Beaufighter21

A

asj5547

Well-known member
My first attempt at modelling, the Beaufighter 21 made in Wings3d (174 inch wingspan) and processed through Max 3DS.

Many thanks to Boof69 for his excellent tutorial that helped me negotiate Max 3DS program, for pivots and exporting into Realflight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=aLQcCTI2v8A&feature=gp-n-y

Now I have to figure out how to properly do mapping, (sort of stumbled through the process) as you will notice left front cockpit glass does not show correctly and it would be nice if I can get see through glass. Also the gear doors do not display right, if not zoomed in close only one door is visible, but zoom in close and they both appear, is that because I made the gear doors to thin ? (the learning will take a while)

Here is a short video of the Beaufighter

https://youtu.be/HQIBjfLHiis
 
asj5547 said:
My first attempt at modelling, the Beaufighter 21 made in Wings3d (174 inch wingspan) and processed through Max 3DS.

Many thanks to Boof69 for his excellent tutorial that helped me negotiate Max 3DS program, for pivots and exporting into Realflight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=aLQcCTI2v8A&feature=gp-n-y

Now I have to figure out how to properly do mapping, (sort of stumbled through the process) as you will notice left front cockpit glass does not show correctly and it would be nice if I can get see through glass. Also the gear doors do not display right, if not zoomed in close only one door is visible, but zoom in close and they both appear, is that because I made the gear doors to thin ? (the learning will take a while)

Here is a short video of the Beaufighter

https://youtu.be/HQIBjfLHiis
Click to expand...

If you want me to look in to the gear door and glass transperancy issues I will
 
I watched Boof69 tutorial and Max 3DS looks to hard for me to learn.
I guess Wings 3d is more or less a beginner's learning program compaired to Max 3DS.
I have several winter aircraft that I was going to do but don't believe I'll get past Wings 3d.

asj5547 the Beaufighter 21 looks great, hope you post on the swap page once you get it to where you like it.

legoman
I haven't give up yet.
I'll be getting back with you for another training lesson soon. Wife kind of messed up the computer and had to reinstall Win 10. and didn't think at the time to back up my Wings 3d stuff. So I'll be starting completely new. Probably do a simple box fuselage and wing design like a quicky 500 or box fly.

asj5547 Sorry for posting to legoman on your Beaufighter page. Just wanted to say a Great Job on your model and let legoman know I haven't quit.
 
Oldman62 said:
I watched Boof69 tutorial and Max 3DS looks to hard for me to learn.
I guess Wings 3d is more or less a beginner's learning program compaired to Max 3DS.
I have several winter aircraft that I was going to do but don't believe I'll get past Wings 3d.

asj5547 the Beaufighter 21 looks great, hope you post on the swap page once you get it to where you like it.

legoman
I haven't give up yet.
I'll be getting back with you for another training lesson soon. Wife kind of messed up the computer and had to reinstall Win 10. and didn't think at the time to back up my Wings 3d stuff. So I'll be starting completely new. Probably do a simple box fuselage and wing design like a quicky 500 or box fly.

asj5547 Sorry for posting to legoman on your Beaufighter page. Just wanted to say a Great Job on your model and let legoman know I haven't quit.
Click to expand...
Oldman62 you are welcome to post on any of my threads, good to have you around, thanks again for posting the Honker Bipe and getting me started on this journey.
 
I've been working on the beta all day it's super cool that you're modeling now and your model looks great. Are you having trouble with the window in RF 7.5 or RF-X? Remember RF-X does transparency different so you have to separate each part you want transparent from anything else and name it ~CS_GLASS. You can add a suffix for the different parts ~CS_GLASS_PART1 and ~CS_GLASS_PART2 and so on. You should definitely read the post by Ryan in the RF-X forum that talks about modeling for RF-X. Here's a link to it.

https://forums.realflight.com/showpost.php?p=275429&postcount=1

What version of 3ds Max are you using. I'd also be happy to help anywhere I can but I'm using 3ds Max 2015 which doesn't import the new max files. But we could try an FBX file and see if that works.

Also if you look at Scott's main page on YouTube he has LOTS of tutorial videos on how to model, it's a gold mine of information.
 
Last edited:
technoid said:
I've been working on the beta all day it's super cool that you're modeling now and your model looks great. Are you having trouble with the window in RF 7.5 or RF-X? Remember RF-X does transparency different so you have to separate each part you want transparent from anything else and name it ~CS_GLASS. You can add a prefix on that for the different parts ~CS_GLASS_PART1 and ~CS_GLASS_PART2 and so on. You should definitely read the post by Ryan in the RF-X forum that talks about modeling for RF-X. Here's a link to it.

https://forums.realflight.com/showpost.php?p=275429&postcount=1

What version of 3ds Max are you using. I'd also be happy to help anywhere I can but I'm using 3ds Max 2015 which doesn't import the new max files. But we could try an FBX file and see if that works.

