture below are three models, all the same though, but in different stages. *A* shows the model with a light greenish teint, a texture that I made to show a little reflection of the skies. (please don't regard the bluish model, which is only there as a reference and too dark anyways. The colour seems to be just fine and the transparency also, but it is the brightness (the lightness of the texture) that I like most.*B* shows the "preview of the model and as you can see the brightness has gone, now the transparency is still there but has become a dark grey color. Where did my greenish teint go?
*C* shows it in the game, looking now as awful as it can get....grey, dead, and less transparent.
The model in general is too dark, is there a way to make it lighter?

Anything to change this? How do you add texture to a model and keep it the way I want it? How do you make it brighter (lighter)?

Usually gmax renders textures a lot brighter, but in my case it does the opposite, at least on transparent objects.

Please help an old man understand this mystery once and for all. I'm not kidding when I tell you that I have been searching the Net for instructions and tapering the model for more than 3 weeks now. If I can't figure it now, then I would like to have someone make me a goodlooking sample platemodel with texture,(just a square piece (block) from which I will be able to "clone" the rest of the transparent pieces I need to construct this little project of mine. But....I would love more to get behind that darn transparency and texture "thing" and be able to do it on my own, just like a big boy..... .

Thanks

mrb 

[mattb325]

GMAX does not handle transparency and colour replication into the game very well: and these are the two things that this model relies on most. However your preview render is a fairly accurate assessment of what you end up with in game.

There are some things you can do to help both before and after you have rendered the model to get it to work better in game.

First off, I would not use just a flat colour for glass. I would use a map with a lot of variety in it (such as thin ice clouds on a bright summers day) this will enable some variation even when the opacity is set at say 30%. Also the variation of the clouds will enable your glass to have 'brighter' and more 'transparent' areas once rendered. This has to do with the way areas approaching either white or black are treated when given a transparency setting. I also bump up the specular setting in the materials editor to a light aqua and give it a value of about 30 and a glossiness of about 35.

You could also try setting the background render colour to a more neutral tone. In the listener window (the pink strip at the bottom left of your screen) type backgroundColor = (color 90 90 90). This could help give you a better approximation of how it will look in game prior to export.

GMAX does not handle double transparency at all (ie the areas of the green house where you see through the glass roof and then a glass wall). To get any sort of realism here, you will need to download cogeo's model tweaker and then make the transparency changes after you have rendered the model.

Also, if you are going to keep that transparent glass overhang, you might have to remove that piece of wall glass so you can see the wall frame behind it. Personally I would remove that overhang - to my eye it appears unrealistic - but that is ultimately a call for you to make.

[mrbisonm]

Thanks Matt (again),


Ok, that releases my "stress" a little, knowing that it is the gmax's fault of not rendering the transparency so well. Maybe I should re-install my 3dmax program and do the transparency there....( oh no, not all those problems again...llol)

Anyways , thanks for the tips and the help. I will try the 30/35 settings for the specular/glossiness on the model. The existing greenhouse texture was originally made with a cloud texture of some kind (I even tried a dozen different ones), but there was the problem of repeatingness too much, since this model will be used for growable farms and many might appear. Kinda didn't look so good at all, when in quantity. That is why I used a simple light-bluish coloured texture on the "extension" roof.

Btw, this extension glassroof will NOT be a part of the model, I only added it to the model to see the difference of the texture and transparency to my original work.

Thanks also for the tip with the listener window to see a more accurate ingamepreview of the model

Question......If I use an existing glass that someone made for me with 3dmax or else, and I will just use it as a "template" to make all my other glasses (I mean cloning it), will the glass be as the original as the 3ds or as mine in the picture above, while I render it with gmax again? (anyone wants to make a simple flat square transparent model with a simple light bluish colour for me? Send it, it won't take long to do and it will be appreciated, nothing too loose, maybe I discover something new or...maybe not....lol. Make sure it's a 3ds file, so I can import it )

Thanks Matt, quite appreciated.

Fred

[mattb325]

In answer to your question, no - anything that you render in GMAX (regardless of whether it was made in another program and imported) will be subject to the limitations of the GMAX rendering engine.
You'll need to experiment with the textures and settings to get the best results from GMAX for your project.

[mrbisonm]

Thanks Matt, I will then experiment again, now that I know that I cannot get the best out of Gmax.
Your help was once again useful and much appreciated.

Fred