Boxcar (us2freight7) ladders

[troub]

I've been working on some boxcars based on us2freight7.tga, and I noticed that the alpha doesn't appear to be working correctly on the ladders. It works everywhere else, ie. I don't have any square wheels etc., but the ladders at the corners are solid black except for the rungs. I loaded up TS, and looked at the default boxcars, and their ladders were the SAME WAY! I even went and looked up screenshots of other people's repaints, and guess what? Same thing.

Is this "normal?" I mean, does everyone have this problem, or is it only certain video cards or drivers (I have a Geforce2 MX using the Detonator 12.41 drivers)? Does anyone know why this would happen only with the ladders, and not the wheels or anything else? I just want to know if I should release my boxcars, or if there's something wrong with them. Thanks.

[Xacto]

LAST EDITED ON Jun-26-01 AT 11:20AM (EST)[p]I also noticed that problem on the cars. I'm guessing that it's a mistake on the part of the person who textured the car. The Docs show a list of material names that need to be used to get texture to render properly on an object. If you use TransNorm for example, the texture will render with transparency, providing the texture has the required alpha channel. If you use SolidNorm, it will render opaque, even if it has an alpha. I suspect that they created a material named TransNorm for the trucks and used SolidNorm for the car body. Both materials use the same texture for it's map, but only the trucks render as transparent.

If I recall, someone was having problems creating an open door effect on a boxcar by editing the alpha, and this would explain why that didn't work. The data is part of the .s file, but unless that can be edited in some way, there is no fix for the problem. You could paint the areas that should be transparent with black, that might lessen the obvious opacity.

Xacto

[troub]

Ok, I didn't even think about it being part of the object's description (I haven't looked very closely at how to create objects). It makes sense, though. The background for the ladder IS black, and it does sort of hide the obviousness of the opacity, seeing as how I've been playing the sim since June 2nd, and I just noticed it last night! Thanks Xacto!

[tellysurv]

I have noticed this most recently with a repaint I did. Can you use this Transnorm or Solidnorm to fix the ladders? If so, would you type that in the makeace program while in DOS? Or am I way off? or is it even fixable?
Another thing I noticed is that when I open the .tga files up in the program that came on my PC as opposed to Photoshop, the spaces around the trucks, wheels and ladders are all white. When I open up in Photoshop, everything is black, including the spaces between the rungs in the ladders. It is kind of annoying but I can live with it if it cant be fixed....

[tgibson]

No, you can't use those commands in makeace. They have to be used when the object is originally created in 3D Studio Max. I assume they used the SolidNorm for the carbodies because it saved on frame rate (?).

Tom

[ejoiner]

Yeah I discovered this problem today working on my erie lackawanna box cars...I wanted to see if I could create an open door effect...by placing alpha in the door area. Doesnt work...same problem with the bottom ladder rungs. That stinks. Too bad somebody cant make us a new box car model. hey, its a box..how long could it take? :-)

Eric