Also if you look at Scott's main page on YouTube he has LOTS of tutorial videos on how to model, it's a gold mine of information.
Click to expand...

I just downloaded your DC-4, thanks
Actually I have not tried the Beaufighter in RF-X yet, (but I will !!!)
I broke down and brought RF8 recently just so I could import models into Realflight, so that is what I am using and 3DSMax 2016.
I tried separating the glass from the fuselage and listed them as ~CS_GLASS, but nothing changed, should I name them glass or canopy ? with or without the _T suffix ?
I think I will just delete the FBX I have and import the model into Max then Realflight again.
 
Just noticed in the editor if I move the camera around the nacelle and gear doors, the outside of the part is visible, but if I view the inside of the gear door or nacelle the parts become see through (invisible)
Here are 2 pics of the problem.
 

Attachments

  • Invisible Nacelle.JPG
    Invisible Nacelle.JPG
    139.2 KB · Views: 13
  • Invisible Nacelle-2.JPG
    Invisible Nacelle-2.JPG
    137.7 KB · Views: 11
asj5547 said:
I just downloaded your DC-4, thanks
Actually I have not tried the Beaufighter in RF-X yet, (but I will !!!)
I broke down and brought RF8 recently just so I could import models into Realflight, so that is what I am using and 3DSMax 2016.
I tried separating the glass from the fuselage and listed them as ~CS_GLASS, but nothing changed, should I name them glass or canopy ? with or without the _T suffix ?
I think I will just delete the FBX I have and import the model into Max then Realflight again.
Click to expand...

To create clear glass in RF-8 you create a new material in the material editor and name it ~CANOPY or ~ALPHA then assign that material to the polygons you want to make transparent. Then you'll need to assign the planes TGA file to that material and setup a couple of parameters. After that you can control the transparency by creating an ALPHA channel in the TGA file and color the part you want to be transparent with a value less than 256 to create various levels of transparency. Below is a link to the webpage I used to learn how to set it up.

http://www.horribledeath.com/tut-alpha.htm

Now in RF-X you name the part ~CS_GLASS or add the _T suffix to the name. But those don't have any affect in RF 8 so what you do is use BOTH so the material works for both RF-8 and RF-X. Have you read that post yet from Ryan on RF-X? That does a decent job of explaining it better than me.

EDIT 1: OH.. looking at your pictures (Sorry I didn't before) does your gear doors have a thickness or are they just one polygon thick? A normal polygon is one sided so if you look at it on the normal side (frontside) you can't see through it but if you look at it on the backside it's clear. You can assign a material named ~SBS to the polygons to make them two-sided but whatever you paint on the frontside is the same for the backside of the polygon.

EDIT 2: One sided polygons is why the nacelle's are see-through since they are only one polygon thick. But adding wheel wells will fix that since you'll be looking at the face of the polygons in the wheel well.

EDIT 3: Since you're using 3ds Max 2016 you'll be able to send me files to help you with too. All you'd need to do is use Save As and then choose 3ds Max 2015 from the Save As Type drop down box. They always support three versions back. So people using the newest version can't save it for my version but you can. So we're all set if you need to send me something in the future.
 
Last edited:
asj5547 said:
Just noticed in the editor if I move the camera around the nacelle and gear doors, the outside of the part is visible, but if I view the inside of the gear door or nacelle the parts become see through (invisible)
Here are 2 pics of the problem.
Click to expand...

I answered this in a different post but the problem you're seeing is normal polygons are one sided so the front side is paintable and you see your color scheme on it but the back side is see-through so that's what you're seeing. But once you add the wheel wells you'll fix that because you'll be looking at the front side of the polygons in the wheel well.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the information Technoid, I have been at work today but now have time to apply your recommendations to the model, will let you know the outcome.
 
asj5547 said:
Thanks for the information Technoid, I have been at work today but now have time to apply your recommendations to the model, will let you know the outcome.
Click to expand...

Cool deal. Just to clarify something. When I said you control the transparency using the Alpha channel and paint the part you want transparent with a value less that 256 that might be the wrong way to say it. The value of FFFFFF makes the color opaque and values less than that start making that material transparent. So FFFFFF is Opaque and 000000 is Fully Transparent. The value I used for the glass in the DC-4 is 606060. So when I said less that 256 I mean for each element of the color painted. So using 60606 sets each RGB element less that 256. So the RGB value in 'decimal' for 606060 hex is R=96, G=96, B=96)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top