Reflective windows

[krausyao]

Adding Shine to MSTS models at http://steam4me.railpage.org.au/trainsim/tutorials/supershine.html describes how to use the named_shader "GlossMap" from file app.fbk to create reflective surfaces. The part I don't follow is creating an environment texture. It is described as a normal ACE file of a scene, but which scene?

Could this be used to create reflective windows for buildings? Or is there another method for creating reflective windows?

[rdamurphy]

What are you creating the buildings with? If you're trying to re-do existing models, it's a very difficult process, and unless the windows are seperate subobjects from the walls, you'll get the same effect on the walls anyway.

Robert

[krausyao]

I will be creating new buildings using Train Sim Modeler. I did read about creating a separate sub-object for each window. A sub-object behind would be a glow type light covered by a semi-transparent window. Would this use a reference part name of light_ ? Would the window covering be of material TransNorm? I hope I am at least heading in the right direction to get reflective windows.

[rdamurphy]

Honestly, it will probably take some trial and error, and a little searching. I've never actually tried it, but you can probably get away with one subobject for all of the windows. Remember, this is 3d, the different parts of a subobject don't really need to touch.

Robert

[rpicardi1]

I will be creating new buildings using Train Sim Modeler. I did read about creating a separate sub-object for each window. A sub-object behind would be a glow type light covered by a semi-transparent window. Would this use a reference part name of light_ ? Would the window covering be of material TransNorm? I hope I am at least heading in the right direction to get reflective windows.

You can build your object from sub assemblies, then combine them into a single object before creating the MSTS object. Sub objects are only required for animated structures and rolling stock.

If the window uses trans norm panes, it will look like it has no glass. Use alpha norm and a 256 gray scale mask on your glass texture tga file. You may need TGATools to create the texture 256 gray scale mask. It will then look like glass in the sim.